Tom Osborn

  • GreenChar

  • 2014 Climate Fellow

Tom Osborn
  • GreenChar

  • 2014 Climate Fellow

bold idea

Sequester carbon and reduce deforestation in Kenya by selling clean charcoal briquettes and smokeless cook stoves as alternative household energy solutions.

organization overview

Greenchar provides clean household energy solutions to Kenyan households. We provide smokeless, high energy, long lasting charcoal briquettes and clean cookstoves. Our briquettes are made from revitalized agricultural wastes thus providing a root to leaf utilization of agricultural crops. Specially optimized for use of the briquettes, our clean cookstoves conserve heat, reduce emissions, and fuel use, enabling us to save time, money, and lives. By transforming the cooking environment, we reduce the devastating effects of deforestation and put a smile on the face of women and children. We hope to be the ultimate provider of clean household energy solutions.

Personal Bio

Tom Osborn is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Greenchar. Greenchar provides ecofriendly charcoal briquettes and clean cookstoves to Kenyan households. Growing up in rural Kenya, Tom experienced firsthand the devastating effects of using charcoal and firewood to cook on traditional cookstoves. Helping his mum prepare food as a young boy, he noticed the unhealthy and uncomfortable cooking environment where they prepared food every day. Bright and talented, Tom joined Kenya’s premier high school Alliance High School where he decided to do something for his mother and the 90 percent of Kenyan households that use charcoal and firewood as their main source of household energy. He put together a team and researched how they could provide alternative forms of household energy. Fresh from high school, Tom founded Greenchar with the aim of transforming the Kenyan cooking environment. Tom is a winner of the Global Minimum Innovate Kenya, The Royal Commonwealth Society Young Persons Essay Award 2012 and is a Golden Climate Environmental Project Olympiad Silver Medalist.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    Nairobi, Kenya

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    For-profit

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