NEW YORK – BioLite will speak at “Innovating for Impact: The MDGs and Beyond,” sharing stories from its market-based cookstove distribution and speaking about the challenges and opportunities in emerging markets. The event co-hosted by Rajiv Shah from USAID and Secretary Justine Greening from DFID is taking place alongside the UN General Assembly. The event focuses on the countdown to the Millennium Development Goals, an eight-point set of objectives aimed at stimulating country action to eradicate global poverty by 2015.

BioLite, a member of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, developed three commercial pilot programs in last year for the BioLite HomeStove, a wood-burning stove that reduces smoke while producing electricity for off-grid communities globally. Currently, the HomeStove is in distribution in India, Ghana, and Uganda.

“Half the planet still cooks on smoky open fires, killing more people annually than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, combined,” says Jonathan Cedar, BioLite co-founder and chief executive officer. “The BioLite HomeStove offers a solution to reduce toxic emissions and climate changing carbon by 90 percent, cut wood consumption by 50 percent, and offers a compelling immediate benefit to customers by being able to charge devices like mobile phones or LED lights.”

BioLite also will have a booth present at the Innovation Marketplace, a showcase of solutions helping countries work toward meeting the MDGs.