Mercy Njoki was once among the billion people in Sub-Saharan Africa cooking meals with traditional indoor stoves over open fires, until she discovered ECOA, an electric cooking stove manufactured by BURN.
Today, Njoki, who lives in Ruiru near Nairobi, saves time and money with the electric cooker she purchased from a company that makes highly efficient electric, wood and gas stoves that are cleaner, need less fuel and protect families’ health.
“Before, I used a traditional cooking stove and it produced a lot of smoke,” Njoki says. “My family – especially my children – often fell sick. They developed allergies because of the constant exposure to smoke. I used to visit the hospital frequently because of persistent coughing. We sometimes had headaches from the carbon monoxide the stove emitted.”
Indoor air pollution causes more than 3 million premature deaths globally each year, disproportionately affecting children and women in low- and middle-income countries.
“With my new cooking stove, there is no more smoke and it’s safer. It even has a lock that kids cannot open like traditional stoves,” Njoki says.
From smoke to sustainability
Njoki’s stove was created by BURN, a company founded by Peter Scott, a Canadian entrepreneur. In 1990, when traveling through what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Scott was struck by the deforestation caused by charcoal production for household cooking. He decided to dedicate his time to building better stoves that could save forests and improve health across Sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2010, Scott started BURN Manufacturing near Seattle, Washington, to build clean stoves for Africa. Four years later, he opened a manufacturing facility in Kenya. Since then, BURN has expanded across East, West, and Central Africa, with assembly facilities in Nigeria, Mozambique, Ghana, Tanzania and Malawi.
“When BURN started, there was little confidence that the clean-cooking industry could deliver tangible results,” says Ted Miller, BURN’s head of corporate finance. “But since then, the company has sold over 6 million clean-cooking appliances in more than 30 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, helping over 32 million people.”
The first time Hendrik Engelmann-Pilger, an energy specialist at the European Investment Bank, heard about BURN’s project, he doubted it was something the Bank would finance.
“The clean-cooking sector is very difficult to finance,” he says. “The market is fragmented, and there are few companies of sufficient size and professionalism that development banks or social impact investors can support. BURN stands out as one of the exceptions.”
For Charlotte Rault, a loan officer at the European Investment Bank, the decision was clear. “I was really motivated to work on this project,” she says, “because it ticks all the boxes of what we want to finance at the EIB: 100% climate action and for women.”
In 2024, the European Investment Bank signed a $15 million loan to help distribute BURN’s electric induction cookers to households across East Africa. The stoves will run on electricity that is 80% to 95% renewable.
Pay as you cook
To reach net-zero emissions by 2050, nearly 300 million people must adopt clean-cooking methods every year. But affordability remains a major challenge. “Traditional methods like wood or charcoal are low-cost or free, while electric cooking appliances can be expensive,” says Miller.
To make stoves accessible, BURN lets buyers purchase them by making regular payments over a year, and the company uses carbon finance to reduce prices. Carbon finance allows BURN to attract investments from other companies or institutions willing to subsidise stove costs in exchange for carbon credits. These subsidies cut stove prices by up to 80%.
Many Kenyan families spend an average of $50 a month on fuel. These stoves allow them to recover purchase costs within two to three months, with significant savings afterwards.
“I pay whatever is affordable for the stove,” Njoki says, “and with the remaining money I cook for my family – breakfast, lunch, and even supper. I used to waste so much time cooking. Now I can spend more hours with my kids and do other activities.”
BURN Manufacturing USA
Empowering women
In many African households, women handle all meal preparation and cooking, a task that often involves collecting firewood and managing the burning process, which is time-consuming and physically demanding. The new stoves make life easier for women and advance gender equality.
Tania Colantone, a social development specialist at the European Investment Bank, sees clear benefits.
“The gender aspect of this project is pretty straightforward,” Colantone says. “In addition to protecting women and young children from cooking smoke, it also saves up to 70% of cooking time, giving women the chance to pursue education or business activities.”
This project is part of the 2X Challenge, a global initiative introduced at the 2018 Group of Seven summit to promote investments that support women. The European Investment Bank is a key member of this initiative, which accelerates private sector investments for women in low- and middle-income countries.
BURN Manufacturing USA
Nearly half of BURN’s 3 500 employees are women, and the company actively recruits, trains and promotes women in roles spanning manufacturing, distribution and customer support. This not only strengthens women’s financial independence but also builds their skills in a sector traditionally dominated by men. When signing the loan with the European Investment Bank, BURN committed to raising the percentage of full-time female employees.
“At BURN, they don’t put gender as a ticking box exercise, they just do it,” says Rault, the loan officer. “Being 2X qualified is a significant milestone for projects driving gender equality. It means that now everybody knows that they are compliant, and it will bring new investors."
Transparent carbon credits
More than 400 million Africans have electricity at home, but many are still using charcoal for cooking. These are the households BURN aims to reach with cleaner, more efficient stoves. The stoves feature sensors that provide real-time data on electricity usage and cooking habits, enabling precise calculations of emissions reductions and ensuring transparent carbon credit verification.
BURN says that studies have shown that its stoves reduce fuel consumption by 39%, save families $119 annually and cut CO2 emissions by 3.5 tonnes per stove per year.
“This project is a game-changer for East Africa,” says Engelmann-Pilger, the EIB energy specialist. “It offers top-notch technology that improves quality of life and mobilises global support through carbon credits.”
EAST AFRICA CLEAN COOKING EXPANSION
Financing the expansion of clean cooking activity of the company Burn Manufacturing in Kenya, Tanzania and potentially other African countries.
