Aprovecho is the name of two non-profit organizations located in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Aprovecho Sustainability Education Center is a not-for-profit organization based in the vicinity of Cottage Grove, Oregon

Cottage Grove, Oregon

Cottage Grove is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It received its name from its first postmaster, G. C. Pierce, in September 1861. Pierce's home at the time was in an oak grove. The population was 9,686 at the 2010 census.-History:...

. Its focus is on sustainable living, including permaculture

Permaculture

Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modeled on the relationships found in nature. It is based on the ecology of how things interrelate rather than on the strictly biological concerns that form the foundation of modern agriculture...

 and renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

. Its sister organization, Aprovecho Research Center, develops efficient cook stoves for use in developing countries.

Cook stove designs

Since 2001, Aprovecho Research Center has worked on designs for cook stoves, primarily for use in developing countries. They are best known for the Rocket stove

Rocket stove

A rocket stove is an innovative clean and efficient cooking stove using small diameter wood fuel which is burned in simple high-temperature combustion chamber containing an insulated vertical chimney which ensures complete combustion prior to the flames reaching the cooking surface. The principles...

, developed by their technical director Dr. Larry Winiarski. A number of variations on these stoves have been created over the years, often designed specifically to suit the country in which they are being used. Aprovecho also helps other designers by testing their stoves for emissions of different gases and particulates

Particulates

Particulates – also known as particulate matter , suspended particulate matter , fine particles, and soot – are tiny subdivisions of solid matter suspended in a gas or liquid. In contrast, aerosol refers to particles and/or liquid droplets and the gas together. Sources of particulate matter can be...

.

Sustainability education

Aprovecho Sustainability Education Center is a land-based education center focused on the practice and education of sustainable living skills. Twice a year the non-profit teaches internships in the area of organic farming, appropriate technologies and sustainable forestry. There is also a focus on, local food networks, food preservation, whole foods and nutrition, wild edibles and food foraging, bread baking, fermentation, seaweed and salt harvesting, seed saving and more.

Awards

In 2006, Aprovecho Research Center won an Ashden Award for their work with the Programme for Biomass Energy Conservation in Southern Africa (ProBEC) on efficient biomass

Biomass

Biomass, as a renewable energy source, is biological material from living, or recently living organisms. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly, or converted into other energy products such as biofuel....

stoves for institutional cooking, and again in 2009 for their work with Shengzhou Stove Manufacturer in China, for work to mass-produce efficient stoves for use in developing countries.

Further reading

• Bilger, Burkhard. “Hearth Surgery - The quest for a stove that can save the world”. The New Yorker, 21 and 28 December 2009. Pages 84 to 97.

External links

• Aprovecho Research Center
• Aprovecho Sustainability Education Center