In The News @ ACW2023

We are incredibly grateful for the latest blog post written by Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and Co-Chair of UN-Energy and Margaret Kim, CEO of Gold Standard as a result of their participation at the Africa Climate Week 2023.

Our work with schools in Uganda is mentioned as an example of how the voluntary carbon market can contribute not only to global net zero, but also to support development objectives and deliver the much needed revenues to get the technologies deployed.

“Africa's carbon market offers a powerful means to address climate change and uplift communities. The tangible benefits seen in the projects in across Africa highlight the potential of carbon credits, both environmentally and socio-economically. As regulations evolve, governments have the opportunity to address current challenges and meet national priorities by crafting policies that prioritise local needs and ensure sustained advantages. By championing local expertise and fostering shared benefits, Africa can realize the carbon market's dual promise for its people and the environment”.

Combating Energy Poverty

We often read many articles and reports on household stoves and energy poverty. But we forget to acknowledge that schools are also cooking with traditional 3-stone fires, and these are the largest and most concentrated existing firewood consumers on the continent. Just imagine saucepans that range from 30 to 600 litres capacities, a diameter of 1-meter wide, like a truck tyre!

And someone has to prepare the meals every single day, under such unhealthy and unsafe conditions. So how do we support decarbonisation that benefits the people most at risk from energy poverty?

Although electric pressure cookers are not an option available at such scale right now for institutional consumers, we do have the opportunity to help schools move away from traditional cooking practices to energy efficient stoves with institutional improved cook stoves (IICS).

By default, the use of an IICS provides a decent working environment to all those involved in the cooking activities - usually women. Because the IICS are notonly cleaner and safer, but also faster for preparing meals, it gives cooks the opportunity for leisure and using that extra time to pursue activities in their own interest and comfort.

During the year 2022, Simoshi directly impacted 158 women in the kitchen who benefitted from the use of an IICS and support provided during the training sessions.

Term 2 Comes To An End

It’s an official wrap for Term 2, children, teachers and cooks can go home to get their well deserved rest. Schools will be opening their doors once again for the last term of the year, starting on 18th of September and finalising on the last week of December.

For us, it is a busy maintenance period of 3 weeks as we repair all institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) free of cost to all schools. Best of times as kitchens are not in operation.

We prepare the hectic schedule in advance with our partner Uganda Stove Manufacturers Limited (Ugastove) to make sure we are continuously improving the IICS quality and all its components. Here below we share some pictures of our meeting earlier this week, with Rehema and Crispus from Ugastove, and Robert and Virginia from Simoshi. We discussed the metal gauge of sheets used and durability of chimney pipes and stove connectors.

Robust Sustainable Impact

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) released the second half of its Carbon Core Principle’s (CCPs) guidance to address carbon credit integrity. With the aim to bolster different activities pushing towards the common net-zero goal, the ICVCM’s new guidance should hopefully usher in high-quality across the voluntary carbon market, and we welcome these with open arms.

The IC-VCM has grouped the CCPs into three categories, with Sustainable Development being one of them. It has been defined as social and environmental safeguards, and avoid locking-in technologies or practices that are incompatible with reaching net zero GHG emissions by mid-century.

Identifying low-quality carbon credits in the market is an essential step to ensuring that VCMs achieve their potential impact in combating the climate crisis. This will reduce the risk to buyers of purchasing low-quality credits, and provide clear guidance to standards to help them improve their processes to reduce the proportion of low-integrity credits in the market. It will finally put our efforts in the spotlight with the 9 Sustainable Development Goals achieved since the first school join the Project Activity back in March 2016.

9 SDGs Achieved

Our Project Activity achieves 9 Sustainable Development Goals, with individual indicators that are continuously monitored, quantified and verified by the Gold Standard.

Once Upon A Time....

Over a half billion sub-Saharan Africans do not have electricity and over 80% rely on traditional biomass, i.e., charcoal, wood, and kerosene, for cooking, and the region is falling further behind in achieving the fundamental SDG7 energy access goal of clean-cooking solutions for all.

22,000 schools in Uganda still use 3-stone fires to prepare their daily meals.

Some few schools make a HUGE effort to buy institutional improved cook stoves (IICS). Unfortunately, the cooking sector is unregulated, and schools fall into the hands of unprofessional stove manufacturers that:

  • do not test their stoves following international standards to ensure their product is fuel efficient and

  • do not offer any after sales support or maintenance to the stoves.

The pictures below are the typical sad scenario we find in school kitchens: destroyed stoves, that once upon a time, used to be a decent component of the kitchen environment.

Just like any other product in life, improved cook stoves also need on-going repairs. Imagine these are under fire every day, sometimes in the evenings for those boarding schools. Fire eventually destroys the firebox chamber of the IICS, and if these are not regularly maintained, schools end up consuming a lot of firewood, just as they did before with their traditional 3-stone fires.

One amazing feature at Simoshi, is using the revenues accrued from the sale of the carbon credits, to support all participating schools with free IICS annual maintenance, for a period of 10 years. We have been providing this support since 2016 when we first installed 4 IICS at Gangu Muslim Primary School.

Maintenance events include work on the insulation bricks, or on the metal body and chimney pipes. The first item that gets damaged from the flames is the combustion chamber, so it is a must that every IICS has to be plastered at least once a year, with the special insulation plastering mix, to ensure all insulation bricks are intact and in place, as shown in the pictures below.

Improved Cook Stoves Hold The Key to Education

Amy Herbert from Monarch University Australia is today our guest writer, and shares her thoughts on how education in Uganda can be positively affected though Simoshi’s kitchen intervention:

“Simoshi provides affordable Institutional Improved Cookstoves (IICS) to schools in Uganda, creating carbon reductions through reduced firewood use. These carbon reductions generate credits that are sold on international marketplaces to businesses and individuals looking to offset their carbon emissions. While most carbon credits help reduce climate impacts, Simoshi goes a step further by simultaneously providing broader additional benefits to children and their education in Uganda, contributing to the achievement of the United Nations' fourth Sustainable Development Goal: Quality Education.

It is well-known that breathing in smoke daily from traditional three-stone cooking methods is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, leading to various negative health effects, including a weakened immune system. By using IICS, smoke pollution in schools has drastically reduced or been completely eliminated.

Hasadu Kilabira, the Director of City Junior School, mentioned that the smoke was significantly affecting the staff and students due to the school's relatively small size. However, after installing the IICS, they managed to eliminate the smoke. As a result, the health of teachers and students has improved, leading to fewer absences and allowing children to spend more days learning, thus enhancing the quality of their education. Additionally, smoke-free classrooms improve students' visibility of teaching boards and minimize disruptions during teaching periods, which are crucial factors in helping children acquire and retain knowledge.

Hasadu Kilabira also reported that since implementing the IICS, their school only uses one truck of firewood per term, compared to three trucks when they relied on three-stone fireplaces.

Similarly, Ddamulira Roberts, a cook at Kabowa COU primary school, stated that they reduced their firewood use from two lorries per term to one lorry every two terms, resulting in a 50% reduction in firewood consumption. This not only mitigates deforestation and reduces carbon dioxide emissions, but also saves schools hundreds of dollars each term, which can then be allocated to educational resources for the students like new books, writing materials, infrastructure, and computers.

Children cannot learn effectively without a clean environment and the necessary resources. Therefore, the next time you decide to offset your carbon emissions, consider purchasing your credits from Simoshi. By doing so, you will not only contribute to the environment but also invest in the lives of Ugandan children, ensuring their access to quality and safe education”.

Many Make It Possible

Last week we installed 3 institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) at Hillstone Primary School in Mbuya. This delivery was a big challenge to us, because the school is only accessible through a pedestrian walk. No trucks or cars can access the kitchen. And this meant we had to carry the 3 IICS with the help of strong men, for over 100 meters.

Each IICS can weight well above 80 kilos, depending on the size of the saucepan it was made for. Big IICS can only be delivered using cranes. Luckily this time around, the IICS were small enough to make it without the usual set up.

And the good will of those at school ready to give a helping hand, to make sure the school cooks and children can start enjoying from a clean and efficient kitchen environment.

Improved Cooking And Carbon Finance Explained

Last week we told you about TeamWorks 2023 and we wanted to start sharing the amazing work that was prepared during the month of July by our seven students around the world.

The video here below was created by Stefan Makhoul and Junyi Liu. These are their views on how Simoshi is impacting the lives of children in Uganda and the benefits that are enjoyed when someone choses this project to offset their carbon footprint.

TeamWork International Virtual Programme 2023

TeamWork is an online programme offered by the University of Warwick (UK), Monash University Australia, Monash University Malaysia, Cornell University (USA), Hong Kong University, University of Toronto (Canada), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), IIT Delhi (India) and Eutopia University

TeamWork is designed to help students develop their international experience, intercultural and communication skills, whilst organisations benefit from having a team of students apply their perspectives, global outlook and academic abilities to your specific project or challenge.  

Now in its fifth year, TeamWork has gone from strength to strength, connecting organisations with multi-disciplinary teams of students from Warwick and other top universities around the world. 

Simoshi has once again participated, hosting 7 students from all over the world, during a 4-week part-time virtual project that run from 26 June – 21 July 2023. During this time students created educational campaigns and marketing strategies on various social media platforms, with the expectation to increase traffic and raise awareness on the benefits of Simoshi’s Project Activity when offsetting your carbon footprint.

We would like to thank Yun Wirawan, Sharif Hussein, Precious Omofia, Amy Herbert, Stefan Makhoul, Junyi Liu and Dau Hung for their time and dedication. Stay tuned as we will soon share their amazing work, which includes articles on LinkedIn and reels on Instagram.

Stone Age Cooking

The title is annoying, but this is how over 20,000 schools in Uganda are still cooking like. We don’t need to travel far from the capital Kampala. Actually, the pictures below were captured in a school located in the town centre.

Moving up the energy ladder means moving away from traditional 3-stone fires to energy efficient cook stoves (IICS). Schools are still consuming firewood for their cooking needs, but using it efficiently, saving at least half.

This is a great improvement, not only generating an amazing financial impact on the school finances - an average school of 800 children can save USD 900 on firewood purchases per year - but also having a positive impact on the cooks health. Because firewood consumption is reduced by half, smoke is also greatly reduced, from less combustion taking place, together with the IICS design that pushes residual smoke outside through the chimney pipes.

Schools Are Reducing Firewood Consumption By Half

World Resources Institute’s latest Global Forest Review is now out. Unfortunately news are not getting any better, but it is important to continue reminding all our readers and buyers of carbon credits that yours and our contribution to stop deforestation is meaningful.

We lost 10.2 million acres of primary forests in the tropics globally during 2022.

The bad news, human-caused deforestation increased by 10% compared to last year as per the latest report.

Schools make an important contribution to this alarming issue, as they move away from using traditional 3-stone fires to using energy efficient cook stoves, because firewood consumption automatically reduces by half. Keep making YOUR contribution when supporting Simoshi’s Project Activity by choosing the right carbon offsets. Below is just one of the many examples that depict this significant change in the school kitchens in Uganda.

During the year 2022 alone, 95 schools reduced 11,951 tons of firewood. That’s the amazing impact we made together on SDG15.

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.