A Letter From BioLite Founder and CEO, Jonathan Cedar
November 18, 2020
To The BioLite Community,
Today, I am incredibly proud to share a major milestone we hit in 2020: 1,400,941 people are now living with clean energy access through BioLite products.
That’s over one million individuals who gained the ability to safely cook a meal, light a home, or charge a phone. It’s a big number - so big, that it can be hard to wrap your head around what it actually means. Here’s how this impact takes shape:
- Over 280,000 BioLite products in 23 countries across Africa and Asia.
- 53% of the customers we reach live below the poverty line.
- The collective 403,427 tons of carbon emissions avoided by our products is equivalent to taking 87,700 American cars off the road for a year.
- No longer relying on expensive & polluting fuels, BioLite families save a collective $94M over the lifetime of their product.
- Children access an extra 120 hours of study time annually thanks to reliable light after the sun goes down.
Thank you for making our work possible. Through our model of Parallel Innovation, you help us create this impact in an economically sustainable way. A year ago, I sent an email much like this where the number was 660,000; a year later and we’ve more than doubled our numbers. This is the promise of scale becoming a reality – especially amazing in a year like this one.
Thank you for your resilience, keeping BioLite gear by your side even when plans shifted a little closer to home. Thank you for your trust, sharing BioLite with friends and family as a way to bring joy to time outside. Thank you for believing in our mission that, together, we can empower people and protect the planet through reliable access to clean energy.
As the holidays draw near, I hope you are able to connect to the people that matter most to you, even if it looks a little different than normal. I wish you a season of warmth, fresh air, good health, and happiness.
In a year full of unprecedented challenges and uncertainty, one thing holds true here at BioLite: a brighter future is possible for all of us.
Thank you. A million times over - thank you.
Jonathan Cedar, CEO
This Holiday Season, follow us over on Instagram for a closer look at the people and products that got us to 1.4 million. We'll be sharing stories weekly.