George Basch, Founder of Himalayan Stove Project, Receives Prestigious Explorers Club Award
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TAOS, NM (Feb. 27, 2017) –The Explorers Club Board of Directors has named George Basch, 80, founder of the Himalayan Stove Project, recipient of its 2017 Explorers Club Citation of Merit. Basch, whose non-profit has shipped over 4,000 fuel-efficient cookstoves to the remote mountainous communities of Nepal, joins an honored list of other Citation of Merit awardees including the American Mount Everest Expedition (1963), polar explorer Will Steger (1987), and Gilbert M. Grosvenor (1997), former president and chairman of the National Geographic Society.
The 55-year-old award, which recognizes an outstanding feat of exploration or services to The Explorers Club, will be presented Mar. 25, 2017, during the Club’s 113th annual dinner on Ellis Island, an event attended by 1,200 members and their guests and considered the world’s largest gathering of explorers.
An explorer and humanitarian based in Taos, N.M., Basch is the founder of the Himalayan Stove Project, an organization dedicated to preserving the Himalayan environment and improving the health of the people living there. The Himalayan Stove Project provides clean-burning, fuel-efficient cookstoves as replacements to traditional stoves or open-fire pits which cause unsafe levels of indoor air pollution and use excess fuel. Basch has circled the globe as an adventurer, explorer, photographer and creative entrepreneur. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Says Explorers Club President Ted Janulis, “While The Explorers Club celebrates and recognizes new field research we are also committed to service and making the world a better place. We are proud to recognize George’s humanitarian efforts of the Himalayan Stove Project.”
The Explorers Club is an international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore. Since its inception in 1904, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide. It promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences.
The Club’s members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: First to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, and first to the surface of the moon. It is headquartered at 46 East 70th Street in New York City. (www.explorers.org)
The HSP’s new CarbonKarma™ program allows donors to purchase carbon credits to benefit both the environment and future stove recipients.
Through its new website, www.CarbonKarma.guru, the HSP offers Carbon Offset Credits for $20 each, with a majority of that earmarked for the organization. There is no limit to the amount of credits that can be purchased to help offset an individual or corporation’s carbon footprint. Donors receive a certificate verifying the amount of carbon offsets purchased.
The Himalayan Stove Project is based at 1335 Paseo del Pueblo Sur #305
Taos NM 87571, 505 363 8863, www.himalayanstoveproject.org, George@HimalayanStoveProject.org
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Media contact:
Jeff Blumenfeld
Blumenfeld and Assoc. PR
203 326 1200, jeff@blumenfeldpr.com
