The United Nations has announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote better health, equality, and environmental stewardship as we approach the year 2030. StoveTeam’s mission directly or indirectly contributes toward all 17 goals, but we picked our top six to explore in-depth.
Goal 3: Good health and well-being
The focus of this goal is the health of women, and children under the age of five, exactly the people who benefit the most from StoveTeam’s mission. Women and children benefit the most from each stove because they are indoors with the fire all day long. The health benefits of every stove include the eradication of lung, eye, and heart disease from indoor air pollution, the elimination of burns, and a reduction in the danger of hernias and other injuries resulting from carrying wood.
Goal 5: Gender equality
This goal aims to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls especially. When a family receives a stove, women benefit the most in terms of better health, but also in terms of time and money saved using a more efficient cooking method. This valuable time and money can be spent on education or meaningful employment, both of which can elevate them and help promote gender equality. Additionally, over one third of local employees in our Justa stove project in Guatemala are women, defying gender norms and empowering women to take on traditionally male roles!
Stove technician Eva with a stove recipient in Guatemala.
Goal 13: Climate action
The UN states that the decade between 2010 and 2019 was the warmest decade in recorded history. This goal aims to combat the causes and effects of climate change, predominantly by reducing CO2 emissions. Each $100 Justa cookstove we produce reduces CO2 emissions by 15 tons over the course of its lifespan, making cookstoves one of the most powerful ways to reduce emissions. Beyond this, cookstoves save harmful black carbon from entering the atmosphere and help reduce deforestation.
Employees of StoveTeam’s Justa project in Guatemala, 2021.
Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth
By empowering local people, our projects provide meaningful, skilled employment and strengthen local economies in the regions that need it most! Every stove is built using all local materials and labor, energizing an entire supply chain of local brick makers, metal workers, and transportation services.
Goal 1: No poverty
Families who cook over an open fire often spend 20 hours each week collecting enough wood just to cook for a large family, and families who purchase their wood often spend half their monthly income just to keep their fire burning. This enormous energy, time, and/or money expenditure, on top of the health consequences of open-fire cooking, contributes toward the enduring poverty these families experience. A cookstove can be the catalyst that allows a family to elevate their economic status.
Children are often responsible for wood collection.
Goal 17: Partnership for the goals
The UN states that this goal is one of the most crucial: “To develop multi-stakeholder partnerships to share knowledge, expertise, technology, and financial support.” StoveTeam’s model of empowering local people to start their own autonomous projects utilizes this powerful strategy to accelerate growth, lend scalability, and empower communities. It is only through partnerships like this that developing communities can gain the tools they need to thrive on their own.
Partner project owner Gustavo Peña’s son Emerson graduates from college, 2020.