This Job Needs Muscles

There is a traditional dish served at schools in Uganda called “posho”. This is basically maize flour, what Italians know as “polenta”. White in colour. it is boiled in water and served with beans.

In a school with 700 hundred children and above, you can imagine the size of the saucepan to cook the posho. At Wampeewo Ntakke Secondary School, with 2,000 children enrolled, this cooking job is not easy with a saucepan of 500 litres capacity!

Only men can handle such size, and as you can see from the pictures below, the cooking task becomes even harder when the school is using traditional 3-stone fires. The heat, the danger of the flames escaping on all sides, and the strength that is needed when stirring makes the work hard.

Thankfully, the school is moving to using institutional improved cook stoves for all of their meals, so stay tuned as we finalise with the installation in their new kitchen!

Schools Reopen After Almost Two Years

The year 2022 has started with more excitement that the usual, as children finally go back to school. All grades back in the classroom! After one of the world’s longest school closures, authorities warned at least 30% of students may never return. About 15 million students have been affected by the closure, government says.

Simoshi was as excited as the teachers and children to see all the buzz going on in the compounds. Training of the kitchen staff started once again, with spot checks on all the institutional improved cook stoves to ensure all school meals are efficiently prepared.

We are closely monitoring and hoping the Omicron third wave of the pandemic will not affect the full opening of the economy this time.

Last Event Of The Year

The Green Finance Dialogue Forum 2021 celebrated green SMEs and engaged actors from different sectors to co-create pathways for green financing. This dialogue brought together 130 financiers, policy-makers, enterprise support organisations and green businesses to explore pathways for expanding access to finance and capacity building for green SMEs across sectors.

Simoshi said “present” and attended all sessions and panel discussions, hosted by UGEFA and funded by the European Union, which took place at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala on the 9th of December. We also had the opportunity to promote the use of improved cook stoves between the attendants, as we continue to support the global efforts in the transition of 2.6 billion existing people in their transition to clean cooking.

Carbon Credits Sold Out

Since our first issuance of Gold Standard Certified Emission Reductions back in November 2019, followed by a second one in February 2020, all carbon credit stock has been sold through the UNFCCC Climate Neutral Now platform. This was possible thanks to the voluntary contribution and awareness on climate change of those individuals and companies wanting to neutralise their carbon emissions. This has made a huge impact in making all of Simoshi’s activities 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 same 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. Today over 80 schools are included under our Project Activity, and we will continue to work with the same enthusiasm to make sure more schools join this 2022 as schools get ready to reopen their doors for children to attend.

We are also finalising our third verification exercise, and expect the third issuance of carbon credits by February 2022. So stay tuned for our next updates as we embrace the New Year with high expectations and endless hope!

Understanding The Process

Carbon financing has certainly helped Simoshi roll-out its activities with schools, and support for the past 5 years all school kitchens and their transition to utilising institutional improved cook stoves, to achieve the minimum requirement of 50% firewood savings. And that is just one of the many benefits provided to them, the children and staff.

That is why we continuously receive other organisations from different sectors looking for advice and information on how to enter the carbon markets. The process is not simple, can become extremely technical and confusing (especially with the recent rule changes with the post-Paris era), but we always encourage others to take time to look into the voluntary certification as an important income revenue to support project activities in a sustainable way.

This month we met with Love Binti International, an association that supports women in Uganda by improving sanitation, upgrading infrastructure, providing vocational training support, improving their menstrual health, and defending their right to education.

Third Verification Exercise Started

The Designated Operational Entity (or UN auditor) has been hired and the finalised Monitoring Report was already submitted for our third consequtive verification exercise. This time around, under the Article 6 policy uncertainties and future of the Clean Development Mechanism still unknown, we will be only performing a verification with the Gold Standard (GS).

The Performance Review with the GS has already been booked and paid, and their work will also get started soon on the 20th of December. If all goes smoothly, the third batch of GS Verified Emission Reductions (VERs or carbon credits) will be available for sale in March 2022.

It Was Possible Because Everyone Collaborated

When Simoshi first issued it’s first batch of carbon dioxide emission reductions in November 2019, we had a big concern as to where we could find potential buyers. We had no former experience in the trading of carbon credits. The market had always been very negative with the pricing trends, the attitude of corporates offsetting their carbon footprint, while the uncertainty of the future of the Paris Agreement made things look gloomy.

As we write this post, Simoshi has gone through two verifications and the total issuance came down to 12,407 carbon credits. Today, there are only 85 carbon credits left and still available on the Climate Neutral Now platform. This on-line platform has been a fantastic space to promote our activities, a 100% free service provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The Covid-19 pandemic has not made things easy, and although the third verification is currently underway, a small issuance is expected and a consequence of schools being closed for most of the past two years. If schools are closed, no institutional improved cook stoves are being used to prepare the children’s meals.

Schools will not re-open until January 2022, which was announced during the last presidential address. While we await for vaccination to progress within teachers and school support staff, we are alway grateful for what we have achieved to date. Because every single sale of carbon credits has made the transition of 3-stone fires to energy efficient cook stoves a reality, and the support of the cooking upgrade in schools is still on-going since we first started back in 2016.

Improve, Everyone Always Benefits

Improve, improve, improve! There is always room for improvement, and that is what here at Simoshi we are always pursuing with all of our partners and colleagues at work. Some experiences are shared with our recent meeting with Uganda Stove Manufacturers Limited (Ugastove). Rehema, Ugastove’s CEO, was at our office last week to go through some further changes we are implementing to the design of the chimney connectors.

You can see some corroded connectors on the pictures posted here below. The connectors are the conduits in the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) that (i) help to channel the smoke from the firewood combustion outside through the chimney pipe, and (ii) make sure the IICS is secured and firmly placed through the cemented wall.

Unfortunately we find that some providers of the metal sheets Ugastove uses to build the connectors had cheated on the quality of the material and in the long term, the heat from the firewood combustion combined with the rain, produce an accelerated rusting that ends up in corroded material.

We quarterly meet with Ugastove to go through quality assurance training sessions and quality control, to ensure all IICS delivered to schools can excel the required standards, not only when the product is new, but also throughout its lifetime. As you can see in this case with the connectors, these IICS have been operating since 2016, so monitoring quality standards is an exercise that has to be performed continuously.

If you want to provide an excellent service, you have to accept you can always improve, improve, improve!

Bad Shape

Sometimes we can find ugly surprises in a school kitchen where the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) have not been handled appropriately. Although we continuously train the school kitchen staff on how to best handle their IICS, things can suddenly go wrong. This is the case of Kitebi Primary School.

One of their IICS had started to corroded as a result of overfilling the saucepan. Because this IICS is used for cooking the beans, water with salt corrodes the metal body as water is spilled all over during boiling point.

It does not matter what degree of maintenance is needed, all schools receive free annual IICS maintenance for a 6-year period under the Project Activity registered with the Clean Development Mechanism and the Gold Standard. To avoid incurring in higher costs, we continuously train the IICS cooks and users to ensure we minimise the expenses incurred when making the repairs. This will benefit everyone involved, from the school management (IICS continue to save firewood), the cooks who handle a gsafe IICS and avoid injuries and Simoshi that can continue to support the school while generating the maximum amount of CO2 reductions.

10 Reasons Why Carbon Credits are Like Ice Creams

Great article about Voluntary #CarbonMarkets and #CarbonCredits by Vikram Widge, Senior Advisor of Climate Policy Initiative.

After lying relatively dormant for the better part of the last decade, demand for voluntary carbon offsets has seen a sharp uptake since 2019, driven by the growing number of private entities that are starting to operationalize their net-zero pledges and seeking to neutralize the non-abated balance of their emissions.

Voluntary carbon offsets should not and cannot be the leading tactic for zeroing out private sector emissions. Emphasis must be placed on reducing emissions as much as possible. However, offsets play an important transition role in neutralizing emissions that are more difficult to abate, while also serving as an important funding mechanism to protect natural capital. We could think of them as a reward, like ice cream is when you eat your veggies.

As we all work to build a robust, ethical carbon offset market at scale to support a sustained transition to net-zero, maybe keeping this ice cream analogy in mind will make the effort, and the result, all the more satisfying.

A Recipe For Cough

This video was shot at Wampeewo Ntakke Secondary School last Sunday. As we visited the school to make the final measurements for the new institutional improved cook stoves we will be installing in their new kitchen, Annet, the school cook, shared with us the recipe for the cough syrup she was preparing for her son in her traditional 3-stone fire.

Check on the video below to find out which three different tree leaves she boils for her magic potion!

New Month, New Kitchen

September has started with some good news and a brighter forecast to the current schools closure. International schools have been allowed to open their classrooms for in-person learning for candidate children. This gives us hopes that government and private schools teaching the Ugandan curriculum will also be given the same chances to have children back in the classrooms.

In the meantime, we waste no time and are prepared to serve those schools that are getting ready for when that time finally arrives! Today we re-visited Wampeewo Ntakke Secondary school. They have used these past months to refurbish their kitchen structure to accommodate their new institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). As they join Simoshi’s Project Activity, and start enjoying the many benefits of a clean kitchen environment, we cannot wait to show you how their new building is looking like while we start manufacturing their new IICS.

Our Work Showcased At The Africa Climate Week 2021

We are honoured to have our work showcased at the UNFCCC’s Africa Climate Week 2021 Action Hub. Regional collaboration drives progress and everyone has a role to play in delivering a climate-safe future, and Simoshi contributes towards that. As we build momentum towards COP26 in Glasgow, our efforts with helping schools in Uganda move up the energy ladder are a living proof that small efforts count more than ever.

Check the platform and the 15 inspiring projects currently being portrayed - Simoshi’s hub is number 06.

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Achievements So Far

We are always proud to tell our audience, since we first sold the institutional improved cook stove (IICS) back in March 2016 to Bright Angels Primary School in Kampala, we are still repairing every year all of their 3 IICS for free, that is why today the school is achieving the same firewood savings they did as when we first deployed them. And this is the story for every single school that has joined Simoshi.

Despite the 15-month lockdown measures due to the pandemic, and the closure of schools, we have still managed to keep the pace with all the monitoring requirements for our carbon financing project activity. This meant we have collected many indicators from all 82 participating schools - including firewood expenditures, quality of air in the kitchen environment, status of the IICS and maintenance needs, repairing of IICS, training of all kitchen staff, number of jobs created - just to name a few.

Two monitoring periods were closed, audited by the United Nations Designated Operational Entity, with successful carbon credit issuances in November 2019 and March 2020. We are currently working on the third verification, and expect an issuance during the first quarter of 2022.

Under such challenging times, we can only be grateful to all the school staff and our donors who had supported our activities without hesitation. We share a short snapshot of where we are standing today and the impact made on the ground.

Stove Maintenance On-Going

Despite schools closure, we are still busy repairing all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) from our participating schools under the project activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”.

IICS are under fire every day, sometimes longer hours for boarding schools. If not maintained, the efficiency gradually decreases and schools end up consuming a lot of firewood, just like they did with their old traditional stoves. That is why Simoshi has been maintaining all IICS every year since 2016. And this is done for free. Schools do not pay for any maintenance related cost. We manage to cover these as part of our carbon financing project. Part of the revenues obtained from the sale of the carbon credits are shared with the schools, in different ways. One of them is by providing fee annual IICS maintenance for 7 years.

We share below a short video of our colleague Henry, plastering an IICS of 30 litres capacity. If this plastering is not reinforced every year, the insulation bricks underneath the plastering get damaged, and after 3 years, they will start dismantling, exposing the metal firebox that is supporting the whole chamber.

School Uncertainty

Here in Uganda August has started with the relaxation of some lockdown measures that saw the country in stand-still for the past 42 days. Public transport is now allowed which is a huge relief for many Ugandans. The bad news is schools are not opening any time soon. During his speech last Friday, the President Joweri Museveni said children between the ages of 12 and 18 should be vaccinated to be able to attend class. With the slow speed at which vaccines are being imported, and with only 1.1 million of the population vaccinated so far, there is little hope children will be back in school any time soon.

Simoshi’s office is located in Kampala, in a quiet neighbourhood where we still have a feeling of a rural environment. It is heartbreaking to see children on the streets, helping in the shops or with household work, and this has been going on for almost two years now. We wanted to share some images of what is happening right now as we still go to the office on a daily basis - for us work is ongoing despite schools’ closure, because we had taken advantage to make the repairs of all institutional improved cook stoves in the school kitchens.

Video Presentation Warwick TeamWork

Early this month we told you about our 6 undergraduate students from Warwick University and Monash University working on their virtual project for the Virtual Internship 2021. After four weeks of intense learning on improved cook stoves, carbon markets and verifiable sustainable development impacts, they had submitted their final video presentation last Friday 23rd of July as part of their assignment obligations.

Each student had an individual topic to work on, and each edited a one minute video on the subject to make sure it is easily communicated to our social media audience. Topics included:

• Climate emergency in Uganda

• All about Simoshi

• Traditional versus improved cook stoves

• Carbon finance and markets

• Sustainable Development Goals

• Offsetting your carbon footprint ethically and responsibly

From top left to right: Virginia Echavarria (Simoshi), Surbhi Misra (Simoshi), Ella Baldwin (student), Lily Jean (student), Sarah Sheehan (student), Yan Chan (student), Pak Chan (student), Katie Randall (Warwick supervisor), Gianpaolo Mascaro (student).

It has been a fantastic experience at Simoshi as we mentored these six amazing individuals based from Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and London. It was incredible to manage the different time zones and have everyone attending the weekly Zoom meetings on time despite the diverse time zones (Uganda and India included!).

We look forward to posting all six individual videos on our Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, so don’t forget to follow us as we keep you entertained and updated on the latest events from the field in Kampala.

Water Boiling Testing of Improved Cook Stoves

July has been a busy month for testing, as twelve institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) of 30 litres capacity that have been in operation since 2016, have been collected from different schools within Kampala and brought to our offices to perform the Water Boiling Test.

The Water Boiling Test (WBT) is a simplified simulation of the cooking process. It is intended to measure how efficiently a stove uses fuel to heat water in a cooking pot and the quantity of emissions produced while cooking.

The Water Boiling Test was developed to assess stove performance in a controlled manner. It is an approximation of the cooking process and is conducted in controlled conditions by trained technicians.

The WBT test for efficiency can be performed with simple equipment, always ensuring it has been previously calibrated by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. (If emissions are measured, more complex equipment is required.) Such tests are mandatory to run, annually, under Simoshi’s registered Project Activity “Institutional Improved Cook Stoves for Schools and Institutions in Uganda”, to ensure the disseminated project IICS are still achieving at least 50% of fuel savings when compared to the baseline stoves/3-stone fires locally used. Its primary benefits are:

• Provide initial or laboratory assessments of stove performance in a controlled setting

• Compare the effectiveness of different designs at performing similar tasks

• Evaluate stove changes during development

• Select the most promising products for field trials

• Ensure that manufactured stoves meet intended performance based on designs throughout their lifetime

Warwick TeamWork Virtual Internship

“Critical now more than ever, virtual working is a way for students to together learn valuable communication skills, whilst solving business scenarios. Through the remote nature of this TeamWork programme, the aims are that students develop their team working skills, as well as innovation, critical thinking and project management skills”.

As a Warwick postrgaduate alumni, Simoshi is currently participating on the TeamWork Virtual Internship Programme 2021. TeamWork involves multi-disciplinary teams of students from the University of Warwick working together for four weeks starting end June 2021 - on a project set by Simoshi.

Simoshi is having a team of six students from around the world apply their perspectives, skills, global outlook and academic abilities to our specific business challenge. They are creating narrative and visual content to help communicate why companies and individuals should commit the highest level of environmental integrity when setting their climate goals, while their choice of action should also contribute to sustainable development.

Stay tuned as look forward to sharing the final presentation!

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It Is Back To Total Lock-Down

Once again Uganda goes into a total lockdown for the next 42 days, meaning public transport, private cars, sports and recreation, etc had now been added to the past measures reported on the 8th of June . Here at Simoshi we have to adjust our logistics to make sure we continue using these days of school closure to repair all institutional improved cook stoves.

Fortunately, motorcycles are allowed with only the driver, so Henry, our maintenance officer, can continue making progress with all repairs needed before the reopening of schools.

These are uncertain times worldwide, but especially here in Uganda where new Covid-19 cases had seen an unprecedented rise of 2,800% over the past weeks, and vaccines had run out (under 900,000 doses of Astra Zeneca), for a population of 44 million Ugandans, the future looks grim. Our spirits stay high as always as we continue to push for a more healthier and prosperous energy future.