CASE STUDY: MANNA IN Kenya

Manna Energy Limited Develops and Registers
World’s First Gold Standard Carbon Credit
Water Treatment Program

Manna Energy Limited, under contract to Vestergaard Frandsen, successfully developed and registered the first Gold Standard carbon credit water treatment program, which is now the largest Gold Standard project on the market.

Alison Hill, the Vestergaard Frandsen Campaign Manager, says, “Nearly one million LifeStraw® Family water filters, serving over four million people, will be installed in almost every household in the Western Province of Kenya. The province-wide, door-to-door free distribution campaign will reach about 90 percent of all homes without access to safe municipal water sources.”

"Carbon for Water" Provides Point of Use Water Filtration Without Cost

The campaign provides Kenyan residents with point-of-use water filtration for a sustained 10-year period - without any cost to local residents, governmental agencies or donor groups.

Vestergaard Frandsen spearheads the distribution campaign, called “Carbon for Water.” The global company specializes in complex and emergency disease control textiles, including the LifeStraw® Family water filters that will be given to Kenyan residents.

Vestergaard Frandsen made the initial USD $25 million investment needed to launch the campaign. “Start-up costs are especially steep considering the need to manufacture and transport close to a million LifeStraw® water filters, and hire and train more than 3,500 community health workers to distribute them and educate residents on usage,” explained Vestergaard Frandsen CEO, Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen.

Long Term Economic Impact

Longer term, the company will employ hundreds of Kenyans over a period of 10-years to maintain 19 repair and replacement shops that will be set up throughout Western Province, and to provide ongoing community education.

Carbon Emission Reduction

Each LifeStraw® Family water filter delivers at least 18,000 liters of U.S. EPA-quality drinking water, enough to supply a family of five with cleaning drinking water for three years. Kenyans who receive them will no longer have to treat water by boiling it using wood fuel, which generates greenhouse gasses. This behavioral change is expected to produce more than two million tons of carbon emission reductions annually. As the supplier of the water filters, Vestergaard Frandsen will earn the carbon credits.

Since the company only gets paid for the performance of the water filters in reducing emissions, it has a strong incentive to invest the revenue it earns back into the campaign – to maintain and replenish the LifeStraw® Family water filters and to educate residents on proper usage.

United Nations Millenium Goals

The campaign targets four of the eight UN Millennium Goals including:

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Goal 6: Combat diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

It is also aligned with the U.S. Strategy for Meeting the MDGs which states that successful programs must address the need for sustainable development and create a strong link between cost-effective investment and measurable impact.

Manna Expertise and Services

Manna partnered with Vestergaard Frandsen to develop and implement this carbon finance program, including collaboration on all elements of project development:

• Stakeholder consultations
• Project Design Document and Gold Standard Passport production
• Carbon economics modeling,
• Validation management
• Carbon reduction purchase agreements

Monitoring for Accountability

Manna developed and deployed a suite of reporting and monitoring tools to facilitate, manage and ensure the efficient distribution of nearly 900,000 LifeStraw® Family water filters by 4,000 field workers to 4,000,000 residents in Kenya’s Western Province.