Brickstar Wood Stove - Mahlaba Area

Audit Analysis

The Brickstar wood stove project in South Africa is a Gold Standard energy-efficiency project with a verified monitoring period (2019–2020) showing delivery of only ~46% of the pro-rata ex-ante expectation. Material findings in the verification report flag a usage rate of 37% versus 70% assumed and a lower-than-expected wood savings per cooking event, yet no corrective actions were mandated. The project's fundamental additionality logic (investment test) is present but its robustness is weakened by the unaddressed permanence question and the absence of a confirmed VVB sign-off on additionality in the extracted record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified usage rate (37%) is less than half the ex-ante assumption (70%), and the verification report lists this as a material finding without requiring corrective action.
• ⚠The new stove's wood savings per cooking event (3.3 kg) is lower than the baseline open-fire KPT (4.1 kg), undermining the ex-ante savings assumption; no corrective action was triggered.
• ⚠Permanence / reversal risk is explicitly not addressed in the monitoring record and no buffer pool percentage is stated.
• ⚠Crediting-period end date is missing in the verification report (stated as open-ended), creating ambiguity about the project's temporal scope.

Credit Vintages