At African Clean Energy, we’ve always believed that purpose and profit can go hand in hand. As one of the highest rated B Corps, globally —we are proud of our commitment to creating a better world while ensuring our commercial viability. For us, the two are inseparable. To make a real, lasting impact, we need to not just do good in principle but also in practice.
Every day, nearly 3 billion people around the world rely on open fires or inefficient stoves to cook their meals. This practice contributes to some of the greatest health, environmental, and social challenges of our time:
Public Health Crisis: Smoke from open fires is one of the leading causes of premature deaths worldwide, claiming around 3.1 million lives annually, with women and children bearing the brunt of this burden.
Environmental Degradation: Dependence on biomass fuels like wood and charcoal drives deforestation and releases significant greenhouse gas emissions, accelerating climate change.
Inequity and Poverty: Gathering fuel is time-consuming, disproportionately affects women and children, and limits opportunities for education, work, and community engagement.
Yet, solving these problems is no small feat—it requires us to balance our mission with the financial realities of running a business.
The Balancing Act: Impact and Commercial Viability
To address these challenges effectively, we’ve adopted a dual approach that prioritizes both impact and commercial sustainability:
- Making Clean Energy Accessible and Affordable to all, leaving no one behind
One of the biggest barriers to clean cooking adoption is affordability. While the ACE One cookstove offers tremendous health and environmental benefits, it requires an upfront investment that many of our customers cannot afford. To overcome this, we’ve introduced interest-free consumer finance. This allows households to pay for the ACE One in manageable installments with just a small deposit, putting clean energy within reach for thousands of families.
This financing model isn’t just about social impact—it’s also smart business. By making our products accessible to more people, we’ve grown our customer base while ensuring our operations remain financially sustainable.
- Leveraging the carbon markets for scalability
Our clean cooking stoves in Uganda generate Gold Standard-certified carbon credits, which we offer to organizations committed to reducing their carbon footprint through the voluntary carbon market outside of their value chain otherwise known as ‘Beyond Value Chain Mitigation’. This additional revenue stream is critical for us to subsidise our stoves and fuel for customers, making the ACE One more affordable, and to scale our impact. By connecting our mission to the growing demand for high-quality carbon credits, we’re able to align both environmental and financial goals.
- Staying True to Our Mission
Balancing profit with purpose requires constant vigilance. As we grow, we remain committed to the core values that were rooted from day one: transparency, equity for all, and accountability. Every decision we make—whether it’s about product design, pricing, or partnerships—is measured against our mission to create sustainable and lasting impact.
We know the road ahead won’t be easy. Climate change, economic and political instability, and inequity pose immense challenges. Scaling our operations means confronting supply chain complexities, regulatory hurdles, media scrutiny and competition. However, we are determined to stay the course because the stakes are too high to fail.
Being a commercial company with a social mission is not without its tensions, but we believe that these tensions drive innovation. They push us to think creatively, build resilient systems, and prioritise what matters most: empowering communities to thrive.
At ACE, we’re proving that doing well and doing good are not mutually exclusive. By addressing the world’s most pressing challenges with innovative solutions, we’re building a future where business can be a force for good. We hope to inspire other organisations to join us in redefining success—not just in terms of profit but in terms of purpose and impact.
Because when we balance impact and commercial viability, everyone wins: our business thrives, our customers benefit, and the planet takes one step closer to sustainability.
Helen Sonneveld, CEO, African Clean Energy
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