Kiwi Clean Living – Healthy Planets

Our Mission

Kiwi Clean Living’s vision is to provide simple, pragmatic solutions that meet the needs of our most vulnerable communities. We do this by way of simple, smart technologies, together with a range of support programmes delivered either by our team at KCL or one of our wonderful partner organisations.

Together with our partner company, African Clean Energy, we focus on addressing crippling poverty, health issues, and degrading ecosystems across Pacific, Asian and African Nations.

The increasing severity of conditions associated with climate change, and more recently the Covid19 Pandemic has accelerated our need to act with renewed urgency. With every event, earthquake, flood or cyclone, communities are driven close to the edge. This creates ongoing anxiety, physical and mental stress. Feelings of hopelessness are a very real issue.

It is our mission to identify and provision appropriate solutions and partnerships with individuals, governments, and businesses in order to build community-led capacity and resilience. We invite you to take some time to read some of the stories posted here.

The Problem

Up to 49% of people across the Pacific Island still cook over open fires.
“Ambient air pollution is currently a significant environmental risk to health. Black carbon (BC) is a component of atmospheric particulate matter that has a diameter of less than 2.5 μm. Because of this small size, these particles tend to stay in the air longer and are prone to be inhaled. Long-term exposure to BC has been associated with health hazards, such as adverse birth outcomes, respiratory disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis, stroke, and decline in cognitive function.1 Ocular diseases, such as dry eye, have also been found to be associated with air pollution.
Sahil Thakur, MS; Ching-Yu Cheng, MD, PhD. A Potential Link Between Ambient Air Pollution and Intraocular Pressure (2019). JAMA Ophthalmol. 2019;137(2):137-138. doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2018.5318
Every time we remove the dependence on an open fire for cooking we help by reducing C02 emissions by an estimated 1.25 tonnes per year.
One person dies every eight seconds from cook smoke-related illnesses. That’s roughly every time you blink your eyes. Yearly, this is roughly the same amount of people as the population of New Zealand.
The overdependence on fuel to power inefficient cooking leads to massive environmental degradation and binds vulnerable communities to a life of grinding poverty as the cost of other fuels eats into household incomes.

Systemic Poverty

The true cost of living in a poverty trap…

There is a widening gap between income and the cost of living. This can be very hard to bridge when access to basic appliances such as cookstoves are not available with alternates requiring power supplies or imported fuels.

Not only are people financially constrained but time-poor as days are spent gathering fuel, and then spending hours preparing food over an open fire.

This ties many Pasifika women to the task of keeping fires going while caring for young children who are then subjected to unhealthy smoke, often receiving serious burns.

Time free of this daily grind creates a window of opportunity for other activities in the community or establishing their own business, as is the case with Samoa’s Women in Business Movement.

The ACE1 offers fast, safe and clean cooking while using readily available sustainable fuel such as coconut shells.

Success Stories

Over the past 2 years, we have gathered evidence that these complex issues need not always involve expensive, complex solutions. The answers lay in education on health and diet, along with access to tools that meet community needs.

Our Approach

1st: Combating the negative

2nd: Creating the Positive

Building Personal, Environmental, and Financial Security
Following on from our partners, African Clean Energy, we have entered the 1st of what we plan to one of many community small business programmes in Mangare.
With the capacity to recharge mobile devices, we will enhance access to communications for trade and education.
The addition of low powered LED lighting allows families more time in the evenings for activities such as reading bedtime stories etc.
In partnership with training providers, we are running healthy eating classes for the seasonal workforce. This is providing many men with education on new foods and the art of cooking.

The ACE1 - a 3 in 1 solution

The ACE 1 is an advanced cookstove which reduces smoke emissions to negligible levels.

The ACE 1 is among the most high-tech stoves currently available, providing cleaner energy than the vast majority of products on the market.
The ACE 1 is among the most high-tech stoves currently available, providing cleaner energy than the vast majority of products on the market.
The ACE 1 also offers nano-grid solar electricity for mobile phone charging and LED lighting, making it an integrated energy solution for off-grid communities.
The ACE 1 has been independently tested to IWA-ISO standards, receiving a tier 3 rating for emissions, indoor emissions and efficiency, and receiving a tier 4 safety rating.
The ability to provide small amounts of electricity for things like mobile phones and lighting is an added plus.

Research and Development

Kiwi Clean Living is currently developing an exciting new product to expand the capacity of the ACE1 Cookstove.

The ZECO (Zero Energy Cook Oven)

The Zeco is based on an old idea delivered using developments in natural fibre technologies.

Made of natural materials this is an environmentally friendly product made from natural fibres. NZ Wool and Cotton. In partnership with Fibretech we have deployed their a spun wool insulation inner to our a cookbag design.

The Zeco enables food brought to heat to remain cooking at temperature for several hours without additional energy input. Unlike its predecessor, we have removed the reliance on polystyrene fill to retain food at a constant temperature.

This allows families to prepare larger meals while removing the need to maintain the cooking process.

Kiwi Clean Living maintains its focus on building income-generating opportunities for the communities we serve. We achieve this in partnership with the Pacific Communities we distribute to (as we do in the assembly of the ACE1) We provide patterned materials to be ‘finished off’ in Pasifikasol Style who are licensed for distribution and sale.