Envirofit Cookstoves

Science to solutions: CSU’s global impact through clean cooking and carbon markets

November 2025  | Back to Powerhouse Post

Envirofit, a leader in clean cook stove technology and distribution, started as a CSU student-led social enterprise at the Powerhouse. Today, it has grown into a milestone achievement in international climate cooperation.

This post is part one of a mini-blog series highlighting how the CSU Powerhouse Energy Campus and Energy Institute bring science to solutions to scale, a motto that defines our global impact. While this work has global impact, this series will specifically focus on the impact on Africa.

In the early days, CSU researchers at the Powerhouse, tested a variety of cookstove models and materials, measuring fuel consumed and emissions produced. Prototyping started with ceramics, but eventually, a custom steel alloy needed to be developed to meet the required specifications for wide-scale adoption. Along the way, the Powerhouse physically adapted to meet the research needs with lab space being allocated and a water jet cutter procured to allow for easier iteration development.

That early work helped pave the way for something historical. In 2025, Ghana and Switzerland completed Africa’s first Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome (ITMO) under the Paris Agreement, an achievement powered by the improved cookstove (ICS) program co-developed and implemented by Envirofit. These stoves, produced in Ghana and subsidized by carbon finance, are reaching households across rural and urban communities. By reducing household smoke and toxic emissions by up to 80% and cutting cooking fuel costs by as much as 60%, the program is improving the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian citizens while delivering verified carbon savings. For Switzerland, this marks measurable progress toward its climate commitments; for Ghana, it represents investment, capacity building, and sustainable development; and for CSU, it’s proof that science-driven solutions can ripple outward to reshape global systems.

Four people stand around a large Envirofit Stove
Three people look at a wall of cookstove prototypes.

The Powerhouse Energy Campus is more than a research hub, it’s where ideas like these take root, scale, and become part of international breakthroughs. This story of Envirofit is just one example of CSU’s partnerships and impact in Africa, from energy access to clean transportation.