How it Started

The Ganesha Cookstove Project was created in 2015 to develop and provide the most affordable, portable, efficient and powerful cookstoves in the industry. This social enterprise was originally focused on Nepal, but will soon expand to other countries in South Asia. 

Brice Hoskin, the founder, designer and chief fundraiser of the Ganesha Cookstove Project, has traveled extensively in Asia and spent many nights in smoky huts by a wood-burning fire. An avid backpacker, in 2015 he began working to create a better backpacking stove - one that would burn wood, pine cones and anything else available. It was critical that it be lightweight, fold flat, and burn much better than a campfire. 

Researching the technologies behind existing cookstoves (particularly top-lit updraft stoves), he learned about the demand for better, cheaper cookstoves in the developing world.

With the help of the Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley, Hoskin was able to raise money to fund a first round of cookstove development, field testing and laboratory testing. The organization has since transitioned to a triple bottom line social enterprise that uses impact investment to grow and scale.

The need for an affordable cookstove that is a joy to use has never been higher. Cooks around the world are working to feed their families with very limited resources. As Ganesha stoves reach the far corners of the world, they can provide many potential benefits, especially for women, girls and at-risk populations.

Hoskin is a serial entrepreneur, starting successful companies in the publishing, winter sports and beverage industries. He lives in Crested Butte, Colorado.