The 2015 National Energy Globe Afghanistan Award, the world’s most important environmental prize, recognizes outstanding performance in terms of energy efficiency, renewable energy and resource conservation. This year’s competition attracted more than 1,500 entries from 177 countries.
TIE’s solar cookers provide many benefits to Afghans, including clean energy from Afghanistan’s abundant sunshine without the cost of expensive fuels. The solar cookers also prevent the devastating effects of smoke inhalation, which annually kills more than 4 million people across the globe. In the U.S., TIE’s solar cookers have diverted 50,000 Mylar bags from landfills to serve a useful purpose.
The National Energy Globe Award also recognizes Trust in Education for Howell’s innovative manufacturing technique for making WAPIs (Water Pasteurization Indicator), an elegantly simple device that helps Afghans determine when liquids have reached a temperature safe enough to drink. About half the drinking water in Afghanistan is contaminated. TIE has distributed more than 6,000 WAPIs with solar cookers and trained Afghans how to use them.
People to People Solar: Interview with Budd MacKenzie, Founder of Trust in Education
Photos
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- Afghan refugees show their new Trust in Education solar cookers at a training event in Kabul.
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- Women and children from an Afghan refugee camp show the Trust in Education solar cooker that will help feed their families.
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- Afghan men practice cooking with solar at a training in Kabul sponsored by Trust in Education.
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- Trust in Education staff train Afghans to use solar cookers.
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- Solar cooker inventor Jack Howell (right) explains his device’s construction
Media Coverage:
Peet’s Article – Jack Howell and Solar
Jack Be Nimble — But We Be Slow
Video
Jack Howell
Solar Oven Project Director
After high school, Jack was drafted in the army and served two years in Germany. He went to the University of San Francisco on a basketball scholarship after a USF alum saw him play in Germany. He played one year at USF and then settled down to study philosophy.
Jack spent two decades publishing books in Massachusetts, particularly books on solar, wind, photovoltaic, and organic gardening.The Solar Home Book, a New York Times bestseller, became a classic in the field and was translated into seven languages.
In 1986 he founded Morning Sun Press in Lafayette, California where he continues to concentrate on renewable energy and the environment. In 1990 he published Cooking with the Sun: How to Build & Use Solar Cookers. He was hooked on solar cooking and has been designing and helping people around the world build and use solar cookers ever since.