Private and Confidential
The Ian Potter Foundation
2435 Polk St, Suite 21
SAN FRANSISCO 94109
CALIFORNIA
To Whom It May Concern,
The Mulago Foundation
I am writing to you on behalf of the Non-Government Potting the Globe Organisation, in regards to our innovative design that we believe can benefit a wider range of communities.
The pot-in-pot cooler is a design which uses an environmentally-friendly method of thermodynamics, to keep vegetables, fruits and other foods refrigerated. The way this design works is by placing a small pot within a larger pot, then filling the space between the two pots with sand and water. The food is then placed within the small pot and covered by a dampened towel.
The refrigerator is one of the highest energy consumption appliances on the market today, meaning that it greatly increases our carbon footprint. The pot-in-pot cooler is a product that can extensively reduce this carbon output, as it does not need electricity. This in turn, will inevitably decrease your energy usage, and, of course, using less energy means a healthier planet. For communities that do not have the the luxury or accessibility to such appliance, leaves them struggling for a way to preserve their food, sometimes resulting in hunger. The pot-in-pot cooler is an inexpensive and simple design that could alleviate this problem that occurs in less fortunate, poorer communities. If the pot-in-pot cooler were to be placed in more communities, imagine the global flow-on effect that would occur.
The pot-in-pot cooler has already proven to be successful in communities across Africa, where the climate is hot and dry, communities are able to keep their produce fresh. The benefits of this design not only lengthen the lifespan of fruit and vegetables by a substantial amount, meaning that it stays fresh for longer, but also minimises the amount of food waste in the area as well as hunger. In places with more fortunate communities, the pot-in-pot cooler would still be a benefit, reducing food shops and decreasing food and electricity bills. This shows that the pot-in-pot cooler is not limited to a certain community, it can contribute to all.
The Mulago Foundation’s mission is to focus on “solutions that meet the basic needs of the poorest families” and to improve the “the well-being of the most vulnerable” (The Mulago Foundation, 1993) and as the pot-in-pot cooler is a product designed specifically to improve the lives living within unfortunate communities, it merely parallels this mission with the same intention. I believe this design can be of assistance to not only our polluted planet, but most importantly its communities which struggle to live without proper resources and this is why I leave it in your position to consider and evaluate the benefits of this pot-in-pot cooler, in hope that with your help it will have the chance to contribute and benefit more communities in the near future.
Yours Sincerely,
Miss Ellen Ortmann
Potting the Globe Organisation (NGO)
References:
The Mulago Foundation. (1993). Retrieved from http://mulagofoundation.org
Solar Cookers International Network. (n.d.). Pot-in-Pot Cooler. Retrieved from http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Pot-in-pot_cooler
The Permaculture Research Institute. (2008). A Refrigerator that Runs without Electricity. Retrieved from http://permaculturenews.org/2008/08/11/a-refrigerator-that-runs-without-electricity/
Contemporary Design Issues 