We’re offsetting our carbon emissions: African Biogas Carbon programme in Kenya

16 December 2020, Category: All insights, News

Photo by: Sven Torfinn

As part of Goal 1.2 of our environmental policy, ‘Minimise emissions generated from travelling and undertaking consulting work in other countries; offset emissions from essential travel’, we’ve offset our 2019-2020 travel emissions (flight and train) through the purchase of 74 Gold Standard VERs. Through this we have supported the African Biogas Carbon programme in Kenya, as part of Hivos.

Where our offsets are going – about the Kenya biogas programme

The Kenya biogas programme provides biodigesters to individual households. The programme was founded by the Africa Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP), a partnership between the Dutch government, Hivos and SNV Netherlands Development Organization. ABPP has supported  national programmes in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, with Hivos as fund and programme manager. The overall objective of ABPP is to develop a commercially viable biogas sector that supports the use of domestic biogas as a local, sustainable energy source.

Domestic biodigesters provide a way for individual households with livestock to reduce their dependence on polluting firewood and expensive fossil fuels. Cooking on biogas is fast and smokeless, thus improving the health of especially women and children. Leftover slurry from the biogas process is an excellent organic fertiliser that can be applied to improve crop yields. Selling more vegetables provides families with extra income.

– Type of project: Biogas digesters
– Time sequence project: 2009 – present
– Emission reduction: 4.6t CO2 e/year per digester

Facts & figures (until March 2020)

• 14,950 smoke-free kitchens
• 103,440 direct beneficiaries
• 365,200 tCO2 reduced
• 223,000 ton of wood saved
• 13,700 productive slurry users
• 31 private enterprises
• 107 full time jobs plus part-time unskilled day
labour

Comments from E Co. CEO, Dr Grant Ballard-Tremeer:

“For E Co., since electricity use in our offices and in the homes of many staff members comes from renewable energy, and almost all of our computing services being carbon neutral, the biggest source of Greenhouse Gases comes from unavoidable travel. We have now offset our emissions from April 2019 to March 2020 by investing in a clean energy project in Kenya. This is important for E Co. and our staff: that we don’t just talk about what others should do, but take responsibility for what we do. Because of the pandemic we haven’t had any travel since April 2020, but once travel is again possible we will continue to travel only when necessary and to offset emissions that we cannot avoid.” 

Comments from E Co. Principal consultant, Dr Jasmine Hyman:

E Co. is really excited to support the African Biogas Programme in Kenya. As consultants that design climate change mitigation projects for a living, we know how hard it is to get transformative gender outcomes, social and economic benefits and catalytic change in a single project. It’s wonderful to support this programme, and I’ll also say that I’m proud of E Co’s environmental policy and B Corp status — every year we ratchet it up a step beyond where we used to be. 

 

Who are Hivos?

Hivos supports access to carbon finance for the rural poor by implementing domestic biogas programmes and selling carbon credits. They focus on pro-poor benefiting renewable energy projects, such as domestic biogas and clean cookstoves, and sustainable agricultural practices. All their carbon credits are registered under the Gold Standard. To learn more about Hivos, click here.

What else are we doing to reduce our environmental footprint? Read the rest of our environmental policy here.

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