Making An Impact With Every Payment

Earlier this week we attended the Gold Standard Grow To Zero 2023 conference in London.

It was interesting to learn about different digital platforms that offer from tokenisation of the carbon credits to digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification systems.

We met with Dan Graf, founder of Earthchain, and I thought of sharing their innovative approach as they build on a new climate experience. Through their dedicated API, anyone can easily integrate it to their sales and operations, allowing customers to see the climate contribution they have made through the payment system. “This platform will help drive planet-critical capital to climate projects, delivering real world impact by embedding climate experiences into all payment products”.

Delivery of 9 IICS

Last Sunday we were busy delivering 9 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) at Kakungulu Memorial Secondary School. This is a school with a big population, with more than 2,000 boarding students.

As such, the kitchen is busy cooking for lunch and supper, and the delivery was a complicated one, that took almost all day until the kitchen was set and functional.

They work does not stop there. The most difficult part now begins, as we train cooks on how to operate the IICS and transition towards a sustainable kitchen environment. This is an on-going activity that is reinforced on a monthly basis. Intensive daily training sessions take place during the first week, and a lot of resistance is found as cooks are not used to cooking saucepans of 500 litres capacity with just small firewood sticks.

We share below some of the activities that took place over the weekend. Shortly, we will be uploading a video as the kitchen becomes fully operational. Stay tuned!

Opportunity for Transformation

The finance to transition for traditional 3-stone fires to energy efficient cook stoves comes from the income generated from the sale of the carbon credits. This is how Simoshi has grown and flourished to include more than 100 school under its registered Gold Standard Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.

An average school of 800 students can save up to USD 900 in firewood purchase per year! That is a lot of money, specially for government aided schools, that can be used on many of their urgent priorities, such as improving on infrastructure and providing new classrooms to the existing overcrowded ones.

So whatever trend is now dominating the talks on whether carbon offsetting is the right or wrong tool to responsibly reduce emissions, remember, not every project is the same and has comparable impact in local communities. Read objectively, educate yourself, and make conscious decisions when choosing an intervention when offsetting your carbon footprint. Distractions are the opposite of what is needed to achieve climate change. Transparency is - and always has - been available to those interested in learning more and supporting small scale interventions like Simoshi’s.

Our Biggest Achievement

Is when a cook expresses their happiness and gratitude for their new institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Over the weekend, I received a message from David, the head cook at our recently included school St. Michael Education Centre Kiwanga. He brightened my evening.

I am sharing my conversation on Whatsapp here below. Not much to add, other than we have achieved half of our purpose here, when knowing that through our Project Activity, we have improved the working standards of others in the schools. Providing a decent “office”, like we always tell them!

Term II Starts

Today children go back to school to start Term II, which will end on Friday 25th of August. This is something to celebrate, because 2023 is another year that is proving to experience uninterrupted classes.

Throughout the past three weeks, we have been busy repairing all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) because children were on holidays. Not everyone had the luxury of spending all those days relaxing at home. Some classes, especially candidates, had only one week off.

Our Project Officers are now back in the kitchens training the cooks on how best to operate the IICS, while keeping a clean kitchen environment. The biggest emphasis has to be put on the size of the firewood logs to be used. Cooks tend to avoid chopping the firewood into small pieces, wrongly believing that bigger pieces can cook faster.

Support of Voluntary Carbon Projects

For a company to address their emissions of carbon dioxide, purchasing carbon credits remains a powerful tool to achieve this. At the same time, they are contributing to climate change mitigation and sustainable development.

When buying a carbon credit generated by Simoshi’s supported schools in Uganda, a company (or an individual) is supporting the on-going activities that also contribute to the wellbeing of the school staff and students.

This is why Simoshi’s Project Activity registered with the Gold Standard is verified against 9 Sustainable Development Golas (SDGs). All of these have unique indicators that are continuously monitored, quantified, reported and verified by the externally approved auditing process.

The carbon credit price that is advertised at the Gold Standard Marketplace clearly reflects the environmental and societal benefits achieved by the project implementation, and remain to be a crucial tool to drive emission reductions in line with 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent the worst impact of climate change.

Proud Service Providers

We could not be more proud of the free service we provide to all of our participating schools. And we want to share it with our readers, because it is all that matters to us: making sure the schools are always achieving the maximum firewood savings when preparing their daily meals.

Right now schools are on holidays. So this is the perfect time for us to engage in repairing the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) before schools open their doors once again on the 29th of May to commence Term 2.

Below I share an example of the videos our Maintenance Officer shoots on the IICS situation BEFORE and AFTER the maintenance event takes place. We do this on every school as part of the record keeping we meticulously store. And because it is holiday season, we also ensure to inform the school administrators of what has happened during their absence - a screen shot of the conversation and appreciation is also shown. Ho can we not feel proud to read our happy schools!

May Has New Stock!

We have started the month of May with the happy news that our fourth issuance had taken place yesterday. We now have 10,218 Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) for sale on the Gold Standard Marketplace.

For those interested in offsetting their carbon footprint, remember you can do it on line from here.

This is a fantastic project that proudly has 9 Sustainable Development Goals achieved, which are continuously monitored to ensure 100% veracity of claims taking place, benefitting those most needed in Uganda.

This Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves For Schools and Institutions in Uganda” was registered back in 2017, and since then has been able to support itself thanks to the revenues made from the sale of the carbon credits. This project would have never happened in the absence of carbon finance. So the more individuals and companies we have choosing us for their offsetting purposes, the more schools we manage to include under our Project Activity, while supporting with very many benefits during a 10-year period.

To learn more about the 9 Sustainable Development Goals achieved and how the project monitored all indicators during the year 2022 in 95 schools in Uganda, click here to access the detailed Monitoring Report that was approved by the Gold Standard.

New Issuance of 10,218 Carbon Credits

During the year 2022, Simoshi’s Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” successfully monitored 95 schools in Uganda that transitioned from traditional cooking practices to institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

We proudly share the summary of benefits and the positive 9 Sustainable Development Goals achieved:

We are already very busy working on our fifth verification for the current year 2023, as we rigorously close every monitoring period on the last day of the calendar year.

Low School Fees

It is amazing to see how government schools manage their finances, with low school fees that not only include tuition, but also daily lunch. The Head Teacher at Luzira Church of Uganda Primary School - a government aided school - here explains how magic happens!

Needless to say, we are always proud to remind our readers and supporters (those who offset their carbon footprint when purchasing our carbon credits) that schools manage to save approximately USD 800 per year with their institutional improved cook stoves. For a school that collects such small student fees, these firewood savings make an important positive impact to their finances. Listen to the testimony here below!

Goodbye To Our Friend

Monitoring the schools and kitchens to ensure the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are in optimal efficiency operation means we get to meet many of the school staff, and eventually make good friendships.

Our visits are not a one-off, but we go to the schools once a month, from the time the IICS are installed.

Today we received the sad news that Vincent Jemba, the cook at St. Paul Nsambya, had passed yesterday. We have known Vincent since June 2017 when we first installed their IICS at the school.

I would like to write a short story in memory of our friend. I remember very well the day of the IICS delivery and training. Vincent was angry with us because he believed the new IICS would not be able to prepare the posho and beans on time. He was very used to his old stoves and was not ready to change nor use the new ones. The Deputy Head Teacher back then, Ms. Jane (today the HT at Bukasa primary School) told me not to worry, she would speak to him later that day to discuss about the school’s decision.

Two days later I pay a visit to St. Paul Nsambya to check on the cooks and the IICS. As I am approaching the kitchen, there was Vincent standing with a plate of food in his hands, offering me a meal in appreciation for the IICS, as he was feeling comfortable with his new kitchen.

The picture below is from February this year, during the fourth verification visit for our Gold Standard registered project activity. Vincent is on the far right, signing the training sheet. You will be missed.

Size Matters

It’s a tough exercise, getting cooks to chop the firewood to small pieces. It is understandable because they have been used to cooking with huge wood logs in the past when using 3-stone fires.

But the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) do not need such big pieces of wood. Actually they can damage the combustion chamber, because they are very heavy and break the supporting bricks and grates.

Big wood logs DO NOT cook faster. Contrary to what most cooks believe, big logs only asphyxiate the firewood entrance, blocking aeration and making combustion more difficult. Below is a short video showing the right wood diameter and number of sticks needed to have the perfect combustion, as Kitebi Primary School cooks their beans in a 350 litres saucepan capacity.

The right size and the right quantity of wood is shown on this IICS while cooking beans.

Obituary For A Sampling Approach

A lot is currently being discussed about bringing more transparency to the carbon credit space. Articles are questioning the veracity of GHG emission reductions actually taking place, over estimations, baseline figures, etc..

But how do we achieve reliable data to determine the quality of those carbon credits the Project Developers (PD) are delivering?

Let’s get to the root where everything starts. And that is at the project level. To quantify the impact achieved on the ground, the PD has to collect several indicators and report to the Certification Standard and the accredited auditors. Depending on the technology implemented, the PD uses a specific methodology to follow calculation approaches. These methodologies often provide different options when it comes to the continuous monitoring and reporting of the technology involved.

Nevertheless, the performance monitoring cannot be avoided. This involves tracking the overall performance of the appliance/technology to ensure that it is meeting all its reduction targets. And although a sampling or a census approach is currently allowed, let’s face it, most projects disseminating energy efficient and renewable energy appliances choose to sample their populations because it is cheaper, and because it is not mandatory to monitor the entire population.

There are many downsides to sampling, and that means leading to bias or inaccurate GHG emission reductions taking place. If we want more transparency, then it is time to question buyers of carbon credits too. Sampling is cheaper, and this leads to the scavengers of carbon credits using whatever technology, whatever the additionality, whatever the sustainable development impact(s) and whatever the monitoring approach to choose the cheapest offer out there.

Behaviour Change Key

An energy efficient transition necessitates effortful behavioural changes by cooks and all those involved at school when preparing the daily meals. This not only refers to the cooking appliance itself, but also other items that indirectly affect many of the kitchen activities.

One of the examples we are discussing today is the firewood used. Burning dry firewood with efficient combustion results in clean burning with few particles. When firewood burns, three things happen:

1. Water content is removed by evaporation.

2. Chemically, the firewood breaks down into charcoal, gas and volatile liquids, with carbon dioxide and water being the chief end products.

3. The charcoal burns, forming carbon dioxide either directly or with an intermediate conversion to carbon monoxide.

Institutional Improved Cook Stoves (IICS) minimize the problem of dirty smoke generated from burning firewood and alarming deforestation rates. There are many species of trees all with different forms based on their varying fiber structures and densities. This means they differ in the ways they can be used and also the amounts of energy they store. Firewood does not always contain the same amount of energy. The main reason for this is the water that is stored inside it:

• Fresh wood contains up to 50% of water, and water does not burn.

• When firewood is dried for one year, its calorific value doubles, having the water content decrease from 50% up to 15%

This is why we continuously incentivise schools to build a firewood storage. But as you can see from the pictures here below, sometimes having the storage place built doesn’t mean the firewood won’t still be sitting outside in the rain!!!! Continuous training is key, that is why we visit the schools every month to ensure savings are achieved to the maximum. And that everyone at school changes that behaviour, which can only be achieved with time and patience.

Decent Work For Cooks

Decent work is considered a human right, but for cooks preparing daily meals for children at schools, is a totally different reality. These workers often feel neglected, are paid low wages, working long hours standing, in an unhealthy environment…the load is a daily struggle.

Contributing to the cooks’ wellbeing is one of the achievements we support here at Simoshi towards providing a more dignified job, and a healthier environment to all those involved in the food preparation. Cooking with a 3-stone fire is the major cause of indoor air pollution, as you can see from the picture here below at St. Denis Ssebuggwago Ggaba Secondary School.

Indoor emissions are reduced by half when schools move to energy efficient cook stoves, and as seen on the second picture here posted, there is a clear benefit for the employees as their office, the kitchen, becomes a safer and decent working environment.

Before

3-stone fires are the major cause of indoor air pollution

After

An energy efficient cook stove reduces air pollution by half, providing a cleaner, healthier and safer kitchen environment.

Always An Optimist

An optimist, says the dictionary in many of its versions, is a person who believes that this world is the best of all possible worlds. And this post is today dedicated to all those children we always come across in the schools, with a big smile on their faces, that despite all the adverse conditions they might find back at home, and at school, they are always positively engaging and happy.

Such is the case of Geoffrey, that with all the excitement generated around the new institutional improved cook stoves delivered that same day at his school, decided to give the cooks a helping hand and clean the kitchen. Because it had to look spotless, it had to look good, just like him, with that contagious smile!

A New School Joins

Today we visited Nsangi Mixed Primary School, a government aided school located in Wakiso District. They have moved away from using 3-stone fires to institutional improved cook stoves for all children’s meals. This is a school with a boarding population, meaning they prepare both lunch and supper.

We share the picture of how the kitchen used to look before, and how they are right now, as of today. Another successful story with a new school that will benefit from 50% firewood savings, with cooks also enjoying a healthier environment, as air pollution automatically reduces drastically.

Happy Women's Day

Yesterday we celebrated our day - a woman here writing - so we could not avoid from sharing some interesting statistics about the impact of women in the workforce.

Did you know that only 2.3% of venture capital is going to women-led companies? And that only 11% of energy startup founders identify as women?

And yet, research has shown many times that firms with more women in senior positions are more profitable, more socially responsible, and provide better customer experiences.

And although women and girls experience the greatest impacts of climate change, they are best placed to surface the solutions. So today, and everyday, we celebrate the incredibly resilient girls and women we support in the schools. It is also a day to focus on the inequities and injustices that exist across the sector.

Hello March, Breath In

Every start of the month we write a post about our plans for the upcoming days here at Simoshi. For those who have been following closely since the beginning of this 2023, you might recall we have sold out our last issuance of carbon credits - those emissions reductions generated during 2021 from 95 participating schools. Nevertheless, we are expecting a new issuance very soon as we are on the final performance review stages with the Gold Standard.

Right now we are very busy monitoring the schools, collecting the various indicators necessary to quantify the information that allows this Project Activity to claim for the 9 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) achieved.

Nothing better to illustrate the impact on SDG 3 Good Health & Wellbeing, thanks to the video taken from the kitchen at Lake Victoria Primary School, where Rose, the cook, clearly explains how smoke from the burning firewood has notably reduced, making a huge impact in her health and daily working conditions.

The Bottom 10% Of Emitters Live in Africa And Asia

In this part of the world, despite cooking with the wrong technology - firewood has the highest carbon emission of 1170.57g/J, it takes time 9.43 minutes and consumed 354.29g of firewood to boil the water while Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) consumed 11.43g of fuel in 5.43 to emit 34g of carbon - the average individual in Uganda emits 11 times less CO2 than the average North American.

As reported by the International Energy Agency on the commentary “The world’s top 1% of emitters produce over 1000 times more CO2 than the bottom 1”, published on the 22 February 2023, on their ongoing work to explore people-centred energy transitions, it is no surprise that disparities of emission footprints between countries remain profound. Yet, variations across income groups were even more significant. “ The top 1% of emitters globally each had carbon footprints of over 50 tonnes of CO2 in 2021, more than a 1000 times greater than those of the bottom 1% of emitters. Meanwhile, the global average energy-related carbon footprint is around 4.7 tonnes of CO2 per person…these large contrasts reflect great differences in income and wealth, and in lifestyles and consumption patterns”.

An average school with 800 children reduce approximately 105 tonnes of CO2 per year by changing the traditional 3-stone fires to institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) when preparing their daily meals. A step closer when collectively, and despite differences in footprints, everyone’s behaviours push towards decarbonising fast enough to keep 1.5 C degrees warming in sight.