Download our 2024 Impact Report and dive into the details of what our global community has achieved to date.
Growing up in Mukuru, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, for years Charlot Magayi sold charcoal for fuel. That charcoal was the cause of regular respiratory infections for her and her neighbours. Then, in 2012, her daughter was severely burnt by a charcoal-burning stove. Seeking a better solution, in 2017 she founded Mukuru Clean Stoves.
Rather than burning dangerous solid fuels, Mukuru Clean Stoves use processed biomass made from charcoal, wood and sugarcane. This burns cleaner, creating 90 percent less pollution than an open fire and 70 percent less than a traditional cookstove. They are cheaper too, costing just $10 and halving ongoing fuel costs.
Today, 200,000 people in Kenya use Mukuru Clean Stoves, saving $10 million in fuel costs and saving lives too. In rural areas, where young girls often spend three hours a day collecting firewood, they also save precious time. A female-founded business with mostly female staff and distribution agents, Mukuru is empowering women to make a living by making a difference.
Magayi plans to create an even cleaner stove that burns ethanol. In three years, she hopes to reach one million customers. In ten years, she plans to reach ten million people all over Africa.
Mukuru’s progress since winning The Earthshot Prize in 2022 has been incredible – employing even more women, expanding into new countries and even developing an innovative new product.
Since winning The Earthshot Prize, Mukuru Clean Stoves has grown much faster than the team anticipated: the company has already expanded its work into new markets. The Earthshot Prize money has helped it to triple the size of its team, partner with more local women, and launch a new malaria research project.
Having previously only operated in three different markets, Mukuru is now in six markets, including an expansion into Ghana and Nigeria. In the last year, the company sold almost 170,000 new clean cookstoves, more than double the amount sold in the previous year.
Since winning, Mukuru cookstoves have avoided 177,000 tonnes of new CO2 emissions and improved the livelihoods of over 835,000 additional people by improving their air quality and saving them money.
Thanks to an introduction by The Earthshot Prize, Mukuru Clean Stoves forged a new partnership with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, worth just under $1m (£0.8m). The money will be used on an R&D project to develop malaria-fighting briquettes for its stoves: an innovative solution with the potential to save even more lives.
Download our 2024 Impact Report and dive into the details of what our global community has achieved to date.
