Partner Spotlight: Prakti
With the Lancet publication of burden of disease data estimating household air pollution is responsible for 4 million deaths annually, it is clearer now than ever that vulnerable populations need access to safe cooking technologies. Yet the cookstove market continues to be one of the most challenging markets to open; despite a large amount of resources focusing on disseminating stoves over the past several decades, few successful, sustainable models have emerged.
Prakti approaches this challenge with an innovative solution, integrating design and engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution to create a cookstove ecosystem. We believe this integration is essential to breaking into the stove market; it allows for rapid prototyping of products customized to the needs of users. Our impact is not limited to the design lab—with their own factory and distribution system, we are able to get stoves into the hands of cooks and learn directly from them.
Prakti’s business model is based on a few key principles:
- Women’s empowerment: As the cooks for their families and communities, women are decision-makers when it comes to stoves. Prakti’s business model taps into this fact and aims to uplift communities by empowering women and hiring and training local saleswomen to distribute stoves and work in their stores. Creating this network allows us to effectively disseminate cookstoves to base of the pyramid families, as well as to efficiently translate user feedback into new generations of clean cookstoves.
- Value: Base of the pyramid populations expect quality, aspirational products as much as any other target market. Providing them with cookstoves that do not match their cooking methods, that fall apart quickly, or that look unattractive is counterproductive; time and again, stoves that do not meet cooks’ needs end up gathering dust on shelves. Prakti provides cooks with stoves they see value in, presenting a product targeted to their community’s specific desires.
- Local insights: Our operations combine the power of centralized activities with the adaptability of decentralized activities. Local Prakti branches penetrate communities, employing and learning from local users, to find the most effective solutions to stove dissemination while Global Prakti manages higher-level activities like research and development, and coordinates between the local branches. Our manufacturing combines the efficiency and expertise of a single best-in-class factory with the economic benefit and cultural sensitivity of local assembly.
Prakti’s stoves have been distributed in Haiti, Sudan, India, and Nepal; to date, we have stoves in 8,000 households and 880 schools and institutions. We have a portfolio of seven stoves: four household stoves and three institutional stoves. We plan to open operations in Africa and Bangladesh in the coming year.
Prakti is excited to be a partner of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves as we work toward a healthier, cleaner world together.
To learn more about Prakti, visit https://www.praktidesign.com/
To be featured in an upcoming Alliance partner spotlight, please contact Sean Bartlett at sbartlett@cleancookstoves.org.