Supply of High Quality Carbon Credits

Yesterday we came across the newsletter published by the Cool Effect, an organisation that started in 1998 with clean-burning cookstoves and had grown into a globally recognised non-profit platform that’s successfully reducing carbon pollution.

We though important to share their statistics on emission reductions, ahead of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP27) taking place in Egypt soon.

A high-quality carbon credit accurately or conservatively represents greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions or removals achieved through voluntary carbon market (VCM) activities. VCM projects and programs that generate high-quality carbon credits maximise climate, socio-economic and ecological benefits for local communities and ecosystems as appropriate to the project type and sector.

This is why carbon credits generated from our Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” registered with the Gold Standard, and accredited with 9 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are continuously monitored through the collection of various indicators, are quantified and reported annually to ensure all benefits reach the communities in most need.

To learn more please visit the Gold Standard Marketetplace here.

Ebola Outbreak And Schools

There is a current Ebola outbreak in Ugnda of the Sudan ebolavirus. Over 130 people have been infected as of 28 October this year. Although the most affected district is Mubende, some few cases have now been reported among children in schools in Kampala. Therefore the MInistry of Education and Sports issued a circular over this weekend instructing schools across the country to restrict visits to school premises until the end of the school term, on 9 December 2022.

Here at Simoshi we continue to support schools in all of their cooking activities, and ensure safety first, allocating monitoring and maintenance work taking place mainly on weekends (Friday and Saturday) when day scholars go back home, to avoid unnecessary risks.

Seinsitizing Head Teachers

This week we had the opportunity to talk about the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to Head Teachers of Wakiso District schools. The meeting took place at Lake Victoria Primary School, where we recently installed 3 IICS. From the hall we all went straight to the kitchen, where all head teachers had the opportunity to see the IICS live and interact with the cooks to clarify many questions about their performance. The video below is just a short pick from that fantastic surprising experience.

Bad Storage = Bad Combustion

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%

Burning dry firewood with efficient combustion results in clean burning with few particles. When firewood burns, three things happen:

1.     Water 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.

Educating schools and kitchen staff on how best to store firewood is one of the many aspects involved in our training programme. Here below, a picture that clearly shows the bubbles in the firewood stick while burning, that result from a high water content. This in not a one-off session, but an on-going exercise that is documented, with those involved during the kitchen visits signing the training sheets.

Posho & Beans Become A Challenge

School are struggling to feed learners due to the sharp rise in prices of maize flour, which is the main ingredient of most meals prepared in schools across the country. On a daily basis, children mostly have posho and beans for lunch, with the exception of boarders where they have a variety of meat, rice nd matooke on their Sunday menu.

Malnutrition affects over 21% of school-going children in Africa and contributes to immediate and long-term adverse consequences for development and health (Best et al, 2010). Although data on the nutrition status of school-aged children in Uganda is limited, the available evidence indicates that micronutrient deficiencies are common with anaemia rates reaching 46% in girls 11-14 years of age (Barugahara et al, 2013). The prevalence of undernutrition in children aged 5-19 years is 31% among boys and 17% among girls alongside rising burdens of overweight, 16% in girls and 5% in boys (Global Nutrition Report, 2020).

With the introduction of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) that replace the most popular 3-stone fires used to prepare the daily meals, an average school with 700 hundred learners can save approximately USD 1,500 on firewood annual purchases. This means the money saved on firewood not used for cooking activities is currently helping school administrators to use such funds to support the purchase of the increasing maize flour prices. This is another success story we always like to share as part of the benefits this Project Activity delivers as schools move up the energy ladder.

The Irony Of A Well Intended Sign Post

Yesterday we visited a government school located n Kawempe, supported by WWF and Plan International, who had the best intentions when placing a sign post that reads “Use an efficient cooking stove” right in front of the school kitchen.

The irony is we found destroyed stoves, that a long time ago, could have well represented what that sign post still proudly reads on the school grounds.

It is a pity that for several reasons - either financial constraints, lack of knowledge, shortage of technical availability - schools end up consuming a lot of firewood when preparing their daily meals, because improved cook stoves are not maintained.

This is why we are always proud to tell our readers how carbon financing is allowing all our schools included under our Project Activity to have their institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) repaired for free, once a year, for ten years! That allows the schools to continue achieving their 50% firewood savings in the same way as when the IICS were first installed, providing the cooks and children with reduced indoor air pollution, while having a positive impact on the country’s deforestation rate.

Own Construction Stoves

We usually find stoves in schools that have been built without any prior knowledge of how an improved combustion chamber should be constructed. Schools often end up purchasing stoves that are inefficient and consume a lot of firewood, because they have been built with no expertise or have not gone through any testing procedure to see if dimensions and materials can actually help the schools reduce their purchases of firewood.

These are what we call “own construction stoves”, and we are today replacing at St. Paul’s Primary School Banda in Kyambogo with the Ugastove institutional improved cook stoves. The “own construction stoves” are a typical cheap stove construction model made with mud, bricks and cement, that schools usually go for when moving away from the traditional 3-stone fires.

Unfortunately, these constructions end up consuming the same amount as before, so the school sees no benefits and the cooks continue to inhale a lot of CO and particulate matter which are very detrimental to their health.

Integrity and Transparency

We are seeing a lot of reports, webinars and activities around where the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) should head towards after the Paris 2020 agreement came to an end. The concerns come from the public in general, and the demand side, that are asking for sound principles for best-practice in the carbon markets.

One of the conduits to ensure such integrity and transparency are achieved, is the use of digital tools for the verification process of green house gas (GHG) emissions. Although the degree of digitalisation of the verification currently available for project developers right now is very basic and low, here at Simoshi we are proud to tell you about our Kenga IT infrastructure.

This specially designed tool, funded by the United Nations Capital Development Fund, has allowed our team to collect accurate data directly from the field, that is captured through the use of mobile phones. All the information captured - indicators that are continuously monitored and quantified by the Gold Standard and the Clean Development Mechanism to ensure all 9 Sustainable Goals are achieved - is directly sent on real time to our head office, where data is cross-checked at several levels, reconciled, and reported for verification purposes.

As we await for certification bodies to come up with integrated systems for digitalised quantification and verification processes, that ultimately are partly shifted to independent verification entities, we are thriving to produce accurate reports that are a real representation of Simoshi’s integrity and transparency when implementing the Project Activity.

Clean Kitchen Environment

A clean school kitchen not only helps to reduce the children’s risks of exposure to many pollutants such as bacteria and allergens like dust mites. A clean kitchen is also less inviting to mice, rats, and other pests. Bacteria or germs are everywhere – including the kitchen, where food is stored, prepared, and eaten.

This is why we have included a hygiene indicator when monitoring the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Because firewood reductions are one of the many goals we follow up to achieve as part of our Project Activity.

The behavioural change we implement in the kitchen when continuously training the school cooks is also about cleaning the IICS, removing the ash and storing the firewood outside in a dry place, to ensure there is no place for mice and other insects to hide. So everyone (children and staff) can enjoy a healthy meal.

Term III Starts Today

The last school term for Ugandan schools has resumed today. Until Friday 9th of December, school kitchens will be busy preparing the children’s daily meals. It is amazing how we are celebrating such a recurrent simple event like a school opening its doors. We have come a long way after the pandemic, when all started back in March 2020 and schools closed for almost two full calendar years.

This is why we are overjoyed to see operations back to normal, since Term I commenced back in January this year. We will keep you posted as we continue to monitor the 92 schools currently participating under the Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.

Annual Efficiency Testing

For the past three weeks we have been busy testing a cohort of twelve institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) of 30 litres capacity, that have been in operation in different schools in Kampala since 2016. This exercise is part of our carbon financing obligations with the Gold Standard, and we perform the international Water Boiling Test protocol to ensure the thermal efficiency of the IICS is above 20%.

We are pleased to confirm, as these tests results have shown for the past six years, that the thermal efficiency is above 27%, which ensures all 92 participating schools are saving at least 60% of the firewood consumed for preparing their school meals, when compared to their past 3-stone fires.

We have performed all tests during the month of August, as schools were closed for holidays, to ensure we do not disrupt their cooking activities.

Five More Years Of Success

Yesterday we received the good news that our Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” registered with the Gold Standard, had its renewal of the monitoring period approved. This means, our intervention with schools through the installation of energy efficient cook stoves, and the subsequent reductions of firewood generating carbon credits, will be extended for five more years until March 2027.

Today, almost 100 schools are benefitting from the income generated from the sale of the carbon credits, as their institutional improved cook stoves are repaired every year, since 2016, free of cost. We cannot wait to replicate this successful model to another 200 schools, so many of the positive outcomes generated from such activities are expanded over the next crediting period. Proof of such positive impact are the nine Sustainable Development Goals monitored, verified, reported and achieved!

Stove Maintenance Full On

As schools go into holidays for the next three weeks, we are busy bees providing free maintenance to all institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Some of our participating schools have been operating their IICS since 2016, so we are always proud to write this blog post and share the news.

The same excitement is also received from the cooks and school staff, who are always grateful for the annual service they receive. It is very rare to find a company providing free maintenance for 10 years, and we always amaze our audience when we explain that these are the benefits shared with schools from the sale of carbon credits, as voluntary buyers offset their carbon footprint around the globe!

Term II Ends

As we get started with the month of August, this week schools are already sending children home, although the official closing date for term II is Friday 12th of August. Girls are busy washing their clothes. This is also the time when schools organise repairs and/or any construction activity to take place during the holidays, because term III will only get started by mid September.

That is why today we visited St. Joseph’s Girls Primary School, that has decided to get rid of their old and inefficient stoves. As we visited the kitchen to take measure of their current saucepans, and make an assessment of their kitchen environment, we once again experienced the despair of school management struggling to purchase the firewood needed to prepare the daily meals.

This is a school with 350 boarding girls, that currently spends 3,500,000 Ugandan Shillings on firewood per term. By the end of this month, we will be delivering their four new institutional improved cook stoves, and cannot wait to collect the information for the firewood expenditure for term III, as we are positive this will not be above the ugx 1,500,000.

Sundays' Activity In A Boarding School

Boarding schools are always busy on Sundays, and kitchens are no exceptions. It is usually the day where special meals are prepared, and this includes the preparation of traditional dishes such as rice and goat meat, or matooke (banana mash) and gnuts (peanut sauce). The beans in tomato sauce can never miss though!

Below are some pictures of a visit we did today to Citizens day and boarding primary school, a school that joined our programme since 2017.

More Improved Cook Stoves To An Improved Kitchen

Our clients love their institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Prove of such statement is the delivery of additional IICS to an already improved kitchen at Uganda Martyrs Primary Schools. Today Sunday we added 2 new IICS that will be used exclusively to prepare teachers’ food.

This school used to consume 6 trucks of firewood per school term. They have reduced their consumption to 3 trucks now, so they are always grateful, and not only from the bursar’s office, but the cooks celebrated the new addition to their kitchen because their work is also positively impacted. Below are some images of the delivery done today while ladies were busy preparing the fish (tilapia) for the boarders.

Wrapping Up Term II

Term II is soon coming to an end, and we use these last three weeks remaining to monitor the school kitchens, to ensure any maintenance needed for the institutional improved cook stoves is recorded and planned for the holiday period.

It is also an important time for us to collect crucial information that will help us in calculating the amount of emission reductions achieved so far in the year. This includes the number of children enrolled during the school term, the number of staff, and the amount of firewood spent (or trucks of firewood purchased) to prepare the school daily meals.

Here below we share the images from our visit yesterday to Gaba Demonstration Primary School. We also found the teachers busy with children gathering under the mango tree, as they prepare for the parents visit.

Keeping Firewood Dry

Schools using traditional 3-stone fires for all of their cooking activities result in excessive firewood consumption, damaging not only the environment but also the schools’ finances as they struggle to budget for the annual firewood purchases. An average school with 700 day scholars consumes approximately 9 trucks of firewood per year to cater for all of their cooking needs.

The introduction of institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) assures at least 50% of the firewood can be saved when compared to the traditional stoves. Nevertheless, further savings can be achieved if attention to the water content of the firewood used is paid. That is why at Simoshi we train schools and kitchen staff on how best to store their purchased firewood.

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 kitchen at Mengo Primary School is lacking space to store the firewood outside, and while funds are being saved to build a firewood shelter outside, the firewood pieces are stored inside the kitchen in the meantime, right beside the IICS, to ensure the best combustion and maximum savings are achieved.

The Renewable Energy Challenge Fund Project

This week we let go hands to our amazing donors and supporters - the Embassy of Sweden in Uganda and the United Nations Capital Development Fund - as the Renewable Energy Challenge Fund (RECF) comes to an end. With the goal to increase access to renewable, efficient energy for domestic, productive and social uses among underserved poor households, especially in rural areas achieved, Simoshi is forever grateful for the USD 100,000 grant received that today comes to an end.

We have made our Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” a success, have gone through the difficult Covid-19 times when schools closed for almost 2 years, and are today financially independent, preparing for our fourth verification exercise - all thanks to RECF: back in 2017 they believed in our business model, and we couldn’t have made them more proud as we had exceeded all initial milestones!

Below we share some moments of the closing event that took place last Wednesday at the Protea Hotel in Kololo. It was inspiring to hear the stories of many other supported projects that had the same positive experiences, just like ours. Thumbs up to donors that truly appreciate and celebrate the successes achieved.

Holistic Kitchen Approach

Simoshi does not manufacture the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). We are a service provider, that uses carbon finance to ensure the schools can smoothly move away from using traditional 3-stone fires to stoves that save at least 50% of the firewood. This means it is not only about the efficiency of the IICS, but also about the kitchen approach and how we include the cooks and everyone ese involved in the IICS use, and that includes training the schools on how best to use and take care of their IICS, the kitchen infrastructure that has appropriate ventilation, is secure, and easy to clean, the firewood purchase rotation and how it is stored in a dry place to ensure the minimum amount of moisture content for combustion and smoke reduction

Last week we visited Jojo Junior School, and we are looking forward to bringing that kitchen transformation as the school moves up the energy ladder. Stay tuned as we will be sharing the kitchen transformation and what we post today will be something that can only continuously improve as newer technologies come into the market.