End-to-end Integration from R&D to Carbon Project Implementation

• BURN is the only company with manufacturing in Africa that is fully integrated from cooking product conceptualization to carbon credit issuance.
• For research and development, more than 50,000 hours of market research, design, durability and performance testing were undertaken between 2011 and 2022. The company has a 30-member new product development team and a budget of $1 million annually for new product design.
• The advanced manufacturing facility can manufacture a stove every 20 seconds. It is the only modern cookstove manufacturing facility on the African continent capable of producing at this rate.
• BURN has over 1,500 distribution partners across wholesale, MFIs, Corporates, and B-2-C.
• Experience has established four carbon Program of Activities, covering 21 countries. Since 2013, BURN has generated a total of 12.3MtCO2 from several carbon offsetting projects where the company acts as both an implementer and a managing entity.

For the company:

• By having modern factories located in Africa, the company is close to the target customer – meaning that the design cycle is relatively short. BURN can quickly iterate on design adjustments or add new product lines: quickly exploring trade-offs of consumer willingness to pay, product efficiency, and stove usage, with new features being readied for mass-manufacture.
• More product margin captured: BURN’s vertical integration in carbon project development mens they gain value for each carbon credit they sell, with no carbon project development intermediary taking a cut
• Friendlier regulation (compared to importers)
• Minimal product conversion costs

For the customer:

• According to Yunus Social Business, 79% of BURN’s wood-consuming customers experienced a ‘strong decrease’ in their weekly wood expenditure, saving USD 178.6 annually. Weekly household spending on wood after using BURN’s Kuniokoa was USD 1.8 (a saving of USD 3.4).
• 97% of survey respondents stated that their Kuniokoa stove strongly increased their opportunities for income generation, because of a decrease in the time spent cooking.

For the company:

• Local manufacturing means that no time is lost waiting for shipments of stoves to arrive internationally, and that no import duties are levied for completed goods manufactured in country.

For the customer:

• BURN’s corporate carbon partnerships generate revenues that can be used to lower the consumer price of stoves, accelerating uptake in settings where there is low ability to pay for improved cookstoves.

Other companies that have their own R&D capabilities and provide their clean cookstoves for multi-country carbon credit schemes include:

• BioLite
• SSM