Emerging Cooking Solutions

Emerging Cooking Solutions is a social enterprise based in Sweden and operating in Zambia that sells cookstoves fueled by biomass pellets. The pellets are manufactured from sawdust from commercially grown tree species such as eucalyptus and pine. They seek to displace the usage of fuelwood and charcoal, the usage of which contributes to Zambia’s severe deforestation problem.

Energy Products/Services

• ECS processes waste biomass such as sawdust, straw, stems, husks, shells and pits into biomass pellets.
• The pellets are used in a specialized clean-burning gasification cookstove which is also sold by ECS.
• The biomass pellets are environmentally friendly and cheaper than charcoal as a fuel source.

Value Proposition
Emerging Cooking Solution Sweden’s vision is to eradicate extreme, persistent poverty through business. Its mission is to provide millions of families all over the world with clean-burning, gasifying cooking stoves that run on agricultural or forestry residues.
Distribution

• ECS distributes its products through pay-roll deductions in installments, where the stove is bundled with 4×16 kg of pellets (two months supply).
• ECS uses direct sales of large institutional stoves and pellets to restaurants and other large kitchens.
• ECS also distributes through small businesses or microentrepreneurs to reach the urban poor. These resellers operate on the ground and help ECS achieve last mile distribution.

Affordability

• SupaMoto pellets are cheaper than charcoal. Customers save at least 40% compared to charcoal for the same amount of cooking.
• The cookstoves have a higher upfront cost, but in the long run the use of SupaMoto pellets with a specialized cookstove is more cost-effective than burning charcoal.