I have never met a worker so enamored with their employer the way Brian is. He shakes his head the way a Kenyan does while telling you something is out of the ordinary, and says ‘those guys’, meaning Burn; the makers of popular ecofriendly cook stove Jikokoa are the best place he has ever worked. He said, he had been there two years and he has never imagined working anywhere else since.
I had agreed to visit Burn factory because they had sent out an invitation for a tour ‘the worlds largest clean cookstove manufacturer and cookstove carbon project developer, based in Nairobi’ on the sidelines of the Africa Climate Summit. And on the email invite it posed an interesting question whether Africa’s next leapfrog moment will start in the kitchen.
Believe me I had imagined it was just those fad ecotech projects that promised to deliver Africa on a pay as you go credit model. Its founder, Peter Scott got inspired to the idea of clean cook stoves during a tour in Zaire in 1990. He witnessed how forests were being torn down to provide wood for charcoal and realized he can make a huge difference if he just cut down on the amount of biomass the locals consumed while cooking.
A good climate story
After a decade coming into Kenya and setting up, the company has learned and morphed into a sustainable and efficient cook stoves manufacturer churning out a unit every 15 seconds. The company has managed to tap into the credit offset market to subsidize the units which has enabled them to draw those climate change dollars to make meaningful impact on the ground.
Like most journalists I struggle to break down climate stories from the $23 billion (Kes3.36 trillion) pledged by big countries, and multilateral institutions to any visible changes on our everyday life. You go into these big events chasing the big dollar deals announcements and details of the Nairobi Declaration, and innumerable side events, it is difficult to digest it all on the beat.
Recent commentary claims we have not done such a splendid job distilling the jargon and making sense of the carbon trading deals being bandied around. Like most journalists I am no specialist, we are the jacks of all trades but masters of none. To me carbon trading goes little beyond text book definitions and centered mostly on the absurd imagery of the West paying Africa to live in forests so they could continue polluting, something akin to Catholics selling ‘indulgence’ in the medieval periods.
So on the trip to Burn Manufacturing I felt, I needed a bit of schooling from my ill-informed biases. So it was very interesting when Brian’s face brightened up and he grinned widely when talking about this employer. I thought, this may as well be an interesting story.
He on his part imagined we were some kind of special guests that had to be picked up and driven all the way to Ruiru. When in actual sense we were this budding digital media house, on the margins of a shoes string budget honoured to have been picked out for a tour of the company.
Fuel guzzlers traffic of the Africa climate summit
Brian, was a good sport keeping us on light conversation even as he was chasing us through the city, looking for the shortest route to get to Ruiru.
He apologized for keeping us a little bit, the traffic had been impossible since the conference began. You meet those big polluting fuel guzzlers and the police wave them on as you wait regardless of how much you are in a hurry. He wondered when the conference would end, and said probably the guests were staying for a visit to the parks. Kenya packages its conference tourism right next to the Nairobi National park that is just outside the city.
I had been late myself and in fact, his little snarl up had allowed last minute cluttering of a pack of all the recording materials we could lay our hands on. Since moving over to the digital media, we realize how important visuals are in storytelling and hoped we could capture a few industrial floor action.
So I assured him it was all in good time Brian. But he was anxious. Toiling us through the hesitant City Traffic through to Thika Road, he then asks what speed are we comfortable with. He wants to get us there as fast, but how fast was up to us. As age catches up with us we have lost the edge of cruising and ask him to waltz us slowly there. I was curious why he felt ‘those guys’ were such good employers. And he said they provide food.
“Imagine there are so many people at the factory you look at the numbers on the overalls, over a thousand, and they provide food for all of them,” he said.
Legit products
He says he also respects the people at Burn, because they produce products ‘legit’. He says he has personally accompanied the Burn team on field visits, where they do product testing and the response from customers has been phenomenal.
“Their products are something even you will want to use, they give the appliances to customers who use and review and they keep improving them. The other day they were testing this new product, small as this steering, where you can grill you’re a kaquarter meat. Very impressive. When we are at the field people say Zile jiko ya Wilbroda,” Brian says.
Wilbroda, is Jacquey Nyaminde, a lead act in the Kenya Papa Shirandula comic fame clearly demonstrating influencer marketing works wonderful product knowledge. After I had done a cursory research about Burn, I realized I had actually seen the brand of what they produce before, Jikookoa; but the Wilbroda imagery brought it home.
In fact, a Research by the American Economic Review found that 98 percent of Kenyans know about Jikokoa. The majority had seen it on television, some had seen it with a friend, neighbor, or family member, or on radio a billboard, newspaper, or bus advertisement.
What’s more, polled respondents knew the technical details about the benefits of Jikokoa, 87 percent stating it could save them money, half of them knew about how it reduced smoke and 22 percent knew about its time saving features.
“More than 98 percent of respondents had heard of the stove at baseline, primarily via television (64 percent), via a friend, neighbor, or family member (39 percent), on the radio (21 percent), or in a billboard, newspaper, or bus advertisement (11percent),” American Economic Review journal reads.
When Burn was setting up, they initially thought that in a market where 67 percent of the 12 million households still rely on biomass (wood and charcoal) as their primary cooking fuel even with available efficient cost saving alternatives. (according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2019) they would be selling like hotcake. The company imagined dispatching millions of stoves a month, but in reality has managed a few thousands each month, still an enviable achievement.
Today, Burn which began producing stoves in Nairobi in 2014 and has sold nearly 4 million energy efficient cook stoves. As of 2019 they were selling more cookstoves annually in East Africa than any other company: internal retail audit data indicate their sales comprise 80–90 percent of the improved cookstove market.
Finding a location
As Brian pulled up into a rather dusty Ruiru, he sought one more short cut. Calling his employer to assure her well be there in ten minutes. I realized his anxiety came rather from not wanting to disappoint your boss, to an almost fear of motherly sanction. I should turn this story into a piece on how to make your employees enamored with you this much.
The dirt road is jagged and bumpy like a rushed decision to set up or flee, and the location is tucked in a larger Godown shared space, just behind a school named after Guru, the steel tycoon.
But we are a tad too clever and get lost, Burn, operates two factories in Ruiru area and we are supposed to visit the latest plant. And Brian is crestfallen, nay, distraught he has let his employer down that we have to console his spirits and calm his nerves as he pats the gear into place to compensate for his agitated nervousness.
As we leave we notice people sitting all over vacantly waiting. And so I ask with my curious eyes and Brian takes the cue for a story to ease the anxiety of getting lost. These are casuals for Angels Kenya Ruiru factory, the makers of synthetic hair extensions.
They work in shifts, where Sana Industries Company Limited, the makers of ANGELS HAIR products are said to just open the gate every so often and those who show up on that day get called in, hawana ma-permanent.
And I figure no wonder we cannot shift to clean cook stoves, because at the $103 minimum wage a month, we can scarcely afford the $40 price tag, half of our income on a cleaner more effect stove. According to the American study we were only willing to pay $12. So what gives.
Measurable emissions
About a half of Kenyans, around 42 percent according to Kenya’s Ministry of Energy (2019) use a charcoal jiko at home, with the primary alternatives being woodstoves (in rural areas) and liquefied petroleum gas and kerosene stoves (in urban areas). But because traditional stoves consume a high level of fuel, Kenyans can spend as much as $500 a year on charcoal, bankrupting poor households.
The efficient stoves, sold under the name Jikokoa, are essentially identical to traditional stoves, but improved insulation reduces the charcoal needed to obtain the same cooking temperature.
Hence Burn realized by shifting communities to their jiko, they would essentially remove sizable amounts of carbon which could be measured and sold to polluters in a carbon market.
“We estimate that adoption causes an immediate and persistent 39 percent reduction in charcoal consumption, measured both by a recurring SMS survey of charcoal expenditures and the weight of charcoal ash generated by the household. This reduction yields private financial fuel savings of $237 over the two-year lifetime of the stove,” American Economic Review journal reads.
They are taking things even further with the new e-cooking products, the ECOA Electric Induction Cooker and the ECOA Electric Pressure Cooker that includes an IOT (Internet-of-Things) sensors, which will enable the company to effectively manage the customer journey from end-to-end, including monitoring for real-time energy consumption.
A research by the American Economic Review found that 98 percent of Kenyans know about Jikokoa. The majority had seen it on television, some had seen it with a friend, neighbor, or family member, or on radio a billboard, newspaper, or bus advertisement.
Carbon Credit
With this measurable tons of carbon eliminated, the company can sell credits issued through Gold Standard, which means emission reductions are verified by independent, third-party auditors and by SustainCert.
And it is through this model that the company is able to subsidize the cookstoves that have propelled its widespread adoption.
“One of the most important thing we have learned is people are really ready for clean cooking technology. Sometimes there is a perception in the space that you need to do a lot of education, a lot of behavior change, these things are important and you need to do them. But what we have learned is the single most important barrier to adoption of clean cooking is just affordable access,” Chris McKinney the chief operating officer said.
With the carbon financing the company has for example been able to subsidize the Kunioka to Kes500 ($3.5) which has seen them move units especially in rural areas.
What’s more, the company has also leveraged on asset finance loans to unlock use. In fact the new electric cookstove with IoT technology allows for pay as you go model as they can remotely track customer payments and disable the device on defaults.
The American study indicated users are more likely to buy the clean cooking technology under a credit plan. In fact, drawing attention to energy savings does not increase demand. However, a loan more than doubles willingness to pay: credit constraints prevent adoption of privately optimal technologies.
In Kenya, loans are common in this context. Eighty-six percent of respondents polled by the American indicated they had borrowed at least once the previous year. Yet, most faced significant credit constraints.
More than one-third of respondents had sought out a loan in the past year and been refused, and more than half of respondents said they would borrow more if the cost of borrowing was lower. People who had not taken a loan in the past year did not do so largely because they were worried about their ability to pay back the loan.
The reality is that while customers are aware of the product, its benefits both financially and ecologically, they needed a carbon offset subsidy and credit access to make the all-important switch. And the company had come to understand this.
Not superficial interest
While on the way Brian’s last call with his employer ended in a chuckle. He said she had wondered how he had got lost. Then added, ‘You know what I like about her, she is not superficial, she is interested in us, you do not have to pretend around her,” he said.
He had set the mood of what to anticipate and at the new location, where the company seemed to have confidently found space with better logistics where they placed their new prized plant that chucks out an entire unit in just 15 seconds faster than the old site.
When Burn sought to set up in Africa a decade ago, it was attracted to the strategic location of Nairobi and the famed enthusiasm for start-ups marketed as the ease of doing business and other the glowering clean energy record the country boasts of. But on the ground, things can be very different.
Mr McKinney who joined Burn as an intern a decade ago when the company was just setting up its first factory says they put up a plant in industrial area and had to move out in the first year after facing several challenges including unreliable power, and crumbling utilities, in city’s country’s oldest industrial belt.
The former intern who has now risen to the Chief Commercial Officer says they moved out of Industrial area congestion to Ruiru in 2014 and have had a much smoother operation.
“Our first factory was in industrial area and it was a shared factory with some other companies and it was very chaotic, you got public utilities, sewerage, water, electricity, you could guarantee that one of them was not working at any given time,” he said.
Since then, they had learned valuable lessons and have not only understood how to navigate the business environment better, but have also learned what the consumer wants and are increasingly introducing new appliances that can deliver clean cooking in a mass scale.
The tour begins on the supply lines where we get to appreciate that need for seamless logistics, covering inventory and supply. They hold three months of stock to withstand a logistical hiccup in the high seas from China or even Maandamano.
Once the sheets of steel and locally sourced packaging has been procured, it is fed into a laser cutting machine that solders into the sheets to produce both large and small cut-outs of the various components of the Jiko to such a scale that barely anything is left of the steel sheet. Only a thin strip of steel goes to waste and even this is recycled.
Burn has managed to lay equipment over 50,000ft in two solar-powered plant with ambition to increase production capacity in Kenya from 250,000 to one million per month.
Solar-powered plant
In total the company has managed to lay equipment over 50,000ft in two solar-powered facility with ambition to increase production capacity in Kenya from 250,000 to one million per month over the short run.
The brand had also expanded to other markets including Tanzania, Somalia, DRC, Mozambique, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Ghana, with an eye set for Uganda and Zambia. It boasts of the largest cookstove distribution network in Africa with over 1,500 distribution partners through diversified channels including wholesale, MFI, Corporate, and B2C.
Here too the company had learned and are selling their brand as ECOCOA since they may not relate with the Swahili JIKOKOA but would resonate on eco-friendly appliance.
The jikos are assembled by hand, at breakneck speed and as we wiggle through the factory floor full of machines moving human limbs in repetitive motions I see the numbers. On the overalls, they are many as Brian had suggested, and happy too. They let us take their photos like they would want to be on a billboard representing this company.
It was as if they felt they were on the edge of a change flowing through their hands into their communities which could actually make a difference.
Better than carbon tax
It underscored the Americans observations that for policymakers concerned solely with carbon emissions abatement, the Jikokoa abates CO2 at $6 per ton, which is significantly below most technologies available today.
This would be better than asking commuters to pay more fares for using matatus charged more on fuel for carbon tax or reducing livestock numbers for poor pastoralists because cow burps are a major source of methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.
If Kenya wants to increase energy efficiency adoption in these contexts its should focus on increasing affordability through subsidies instead of wild things like carbon tax.
“Our results have important and immediate policy recommendations. Willingness to pay is already low relative to the private benefits, so a carbon tax is unlikely to increase adoption among these households. In fact, it may be regressive by increasing energy costs among the credit constrained, who tend to be poor,” American Economic Review journal reads.
My carbon footprint
Maybe just maybe if the government is able to better communicate its carbon strategy from being enforcement driven to actually seeing the impact of eliminating carbon by cleaner cooking, they may get more good will and champions on board.
Burn is also appealing to government to move electric cooking to the social energy tariff which will make its adoption more popular. This could aid Kenya Power bid to increase use of electric cooking from the current 90,000 users to over 500,000 users in three years.
“In Uganda electric cooking is ten cents cheaper but not working the way we would have wanted it. What we are pushing is since we have the IoT that measures the power consumed by each individual in clean cooking, we can show the utility company how much should go at a lower tariff,” McKinney said.
Trading carbon taxes for incentivizing use of carbon credits may go along way in encouraging the shift to cleaner cooking as well as channeling cheaper credit to the sector.
I was even tempted to offset my carbon footprint after I calculated at the Burn website that my 36 kilometer daily commute was injecting 0.36 metric tonnes C02 equivalent into the atmosphere annually. But I am a Kenyan.
