A number of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) agencies create low-cost products and technologies that improve the quality of life in human habitats and reduce the pressures on the natural environment. These products include smoke-free stoves that reduce domestic biomass needs by over 50 percent while also helping to reduce acute respiratory infections due to smoke and indoor pollution.

In places that are prone to earthquakes and avalanches, master masons who are trained by AKDN on seismic-resistant construction methods pass along their knowledge to others so that the practices become sustainable throughout the community. In every endeavour, AKDN collaborates closely with the communities involved to identify the needs which they consider most important to improving their livelihoods.

"Governments and international development agencies can help, but civil society in the widest definition of the term is crucial to addressing the backlog of needs dispersed over wide areas. Indeed a crucial aspect of the Aga Khan Planning and Building Services (AKPBS)' success has been inviting individual community members to contribute their own labour and money to improving their built environment, frequently providing them with access to micro-credit products to do so. This kind of public engagement gives communities ownership of the changes, thereby underwriting their sustainability."
Princess Zahra Aga Khan speaking at the Alcan Award Prize giving ceremony, Vancouver, Canada - 2 March 2006.