In his final blog from the Sustainable Brands Conference in California, Bert Aldridge celebrates a company whose technology could have a significant impact in the developing world.

"We're stoked that Biolite won SB10's Sustainable Innovation award, announced on the last day of the conference. Jonathan Cedar, co-inventor and the nascent company's CEO delivered a great presentation that made clear the significant impact that could be achieved if Biolite (and stoves like it) replace traditional wood-fired stoves in the developing world. The Biolite stove reinvents stoves used for home cooking in Asia, Africa and Latin America by making the burning process more efficient. The greater efficiency the less fuel is used and less smoke is generated. Less smoke, the less harm to the health of the cooks. Biolite has an additional feature; they've developed a process that converts a small part of the thermal energy into electricity. This means that users can recharge electrical devices while cooking, and that's got to be good for developing world users facing regular megacity brown outs, or for those who are off the grid completely.

One of the strengths of the product design is that it's set up to be used in the same way stoves are used now; that is, if someone replaced their traditional cooker with a Biolite stove they don't have to learn new techniques, or use different fuels. Biolite has begun focus testing the product with uses in Guatemala and India. Part of their plan is to sell the stoves in North America to campers as a way of building up development capital, and to further prototype their design. Anya Kamenetz, a writer for Fast Company was also judging the Awards. Check out her take on Biolite."