Scaling Cleaner Brick Manufacturing in Bangladesh

The approximately 7,000 brick kilns in Bangladesh generate 11% of the country’s particulate matter, 22% of black carbon, and 17% of total annual CO2 emissions. The researchers developed an intervention, Zigzag 2.0, which offered brick kiln owners and operators technical support and training to adopt low cost changes in kiln management and insulation. They deployed this intervention in a randomized controlled trial among 292 zigzag kilns in Khulna Division in the 2022/2023 brick kiln season. 65% of the kilns offered the intervention adopted the two most important components of the intervention. Kilns that adopted the intervention used 24% less coal per 100,000 bricks produced, generated 21% less carbon dioxide emissions and 21% lower PM2.5 emissions. In response to a request by the Government of Bangladesh Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, the researchers are moving towards scale with this intervention by deploying it across 1000 kilns by April 2025.