Charcoal Briquettes Tanzania Ltd., Gaia’s joint venture with ARTI Energy, provides alternative charcoal produced from agricultural waste and other biomass. The briquettes can directly replace the wood-based charcoal used for cooking in households, restaurants and other institutions. After a successful entry to institutional markets in Tanzania, the company is now launching retail sales in Dar es Salaam.
Wood-based charcoal is currently the primary cooking fuel in more than 70 % of households in Dar es Salaam. The consumption of some 500,000 tons of charcoal per annum is the primary reason for the severe deforestation in the area. Approximately 350 hectares of forest disappear every day.
Based on years of development work by ARTI-TZ, ARTI and Gaia have together developed a business model that combines social entrepreneurship with a clear business case in order to scale up the production and sales of sustainable charcoal. The price of sustainable charcoal is equal to the price of wood-based charcoal, and there are no additional costs to users.
“Our collaboration with Gaia has helped the ARTI-initiated social business partnership to grow and develop into a high-quality, affordable energy product,” says Nachiket Potnis from ARTI Tanzania.
“The initial production and sales results are encouraging, and we have a good reason to believe that this could become a major endeavour offering a new and more sustainable cooking energy option for a significant number of households and institutions in Tanzania,” states Gaia’s Chairman Pasi Rinne.
The partnership offers much needed employment and a new income source for rural communities, and represents a new type of private sector initiative with a strong focus on positive health, environmental and climate impacts.
More information:
- Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the Board, Gaia Consulting, tel. + 358 400 464 127, email: firstname.lastname@gaia.fi
