From Hell to Heaven, a Drastic Transformation

Whenever I visit a school kitchen using traditional 3-stone fires to cook the children meals, and spend a couple of hours with the cooks measuring saucepans and discussing their needs, the following day I end up with a terrible headache and flu, as a result of indoor air pollution.

Burning firewood in traditional stoves emit large quantities of health-damaging particulate matter and climate warming pollutants (e.g. black carbon) into the kitchen environment, increasing the risk of respiratory illnesses, including childhood pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular diseases, and lung cancers.

Global burden of disease estimates have found that exposure to household air pollution due to cooking on inefficient biomass stoves led to an estimated 4.3 million deaths in 2012. This does not include risks related to the use of inefficient lighting like candles or kerosene lamps (WHO).

Yesterday I visited a secondary school in Nsangi who recently joined Simoshi’s Project Activity. I want to share the pictures of their kitchen before and after, and the smiles of the cooks now as they tell me how their “new office” feels like as the smoke drastically reduced inside the building from burning firewood.

Carbon Credits Also Labelled Gold Standard

Simoshi’s first issuance of 8,457 carbon credits are labelled both with the Clean Development Mechanism as Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), and also obtained the Gold Standard labeling, so they became GS CERs. With its carbon credits labelled by two of the most prestigious certifying bodies on carbon financing, reassures potential offset buyers of the high quality standards Simoshi’s Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda” undergoes. Simoshi has a positive impact on nine out of the seventeen existing United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), being one of the projects effectively addressing and achieving the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation and access to energy.

We encourage readers to visit the Gold Standard Project Registry to learn more about the project’s achievements and registered documentation. Please consider supporting this project when offsetting your carbon footprint.

Tough Job For Strong Muscles

At Simoshi we are obsessed with two things when it comes to firewood consumed at schools:

1) Cooks can only feed the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) with small firewood pieces,

2) Firewood needs to have a water content of at least 15% for ideal combustion, therefore firewood has to be stored raised from the ground, under a shelter for at least 6 months. Firewood chopped from the wood has a 50% water content.

Chopping firewood is a very difficult job, especially when men have to use an axe because schools fail to raise money to buy a chainsaw, or even hire one. So my gratitude and admiration goes to all those men giving their best to get the firewood pieces as we need them, while always keeping a happy face.

Open

This is how schools usually store their firewood for the kitchen

Shelter

How to store firewood to bring the water content down to 15% and double the energy value

The toughest jobs of all, chopping the firewood with the axe, into small pieces.

Valentino proudly showing his muscles and still happy after that fantastic job!

The short film above produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) promotes the efficient use of wood as a fuel in households. Efficient heating technologies, combustion, pyrolysis, thermal insulation, wood storage as well as aspects of consumer health and behaviour of wood use are visualized and explained in an easy to understand manner, so we always sit down at schools with staff members to teach them about the benefits of cooking with dry firewood.

Back To School

Public schools (government curriculum) officially started today. Good luck to all the children (and parents) as another year full of learning and fun activities kick-off.

As Simoshi, we have welcomed five new schools to our Project Activity with their kitchens now fully utilising the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) for all of their cooking activities.

With the school year on full swing, our Project Officers will be busy on the ground monitoring the IICS performance, kitchen staff and firewood consumption. We look forward to another great year of collaboration with the school Head Teachers and Directors.

January Maintenance

This is the time again where schools are closed for the longest period during the school year. That’s the best time for Simoshi to perform the free annual maintenance on the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Our colleague Henry Bwire, our Maintenance Officer, explains in this short video some of the most common types of breakages he finds in the school kitchens.

Last Post of 2019 with Gratitude

This year has seen Simoshi finally reach targets that are a result of efforts made by a team of supportive staff, partners, family and friends who have seen us rise from the shadows. Nothing is easy for start-ups, but it is even harder in Sub-Saharan countries overwhelmed by serious problems from poverty and illiteracy, to unemployment and inadequate policy to support sustainable initiatives.

Nevertheless, our passion for a positive impact has seen the sun rise and we are excited as we enter 2020 with loads of expectations.

In November 2019 our first 8,457 certified emission reductions (CERs) were issued. These are now for sale at the UNFCCC Climate Neutral Now portal for those who want to voluntarily offset their carbon footprint.

We would like to thank all 13 buyers of 170 CERs who in the past week had supported our Project Activity and the efforts made to move schools away from using the 3-stone fires when cooking all of their daily meals. Their contribution has made a huge impact in making this possible, as we continue to hand hold the schools when making the transition to using the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

We installed the first IICS back in March 2016, and up to date, we are still repairing/maintaining all those IICS for free to all of our participating schools, monitoring and training their kitchen staff, ensuring the firewood reductions are achieved as when we first deployed the stoves. By changing their traditional cooking practices with the use of an IICS, an average school with 700 children reduces their firewood consumption by half, translating into 90 tons of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere every year.

Their voluntary action to neutralise the carbon emissions is an exemplary endeavour and on behalf of all the children and school staff would like to say Thank You for their generosity and awareness on climate change.

Happy end of the year to everyone and a better start of the new new to come.

Example of a voluntary cancellation certificate

Offset Your Carbon Footprint

Next time you switch on your oven or gas cooker, please remember, that schools in Uganda are still using 3-stone fires to cook all children meals.

Simoshi's carbon credits are now available on the United Nations carbon offset platform, and you can easily use their calculator to know how many tons of CO2 you should offset.

By offsetting your carbon footprint through the purchase of a carbon credit generated by Simoshi's project activity "Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda", you are supporting a school in several ways. To name a few, they reduce by 50% their firewood purchases - saving an average of USD 800 per school year, while also reducing by half the smoke generated from the firewood combustion. Your contribution guarantees that Simoshi repairs/maintains all installed institutional improved cook stoves for free for the next 5 years, to ensure all benefits are enjoyed while a positive transformation in behavior is achieved in the kitchen environment.

8,457 Certified Emission Reductions Issued

Another big milestone for Simoshi was achieved today, as its first 8,457 certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits have been issued from its registered Clean Development Mechanism and Gold Standard Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”. Such reductions of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere were made possible as 49 participating schools moved away from their traditional 3-stone fires to energy efficient cooking stoves for the preparation of all of their cooking activities.

Heavy Load

Delivering institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) to a school joining our Project Activity needs a lot of energy and manpower. On average, a new school usually needs between 3 to 4 IICS to cover for all of their cooking needs. IICS can vary in capacities - from 50 litres to 450 litres, depending on the number of children enrolled. Such capacities reflect in the dimensions and weight of the IICS, and when it comes to offloading them from the truck, and then moving them into the kitchen, muscles are needed!

Below we share some pictures of the delivery made last month to our new school Kisugu Church of Uganda, to reflect the effort described during offloading.

Request for Issuance Now Public

What a fantastic day as Simoshi’s first carbon credits are now in the final leg of a long and unimaginable journey. The request for issuance of 8,457 certified emission reductions is now public, and if no request for review is issued from either Simoshi or any three UNFCCC’s Executive Board members, the carbon credits will be issued on Tuesday 19 of November at 17:00 hours GMT.

Carbon Markets and Carbon Financing

The conference “Carbon Markets and Carbon Financing: Managing the transition from Kyoto to Paris. What is in for East Africa?” is currently taking place in Addis Ababa, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and in collaboration with Energising Development (EnDev) Ethiopia, with support from Irish Aid, and the UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre in Kampala.

We are participating and engaging in interesting and technical discussions as the carbon markets evolve into the new post 2020 phase. It has been a great opportunity to network with individuals from diverse sectors such as private sector, international donors, government and NGOs from Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and the host country Ethiopia.

The main aim of this dialogue is to provide us participants with an improved understanding of the new generation of carbon markets and climate finance instruments of the Paris Agreement. While jointly reflecting on the successes and failures generated by the Kyoto mechanisms to provide input to the on-going rule-setting for the Paris Agreement instruments, as well as preparations by East African countries for accessing these funding sources.

I am sharing some pictures of the event and the programme which gives you clear ideas of the presentations made.

With the Wakiso District Teachers Association

Yesterday we have been invited by the Chairman of the Wakiso Ditrict Teachers Association, Mrs Rose Nakato, to present Simoshi’s Project Activity during their quarterly meeting. Mrs Nakato happens to also be the Head Mistress at St. Dominic Kigo Lunya Primary School, a recently added school that is now using the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) for all of their cooking activities.

The school is so pleased with the IICS performance that Mrs Nakato felt the urgency to tell her colleagues about the benefits of collaborating with Simoshi. So yesterday I briefly explained about what we do, how the IICS can improve the school kitchen environment, the achievable firewood savings, and the financing provided to allow schools to pay back for their IICS through the firewood not purchased.

Below are some images of the meeting and pictures from the kitchen at St. Dominic Kigo Lunya before, and after Simoshi’s intervention, and some from the presentation made.

the kitchen before

the kitchen after

9 SDG Goals Achieved by our Project Activity

In September 2015, the General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development that includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Building on the principle of “leaving no one behind”, the new Agenda emphasizes a holistic approach to achieving sustainable development for all.

Simoshi’s Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda’s Project Activity achieves 9 out of the 17 SDG goals, and below is a table with an explanation on how the project has an impact on the most relevant SDG targets for each of those goals.

SDG 1 – No poverty | Measurement Method: school bursars are usually responsible for all firewood purchases during the school term. Simoshi monitors these firewood expenditures right at the beginning during the baseline survey it conducts in each school, and after the IICS have been deployed. Simoshi collects the amount of firewood spent at the end of each school term and monitors that savings are still achieved compared to the baseline expenditure through the “School Term Update” form.

SDG 3 – Good health and well-being | Measurement Method: The perception of members of the school/institution (staff responsible for cooking) concerning air quality after the introduction of IICS evaluated quarterly on the basis of the results of the “Kitchen Information Update” survey. The question is “How do you perceive air quality when using an IICS?”. The enumerators are instructed to elaborate this question further by asking detailed questions (perceived smoke level, incidents of coughing, respiratory illness, eye infections, etc.).

SDG 4 – Quality education | Measurement Method: Simoshi’s service-oriented approach provides better perceptions and outcomes from users, promoting a positive behavioral change in the kitchen. On-going training and free IICS annual maintenance are the added on values necessary for the behavioral transition to happen. Simoshi empowers the kitchen staff (usually neglected by school managers, badly remunerated and working in unhealthy and poor environments) through the continuous training and monitoring model, following the “Kitchen Management Techniques” and “Firewood Best Practice Manual”, and the “Kitchen Training Assessment” to improve the overall conditions and safety of the kitchen environment.

SDG 5 – Gender equality | Measurement Method: Cooks are usually women who play an instrumental role in raising awareness between their peers and community members about the dangers of utilizing traditional cooking methods. Addressing gender issues in clean energy recognizes that women are key players in health, environmental, economic and climate change issues. Clean cooking results in tangible impacts for women and girls. They play a crucial leadership role in the adoption and use of clean cooking solutions.

SDG 7 – Affordable and clean energy | Measurement Method: Number of schools and institutions with IICS in year y. Sales database and usage survey to confirm the amount of IICS in use and number of participating schools/institutions.

SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth | Measurement Method: Employment records including evidence for income generation collected by Simoshi for workers involved in the IICS chain. These include stove manufacturers, vendors, data clerks and project officers, extension workers, where applicable. Documents may include employment contracts, payment slips, employment lists and others. Labour standards on sexual harassment and compliance with health and safety guidelines.

SDG 13 – Climate action | Measurement Method: the emission reduction  parameter is calculated as a result of IICS meeting the minimum thermal efficiency requirement of 20%. This efficiency is translated into fuel savings compared to traditional stoves used in Uganda. This reduction in fuel consumption is estimated and corresponding CO2 emission reductions are calculated from these savings. The emission reductions are calculated as per the registered PDD and as per the methodology requirement.

SDG 15 – Life on land | Measurement Method: Simoshi ensures that IICS models from the selected IICS manufacturers are of similar design, following Simoshi’s Quality Assurance and Quality Control Manual (which includes consistency in manufacturing practices and materials used) and Simoshi’s Maintenance Manual that demonstrates comparable maintenance and repair practices on all IICS included under the project activity to ensure the maximum firewood savings are achieved.

SDG 17 – Partnerships for the goals | Measurement Method: number of Kampala Capital City Authority schools included under the Project Activity, as part of the mutual efforts to move government schools away from traditional cooking practices.

On Site Visit

All of last week we have hosted the Designated Operational Entity (UN Auditor) Mr. Chetan Sharma from KBS in India. This is part of the necessary activities as we conduct our verification exercise to obtain Simoshi’s first carbon credits from the registered CDM and Gold Standard Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.

Chetan was joined by the local expert Ms. Gloria Namazzi, and together we visited 21 schools using the institutional improved cook stoves for all of their cooking activities. We are sharing images taken at some of the visited schools, which were randomly selected from the Kampala, Wakiso, Mityana, Masaka and Mukono districts.

Praise the Team

A big clap to our Project Officers who are in the field every day promoting the use of the household improved cook stoves (ICS) to teachers in schools. Their energy and happiness is reflected every day by the amazing sales they make. A good product alone would never be enough to be sold by its own if it wasn’t for their fantastic technique and marketing skills. Below are some of our colleagues early this morning getting ready for another day at work.

A Day In The Field

We welcome Naty who has joined us to help Simoshi with its internal financial procedures, as well as being the focal point with the marketing and sales of the project carbon credits. Yesterday we spent all day long in the field visiting Kamwokya Primary School, while monitoring the use of their institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) in the school kitchen.

We are in the process of upgrading our accounting system so it can be merged to our IT infrastructure, therefore we also paid a visit to the Kenga developer, OMNI-TECH. Below are some few pictures of our activities yesterday.

First Verification Process Started

These past couple of months we have been very busy taking our Project Activity where it should be: getting our first carbon credits. Simoshi’s first monitoring report has now been uploaded onto the CDM website. We have calculated a total of 8,823 emission reductions from the period 1 March 2017 until 31 May 2019.

The verification is now officially on, and the Designated Operational Entity (DOE or UN auditor) KBS will be visiting our project next month as part of the verification process, until the final verification report is provided and submitted to the UN Executive Board.

Let’s get our energy in the right direction with the stars aligned, so that we have a smooth month ahead.

Happy Cooks at Kabowa Curch of Uganda

Thank you to our partner the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) for commissioning the video below, produced by Edcom Filmz and Fireworks. It is a short presentation about our activities showcasing the benefits and views of the cooks and the head teacher at the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) primary school Kabowa Church of Uganda.

May Was All About Testing

We wanted to share some of the pictures of the testing exercise that has taken place throughout the month of May. Many institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) of 30 litres capacity were temporarily collected from the schools that had purchased them back in 2016. We had chosen this month because the schools had closed for holidays so the IICS would not be needed in the kitchen.

The IICS were all tested following the international Water Boiling Test protocol to ensure that their thermal efficiency is still way above the minimum 20% requirement (as explained on our blog post below). Even after 3 full years of operation cooking in busy kitchens, which they successfully did!

This means the IICS and schools are still saving at least 50% of firewood when compared to their previous traditional systems. That was achieved thanks to Simoshi’s free annual maintenance provided too all IICS and schools participating under its Project Activity.

Testing No Matter What

I often read messages in Facebook of people asking for advice on institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) and readers unfortunately leave their comments based based purely on subjective views about certain stove bands or manufacturers.

The fact is that scientific tests are the only way to ensure 100% of quality - for efficiency, durability and safety. For this reason, the IICS disseminated at SImoshi are tested following strict international standards. Because Simoshi’s Project Activity is registered with the Clean Development Mechanism and the Gold Standard, it not only requires that IICS are tested following the Water Boiling Test to ensure a minimum thermal efficiency of 20% (equivalent to 50% fuel savings), but also that further tests are performed to ensure a sustained manufacturing standard in quality assurance and quality control measures. Therefore materials used in the manufacturing process such as the clay and the maica (insulation) are tested every year at the Uganda Industrial Research Institute to ensure that a minimum amount of alumina content is found in both.