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BioLite
- Outdoors startup BioLite makes innovative camping gear like smokeless fire pits and stove tops that use the energy generated to charge devices.
- The company used the same technology to develop safe, smokeless stoves for use by remote communities around the world living in energy poverty - meaning without easy access to electricity.
- Its cult-favorite FirePit (which one Insider Picks reporter tried and loved) was one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history.
Before Alex Drummond and Jonathan Cedar co-launched one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in history, they were two NYC Smart Design coworkers whose water cooler talk often centered around sustainable design - a shared passion.
For Drummond, the obsession came from the frustrating observation that nearly all efficient camping stoves required fossil fuels. He wondered, instead, if he could create a wood-burning stove with the capability to use its own thermal energy to improve combustion - taking notes from luxury camping stoves that used local sources of wood for fuel. Cedar, an avid camper and engineer by trade, was quick to jump on the project that would eventually become BioLite.
Fast forward many nights, weekends, and prototypes later, and the two accomplished something revolutionary in 2006: a portable biomass stove that leveraged thermoelectrics to create a smokeless fire and charge personal devices. It was christened the BioLite CampStove ($129.95), and prepped to be ushered out to the legions of posh campers who loved the idea of not needing to bring batteries into the wilderness.
But two years later, Drummond and Cedar found themselves sitting at a combustion conference with a working prototype, listening to statistics about the severity of the world's energy poverty. They learned that half the planet lives without access to either electricity or clean cooking facilities. Three billion of the world's total 7.7 billion population cook over smoky open fires each day - causing four million premature deaths annually.
There's a reason this wasn't immediately apparent to BioLite's creators. Energy poverty is hard to conceptualize for us. Us, meaning the most fortunate billions that take copious energy access for granted. We work in offices made dull by the constant thrum of fluorescent lights and check texts while our meals reheat in microwaves. We buy gadgets that turn our lights on a few minutes before we walk into an apartment, and we ask restaurants to quickly charge our cell phones while we eat. Energy is so pervasive in propping up our life that it has become invisible.
BioLite
The company's now-second iteration of the thermoelectric stove that put it on the map.
But, at its most basic, energy cooks our food, lights up the darkness, and connects us to one another. It makes our lives safer, more productive, and vastly more enjoyable. Beyond that, it makes the world healthier, combats climate change, and empowers historically vulnerable populations like women. And for those that don't have it, the disadvantage is twofold. A charged cell phone requires a trek to a neighboring village, cooking dinner requires hours spent inhaling toxic smoke from biomass fires, and school children find themselves squinting and rushing to finish homework before darkness falls.
This isn't a fact that's meant to plant feelings of guilt. Ideally, it should inspire innovation and a desire to go about the long work of leveling the playing field.
Which is exactly how Drummond and Cedar took it. After the combustion conference, the two decided to include fighting energy poverty as a pillar of BioLite. All the smart design perks that made the CampStove perfect for eco-conscious campers made it similarly invaluable to remote communities. They implemented a unique business model called Parallel Innovation that allows the startup to use the support of their recreation market customers (those buying outdoors gear) to strengthen their efforts to bring sustainable energy across India and Africa. To be simplistic, it's just what it sounds like: side-by-side innovation in the distinct markets of recreation and need, simultaneously.
BioLite achieves this by incubating core technologies that can serve users in both markets, which makes it possible to re-invest near-term revenue to solve long-term, high-impact problems.
For example, the BioLite team created HomeStove ($149.95), its flagship stove across India and East Africa, using the same heat-to-electricity technology as the CampStove ($129.95). The HomeStove is a large-format biomass cookstove that cuts fuel consumption in half and reduces toxic emissions by ninety percent, all while charging mobile phones or LED lights - and they're quite literally changing communities across the globe. As of 2017 (the most recent impact report), 467,570 people have been impacted and 381,976,739 Wh of electricity generated.
On top of contributing to a healthier society by cutting out exposure to toxic smoke, BioLite's innovations also have an environmental impact. Open fires are responsible for a staggering 25% of global black carbon emissions - more than all the world's cars and trucks combined. Its emission-reducing HomeStove was issued carbon credits for its performance in 2015, and the company used the first batch of credits to erase its entire carbon history and commit to carbon neutrality for the future of the company. As of 2017, they had offset 216,425 tonnes of CO2.
While BioLite's mission is a worthy one, it wouldn't gain much traction if its products weren't any good - or if consumers weren't excited to buy the latest unique, convenient, and eco-friendly innovations. Since it doesn't operate as a charity, or with a donation model, its philanthropic power depends on its value to its shoppers. In a nutshell, it's a textbook example of innovation, market value, and effective altruism combined and co-dependent.
Rest assured, BioLite's products are some of the very best in the outdoors community - and its reputation stretches far. When the company released the BioLite FirePit - a smokeless, wood-burning campfire that can be controlled remotely via app - it raised a whopping $2.534 million with over 10,000 backers. Over the last three years, its team has tripled and its sales have doubled each year. Since its first CampStove, BioLite has raised $6.5 million in funding and expanded its energy ecosystem from one stove to over 20 products across cooking, charging, and lighting. Today, the company counts seven registered patents, primarily in heating.
Amazon
BioLite's standout products
The BioLite Firepit, $199.95, is a wood-burning campfire without the smoke. Essentially, it creates hyper-efficient flames using a patented airflow technology. It has 360-degree views thanks to its X-Ray mesh body, so you can enjoy the light as much as the warmth. You can fit up to four standard logs in it, and the top rack can be transformed into a hibachi-style grill - complete with an included grill grate. You can even control the size of your flames manually or remotely using the free Bluetooth app. It'll burn for 24 hours on low, 10 hours on medium, and five hours on high. It was also one of the most successful Kickstarters of all time. Find a full review here.
The SunLight Portable Solar Light, $24.95, is true to its name: a portable solar light. The SunLight's integrated solar panel creates self-reliant recharging and maximizes efficiency through an integrated sundial and kickstand for optimal setup. In other words, you don't need to bring AAAs, you can get your power from the sun. You can fully charge the 100-lumen dim-able lantern in seven hours or micro-USB charge it in two - with it, you'll get about 50 hours of run time. On the trail, it packs easily (it's about the size of an ice cream sandwich), and it even has a "Party Mode" with colored lights.
The CampStove 2 Bundle, $199.95 (originally $239.95), is a camper's secondary Swiss Army Knife. It's a fully integrated kit that grills, boils, cooks, and charges gear. The award-winning CampStove2 generates electricity (3W power) to charge devices and smokeless wood flames that can boil a pot of water in 4.5 minutes. It also comes with the lightweight portable grill and KettlePot attachments.
All in all, BioLite makes some of the best outdoors gear that money can buy, and it represents a unique opportunity for two distinct markets - outdoor enthusiasts seeking cleaner power, and developing-world families living in energy poverty - to have a positive, cohesive relationship with one another. For you, it may mean not needing to lug a gas canister into the campground. Simultaneously, it could help someone halfway across the world free up hours of time every day, something that - in a developing landscape - can be legitimately life-changing.
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