Distributing cleaner cookstoves in Kenya

In many countries around the world, burning non-renewable biomass is the most common source of heat for cooking. Often, the stoves used to burn this biomass are not efficient enough to make the best use of the fuel available, leading to high levels of unsustainable deforestation.

In Kenya, 9 million people rely on biomass for cooking. Distributing cleaner cookstoves can bring lots of benefits to both people and the environment. By reducing the amount of wood and charcoal that is burned by using these more efficient stoves, the volume of greenhouse gas emissions produced is reduced, and also less time and energy needs to be spent collecting this fuel – a job which often falls to women and children to carry out. In some communities, girls are also tasked with collecting firewood, a responsibility which can keep them from attending school. An efficient charcoal stove can cut down the daily fuel consumed, necessitating fewer trips to collect fuel or less money spent on charcoal per week. Efficient, improved stoves are a more sustainable, economic and healthier way to cook.

Project Boundary

The host country is Kenya, and the project boundary is defined as the country of Kenya. The project sells the stove across the country and does not limit itself to specific regions. 

The stove factory is based in Ruiru, where the stoves are manufactured and shipped to the retailers and distributors spread across the country. Therefore, the project boundary is taken as the whole country, all the 47 Counties of Kenya.

Project Developer

BURN, founded in 2010, leads this transition with Kenya’s first modern cookstove factory – still the only vertically integrated facility in sub-Saharan Africa. Powered by solar, it produces up to 400,000 stoves per month and employs 2,500 people, half women. By combining cleaner cooking with women’s economic empowerment, BURN shows how the energy transition can be both climate-positive and socially inclusive.

Objectives

The objective of the Burn Stoves Project in Kenya is to improve health and incomes throughout Kenya by reducing time and money spent acquiring fuel for household cooking. 

The project activity includes the distribution of improved cook stoves for households in Kenya. The project stoves are expected to replace the traditional non-efficient cook stoves used in the baseline. As a result, the project results in reductions of CO2 emissions that are real, measurable and provide long-term benefits to the mitigation of climate change. 

Ecologi Site Visit

In May 2025, Ecologi visited BURN’s Nairobi headquarters for a routine project assessment and deeper insight into its operations.

To read more about the site visit click here!