Hearing from our farmers: 60 Decibels reports
Over the past year, 60 Decibels’ qualified researchers have spoken to more than 600 Sistema.bio users in Kenya, India and Mexico to understand their adoption and satisfaction levels, how they are using the biodigesters and how much impact they have had on their farms and lives. You can read about some of their key findings in this article.
The story of Sistema.bio at Clean Cooking Alliance
The Clean Cooking Alliance is currently carrying out a series of conversations with business leaders across the clean cooking sector. Back in August, our CEO Alex Eaton sat down with them to talk about Sistema.bio’s story —how it all started, how it expanded across four continents and what our biggest achievements have been. Read the full interview here!
First Carbon Credits sold in Kenya
Last year, we started the registration process for a Gold Standard for the Global Goals certification. After many months of work from both the Sistema.bio and the South Pole teams, we managed to obtain the first carbon credit issuance in Gold Standard for our Kenyan operations. These carbon credits translate into savings for our customers, and we are proud to say that we have sold our first carbon credit-discounted biodigesters!
You can see all the official data here.
Esther Altorfer on Cooking Energy in Displacement Settings
This September, our very own Esther Altorfer spoke in a webinar on Cooking Energy in Displacement Settings, an event organized by GIZ (ESDS & EnDev), GPA and MECS. The webinar featured several speakers, each of which spoke about the key aspects of cooking with processed biomass, firewood, e-cooking, LP gas, ethanol and, of course, biogas. To hear Esther talk about the issues surrounding access to cooking energy in displacement settings, watch the following video:
Multi-stakeholder partnership with dairy farmers at the center
Following several successful joint projects, we have established a new multi-stakeholder partnership with Sustain Plus, the group company of TATA CINI, and local dairies supported by NDDB and BAIF for the installation of 2,200 biodigesters in 8 states of India, which will provide a base for future expansion. To find out more about how this program is going to work, read this article.
Partnership for sustainable agricultural production
Solidaridad Network works with smallholder farmers, local authorities, private sector and research institutes in the search of improved food production, a safer workplace, access to clean water, and a better income. Following the success of our joint project in Zambia, we are now going to provide biodigesters to dairy farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Upon successful integration, this partnership will expand into more geographies on larger-scale models.
Validation Visits for the Carbon Credits Program
Sistema.bio Mexico is currently registering its own carbon credit program under the Gold Standard for the Global Goals (public information available here). Recently, we had a site visit from the third-party validation team in Yucatán and Hidalgo. They interviewed 20 farmers to validate our calculations and project documents. This is an important milestone in the registration process and we are happy to be moving forward to issue our first carbon credits soon!
Energy Self-Sufficiency with Sistema.bio
In August we sent 10 biodigesters to Otros Mundos, a civil organization from San Cristobal de las Casas that works for the defense of the territory. The biodigesters are being installed by the Otros Mundos team, trained by Sistema.bio, on small farms in the Altos de Chiapas area as part of their Energy Self-Sufficiency program. These 10 biodigesters add to 11 more acquired by the organization earlier this year.