Fuel, Fire, and Integrity: How EcoSafi Is Reimagining Clean Cooking and Carbon Finance

Featuring Tom Price, CEO of EcoSafi

Episode 3 of Ground Truth by CarbonHQ. Listen now on Spotify & Apple Podcast.

Tom Price has done a bit of everything — investigative journalism, post-Katrina relief, utility-scale solar, even running sustainability at Burning Man. But today, his focus is squarely on one of the world’s most overlooked climate challenges: cooking.

Every day, over 2.5 billion people still cook with firewood or charcoal — a health, economic, and environmental burden that’s bigger than aviation in terms of emissions. EcoSafi is tackling that head-on with a new kind of model: don’t sell stoves, sell cooking as a service.

Their approach is simple: households get a high-performing, ultra-clean biomass stove for free. They pay only for the fuel — affordable pellets made from sugarcane waste. It’s 98% cleaner than charcoal, half the cost, and requires zero trees. And because usage is tracked digitally, EcoSafi can accurately measure the carbon savings.

That accuracy has paid off. EcoSafi is the only cookstove project to earn an A-rating from a major carbon credit ratings agency, and their credits are selling at over $35 — more than ten times the market average. “We’re not just claiming impact,” Tom says. “We’re proving it, every single day.”

The business model is built to scale. Carbon revenue covers the stove, while fuel sales drive profitability. As Tom puts it, “Carbon is an accelerant, not the product. Our customers are the people cooking dinner, not the buyers of offsets.”

With millions of households across East Africa in their sights, EcoSafi is aiming for something bold: a future where clean cooking is universal — and where carbon credits come with credibility baked in.

To learn more or get involved, visit ecosafi.com