Ashden award-winner GERES Cambodia have just sold their one millionth stove

Since winning an Ashden Award in 2006, GERES’ profile and sales has dramatically increased. They have built on their success, bringing improved ‘New Lao’ stoves to families across Cambodia. In March of this year they sold their one millionth improved cookstove! Not only is this a very significant milestone for GERES, but it is also a great achievement in the journey towards providing clean sustainable cooking alternatives for millions worldwide.

“It is an achievement of GERES Cambodia, but let’s consider it as the achievement of ALL STOVERS in the world. We can prove that disseminating large numbers of improved cook stoves is not a dream anymore, but we can manage to make it into a reality....I would invite all stovers in the world to work harder, think bigger and set longer term visions. There are 2 billion people around us waiting to use improved cook stoves for their daily cooking. They have the right to use the improved cook stoves and we are obliged to fulfill their rights.” - Iwan Baskoro, GERES Country Director

The New Lao stove’s success may be down to its unique design – read more about it here . It is manufactured at sixteen production centres across ten provinces and suited to burning charcoal, the local fuel of choice in urban areas.

Each stove saves 0.4 tonnes of carbon per year – when this is scaled up by the number that GERES has sold results are impressive, both in mitigating climate change and avoiding deforestation. On top of their environmental credentials, the work of GERES has had a significant social benefit, securing increased employment for over 1,100 people in the small industry sector. And, they have built on the success of the New Lao stove by developing two new stoves: the Neang Kongrey Stove for rural families and the Vattanak Stove for palm sugar production.

If you’d like to hear more about the work of our winners, please visit our website. We have also recently published a report on cookstoves, download it here.