Carbon Offset for Better Cookstoves in Laos

23 April 2018
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In Laos, most people cook with wood and charcoal. The result: carbon emissions, air pollution, and a significant loss of forest cover that has amounted to a significant environmental threat over the last two decades.

As an ambitious effort to offset the carbon emissions of our travellers and improve the environment of Asia, EXO Travel has committed to offsetting the carbon of every domestic and regional flight they take across all our destinations.

To achieve this, EXO is working in signed partnership with NEXUS for Development to purchase an estimated 8,318 carbon credits based on each flight's calculated carbon emissions. This equates to $150,000 in donations which will go towards providing improved cookstoves to local people in Laos.

Through the Laos Improved Cookstove Programme, local producers receive training and are now making stoves that are more efficient. The recipients of these cookstoves not only end up saving on fuel costs, but the more efficient stoves also require less fuel which results in cleaner breathing air, and a surprising list of direct and indirect benefits that include the following:

  • +14,243 cookstove units purchased
  • - $1.2 million USD on biomass fuels expenditure
  • +77,748 people supported
  • - 488 Acute Lower Respiratory Infection cases equivalent to savings of $14,111 USD
  • +8,350 Tonnes of wood fuels saved
  • Avoided 221 Hectares of forest degradation equivalent to $28,755 USD
  • Saved 172,734 hours in collecting fuel

This project is led by SNV, Netherlands Development Organisation with the support of OXFAM and the Lao non-profit association ARMI. The project aims to sell 420,000 improved stoves over an eight-year period with the support of carbon credits.

The Laos Improved Cookstoves project contributes to the following top-3 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

  • Good Health & Well-being (3)
  • Affordable & Clean Energy (7)
  • Climate Action (13)
This is just one-way EXO, with the lead of EXO Foundation, extends our commitment to responsible tourism by addressing climate change and helping communities in our travel destinations have improved living standards and quality of life.

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