How can Samsung reduce carbon emissions
with delivering eco-friendly stoves in Kenya?
By Kim, Flint Lab Inc.
Updated February , 2018
Patricia Kingori, Senior Manager, Samsung Electronics (right), and Charles Sunkuli, Principal Secretary, Kenya Ministry of Environment, demonstrate how to use bioethanol stoves to organizations partnering in the bioethanol stove initiative in Kenya
Samsung Electronics has supplied 12,000 low-carbon eco-friendly cookstoves to the Kakuma area in Kenya, which is the oldest refugee camp in the world, with about 185,000 refugees managed by UNHCR.
This is not the first time the South Korean tech giant has contributed cooking equipment to Kenya. It's said that the second dissemination after supplying 10,000 units to the slums near Mombasa in Kenya last November following the Samsung Newsroom. These stoves will be sold at the Kakuma refugee camp at Sh1,995 down from Sh4,000 per stove.
The Ministry of Environment of Kenya is expecting that this program will play a major role in the reduction of carbon emissions in the country. Principal Secretary Charles Sunkuli said the ministry is aware of the country’s depletion of the environment due to increasing pollution and competition for natural resources.
Charcoal, the most popular fuel for stoves in Kenya, is a key factor that contributes to air pollution
Mostly, charcoals are used when cooking in Kenya, which is causing premature mortality of poor households with soot and harmful substances to the women and the elderly. To make charcoal, upto10 times of it's weight are lumbered. This phenomenon is actually destroying African forests, which are already lacking in greenery. In 2015, it was estimated that Kenya was losing a shocking 5.6 million trees daily
Charcoal costs about 20 Kenyan Shillings, roughly 0.20 U.S. Dollars, per kilogram.
Kenyan households use about 2 kilograms a day
Samsung Electronics East Africa head of corporate marketing Patricia King’ori called for urgent creation of a healthy environment for future generations through projects that significantly address the rate of deforestation and carbon emissions.
“This is a problem that affects the entire African continent with the green foundation revealing that the rate of annual deforestation in Africa exceeds the global annual average of 0.8 percent,” she said.
Eco-friendly cookstoves will help address climate change and improve the health and safety
of the residents while providing them with economic sustainability.
By using bioethanol obtained from fermented pulp molasses, which is thrown away from the sugar factory but is six times more energy efficient than charcoal, will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Samsung Electronics worked with Norwegian company 'Green Development', hiring local manpower in this project. Mr.Sunkuli said the use ethanol stoves will reduce carbon emissions in the country by over 500,000 tonnes in the next five years.
Local personnel will be hired to help distribute bioethanol stoves in Kenya
Haengil Kim, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Environment, Health and Safety Center, Samsung Electronics said “We hope this project helps refugees in Kenya in a meaningful way. Samsung Electronics will continue to carry out its responsibility as a corporate citizen with more such initiatives.”
Burton Wagacha, Senior Public Health Officer and Technical Coordinator, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, “These cookstoves will help improve the quality of living for many refugees. We look forward to continue partnering with Samsung Electronics in more initiatives.”
Meanwhile Samsung Electronics has announced that it received the highest rating for the eighth consecutive year, in the climate change response assessment conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a global sustainability evaluation agency.
Source :
https://news.samsung.com/global/why-samsung-electronics-is-delivering-eco-friendly-stoves-to-kakuma-refugee-camp-in-kenya
https://www.nation.co.ke/news/Ethanol-stove-reduce-carbon-emissions/1056-4286424-9gxvcp/index.html
