Nothing brings people together like a traditional food party in the sun. It's time to transform outdoor cooking.

Meet the future of BBQ's: Since our solar stoves have no flame, they can safely be used in places that don’t allow open fires. With our solar stoves, the only fuel you’ll ever need is sunshine. 

The most important part: When you buy a solar stove from us you put out a fire in rural Pakistan, literally.  You help an impoverished household save money, be healthier and reverse the negative impact on our global climate.

UPDATES

• We have registered with various regulatory authorities in Pakistan to import goods from all over the world under our company name.
• We have finished alpha and beta testing three distinct cookstove technologies (1.5m parabolic cookstove, evacuated tube cookstove and a range of clean cookstoves) across seven distinct but adjoining communities across sub-urban Lahore (Bhatta Chowk, Mehr Town, Chathianwala, Nathasingwala, Vara Shaadi, Bedian and Vara Jattanwala).
• So far, we have established direct contact with 239 households across these communities.
• We will conduct approximately 400 additional door-to-door surveys before selecting a community for our second pilot project.
•  We have established strategic partnerships with the Social Innovation Lab, the provincial Government of Gilgit Baltistan (where 85% of the population lives off the grid) and Aga Khan Rural Support Program, to help us scale after proof of concept.  

Interviews with community members from off-grid communities from Mehr Town, Bedian and Chattianwala speaking on prevelant issues such as lack of information of harmful effects solid fuel fumes, poverty, dangers and expense of using LPG cylinders as a cleaner alternative. 

3 billion people on the planet still have no access to energy and live in remote, off-grid communities. Energy poverty has marginalized half the planet, leaving them behind in conditions comparable to the way people lived in the stone ages.

According to WHO, fatalities due to inefficient fuel combustion indoors and exposure to black carbon from traditional cook stoves is the second most leading causing of death in the world today.  Approximately 4.3 Million people die prematurely each year from Chronic obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), stroke, cancer and other Acute Respiratory Infections (ARIs) associated with small soot particles that can penetrated deep into the lungs  more than HIV, malaria and tuberculosis combined. Yet public policy has failed to mobilize the kind of funds to raise awareness that have been directed to less life threatening issues. Women and children are particularly at risk, since they are mainly responsible for household chores and remain near the hearth. More than 50% of premature deaths of children under the age of 5 are caused by soot particles and black carbon inhaled from the inefficient combustion of solid fuel indoors. The heavy usage of solid fuels in traditional cook stoves and open fires in the homes introduces a range of harmful pollutants such as black carbon, soot particles and carbon monoxide. In poorly vented homes, fine life threatening pollutants exceed acceptable levels of air quality by 100 fold. 

The use of firewood also has adverse financial implications for people already living under USD 2 per day. In most cases households are spending over 25% of their monthly income to procure firewood, or spending an inordinate amount of time harvesting firewood. This is time and money that could be spent, studying, engaging/investing in entrepreneurial cottage industry or savings. Illnesses directly associated with exposure to fumes that do not result in fatalities, cause a spike in medical expenses and incapacitate victims from continuing to work, increasing expenses and decreasing monthly income, perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty.

Pakistan has one of the highest rates of deforestation in Asia and its reduced forest cover of 2.4% - 5% is rapidly decreasing by 47,000 hectares every year. According to experts, Pakistan’s diminishing forest covers will completely be depleted in 2020-2025. In contrast, the benchmark of a healthy forest cover for any country is set at 20% - 30%.The large scale of deforestation has led to several tree species becoming endangered and with it the animal species whose natural habitat has been completely destroyed. 

The ramifications of heavy deforestation in the North have been, at least in part, been blamed for the catastrophic floods in 2010.  The lack of once dense woodlands on the streams and rivers leave the banks prone to erosion and landing sliding. The forests that act as natural barriers, decelerating raging flood waters, now gone, caused widespread carnage all the way to the South, effecting 20 Million people.

Black carbon (sooty particles) and methane emitted by inefficient stove combustion are powerful climate change pollutants. It is suggested that black carbon emissions have contributed equivalent to 25% - 50% of carbon dioxide warming globally. Use for firewood in North Pakistan intensifies the regional climate impacts as black carbon falling on white snow and ice, decreases its reflectiveness and contributes significantly to accelerating the glacier melt. This in turn can lead to a disruption in annual monsoon cycles and further floods.

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Does your business impact low-income communities? How?

Firewood and dung cakes are commonly used as cooking fuel across low-income, off-grid Pakistan. Our business primarily addresses the energy needs of such communities. Affluent communities on the other hand already have access to natural gas pipelines (which is a clean and affordable cooking fuel in the first place).

Who are your competitors and what products or services do they provide? How are you different/better than your competitors?

Liquid Petroleum Gas Cylinders also provide clean cooking. Still, they are problematic because ill-maintained cylinders are prone to exploding and potentially fatal. Also, they impose a recurring fuel cost, and the initial cost of owning a gas cylinder can be prohibitive for many customers - there are no known lending plans for LPG Gas Cylinders. Conversely, our technologies confront none of the aforementioned challenges. Our unique selling proposition: we harness energy that's typically free.

What is your business model? How do you plan to generate revenue?

Jaan Pakistan has two product lines: one for affluent, urban-dwelling customers (adventure enthusiasts interested in outdoor portable cooking); and a second for low-income, off-grid communities across rural Pakistan (individuals adversely affected by solid fuel fumes and inefficient cookstoves). The urban market already has the necessary education and purchasing power to buy our product. The rural market needs convincing and we intend to fund the promotion through urban sales. In three years, we plan to replicate our pilot project in 12 distinct geographies across Pakistan and use Human Centered Design principles to identify and produce the most appropriate mix of clean cookstoves for off-grid Pakistan.