Clean Cookstoves - C-Quest Capital

Already, we have deployed over 7.8 million clean cookstoves across Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Central America. The impact on the planet and the lives of millions of people in need – the rural poor – is immediate and significant.

How big is the problem we’re solving?

It’s huge. Nearly 2.4 billion people cook their meals using inefficient three-stone fires, typically three-stone fires that burn solid biomass fuels, like wood & charcoal. They’re inefficient, unhealthy, dangerous, and a major contributor to carbon emissions worldwide.

How we’re solving it

We developed an efficient, clean cookstove that can be readily deployed to the people who need it – with lasting benefits for their families, communities, and the planet. And we’re deploying them at scale – currently over 6,000 stoves per day.

In the growing movement to promote the adoption of clean cooking, we are leading the world.

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“
With my new clean cookstove, I no longer have to walk for hours to get large bundles of wood. My back doesn’t hurt anymore and I don’t get sick from the smoke.

The people get:

Better health thanks to reduced exposure to toxic off-gassing and particulate matter in biomass smoke (reduced PM 2.5 concentration)

Less drudgery – up to 2 hours per day less time spent collecting heavy wood for fuel (often collected many kilometers away from their villages)

Up to 32% less time spent cooking

More time to spend on other essential tasks

Reduced injuries from lifting and carrying wood, burns, and animal attacks when collecting firewood

Better food – thanks to the efficient cooking process

120 new jobs for every 100,000 clean cooking households – over 2000 jobs already

Supports gender equality by reducing household labor for women and girls

Contributes to employment opportunities in rural economies

The planet gets:

Climate change mitigation through the avoidance of COC₂, CH₄, and N20 and black and brown carbon emissions

Reduced unsustainable harvesting of woody biomass by up to 3 tonnes per stove per year.

Protection of watersheds and biodiversity increasing climate change resilience

Stories of Impact

Area 25 Health Centre

As part of C-Quest Capital Social programs, we are partnering with local health centres to amplify the impact on vulnerable women. At the Area 25 Health Centre in Lilongwe, Malawi, CQC provides expectant mothers with training prior to giving birth as well as a clean cookstove and bamboo seedlings. Women using a clean cookstove regain their health and time, enhancing productivity and strengthening their role within communities. The C-Quest Capital social program empowers women to become agents of transformative change.

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Stories of Impact

Clean Cooking in Cambodia

Many households in Cambodia face a significant challenge when it comes to accessing clean cooking solutions. Currently, these households heavily rely on unsustainable fuels like wood and charcoal, which not only contribute to global carbon emissions but also have negative health effects, particularly for women and girls. To address this issue, C-Quest Capital is deploying thermally efficient cookstoves in Cambodia and other parts of South-East Asia. These cookstoves offer a sustainable and cleaner alternative, bringing lasting benefits to families and communities in the region. By promoting the adoption of these innovative cookstoves, C-Quest Capital aims to improve the quality of life for individuals while also addressing environmental concerns.

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Stories of Impact

Clean Cooking in Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe thousands of women cook their meals using inefficient three-stone fires, typically three-stone fires that burn solid biomass fuels, like wood & charcoal. They’re inefficient, unhealthy, dangerous, and a major contributor to carbon emissions worldwide. C-Quest Capital is providing these women with thermally efficient, clean cookstoves that are helping them to focus on leading healthier and happier lives.

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Stories of Impact

Clean Cooking in Thailand

Many households in Thailand face a significant challenge when it comes to accessing clean cooking solutions. Currently, these households heavily rely on unsustainable fuels like wood and charcoal, which not only contribute to global carbon emissions but also have negative health effects, particularly for women and girls. To address this issue, C-Quest Capital is deploying thermally efficient cookstoves in Thailand and other parts of South-East Asia. These cookstoves offer a sustainable and cleaner alternative, bringing lasting benefits to families and communities in the region. By promoting the adoption of these innovative cookstoves, C-Quest Capital aims to improve the quality of life for individuals while also addressing environmental concerns.

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Significant impact fully verified.

Our projects have a significant sustainable development impact across climate, social and economic empowerment, meeting a minimum of 7 and up to 10 UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Our projects are verified and validated through the industry-leading verification standards of Verra, and our impact will be certified through SD VISta.

Our Stoves

All our stoves are thermally efficient and fuelled with finger-sized sticks or crop residues instead of logs, large branches, or charcoal. The design is adapted to suit the local environment and cooking styles of each region we operate.

Unique to our program, we provide a double stove system so families can cook food simultaneously, mitigating the need to use an open fire in parallel. This ensures that the health benefits and time savings of eliminating open fire can be fully realized.

Sub Saharan Africa

In the Sub-Saharan African region, the double stove set up is a TLC Rocket stove which has a thermal efficiency of up to 34.5%.

The TLC Rocket stoves are made from sun-dried mud bricks by the women themselves from locally available sustainable materials, along with three metal parts provided – a stick shelf, stove top, and pot skirt.

The innovative design can easily be repaired and remade utilizing the metal parts provided.

South East Asia

In the South-East Asia region, the main stove provided is a market-leading natural draft rocket stove which generates over 50% thermal efficiency.
The second stove is a locally produced metal-covered clay stove that generates over 30% thermal efficiency. The design is tailored for each country’s specific cooking needs to ensure adoption.

Central America

In the Central America region, the stove provided is an ONIL stove, a plancha-style cookstove with a rocket-type combustion chamber and chimney.
It is made from locally sourced materials, highly durable, long-lasting and can be with installed in just 40 minutes for immediate use.
The design of the stoves is optimized for efficient heat transfer to the cooking griddle as well as multiple pots used when cooking.

Our Program

We work closely with the communities we serve to build long-term relationships based on trust, encouraging a strong feedback loop and allowing us to understand the women’s needs and challenges better. This enables constant improvement in our project design and implementation, which, coupled with a heavy investment in technology and human capital, ensures projects are executed to the highest standards.

Our innovative stove champion program employs local community members to support the roll-out and adoption of the stoves. A local connection creates multiple benefits, including ongoing community engagement to ensure uptake and support, verification of usage, and long-term local employment opportunities.

We utilize a direct deployment approach through our field teams and a select group of trusted partners (NGOs and local companies) providing scalable impact that combines our expertise with local networks.

A cloud database and app data management system enables real-time tracking of information from field teams, including GPS location, scanning of stove serial number, and photos.

Latest Projects Blog

Winner: Steward Leadership 25

Carbon project developer, C-Quest Capital (CQC) has been included in the Steward Leadership 25 (SL25) list as one of the best initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region for its transformative cookstoves project in Cambodia.

Open Letter: Experts challenge misguided criticism of clean cookstoves funding

Cookstove experts are calling out recent research on ‘Cookstoves Offset Methodologies’ as misguided and threatening to critical funding for clean alternatives to solid fuel stoves

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Local Poet Sylvia Muzarrabani composed a poem titled "Behind Tsotso Stove, there's a story to tell". The poem encapsulates her feelings of how CQC's TLC Rocket Stove has transformed the lives of the people in her village.

Stories of Impact: CQC Mbaula Trophy Championship

Thousands of people, many travelling hundreds of kilometres and many hours away have made the trek to witness the finals of the CQC Mbaula Trophy Championship, C-Quest Capital’s inaugural soccer and netball tournament held in Lilongwe, Malawi.