Think Locally, Act Globally: UC Carbon Offset Project

The UC-initiated carbon offset project was created in an effort to help the UC meet its carbon neutrality goals while supporting UC-initiated research. Faculty, staff, researchers, and students from all ten UC campuses were invited to submit funding proposals for offset projects through the Carbon Neutrality Initiative. Submissions were evaluated upon criteria including the project’s ability to improve understanding of or demonstrate a scalable climate solution, as well as the predicted cost per ton, the quantity of greenhouse gas reductions, and co-benefits for the UC and the communities impacted by the project. Our campus is pleased to announce that two UC Santa Barbara professors’ offset projects were selected for funding through the Carbon Neutrality Initiative: John Bowers’ Unite to Light solar lantern project and Sangwon Suh’s Adopt a Cookstove project.

Unite to Light began when a professor from Ghana visited UC Santa Barbara’s Electrical and Computer Engineering professor, John Bowers, and articulated the problem he was noticing. Ghanian students were failing out of school because of their inability to study at night due to a lack of reading lights. This problem inspired Bowers to create a solution; using his background in photonics, he began to work on developing a low-cost solar lamp that could be utilized by students in Ghana. Bowers is one of the co-founders of Unite to Light, a 501(c)(3) organization that distributes efficient, durable, low-cost solar lamps to people without access to electricity. According to President of Unite to Light, Megan Birney, it is estimated that over 1 billion people live without access to electricity and a large portion of this population relies on kerosene as an alternative, which is dangerous, expensive, and a significant greenhouse gas pollutant. So far, Unite to Light has distributed over 120,000 solar lamps to people in more than 70 countries.

Unite to Light’s UC offset project will be implemented in 5 countries with which Unite to Light already has established relationships. This project will use carbon offsets to reduce the price of the solar light so that more people can afford to switch from kerosene to solar. Switching to solar would alleviate respiratory illnesses, diseases, and vision problems that are associated with airborne pollution, as well as reduce fires and burns from kerosene lamps. In addition to health benefits, the project creates economic benefits and job opportunities. Unite to Light will partner with organizations and entrepreneurs and give them the opportunity to resell the lights. These entrepreneurs will re-sell the solar lamps at a price affordable for their client base, so they can make a profit as well. Birney is grateful for the opportunity to implement this project through the UC carbon offset program and is excited by the co-benefits that this will bring to the communities. Birney expressed the importance and widespread impact of Unite to Light’s work in Santa Barbara that is changing communities across the globe, Birney said, “Think locally, act globally. What we do here really matters in a global community.”

Professor of industrial ecology, Sangwon Suh, has also been selected to receive funding through the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative for his Adopt a Cookstove project. The goal is to replace charcoal and three-stone cookstoves with cleaner and more efficient wood pellet cookstoves. This project will be implemented in Rwanda, which ranks 163 of 193 in global per capita GDP. Rwandans in rural communities typically cannot afford clean cookstoves, so they use inefficient solid fuel, such as charcoal and firewood, for cooking. The technology associated with the wood pellet stoves is significantly more efficient than charcoal, releasing up to 90% less CO2 emissions. The cookstoves burn efficiently through gasification which reduces the amount of wood required to run the stove, which also reduces deforestation. In the long run, these stoves are also the more cost-effective alternative for rural households, wood pellets cost less than charcoal and liquid petroleum gas.

In addition to the economic benefits of the wood pellet cookstoves, the health benefits are abundant. The burning of firewood and charcoal generates hazardous air pollutants which lead to 2 - 4.3 million premature deaths a year according to NIH and WHO. Also, firewood collection for fuel is often a task for women and children. They spend many hours every day collecting and carrying heavy loads of wood to their homes, time which could be alternatively used to generate income, go to school, or other more productive activities. Adopt a Cookstove team member, Yirui Zhang said, “For some developing countries using firewood for cooking, such as Rwanda, adopting clean cookstoves will reduce GHG emissions and indoor air pollution generated by inefficient cooking. I think this cookstove project is at the nexus of GHG reduction, public health and social justice in developing countries. I am excited about the social impacts of this project and looking forward to seeing how our project can actually help local communities in Rwanda.”

Together, the Adopt a Cookstove and the Unite to Light projects are contributing to UC Santa Barbara’s goal of carbon neutrality through efficiency, renewable energy, and socially responsible offsets.

In addition to these projects, UC Santa Barbara has made great progress towards carbon neutrality through on-campus actions. In 2018, UCSB’s total operational greenhouse gas emissions were down an impressive ~25% from 1990 levels, despite a near doubling of the size of the campus in gross square feet. UCSB has also implemented solar energy at 12 separate on-campus sites, with a total capacity of 6.2 megawatts. These solar panels provide approximately 15% of UCSB’s electrical demand and up to 35% on clear Spring and Summer days. More information on UC Santa Barbara’s climate action plan, including energy and emissions reduction statistics, can be found here.