Exposure to indoor smoke from wood cooking fires is one of the world’s top 10 causes of mortality and morbidity, while cooking fires also contribute significant amounts of carbon into the air. Yet many rural households in Mexico are not embracing a seemingly simple change from wood fires to stoves. Victor Berrueta is pioneering a movement that promotes the sustainable, user-driven and long-term adoption of stoves by rural Mexicans, ensuring they reap both critical health and environmental benefits.

The New Idea:

Though government agencies, citizen organizations, private firms, and others have encouraged rural Mexican households to reap the benefits of switching to cooking stoves, Victor estimates that less than 30% of those who own stoves use them because of poor stove design (they fall apart, or get dangerously hot) and even in cases with good stove design less than 50 to 60% use them due to a lack of long-term support for the users, often indigenous women. Victor and his organization, the Patsari Project, are integrating the installation of stoves with user-tested design and close contact and follow-up with rural user households. It is all sustainably financed through the sale of carbon credits earned through using these stoves.

The Impact:

By the end of 2016, the Patsari Project will have offset about 400,000 cumulative tons of carbon through the installation and continued use of over 30,000 stoves. Victor’s plan for expansion does not only involve installing increasing numbers of Patsari stoves, but also lifting the entire rural technology sector in Mexico -- and beyond -- out of its current dependency on traditional funding sources and its focus on installation instead of long-term use.

Invest in Victor Berrueta:

With your support, Ashoka will help Victor scale his efforts beyond stoves to make energy-efficient technology affordable and sustainable in Mexico and across Latin America.

Sponsor one month of the 3 years Ashoka has committed to supporting Ernesto's living costs so he can focus and scale up his work.

Read more about why Ashoka elected Victor as an Ashoka Fellow >>