ABOUT US
A HUMANITARIAN JOURNEY
The Ganesha Cookstove Project was founded in 2015 to design and distribute humanitarian wood-burning stoves in the Himalayas. We've distributed over 1,000 of our humanitarian stoves in Nepal and India. These stoves cut firewood use in half, reduce emissions by 50%, and are a joy to cook on.
In 2020 we decided to use our insights from villagers to make a stove oriented towards outdoor adventurers who want a high-performance twig stove that is as light and strong as possible. The Ganesha Ultralight Stove was introduced in a highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024, and is now available in limited quantities.
100% of profits from sales of the Ganesha Ultralight go towards providing humanitarian stoves to villagers in need.
AN INVENTOR & ENTREPRENEUR
Brice Hoskin is the inventor of the Ganesha ultralight and humanitarian stoves, with patents for both designs. An avid backpacker, hiker and skier, he previously founded Mountain By Sledworks (handmade wooden snow sleds), and co-founded Montanya Distillers (Colorado mountain rum made from Louisiana sugar cane). He works with metal, wood and the magic process that creates rum. He lives and works in Crested Butte, Colorado.
Tibetan Monks in Dharamsala Received 400+ Ganesha Humanitarian Stoves
In partnership with the LHA Charitable Trust, in early October 2024 we delivered over 400 Ganesha humanitarian stoves to Tibetan monks in the mountains above Dharamsala, India. A kind donor has funded this project, as did many of our Kickstarter supporters. The recipients are monks who have completed their time at the monastery, and are now living in remote meditation sites throughout the steep countryside surrounding Dharamsala.
LATEST NEWS
VIDEO: GANESHA HUMANITARIAN STOVES IN NEPAL
DESIGN: THE GANESHA HUMANITARIAN STOVE
LEARNING: A HUMANITARIAN STOVE THAT WOMEN WANT
Grandmothers - our best critics.
Through extensive field trials and interviews, we have verified what low-income women want in a cookstove. It's what most people want from their primary cooking device: great performance, ease of use, and inexpensive operation. They want it to burn anything, burn hot and then cool down to a simmer. And they want it to use wood (or dung, or crop waste) that is freely available. And most critically, the stove must be worth the price they pay for it.
We've also learned that humanitarian aid agencies want a stove that packs flat for storage and pre-positioning. The packaged size of the Ganesha stove is just 25% that of other improved stoves, and it weighs just 8 pounds (3.6 kg). That makes it easy to get Ganesha stoves to disaster areas in times of need.
We aren't done learning. That's why we did pilot projects across Nepal, tracking usability and performance in 8 different communities.
USER SPOTLIGHT: THE STORY OF BHAGIRATHI
Mrs. Bhagirathi Timilsina, 45 years old, has to do all sorts of household chores — cooking, cleaning, rearing cows and goats, and farming too. She recently was elected as a member of the Bethanchowk rural municipality, adding to her responsibilities.
She was introduced to the Ganesha stove during a participant selection event for a pilot project. She was interested in using the stove but was skeptical at first. “Stove looks good, but it looks small and I doubt if it can cook for my 4 members of the family.” She explained that she is used to cooking on an open fire.
Three weeks after handing over the stove, the survey team returned to interview her to collect feedback. She exclaimed, “I had been using LPG the most to save time, but now I use the Ganesha stove more than LPG!”
“The stove performed better than I expected,” she smiled. “I cooked dal, vegetables and boiled water for my 4 family members. The milk boiled on this stove is tastier too.” She proudly announced, “I am also making best use of the corn cobs now.”
“This morning I made selroti” (selroti is a doughnut shaped fried roti). “Would you like to test them?” She smiled, quickly went in and brought some selroti and milk and offered to surveyors. Coincidentally, it happened to be a special day. There was a function in the house – the engagement of Bhagirathi’s daughter. She was seen proudly showing and explaining to the visitors the Ganesha stove when the surveyors left the house.