About 2.6 billion people use coal or other fossil sources for their cooking. It is usually in areas on earth that are characterized by poverty and are beyond the electricity grid. More modern stoves that are energy efficient, cheap and easy to use are a solution.

Emerging Cooking Solutions was founded with the ambition to replace charcoal with pellets. With its efficient stove SupaMoto, the user has the opportunity to get a stove and free home delivery of pellets through a subscription. Using pellets costs about half of what charcoal costs, the stoves are much faster and more efficient, and the indoor environment gets significantly better.

Deforestation is unfortunately common in areas where wood or charcoal is primarily used for everyday cooking. The pellets used with SupaMoto are locally produced from residual products and do not drive deforestation. The climate benefits are therefore reduced greenhouse gas emissions and reduced deforestation.

The actual cooking is much faster with these stoves than when using wood or charcoal. The stoves get hot quickly and in that way a lot of time is freed up which can be used in other ways, for example education or work or other productive development. The health benefits are also great as users do not have to inhale toxic fumes for a long time on a daily basis.

The project has launched in Zambia with the aim to expand to other areas where there is a need and where pellets can be sustainably produced . The distribution model is based on the user subscribing to sacks of pellets corresponding to their monthly consumption. The sacks are distributed free of charge and the stove itself is free of charge. The threshold for moving away from charcoal and starting to use the stove is therefore much lower than if it needs to be bought. Since these pellets are also cheaper to use than other types of energy, both charcoal and e.g. kerosene, this is a solution that benefits both the user and the climate.

What makes this project truly unique is how the climate impact is tracked and recorded. Each cooker is connected to the internet and every use of the it is measured. All purchases of pellets are also registered as they are made via a mobile app. With primary data for both use and purchase, this means that the amount of emissions, converted into carbon dioxide credits, is much more accurate and can be calculated based on primary data rather than assumptions. While the methodology of the project is based on the established cornerstones of the Gold Standard, the measurement of the climate benefit is significantly improved.

As the stove activity and pellet purchases are tracked, they can be registered on a digital blockchain platform, which means that the climate benefit is traceable, completely transparent and not manipulable. Also, instead of just buying carbon credits, this project also basically gives anyone who wants to support the project the opportunity to buy or rent a stove, or at least a digital twin of it. The performance of that stove can then be tracked on the digital platform so you can see how much it reduces emissions over weeks, months and years!