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16 Responses to “Replacing Charcoal with Briquettes - The Moment of Truth”

1. Robert Williams Says: 11 Oct 2009

   Great progress everyone! I think the producers themselves are going to figure out the most smoke-free blend, but may need a little incentive to start searching for that magic briquette recipe. Maybe a competition could be held among producers in a month’s time and and a nice cash prize (or some other strong motivator) could be given to the team with the cleanest burning briquettes. All stoves would identical, set up and kindled the same way, and the test done blind. The judges could be the producers themselves. You could use that new handy-dandy moisture meter to ensure all the briquettes were equally dry. Of course, we’d have to make sure no one slipped scout juice (petrol) on their briquettes… Alternatively, you could let the producers set up their own stoves however they like so you get good info on both briquette set-up and briquette mix. Nothing like a little friendly competition to get people inspired!

2. Hernan Says: 11 Oct 2009

   It would be interesting if you can upload a video showing the whole process, since the start with the raw material till the end, when the briquette is finally ready to use.

3. Alexandra Adams Says: 11 Oct 2009

   Wow! Ambition.

   The problem about smoke is something that strikes me. I was told by a Kenyan tribesman that they kept their little fires inside their homes because the smoke kept the insects away and so reduced the incidence of malaria. I suspect there may be a problem with so much smoke over the years damaging their eyes, though.

   I’m not sure how true any of this is, but maybe there may be a way of making the smoke useful.

   Perhaps you need another industry - chimney builders…

4. Alexandra Adams Says: 11 Oct 2009

   And another thought.

   Why do they give off so much smoke? Is that residual moisture? Do older briquettes give less smoke? Is there an additive you could find? Or change the proportions of the constituents?

   Perhaps the older kids could experiment and develop their science problem solving skills. Africa is full of creative, inventive minds, so a competition for a low smoke briquette would also be something to consider.

5. Dave Says: 11 Oct 2009

   I think it is best to primarily advertise how cheap the briquettes are compared to charcoal. I remember reading on this website that the price of charcoal has gone up in price dramatically recently. If people can save a lot of money they will be willing to put up with a little more smoke. Now that presents the problem of informing people that they can save a lot of money. Well maybe it might help to see if some religious leaders would be enthusiastic about the briquettes and they could try to inform their congregations about the new money saving energy source.

6. Christina Ellis Says: 11 Oct 2009

   As the launch of the briqeuttes is coinciding in some cases with people returning home, and perhaps in more cases, at least coinciding with a mental transition as more peaceful times return to the region, people will be changing where they live (going home or…), have new family and friend structures and new configuration in camps or villages - perhaps the use of briquettes for cooking can be enveloped into this transitions process. Working with other conservation projects and community changes (not necessarily in the context of violence and war) we found that it was very important to acknowledge the “end” of a certain practice before education programs could be successful in raising awareness and interest in a new practice - regardless of how logical that practice might be (in this case, cheaper, more socially and environmentally sustainable). Making the connection between the illegal charcoal trade and lingering violence and conflcits, and the new briquettes and new lifestyles and new phases into peace, may allow the population to go through the necessary stages of transition. We have a report on the study which looked at 6 projects across Africa and how conservation worked with communities, pertaining to conflicts and behaviour changes and have a framework for working through the stages - if this might be of interest…

7. philippaterblanche Says: 11 Oct 2009

   This briquette project has come SO far so quick I am sure this challenge of smoke and purchase will be overcome!
   I am so happy though that peace seems to be returning as this must make the team’s working conditions much easier?
   Best wishes to you all

8. Hernan Says: 13 Oct 2009

   I have some ideas that might help:
   The first should be trying to sell the briquettes at the lowest price you can without losing profit, and promote it with massive signs.
   Another option could be, for example (I don´t know exactly how many briquettes could a family use in one day), “Buy ten, get twelve!” or “Buy ten, pay for eight!” (the more profitable option).
   Another idea is adding any kind of fragrant weed, for example lavender, in order to improve the briquettes´ smell and sell them not only as cheap fuel for cooking, but also as an effective thing to get rid of insects with a nice smell (taking advantage of the smoke).
   Another way could be giving the necessary units to prepare a meal (let´s say that with two briquettes you can have fire for enough time to cook for 5 persons; I don´t know) for free, letting the people try and give an opinion about the product. Obviously the free units will go with a flyer, a price list, a way to buy more (plus a discount in the first purchase, as well as the free stove), etc.
   On the other hand, I think that these flyers should be focused not only in the briquettes and their low price, but also in the fact that the charcoal business is dramatically threatening the forest, and if there´s no forest, there´ll be no tourism, no wild animals, no…thing.

   Hope everything goes right!

9. Jean Kim Chaix Says: 13 Oct 2009

   I understand radio plays an important social role. Are there any favorite programs that you could insert briquettes promotions? In addition to running ads, perhaps some well known radio personality could help by saying, ‘hey, these new briquetts are great!”

   But the smoke could be a problem considering the main killer of children under five worldwide is acute respiratory illnesses. But you have a crack team that can hopefully help find the right combination of material.

   Great going guys!

10. sheryl, washington, dc Says: 14 Oct 2009

    Hey, Emmanuel! Good news about my favorite program, the briquettes. I’m thrilled to read about all the progress made. I dunno if this is a good idea, but maybe hand out small samples of food cooked on a briquette stove as an incentive to buy them? Nice work and good luck!

    s.

11. Emmanuel Says: 14 Oct 2009

    Thanks so much for all the helpful comments. I’ll work on them and get back to you.

    Sheryl, great to hear from you again. We thought we’d lost you!

12. pamme/shell beach, ca Says: 15 Oct 2009

    Nice update. Good to see things are progressing well.

13. Wolfgang Says: 15 Oct 2009

    Crossroads indeed … I seem to remember a presentation about changing the cooking habits in certain parts of India (where health problems from smoke are a problem) where the thing that worked best as incentive was small mobile phone credits. The husbands could not take it and transfer it to their phones, the sums were small, and the desire of the women to get free phone minutes this way large. What is the equivalent of mobile phone minutes around Virunga?

14. Laurel Colton Says: 5 Jan 2010

    Everyone has great ideas for incentives! I enjoyed reading them all. Here are a few more ideas.

    First, I think it’s important to know more about WHO is actually buying these briquettes since you need to know your demographic well before you can design an incentive program for purchasing briquettes. Obviously, I don’t have all this info., but hopefully you do… or else you can easily get it. For instance, are the women in their households usually the buyers? Or is it the men? What age group? What are their interests? Once you know all this, you can come up with incentives that appeal specifically to that demographic and entice them to buy the briquettes. So, for instance, the cell phone minutes incentive suggested in one comment above could work… IF the folks buying briquettes also have cell phones. However, if they are too poor to own phones, then….

    Another possible incentive: If the individuals in each household who are buying the briquettes are doing most of the cooking too, you could offer them free recipes for food each time they purchase a certain number of briquettes. Recipes are cheap yet you’re giving them some useful information to help them expand the variety of dishes they can prepare using the briquettes. Or if you can get the sponsorship of a local market, perhaps the market could offer coupons for discounts on food items when people purchase their biomass briquettes. In return the market can receive special acknowledgement as a briquette sponsor and perhaps get some good publicity to increase their business.

    Whatever you decide to do, I think that having some incentives offered to folks early on is a good start in getting them hooked. However, to keep people using the briquettes in the long term, you’d also need to show them how much money they can save over time as compared to buying charcoal. Ultimately, the amount of money a family will save should be a good reward for switching over to the briquettes… provided you get the smoke issue worked out.

    And regarding the smoke, I was under the impression from some of the posts on Wildlife Direct  http://endingcharcoal.wildlifedirect.org…) that using these briquettes WITH a good fuel-efficient stove reduced the smoke emitted. Is that not true? I have read about the Gorilla Organization’s fuel-efficient stoves program and they say their stoves not only reduce fuelwood consumption by 55-70% (depending on the type of stove used), but also reduce the amount of smoke emitted. Perhaps you could partner with them and offer some sort of package deal — where folks get a discount on the combo. of fuel-efficient stove and briquettes purchased together.

    Finally, if you want to get people to purchase anything at a high rate, you need to put them on an intermittent schedule of reinforcement (reward system that pays off only once in a while). It’s the same system used in Las Vegas casinos where folks pull slot machine levers at very high rates because they hit a jackpot only once in a while. So, for instance, each time a person purchases some briquettes they could get some sort of lottery ticket for a prize. Then, their chances of winning go up each time they “play” (purchase more briquettes). Then, you just have to determine what you will use for the prize. And make it so that prizes are obtainable (fair chances of winning) — like some folks might win just a few dollars, but one ticket is the jackpot. Perhaps a portion of the income from briquette sales can be allotted to this jackpot/prize.

    Hope some of these ideas help. I’ll brainstorm some more and see what else I come up with…. I think your efforts there in Virunga are just awesome. Keep up the great work. I hope that volcano that just erupted the other day is behaving itself and not getting too close to where you are. Fingers crossed!

15. stuff to draw Says: 7 Apr 2012

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