Houses From Smoke, 'Green-Stove'

One invention of these MBA graduates is saving 10 lakh houses from smoke, 'Green-stove'

This is the story of two friends who have played an important role in improving the rural lifestyle through their startups, while they are also protecting the environment from being polluted.

In the year 2006, Neha Juneja and Ankit Mathur completed their studies from Delhi College of Engineering and after that both of them also got MBA degrees.  He then started his own startup in 2008, together with the other two friends.  About 6-8 months he ran that startup.  But due to the economic downturn that year, he had to sell his startup.

Neha told The Better India, "It was not that our business failed.  Actually, both sides were not benefiting in that startup.  Only then did we think that something should be done that would benefit everyone.  For this, we traveled from place to place.  We wanted to find something so that we could do something for others as well.  When we were traveling, we noticed that in India, food is still made on clay stove in many homes.  It is not only in the villages but also in the cities, if you go and look in the slums, you will only find earthen stoves in all the houses. ”

According to the data, 2% of the world's climate change is also due to the smoke emanating from traditional clay stoves.  Every year, 4 million people die due to health problems caused by the smoke coming out of the clay stove.  A quarter of these deaths occur only in India.

Neha and Ankit decide to do something about it.  His quest ended on Smokeless Cleanstove.  He spent about a year and a half of hard work designing a stove that used less fuel and produced almost no smoke.  His product became final after several errors and trials.  Subsequently, he showed and used the product to the general public.  After testing for about 3-4 months, when the results of his products started coming good, he again laid the foundation of his startup.

In 2011, Neha and Ankit along with another partner, Shoaib Qazi, laid the foundation for Greenway Rural Infra.  Through this, he is spreading his two products, Smart Stove and Jumbo Stove to the people.

Greenway Smart Stove:

This stove, which comes with a single burner, works with any type of solid biomass such as wood, bamboo, dung and agricultural waste.  Its specialty is that it consumes 65% less fuel and produces up to 70% less smoke than conventional stoves.  It is made of steel and aluminum.

Greenway Jumbo Stove:

It is larger in size than a smart stove.  All other features are the same.  Neha says that she has a patent on the air regulation technology she has used in this.  With this mechanism, this stove performs clean cooking.

“When we were testing our product, people often said that what is the problem with the clay stove?  People have been using for years.  It is very difficult to convince these people that this smoke contains many types of harmful gases which are very harmful for their health.  Especially for women, ”she added.

Neha and her team have done a lot of work on people's awareness.  He has shown himself by going to the village and countryside, sitting among the people and cooking food on this stove.  Most of their products still reach new customers through people.  He has paid very little attention to social media promotion.

In addition, they have made their products accessible to people through social organizations, women's cooperatives and micro-finance companies rather than retailers.  In the last 10 years the company has been successful in selling 1 million clean cookstoves.  In this way they have saved 10 lakh houses from smoke.

However, his journey has been challenging.  Neha says that she started with just three people.  He funded this business with the savings of his first business.  But the biggest problem was to make room for your product among the people.  His product may have been filled with all kinds of qualities, but it is not about men but women.  Even today, cooking in India is considered the work of women and there are very few people who think of giving any rest to women in this work.

People are not at all ready to believe that the smoke emanating from an earthen stove is harmful.  Even if it is for the woman, what difference does it make.  To change this thinking, he struggled a lot and after about 2-3 years his efforts started paying off.  She says that her largest business in India is in the southern states and in addition, her products are also going to African countries today.

His startup has also been honored in many places to serve the interests of both the common people and the environment.  She has received accolades at more than 10 places in the year 2018 including Facebook India Startup Day Award, Women Entrepreneur 2019 Award, Time Magazine Award.

Today Neha's company is the country's largest biomass stove maker.  His factory is located in Vadodara, Gujarat.  Apart from stoves, they have also started providing solar lamps and water purifiers on demand of the people.  These two are not their own designed products.  According to Neha, their aim is to provide products according to the need of the rural people.  She says that the need of the hour is to innovate for rural India only then the gap between city and villages in our country will be less.

If you want to know more about Greenway products, you can check out their website!