Around 2.6 billion people use coal or other fossil fuels for cooking. Most of them live in areas of the world that are characterized by simple living conditions and are away from electricity grids. Modern stoves that are energy efficient, cheap and easy to use are one solution.

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

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

Cooking itself is much faster with these stoves than with wood or charcoal. The stoves heat up quickly, freeing up a lot of time that can be used for other purposes, such as education or work or other productive development. There are also significant health benefits as users do not have to breathe in toxic fumes for long periods of time and on a daily basis.

The stoves have started to be launched in Zambia with the ambition to expand the project to other areas where there is a need and opportunity to sustainably produce pellets. The distribution model is based on the user subscribing to bags of pellets corresponding to their monthly consumption. The bags are distributed free of charge and the stove itself is free of charge. The threshold for switching from charcoal to the stove is therefore much lower than if it had to be purchased. Since these pellets are also cheaper to use than other energy sources, such as charcoal and kerosene, this is a solution that benefits both the user and the climate.

What makes this project truly unique is how the climate benefits are tracked and recorded. Each stove is connected to the internet and every use of the stove is measured. All pellet purchases are also recorded as they are made via a mobile app. Having primary data for both usage and purchases means that the amount of emissions, converted into carbon credits, is much more accurate and can be calculated from primary data rather than assumptions. While the methodology for the project is based on the established Gold Standard building blocks, the measurement of climate benefits is significantly improved.

As the stove activity and pellet purchases are tracked, they can be recorded on a digital blockchain platform, meaning that the climate benefits are traceable, fully transparent and non-manipulable. Moreover, instead of just buying carbon credits, this project also allows basically anyone who wants to support the project to buy or rent a stove, or at least a digital twin of it. The performance of that stove can be tracked on the digital platform so you can see how much it reduces emissions over weeks, months and years!

We have a number of different stove projects and here you can read about the differences between three different categories.