By Greentech Lead Team: The Paradigm Project announced
the delivery of the first part of a transaction involving 125,000 tons of
carbon offsets from its Kenya cook stove project to Climate Neutral Group.
The Paradigm Project’s cook stove project has implemented
45,000 efficient cook stoves throughout East Africa and parts of Latin America,
and targeted to implement 5 million stoves by the year 2020.
“We are excited about the relationship with Climate
Neutral Group and the high demand for our project offsets as we move into other
East African countries to begin new cook stove projects this year,” said Neil
Bellefeuille, CEO and co-founder of The Paradigm Project.
The stoves generating this first delivery of offsets have
made positive impact in the lives of 210,350 people in Kenya. The Paradigm
Project expects to sell 400,000 cook stoves, which will be positively impacting
the lives of more than 2 million people and reducing more than 1.5 million tons
of carbon dioxide.
The project has saved more than 4.6 million hours in time
spent collecting wood; $110,587 in local income; and 127,537 trees from
deforestation.
The 125,000 tons of carbon reductions created from the
Kenya cook stove project were sold to Climate Neutral Group at a fixed,
undisclosed price. Full delivery will likely occur by the end of 2012 or early
2013.
“The Paradigm Project has a unique business model,
including its commitment to financial sustainability and social impact in the
communities in which it works, and we’ll be looking to purchase more carbon
offsets from Paradigm in the future,” said Franz Rentel, carbon project manager
for Climate Neutral Group.
Earlier this year, The Paradigm Project announced
certification by The Gold Standard, a certification scheme for carbon credits
in both the compliance and voluntary carbon markets. This issuance represents
the first ever Gold Standard Voluntary Emissions Reduction (VER) delivery from
Kenya.