BURN sells its 100,000th cleanburning cookstove in East Africa

In the last 24 months Kenyan consumers have spent more than $3.7 million to purchase 100,000 life-saving jikokoa^TM cookstoves. These stoves have helped consumers save more than $13.1 million in reduced fuel costs and 272,000 tons of wood. This led to BURN being awarded an Ashden Award in June of this year.

 

BURN, with investments from General Electric, Acumen Fund, US OPIC and support from the UN Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and The Energy and Environment Partnership Programme, has created a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Kenya that employs 100+ people - more than half of whom are women - and produces a stove every minute.

Said Peter Scott CEO BURN: “My team in the US and Kenya have worked tirelessly over the last 4 years to bring cleanburning and life-saving cookstoves to families in East Africa. Crossing the 100,000 stoves sold mark means that now more than 500,000 people are benefiting from a cookstove that reduces emissions and fuel costs by more than 60%. When we started operations in Kenya 2 years ago, locally manufacturing the best cookstove in the world was just a dream. Now, it is a reality. 

On this day we take great pride in our accomplishments and great comfort in knowing that the next 100,000 will be much easier than the first!”Surprisingly, nearly 80% of Kenyan households depend on wood and charcoal for cooking and can spend more on cooking fuel than households in the US or Europe! Kenyans can spend as much as $400 a year on charcoal, which puts enormous strain not only on poor households, but also on Kenya's forests. BURN’s jikokoa^TM – or “saving stove” in Swahili – sells for $35 and saves urban households up to $200 a year.

In 2011, BURN was created to address the enormous need for high-efficiency cookstoves in the developing world where nearly 3 billion people rely on biomass fuels such as wood, charcoal and dung for cooking (WHO, 2011). 

The burning of biomass in inefficient cookstoves and open fires produces life-threatening smoke. 4.3 million people globally die from exposure to indoor air pollution, which adds up to more deaths than malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV combined. This year, 680,000 people in Africa - mostly women and children - will die from respiratory diseases related to indoor cooking smoke (WHO, 2011). The demand for charcoal is also taking its toll on the environment; the wood and charcoal burned for household cooking is responsible for more than half of Sub-Saharan Africa’s deforestation. 

BURN is led by Founder Peter Scott, one of Foreign Policy Magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers, and recognized as one of the leading experts in cookstove commercialization. Mr. Scott leads a team that brings 150+ years of design and manufacturing experience to the cookstove arena.