Central Desktop Donates Collaboration Service to BURN Design Lab to Improve Environmental, Social and Economic Causes Around the World

Fortune Magazine’s “Cool Green Company of 2011” Will Use “Central Desktop Gives” Donation to Assist Volunteers with Remote Project Management, Design and Implementation

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Central Desktop today announced it is donating use of its leading online collaboration platform to BURN Design Lab. The nonprofit organization creates customized biomass stove solutions to meet the cooking needs of the developing world. BURN Design Lab will leverage the collaboration platform to help volunteers and remote staff work together more easily on projects, ultimately enabling them to provide services to more in need.

“We are pleased to adopt the Central Desktop platform to help us better plan and design concepts in conjunction with our volunteers, who are spread across several locations”

BURN Design Lab’s team consists of engineering, design and manufacturing experts who test multiple iterations of stove prototypes before shipping them overseas for in-county field testing. By adopting Central Desktop’s collaboration platform, staff will be able to share research, designs and test prototype stoves “on location” from villages in Guatemala to Kenya using the technology.

“We are pleased to adopt the Central Desktop platform to help us better plan and design concepts in conjunction with our volunteers, who are spread across several locations,” said Peter Scott, CEO of BURN Design Lab. “The ability to serve our communities with faster execution and implementation is priceless, and we’re excited that Central Desktop will allow us to increase the communities we reach and the rate at which we complete each project.”

Working with implementing organizations, BURN Design Lab develops sustainable stove dissemination systems that have a profound impact on deforestation, women’s health and global warming. Last year, Fortune Magazine selected BURN Design Lab/Burn Global as the “Cool Green Company for 2011.”

An astonishing 2.5 billion people globally still use crude open fires fueled by wood and charcoal to cook meals, contributing to a large percentage of the world’s global carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, more than 5,479 people per day – mostly women and children – die from upper respiratory disease from indoor cooking smoke. Biomass stove solutions can reduce toxic emissions by 40 to 60 percent, saving lives and better protecting the environment.

“It is important for us to donate services to organizations like BURN Design Lab, which focus on green causes that also have a significant social and economic impact on communities around the world,” said Isaac Garcia, CEO and co-founder of Central Desktop. “The service will help the green nonprofit reach more communities and meet their goal of completing even more projects in 2012.”

Through its Central Desktop Gives initiative, Central Desktop helps nonprofits better connect with the community and improve efficiency and communication within their organizations, allowing them to focus on growing their cause. Central Desktop’s cloud-based collaboration platform enables organizations to communicate important updates, share documents and more easily manage processes with volunteers from any location. The service provides a secure, centralized location for BURN Design Lab to access research, design and prototype plans and other materials.

About Central Desktop

Central Desktop is a cloud-based collaboration platform that centralizes the way people work, teams collaborate and managers lead. The company’s comprehensive online collaboration solution centralizes social and workflow tools into one access point in the cloud, streamlining processes and bringing people together to collaborate and engage. Central Desktop customers include CBS, Netflix, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the Humane Society of the United States, Workday, Harvard University and over 500,000 users. Founded in 2005, Central Desktop is a privately held company with headquarters in Pasadena, California. For more information about the company, visit http://www.centraldesktop.com.