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Environmental education is implemented in formal curricula in multiple ways, including K-12 science. In the United States, the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) has provided ...

This review offers a state of the field examination of cookstove implementation efforts with a focus on stakeholder engagement and persistently low rates of adoption. Literature from related fields, such as sanitation and public health, indicate that perspectives in sustainable energy are narrow, and point to a new approach for sustainable energy and development engagement, one that does not solely rely on overcoming habitualized behaviors of adult women. Should stakeholder perspectives be expanded, and coupled with partnerships that include local, youth-oriented educational institutions, better uptake of efficient cooking technologies may be realized. This paper argues that youth, current and future users of cookstoves, are systematically overlooked at all points along the cookstove value chain, and that their continued exclusion from implementation efforts is to the detriment of cookstove research and practice. This paper calls for their purposeful inclusion in development efforts through collaborations with Education for Sustainable Development providers whose work is complementary to the cookstove and sustainable development communities’ aims and aspirations. This represents a new line of research in sustainable household energy, one that includes a diversity of perspectives and the inclusion of all stakeholders.

Improved cookstoves and solar cookers have been positioned as a socio-technical strategy for improving household health and economics, and for reducing the negative impacts on the environment associated with the combustion of residential solid fuels in low- and middle-income countries. However, adoption and sustained use of these technologies have not been realized. This critical review examines the ways in which cookstove programs use information-sharing and education-related Behavior Change Communication techniques to engage all stakeholders within a household to promote long-term cookstove usage. Findings indicate that few cookstove and solar cooker adoption studies (n = 18) report such strategies, and of those that do, rarely are men (n = 4), often the primary financial decision makers of a household, or children (n = 3), current and future users of cookstoves, purposefully engaged. Included papers report cookstove adoption metrics in a variety of ways, preventing direct comparisons between studies, by stakeholder, or behavior change strategy. Despite the lack of standardized adoption metrics, this review finds that comprehensive educational initiatives, as opposed to training or simple information provision, as part of a behavior change strategy may advance sustained use of cooking technologies. This represents an unexplored area of improved energy research.