Chebet Lesan

Lesan is a Mandela Washington Fellow. After seeing the loss of trees around Mount Kilimanjaro, she was inspired to make charcoal briquettes from biomass.^[3] The waste material used for the briquettes comes from sawdust or discarded flour.^[2] This waste is carbonised and the resulting material, called char, is pressed into briquettes with three different densities and heat output. Lesan's company, BrightGreen, sells the briquettes by weight (irrespective of their density), targeting them at normal consumers. Many consumers are living on $4 a day so the approximate charge of $0.55 per kilo is affordable.^[4] In 2017 the company had supplied 300 households in total with 100 tons of briquettes.^[3] Demand is high as Kenya has used up 98% of its indigenous forest, so fuel for cooking can cost $25 for a 35 kg bag.^[2]

Lesan's invention was estimated to have saved 800 tons of trees in Kenya by the end of 2017.^[3] Moreover, the briquettes burn with no smoke, meaning that they are less harmful than the smoke-filled hut she remembered her grandmother cooked in.^[4]

She chooses to distribute her fuel via women entrepreneurs who sell on the product. In 2019 the company was moving into profit; funds from competing in business contests like the Cartier Women's Initiative were targeted at extending the company's distribution area further.^[4]

• Queen's Young Leader Award in 2017^[5]
• Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders^[2]
• 2017 Scale-Up Fellow at MIT^[2]
• Cartier Women's Initiative 2019 finalist^[4]
• Africa's Business Heroes Awards 2022, 1st Prize Winner^[6]