BioLite: cook, charge and light up with fire and sun

BioLite is now available at SportFits. The Brooklyn brand stands for an idea that is as simple as it is effective: outdoor energy from natural sources, with no socket, no gas and no single-use batteries. With wood stoves that generate electricity as they burn, solar lanterns and compact power banks, BioLite adds a brand that ties technology and sustainability together in its own particular way.

Bikepacking trip, camping weekend or a long evening in the garden: BioLite supplies energy where there is none.

It started in 2006 as a weekend project. Jonathan Cedar and Alec Drummond, two engineers from New York, tinkered with a camping stove that would burn wood more efficiently. Less smoke, more heat. What began as a garage prototype became a company in 2009 and, in 2012, a first market-ready product: the BioLite CampStove.

The trick is thermoelectric technology. An integrated generator converts surplus heat into electricity, enough to charge a phone while dinner cooks. The idea landed. BioLite is based in DUMBO, Brooklyn today, with a growing team of engineers, designers and social entrepreneurs.

BioLite is more than an outdoor brand. The founders built a business model they call parallel innovation: the same core technology inside the CampStove also powers cook stoves in developing countries, where around 3 billion people cook over an open fire every day.

Open fires cause smoke poisoning, respiratory illness and deforestation. The BioLite HomeStove cuts smoke by more than 90 % and halves wood consumption. Revenue from the outdoor business funds the development and distribution of those stoves in India, Uganda and other countries.

The result so far: more than 8 million people now benefit from BioLite products in regions without a reliable grid.

BioLite splits its range into three areas, all chasing the same goal: self-sufficient energy on the move. From a wood-fired stove to an inflatable solar lantern, the thread running through it is independence from the grid.

At the heart of BioLite sits the thermoelectric technology in the CampStove. You burn twigs, cones or small pieces of wood, the material you find on the spot. An integrated fan creates a vortex in the combustion chamber that keeps the burn close to smoke-free. The heat drives a thermoelectric generator that produces electricity.

That electricity has two jobs. It runs the fan itself, so the system sustains itself, and it charges external devices over USB. The built-in 3,200 mAh battery stores surplus energy, so you can keep charging once the cooking is done. An LED display shows fire strength and available output in real time.

Sustainability at BioLite is not a garnish. It is the core of the business model. The brand has made the principle of “energy everywhere” its corporate purpose: for every item sold, someone living in energy poverty should gain access to safe light and a way to charge.

The key facts:

• Certified Climate Neutral, with annual carbon accounting and offsetting
• The HomeStove programme cuts smoke by 90 % and wood use by 50 % compared with an open fire
• Pilot projects since 2013 in India and Uganda, since extended to further countries
• By 2022, revenue in the energy access business reached a scale comparable to the outdoor segment
• In 2025, BioLite acquired the Goal Zero RV business to fuel further growth