Burn Design Lab

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came out to our picnic and open house on Saturday!

It was wonderful to connect with so many supporters, community members and partners. We were truly energized by all the new visitors who dropped in to check us out!

Thank you for taking the time to meet our staff, see our work and operations firsthand, and hear more about the impact we are making in the communities we serve.

If you weren’t able to join us, or want to learn more, please reach out to [email protected]. You can join our community of supporters by donating here: https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E334987&id=11

Tomorrow is the day!

We're looking forward to welcoming friends, supporters, and community members to our Appreciation Picnic & Open House. Stop by, say hello, enjoy some food, and get an inside look at what we've been working on at BDL.

There's still time to join us. We hope to see you there!

BDL engineer Patrick Flores recently spent three weeks in Sierra Leone 🇸🇱 working with our partner, Westwind Energy, to launch pilot production of Wonder Stoves’ household charcoal stove and a new institutional model.

On the ground, he worked closely with factory teams to troubleshoot equipment, refine components, and support early production- resulting in 18 household stoves and improved efficiency across the line.

As Patrick shared, “The greatest memory I had was testing one of the recently assembled charcoal stoves by cooking Lafidi, a sardine and pepper stew, with two of the women factory workers. Sharing smiles and laughs while cooking on a smoke-free, fast-boiling stove truly made this trip one to remember.”

Today is GiveBIG Day!

Across Washington, people are coming together to support nonprofits making a difference. Today, you can be part of that!

Your support helps expand access to cleaner, safer cooking for families around the world.

Give now:
https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E334987&id=11

So fun to be on air with sharing more about our work to bring cleaner, safer cooking to families around the world.

Every day, millions of people cook over smoky, inefficient fires, exposing themselves to dangerous smoke and harming the environment. Cleaner-burning cookstoves are changing that!

To date, our designs have helped reach over 6 million households. Help us reach 10 million more by 2035!

Tomorrow is GiveBIG Day— join us!

Help expand access to cleaner, safer cooking:
https://wl.donorperfect.net/weblink/WebLink.aspx?name=E334987&id=11

It’s that time of year again, when communities across Washington come together to celebrate GiveBIG, supporting nonprofits making a difference locally and around the world.

To mark the occasion, Burn Design Lab will be on air with Voice of Vashon (101.9 FM) this Monday at 8:30 AM as part of the live GiveBIG broadcast.

Tune in to hear more about our work, and the stories behind it, from women cooking daily school meals to the changes making kitchens safer and easier to work in.

Join the movement this GiveBIG and donate to support Burn Design Lab: https://burndesignlab.org/

Did you know that Burn Design Lab’s cookstove projects have helped reduce an estimated 15+ million tons of firewood used and 26+ million tons of CO₂ emissions?

This Earth Day, we're proud to support solutions that protect forests, improve air quality, and reduce emissions, while building the local manufacturing systems needed to sustain impact at scale.

Cleaner cooking isn’t just good for households, it’s critical for our planet.

Want to learn more about Burn Design Lab and see our work up close?

Now’s your chance! Join us for our Picnic and Open House on Vashon Island, a relaxed afternoon to reconnect, explore our space, and see what we’ve been working on.

🗓️ Saturday, May 30
🕛 12:00–3:00 PM
📍 BDL, Sheffield Building, Vashon

Enjoy guided lab tours, project updates, great food, and time to connect with the BDL team and community. Bring a friend. Everyone is welcome!

More details to come. We hope to see you there.

In honor of International Women’s Day, Burn Design Lab is proud to support women across the communities where we work.

In many parts of the world, women are responsible for cooking and fuel collection. Access to clean, efficient cookstoves can mean healthier homes, lower fuel costs, and more time for families, work, and education.

We’re grateful to partner with women innovators, entrepreneurs, and community leaders helping make clean cooking a reality for families around the world.

Most households in Burundi rely on traditional biomass cooking, contributing to deforestation and harmful indoor air pollution that disproportionately affects women and children.

Burn Design Lab is partnering with KTF Concept, a women-led cookstove manufacturer in Bujumbura, to refine a biomass pellet stove designed for local cooking needs. Using agricultural waste as fuel, the project replaces charcoal with a cleaner, more affordable alternative.

BDL’s Executive Director, Jeremy Su, and Laboratory Manager, Sofia Montalbano, traveled to Burundi to test stoves in the field, work directly with the manufacturing team, and gather early user feedback—helping identify practical design and manufacturing improvements that will strengthen performance, adoption, durability, affordability, and manufacturing scale.

This initial phase of the collaboration highlights how locally led innovation and hands-on technical partnership can expand clean cooking access at scale. This initiative is expected to deliver cleaner cooking for thousands of families, reduce emissions, lower fuel costs, and strengthen local manufacturing and job creation.