ESRAG’s South Asia Chapter Chair Arun Vaddi and I commissioned five boxes - the “bee hotels” - and got them ready to go. A wildlife filmmaker, Saravanakumar, suggested adding a motion camera so Rotarians who miss the entry of an insect into the hotel could still record the species.  Currently we are using an app provided by the motion camera to upload our observations.

We set up this project as part of the Operation Pollination pledge to be undertaken by the clubs. Our plan was for the District Governor to sign the resolution in the presence of RIP Jennifer Jones when she visited Chennai.

By the time Jennifer Jones reached our exhibit at the town hall meeting, she was being mobbed. She got excited seeing our bee hotels and started taking photographs. We barely got to talk to her for 30 seconds, but told her how open pollination in fields now is the need of the hour, and how the silent pollinators in our cities are now the last resort, providing 90% of the pollination in our fields. In the photo I’m explaining the fundamentals of the project to her.

Why a bee hotel? As you can see from the picture, a bee hotel has different-sized bole holes made of bamboo. It helps pollinators like carpenter and mason bees that lay eggs in cavities. There are still other bees that lay eggs in the soil.

Are bee hotels the solution to increase pollinators? It is certainly a way to bring awareness to people about how this essential service to the human food supply is carried out by these unseen insects. We are using this as a conversational tool to discover pollinator corridors. Rotarians with bee hotels get interested by looking for pollinators. They just need to maintain the boxes. The camera helps in keeping them engaged to see the variety of visitors using the structure, and makes them more amenable to creating pollinator-friendly spaces. Bee hotels are a great way to stimulate interest and conversations about how to protect these vital insects.

Is the box going to solve pollination issues? Not particularly, but it is a good way to intrigue the community and engage them in supporting pollinators.

Orange County Habitat, the affiliate serving Chapel Hill, already builds energy-efficient homes. Adding solar boosts these houses towards Net Zero Energy operation, as Joey O’Brien explains in his article in this issue.  

Monthly energy bills can grab a huge proportion of low-income families’ monthly incomes. Utility shut-offs endanger their health and credit.  Reducing monthly electric bills supports Habitat’s core mission: keeping housing affordable for low-income families.  Having solar panels increases the house’s resale value and incentivizes the use of electric appliances. But the big up-front capital costs of solar – above $15,000 for a 5.4 kW array in the continental US – make adding solar a formidable challenge for Habitat.  That’s where Rotarians’ ingenuity and advocacy come into play.

“Habitat monthly mortgage payments are capped at 30% of the family’s monthly income,” Liz Henke explains. With land and building material costs rising so steeply, everyone is hitting that 30%.” For that reason, increasing the mortgage to cover some of the solar capital costs usually isn’t an option. Most Habitat families don’t owe enough federal income tax to qualify for the current US solar tax credit that refunds 26% of the cost of adding solar. 

Liz and fellow Rotarians including Aur Beck of ESRAG’s Renewable Energy Task Force have compiled practical advice in the Manual on a number of ways to finance solar Habitat projects. The East Chapel Hill Rotarians have written successful grant proposals – one county grant, written in conjunction with Habitat of Orange Co. provided $95,000 - and they encouraged Strata Clean Energy to donate panels. Other resources include Rotary District Grants, utility company rebates, selling solar tax credits, crowdsourcing, and power purchase agreements where investors pay for the solar project, take the tax credits, and sell the power to homeowners at lower rates than the local utility.  

Another strategy Liz Henke suggests is asking companies who want to achieve net-zero to finance Habitat solar installations to help offset the companies’ carbon emissions.  The Inflation Reduction Act passed by the US Congress in August includes $1 billion to make affordable housing more energy efficient, and ESRAG members will be eagerly researching how Habitat can access the new federal grants.

Rotarians and Rotaracters have already helped Habitat affiliates complete successful solar projects in a number of states including North Carolina, Virginia, and Illinois. The Habitat Solar partnership is catalyzing creative ways to promote resilience and energy independence – both increasingly needed as severe storms damage the grid and heat emergencies cause more and more rolling blackouts. The planned mixed-income Weavers Grove development in Chapel Hill is a great example.  It will include 100 Habitat homes. Chapel Hill Rotary is working with Habitat to make this a solar community.  This development will also have a community center with solar panels and batteries, so residents can have a safe air-conditioned space to go during power outages where they can keep their medication safe in refrigerators and plug in cell phones and laptops.

Photo below by Aur Beck: volunteers installing solar panels on a Habitat house in Illinois

Climate and energy justice projects captivate young leaders by demonstrating Rotary’s relevance.  East Chapel Hill Rotary recruited a University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) student, Will Nichols, as an intern. He fell in love with the Habitat Solar idea and was instrumental in winning in-kind donations from Strata Clean Energy.  He set up a new UNC-CH club to help Habitat embrace renewable energy. The new student club is planning to join the eRotaract Club for the Environment who are interested in adopting Habitat Solar as a project. Habitat builds and Rotary tree-planting events are excellent opportunities to engage student volunteers and show them Rotary practicality, fellowship, and fun in action.

Read the manual and dive into Solar Habitat, a marvelous way to increase energy justice and implement a powerful climate solution.  Email Aur Beck, chair of ESRAG’s Renewable Energy Task Force, or Dr. Liz Henke of the Rotary Club of East Chapel Hill if you have questions. They will be glad to help.

Here are the data on North America’s steep temperature rise: why we must act now.

In addition to using less energy and producing fewer greenhouse gas emissions, a NZE or NZEr building also provides the following benefits:

• Greater comfort: strategic placement of the building, windows and overhangs, and increasing the airtightness of the building, makes a NZE/NZEr building less drafty, quieter, and less prone to uncomfortable temperature swings.
• Healthier indoor air quality: Rather than relying on a leaky building envelope that allows contaminants, uncontrolled moisture, and unconditioned air into the living space,  airtight NZE/NZEr buildings use Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERV) or Heat Recovery Ventilators (HRV) to provide supply fresh air without wasting energy.
• Resilience: NZE/NZEr buildings are better able to withstand extreme weather disruptions, and provide a refuge during periods of shocks such as a prolonged power outage or other emergency. NZE/NZEr buildings can maintain a livable temperature longer, thereby keeping occupants safe in extreme weather. Balanced ventilation provides a degree of protection in the event of wildfires or other events that introduce outdoor contaminants.
• Energy savings: Smart design with energy as an early consideration means less energy is used to keep your home warm in the winter and cool in the summer. This often leads to lower energy bills that help offset any increased costs associated with additional energy efficiency measures.
• Higher resale and rental value: NZE/NZEr buildings command a market premium not only for their increased comfort or lower energy bills, but also because they are more durable.
• Smaller ecological footprint: Fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reduced energy use are a clear benefit. A more thoughtful design can also result in fewer resources used in the construction of your NZE/NZEr building. 

• First, become aware. Real changes are charging towards us. Energy costs are extremely variable: in time they will become very expensive. Energy consumed equals GHG’s exhausted, so being energy-frugal means reducing your GHG footprint.
• Clubs and members can seek out experts and have them present to their club. Club newsletters can identify experts in the district for personal consulting (I find everyone wants to discuss solar with me) and ways to cut costs.   
• Advocate with politicians and energy company leaders. I know many Rotarians bristle at this thought, as it looks to step into the world of politics, but requesting/ demanding change at a systemic level will create a better world for our grandchildren. You are not preferring one party over another, but demanding action against the greatest threat the world may face.

“Rotary is in the perfect position to bring community leaders together to address the crisis and push for change,” says John Mathers.  “This is not politics, it is taking action on an existential threat.  All our work in every corner of the world will be for nothing if we allow the environment to collapse.” He adds a quote from Pope Francis from November, 2021: “You have been entrusted with an exciting but also challenging task, to stand tall while everything around us appears to be collapsing.”

American Rotarians are catalyzing action in accountability to the Four Way Test. First test: truth. The United States is the largest historic emitter of carbon in the world, and second highest currently in generating emissions which are already driving huge suffering and losses. “Since the ESRAG Annual General Membership meeting, I have been reflecting on one slide in oceanographer Mark Eakins’ presentation that really grabbed me,” says Doug White. "Limiting warming of our planet to around 1.5°C (2.7°F) requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43% by 2030.  At the same time, methane would also need to be reduced by about a third.  (IPCC Report) Yet the UN is forecasting global emissions to increase by 16% by 2030, and methane to not be reduced at all.”

Second test: fairness. Dartmouth University released a major research study July 12 quantifying the economic losses to other nations caused by major emitters, finding that emissions by the US and China caused global income losses of over $1.8 trillion each between 1990 and 2015.  Here’s a summary.

The impacts include lost agricultural yields, lower labor productivity (imagine trying to work outside in one of this year’s record-breaking heat waves), and decreased industrial output. When researchers added the losses caused by Russia, India, and Brazil, the total damage over those 25 years was $6 trillion from the five nations: about 11% of the world's GDP.  The study says that the top 10 global emitters have caused more than two thirds of losses worldwide. These findings can be used as the basis for climate liability claims against the US and other major emitters.

In her article in this issue about the European Community, ESRAG Europe member Ingrid Hesser recommends another powerful accountability tool which Rotarians can use: the website “We Don’t Have Time,” a review platform where you can post solutions or evaluate actions taken by government, business, and other sectors. “Write or agree to climate reviews to make businesses and world leaders act,” they invite. When an action or technology gets 100 “agrees,” We Don’t Have Time staff write the recipient of the review and ask for a response.

Third test: finding solutions that are beneficial to all concerned. Doug White encourages all Rotarians to learn and apply the strategies of Project Drawdown.  See the article in this issue about new and updated Drawdown solutions. The framing is important: “Maybe instead of approaching climate change from an environmental point of view, we should begin to approach it from an economic point of view,” says Doug White. “After all, in the end it all comes down to a question of economics.  Not changing our trajectory of increasing emissions is going to cost multi billions in economic losses!” Drawdown’s webinars on Climate and Poverty, cited in the article, talk about the powerful synergy between solutions to climate change and solutions to poverty.

“ESRAG and RI’s The Environment Area of Focus need to get FOCUSED on rapidly ramping up climate change projects, worldwide,"Doug White adds. "What are Rotarians good at doing?  Raising money for projects!  IMAGINE what a positive IMPACT Rotary could have on the climate crisis if just half of us, 700,000 Rotarians, focused on transitioning to a zero-emission, zero-waste lifestyle and created climate change reduction projects in our local communities and around the world."

ESRAG members from Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Trinidad, Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, US Virgin Islands, and Zambia - weighed in on that question. Yes, ESRAG represents countries from A to Z.  Here is the word cloud they generated.

Maybe you are currently a club, district, zone, or ESRAG leader.  You’re interested in ESRAG’s overall health.  At this meeting, ESRAG's 2021-22 Directors reported on:

• Highlights of the year and vision for the future
• Membership
• Information Technology
• Communications, Marketing and Education
• Projects 
• Task Forces and Initiatives

Check out the 2022 ESRAG AGM Slides  and 2022 ESRAG AGM Chat for detailed information

Every good meeting needs to end with a party! Karin Tome, Tina Hall, Judith Freud, Chris Stein, Mark Hoppen, and Jeff Smith hosted guests from countries beginning with A, Australia, to Z, Zambia!  Only fun and adventure at this party; it was cost-, carbon-, and Covid-free.  Thank you to our AGM Webinar Master Ridheesh MH, our Zoom Tech whiz Gokulakrishnan S, and translators Yashika Majthia and Robert Bull.

RI President Shekhar Mehta made a virtual appearance at the event, LIVE from Chicago!! It was a moment of joy and pride for all of us because this was a surprise that we had kept under wraps for a very long time. His address about mangrove restoration added so much momentum to our event, especially the speech “Climate Solution Through Wetlands Approach by PDG Datuk Zanie, who challenged and inspired Singaporean participants to emulate work underway across Malaysia. 

Photo:  Sergeant-at-Arms PP Wai Mun escorts guest of honor PDG Datuk Zanie

PDG Datuk’s talk touched upon the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, and the Ramsar Convention. The Convention, signed in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, is the only global treaty that focuses specifically on wetlands. Today 170 nations are signatories to the Ramsar Convention. Datuk Zainie mentioned the Ramsar sites in Malaysia and the various objectives of the Sabah Wetlands Conservation Society, and revealed opportunities for clubs in Singapore to develop projects to restore and protect the mangrove stretches along our coastlines.

A Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, United Kingdom, PDG Datuk is a Malaysian of Sabah origin from the Rotary Club of Kota Kinabalu. Since retiring early from his distinguished career in both government and corporate positions to serve as District Governor in 2011-12, he has dedicated his time to voluntary initiatives within and beyond Rotary, especially environmental conservation. He has served for several years as President of the Sabah Wetlands Conservation Society, as a founding trustee of the Sabah Environmental Trust, and the chairman of the Malaysian BIMP-EAGA Business Council Environmental Cluster, a regional collaboration between Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. 

Our keynote speaker, Ms. Radhika Bhargava, shared her scientific expertise to empower us further. She is a National Geographic Explorer and a final year PhD Candidate in Geography at the National University of Singapore, specializing in the management of large-scale coastal threats.  For her master’s thesis, she worked in collaboration with NASA, USAID, and Google to develop a geospatial capacity-building platform to support forest conservation in the Mekong countries, for which she received an Academic Excellence and Research Award. 

Photo:  PDG Dolly Yeap with keynote speaker Rhakika Bhargava

Currently, she is working in collaboration with the National Geographic Society on understanding and modeling the process of erosion in several mangrove forests in the world. She explained that mangroves are a key resource in Singapore and in Sundarbans where almost 14 million people directly depend on them, and shared stories from her fieldwork to highlight how mangroves play a key role in the protection of low-lying islands like Singapore. Finally, she shared some ways in which we all can contribute to mangrove conservation and restoration in Singapore and globally.

Rtn Anil Changaroth, a member of Rotary Club of Pandan Valley, Singapore, then spoke on the deep connection between environmental sustainability and Rotary’s mission of peace-making. Rts Anil illuminated how in an unstable climate, attaining peace on any level is impossible.

The conference also showcased a number of ways Singapore Rotarians are walking the talk of environmental responsibility. We highlighted Club projects, including one by the Rotary Club of Kuching Central which won District 3310’s first prize for environmental protection for 2021-22. We also offered a planet-friendly menu option so participants could explore the idea of lessening their dependence on animal products in their diet. This has been hailed as the “most powerful climate solution” by numerous climate organizations around the world. 106 of the 116 registrants chose the plant-based meal. As Organizing Chairperson of the event as well as the Co-Chair of the Plant-Rich Diet Task force under ESRAG, I explained how those choosing the plant-rich option cut the carbon emissions of our meal by over 60% as compared to other menus.  

We also presented a check of SDG 10,100 from conference registrations to the nonprofit Garden City Fund in support of the Singapore Government’s #OneMillionTrees campaign. The Fund’s Honorable Chairman Prof. Leo Tan gave a talk about Garden City Fund projects and how Rotary Clubs can get involved.

District 3310 Governor Dolly Yeap, gracing the event in person, spoke about her personal belief that “Protecting the Environment” should have become an area of focus for Rotary long before it happened in 2020. She also highlighted the different environment and sustainability webinars and activities that happened over the past few months in our district, including the environmental conference held two weeks prior in Kota Kinabalu Wetland RAMSAR site, jointly hosted by the Rotary clubs of Luyang and Kuching. She also thanked the speakers and congratulated the Rotary’s Climate Change Conversations planning committee – 21 Rotaraians and Rotaractors -  for all the hard work done well. 

Rtn Kelvin Ng and Rotaractor Kaylene Pillai took participants through a quiz on the Kahoot website. It was a fun and interactive session where everyone played but also had the opportunity to face a few harsh realities about climate change. Three winners were rewarded with environmentally sustainable gift items. 

Rotaractors Kaylene Pillai and Diva Kalaivanan, two members of the conference planning committee

So we offer you a model: plan events which show how environmental sustainability is embraced by Rotary’s leadership at every level, from Rotary International to local Clubs.  Bring in speakers versed in solutions that fit the challenges and opportunities of your region, and model how Rotarians like your audience are using their knowledge and networks to implement high-impact solutions. We think this is a great recipe to strengthen expertise, hope, and fellowship in the quest to meet humankind’s existential threat.

“Since the taxonomy eligibility of nuclear energy and natural gas is not only politically, but also scientifically contentious we would have preferred if the Parliament had decided against inclusion of these activities in the taxonomy,” said Thomas Richter, chief executive officer of the German Investment Funds Association.

On the other hand, quoting Frans Timmermans, the second most senior official in the EU, from an interview in The Guardian, "the threat of unrest this winter, a deliberate outcome of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, must take precedence over the climate crisis. If our society descends into very, very strong conflict and strife because there is no energy, we’re certainly not going to make our [climate] goals. We’re certainly not going to get where we need to get if the lack of energy leads to strong disruption in our societies, and we need to make sure people are not in the cold in the coming winter.

“We need to make sure we keep our industry, as much as possible, functioning because the one thing that could help Putin is divisions in our society. People suffering from the cold this winter because they cannot afford heating would also be disastrous for solving the climate crisis," Timmermans argued. “I’ve been in politics long enough, over 30 years, to understand that people worry most about the immediate crisis and not about the long-term crisis. And if we don’t address the immediate crisis, we will certainly be off-track with the long-term crisis.” 

Still, Austria and Luxembourg have signaled that they plan to pursue a legal challenge to the inclusion of the two energy sources in the taxonomy, though it’s a process that could take years. “It’s completely clear that both nuclear energy and fossil gas have nothing to do with sustainability,” Leonore Gewessler, Austria’s energy minister, said. “We will naturally challenge. We have already made preparations and Luxembourg has announced it will join us."

If you want to support or oppose actions being taken by governments, organizations, institutions or companies, join the review platform "We Don’t Have Time” which is in partnership with UNDP, Exponential Roadmap and many more. Your review can change the world. When enough people agree with you, businesses, organizations and public figures will listen.  When a climate review on We Don't Have Time reaches 100 agrees, the team will reach out to the recipient of the review and ask for a response. And many have responded! Read more on the website, and download the application to start your interaction with the influencers of the world.

ESRAG EXPO stage ready for events!
“Frame (EXPO)  is a great space to meet fellow ESRAG members and guests to network, have fun (including building my own avatar) and learn,” says Caroline DeWitt, Past President of the Rotary Club of Ottawa. “It was very inspiring learning from visitors who shared information on their projects. I am hoping to leverage some of the experts' knowledge to help improve our projects in the greater Ottawa area. Who did I meet? Rotarians from Germany, Idaho, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.”

“I DID meet some Rotarians I hadn’t met before and we had excellent conversations, said Maryland Rotarian Karen Tome, a leader in ESRAG’s Projects Division. “I was able to better learn how to navigate the VR (virtual reality). It's a great way to meet with people at all times of day and from around the world.”

  “I learned that a virtual room is a 100% adequate way to participate in the Rotary International Convention and other events,” says Malcolm Rooney, incoming Chair of ESRAG Regional Chapters. “I recommended EXPO to all our district members and to our environmental sustainability committee which includes non-Rotary organizations," adds Jeff Smith. "Over the next 6 months we will take EXPO to the district.  Each week or two we can pick an exhibit from EXPO and post a summary of the information and some actions we can consider.  My deepest discussions were with Chris Stein on pollinators. We have many action items from those discussions, so our first post to the District was on pollinators. EXPO can be a site for meetings and presentations.  I will make more invitations and schedule meetings next year.”

This year I chose to be involved with RICON through EXPO.  I was able to save $600 USD in airfare and invest that into promotional materials for our district conference’s earth stewardship activities. Related outcomes from that promotional work? Clubs and organizations around our district will pilot three to six Lunch out of Landfills programs next year which (1) increases Rotary and youth connections around our state; (2) helps get food to those in need; (3) lowers our carbon footprint.

Dancing in the Virtual VIP Room: ESRAG Europe's Klas Holmlund and Ludwig Kalthoff

“We’ve already gone from a few days a year over 95 degrees F to a few weeks a year," he adds, "with a disproportionate impact on elderly and low-income residents,” those least able to afford to keep their homes cool.  With only 18% of the city currently under tree cover, Houston as a whole is 13 degrees hotter than surrounding rural areas.

Through a recent grant from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Houston volunteers took thousands of measurements across the city, documenting differences as high as 17 degrees Fahrenheit among neighborhoods on the same day. In a pattern replicated across the U.S., Houston’s hottest blocks are also those with highest poverty rates.  

Using funds donated by Convention registrants, Pettitt recruited Rotary volunteers to plant a grove of 18 trees along the hottest part of the Columbia Tap hike bike trail which goes through the city’s Third Ward, an historically under-invested African-American, low-inome neighborhood. They consulted arborists to choose Houston-hardy species for their pocket park, and will transform a vacant lot near that part of the trail into a native prairie and pollinator garden.  The park is named Dakota’s Peace Grove in memory of the beloved young Rotary environmentalist Dakota Stormer, developer of the Footprint App, who died of cancer in September, 2021. 

“I’m trying to get Rotarians to do data-driven projects,” says Pettitt. “We could have planted trees anywhere, but using this heat island map we planted them where they will have the most impact.”  That impact includes educating and inspiring the wider community.  Pettitt used funds contributed by the Host Organization Committee to create a large city model with the allure of a model train layout.  He also has graphics illustrating the myriad benefits of trees, including sequestering carbon, reducing stormwater runoff, preventing erosion, improving physical and mental health, and raising property values.

The portable city model, produced at Houston’s nonprofit makerspace TR/RX Labs, is “the first of its kind to use 3D printing and heat map projection to educate the public about urban heat island effect and other environment/climate issues,” says Pettitt. It will be displayed at the City of Houston Green Building Council, where it will be used to educate visiting developers, residents, and schoolchildren, and will also travel to area schools, museums, and other sites in the community.

At the House of Friendship booth Pettitt also invited visitors to test-drive the Footprint app which Stormer spearheaded and described to the wider Rotary world as a panelist in ESRAG’s breakout session for the 2020 Virtual Rotary Convention. 

Though the heat island effect is dire and the task of providing Houston with sufficient tree cover is huge, it was impossible to spend time in this exhibit without coming away infused with hope and zest.  Part of that comes from Pettitt’s expertise, and part of it from his huge love for his community: how much more Rotary could one be?  The Rotary Club of Houston Skyline, which he describes as “a drinking club with a service problem,” holds its meetings and socials at a trendy restaurant-bar with a rooftop helipad overlooking the city.  Inspired by that panorama of the city they love, these young Rotary professionals are reminding us to seek out the big picture and aim for the bold solutions.

To advocate for their proposal, students testified before Senate and House committees in late January, 2022 about their success with Lunch out of Landfills, which was spearheaded by Rotarian Joe Richardson. They then went home and got fellow students busy writing about it. Richardson rented a bus and took group of 27 students back to the state capitol to hand-deliver 6,000 post cards to legislators before the draft school composting bills came up for a vote.  Shown here: some of the postcards with students' messages, and the front of one of the cards.

Here's how students are achieving such huge reductions in food waste. After eating at school, they sort food waste into liquid, compostable scraps, recyclables, and food that can be safely sent to local hunger programs.  In this video, Joe and a team of elementary students show you how they do it.  Start-up costs for the program in Maryland average $2,000 per school including equipment and training, but the program more than pays for itself in savings on waste disposal and trash bags.

Most importantly, students from elementary to high school have discovered their power to increase food security and implement climate solutions. “When food is thrown into landfills and incinerators, it creates methane and other greenhouse gasses,” explains Ethan Weiss from Bethesda High School near Washington, DC.  “On the other hand, when food waste is composted, it turns into carbon-capturing and nutrient-rich soil that can be used to grow new foods. Unlike anything else, 100% of the foods we throw into trash can be recycled [composted] into soil.” “We see so much food being wasted and thrown away in school,” says Advika Agarwal, freshman from Richard Montgomery High School. “We know how many hungry families live here. Students want to do more to not only reduce greenhouse gasses with compost programs, but also to help feed the hungry in our community.”   Two elementary schools in Frederick County sent over 7,600 pieces of fruit to pantries in three months.

The campaign for the school-based composting law exemplifies how Rotarians leverage more good by collaborating with other stakeholders. The students formed a “Coalition to Reimagine School Waste” with help from the nonprofit Youth Creating Change (YCC), which teaches young people to find practical solutions to problems they see in their communities. The student coalition partnered with Joe Richardson’s environmental education program, Mountainside Education and Enrichment, and the Maryland Public Health Association.

The students are continuing their leadership work with local policy makers.  “Ethan Weiss and Interact members Advika Agarwal and Angelina Xu presented to the Montgomery County School Board in early April,” Joe Richardson reports. “Two weeks later, on April 13^th, 5th grader Quinn Wagner and  10^th grader Abby Lapadula, Interact member Paige Smith, and I presented before the Frederick County School Board requesting/demanding expansion of the program.  As the programs move forward next year, local Rotary cCubs will be providing mini-refrigerators to schools for share tables and food recovery to local food banks.  Students will also be adopting the NexTrex challenge which collects plastic film, plastic bags, sandwich bags, bubble wrap, and unrecyclable plastic packaging, which will reduce landfill-designated waste by over 90%.

Lunch out of Landfills requires diligent planning and diplomatic work to build an effective partnership of the local school district, individual schools (especially custodial staff), and solid waste authorities. The best solutions will vary, depending on local resources and logistics. Joe Richardson has developed a Lunch out of Landfills toolkit and a succinct step-by-step guide.

The Solar Safe Water technology purifies water by using solar energy and a Solvatten heater, a Swedish innovation which has won many awards including the UNFCCC’s Momentum for Change Lighthouse Prize in 2015. After a few hours in the sun the water is free from waterborne bacteria that would otherwise cause stomach diseases such as dysentery and cholera. The water purification meets the World Health Organization’s highest-quality specifications for drinking water, and is more efficient than other purification methods, such as chlorine, in eliminating highly-resistant bacteria, viruses and parasites. The secret is the combination of UV (UVA and UVB) radiation and heating - up to 75°C or  167°F -  which ensures the high level of disinfection. This makes the water perfect for drinking, cooking and hygiene purposes.  It can be used up to four times a day.

How the Solvatten heater supports all of Rotary’s humanitarian goals: With just 2-6 hours in the sun, the heater provides a family with 10 liters of safe and hot water for cooking, washing and drinking. By reducing families’ need for wood or charcoal for fuel, it saves trees and habitats, and reduces CO2 emissions. By preventing waterborne disease, the family saves money on medical care. For mothers with newborns, this can be crucial to survival. In off-grid areas, girls and women don’t have to collect fuel for cooking; instead they can spend more time in school or at paid work. Fewer sick days from waterborne disease also means fewer missed days at school or work. In all these ways the Solvatten strengthens the family’s health, wealth, equity, and local environmental conditions. Access to safe water prevents conflicts over scarce resources and promotes peace. Thus, this device advances all of Rotary’s Areas of Focus.

Solar Safe Water heaters have already benefited more than 450,000 people in 40 countries.  Since 2017, Solvatten has been working with International Aid Services in the province of Tharaka-Nithi County. Here, the effects of climate change are already evident, with changing, irregular rain seasons and droughts affecting families' small-scale farming and ability to provide for themselves. Lack of access to safe water and sustainable energy sources results in high cases of water and hygiene-related diseases in the area, especially among children, who are the most vulnerable. 

With the Solar Safe Water initiative Rotary clubs and Rotarians can really make a difference. From August, 2021 until March, 2022, Rotary Clubs donated 153 Solvatten heaters to the project in Tharaka, enabling 840 people in need to get access to safe water. The Rotary partnership has already saved 7,630 trees and prevented 1,068 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Help us serve more people!

Your Rotary club can easily support families in the ongoing project in the Tharaka-Nithi area in Kenya. Each water heater provides safe water to a family for seven years. A donation of $145 per heater includes everything; heater, transportation, education, administration, and on-site help in an off-grid area in Africa. ESRAG’s Europe Chapter has set the goal for Rotary clubs and districts to donate 1,000 solar heaters by August of 2022.  Almost 200 have recently been donated!

ESRAG collaborates with the Solar Safe Foundation, a non-profit organization under the supervision of the Stockholm County Administrative Board. Solvatten, the company which produces the Solar Safe Water heaters, donates its surplus revenue over production costs to the Solar Safe Foundation. The implementing partner, International Aid Service, is a local non-profit organization working to support human rights.

Visit the homepage for Solar Safe Water and you will find all the information you need.
You can also share three short videos with your club. The first describes the experience of a Kenyan mother, Josephine, before and after she got a Solvatten solar heater.  This video shows how the Kenya project prevents deforestation and benefits the climate.  And here’s a one-minute video posted by the UN about the project in Kenya.

This year’s contestants must submit designs including at least two of these strategies: reuse for different purposes, second-hand shopping, shared economy or services, shared products and communities, renewal for reuse, and extending product life with community-based maintenance and repair. This strategy of reuse “ensures that the project life is not linear, but in a series of cycles with the participation of different users,” contributing to “maximum value recovery.  This requires us to question our sense of ownership, the function of products, our prejudices about ‘old’ and used products.”

Design the Loop is organized by the Rotary District 2420, the Rotary Clubs of Yeniköy and Koç University.  Supporters include the Rotaract Clubs of Yeniköy and Istanbul, the Rotary Club of Beyoglu, Middle East Technical University’s Department of Industrial Design,  the World Wildlife Fund, the Industrial Designers Society of Turkey, and agricultural and product design firms.  You can find out more by visiting the website, or sending an email to the organizers.  Design the Circular also offers workshops, which are publicized on Instagram.  Circular Economy graphic comes from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Circularity goes far beyond diverting waste: it starts with designing products that are durable, easy to maintain and repair, and produced sustainably. Public policy can do a lot to catalyze changes that will make a major contribution in reducing carbon emissions and other pollution. The European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan will accelerate the transition to sustainable products and construction in Europe. Another breakthrough is the 2021 launch of the Global Alliance on Circular Economy and Resources Efficiency (GACERE) by the EU and 15 other countries.  In March, 2022, 175 nations at the UN Environment Assembly passed a resolution in to negotiate a legally-binding Global Plastic Treaty to end plastic pollution by the end of 2024. Analogous to the Paris Climate Accord, this agreement  is the fruit of years of negotiations by governments, international organizations, and the private sector to address the full lifecycle of plastic.

Rotarians in business can help move products away from single-use and built-in obsolescence. We should foster business models that support the sharing and reuse of products to maximize the useful life of goods and their component materials.  Yasar recommended the research of Circularity Gap, a solutions-based initiative like Project Drawdown. Its annual study documents materials waste and greenhouse gas emissions from extraction to end-of-use.  The “Circularity Gap” is analogous to Global Overshoot Day, and shows that humans currently waste over 90% of the materials we extract.  The report presents 21 solutions and shows relevant ways to use them in three different categories of national economies: “Build” (such as Malawi), “Grow” (such as China or India) and "Shift"(such as Europe or the US). 

Yasar cited several promising business trends, including the worldwide growth of materials matchmaking companies; Loop Industries, which makes PET plastic from 100% recycled feedstock; shared services like Uber and laundromats; and unpackaged retail.  Another innovation is companies’ owning products and repairing them throughout their lifetime. Projects that Rotary Clubs can easily sponsor include Repair Cafés and organizing a Library of Things.

Yasar Atacik is an ESRAG Director with a PhD in operations research, and years of executive management and board experience. He became passionate about sustainability during his career in industry, and joined Rotary to bring sustainability to the attention of this civic group, which he saw as influential in society. Once in Rotary, Ya?ar founded District 2420’s Environmental Sustainability Committee and the Istanbul Ecology Rotary Club. He is the founder and executive director of the Turkish Carbon Footprint and Sustainability Association, which promotes energy efficiency projects for schools. 

As consumers, he urges, we should “buy the sturdiest, most energy-efficient product with the longest warranty. Try not to throw out anything. Minimize single-use products.”

Speakers will showcase projects including ecological restoration, plastic recycling, and affordable solar energy. Keith Madden, the Rotary Foundation’s Environment Area of Focus Manager, will explain how to develop high-impact, sustainable global grant projects. We’ll also introduce the iRo Tree app for project impact reporting.

Many of ESRAG’s task force and team leaders will be on hand to network with participants over breakfast and lunch. The Green Road to RICON will be a hybrid event from 8.45 am to 4 pm US Central Time (UTC – 6), so online participants are welcome and will be able to present questions to the speakers. Simultaneous translation will be offered in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and online attendees will be able to join breakout rooms in any of these languages.  Register here.
Photo credit:  District 7910, Ian Riseley, Rotary International President 2017-18.

“People will bring their kids along, and the thing they want to fix. First we have them Google the problem, then we coach them,” Adams explains. “We help people figure out what is broken, find the part number, and then order the new one. We see more and more people trying to fix stuff.”

Most residents of Wellesley, a wealthy suburb of Boston, can afford to discard used things and buy new, but environmental stewardship is catching on in town. Partnering with the US Environmental Protection Agency, the town’s Sustainable Energy Committee launched WasteWise Wellesley in 2016 to foster sustainable materials management throughout the community. They expanded the range of materials that can be recycled, set up a “give and take” area at the Recycle and Disposal facility, and started a Library of Things where people can borrow anything from a fancy cake pan to an adapter.  Ellen Corpi, a civic leader, found out about Repair Cafés and contacted John Adams, suggesting it would be a great project for a Rotary Club.

Adams had started a handyman business after retiring from his career as a software engineer. “It was not as much fun as I thought it would be running it as a business, but it allowed me to buy a whole lot of fun tools,” he confesses. Intrigued by Corpi’s idea, he recruited a team. “I know who’s good at what. I ask, and that hooks them. Once you fix everything in your house, you want to go find more stuff to fix.  A guy from Dover is my hero:  he knows all about electronics.  I get total tool envy watching him bring his stuff in.”  

The Repair Café is “cheap to run,” Adams says. “Wellesley’s Recreation Center club lets the Club use a room for free.” 6-7 people with different tools and expertise set up shop at tables around the room: a sewing machine, a furniture repair booth, knife sharpening. 

The team promotes the event through Facebook with delightful action shots (including those here). It draws people of every age. “The Club has a mailing list of up to 800 people from previous events,” Adams says. “The last two Repair Cafes, some engineering types in their twenties came in.  Our coaches have children and grandchildren and are glad to teach children.  We’ve fixed a baby doll bed and a powered skateboard."

As a totally inclusive, hands-on experience of Service Above Self, the Repair Cafe is fabulous publicity for this Rotary Club - “good, wonderful, or excellent ratings,” Adams says – as Wellesley Rotarians teach smart solutions to an environmental crisis more and more people are taking seriously.  Photo by John Adams: Charlie Tyler and Jim McLaren doing surgery on a dimmer switch.
 

As sustainability director for the Marathon, O’Brien applies ten strategies to protect Banff National Park and to prevent global warming. These include carbon offsets to make the event carbon neutral, using certified green energy from renewable sources, and following a sustainability-based purchasing and procurement guide. The event deploys every possible communication mode to inspire participants to value the biodiversity of the park and to make sustainable choices, like hopping on Banff’s electric buses instead of driving their own cars. Participants receive an electronic “virtual” event bag rather than the usual sack filled with paper and stuff in plastic wrappers. The race’s bio-digestible cups are made of corn and compost in a matter of days.

O’Brien, a member of the Rotary Club of Canmore in Alberta, ran alpine resorts for forty years before making climate action his top priority.  SustainDriven advises businesses and events on sustainable and cost-effective water, waste, and energy solutions to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. “My company’s vision statement is that we wish to be able to explain to our grandchildren in 20 years how we had a material influence on the climate crisis,” he says.

Rotary Australia World Community Service (RAWCS) sponsors a nationwide Donations-in-Kind (DIK) Network of recycling/shipping warehouses whose registered charity status provides Australian donors a tax deduction.  The DIK network has developed the expertise to ensure overseas shipments comply with the import requirements of recipient countries, and to verify that the donations are not being resold. In addition, they have built the relationships needed to ensure that the technology fits the recipient community, and to work out the logistics to ensure the donation arrives at the intended destination.   

“I suspect that Donations in Kind in Australia and New Zealand is Rotary’s largest circular economy, recycle and repurposing project,” says David Dippie, a member of Keilor East Rotary Club, who assists by using his project management expertise at the DIK warehouse in West Footscray (in Victoria, Australia).    

“Australia produces vast amounts of surplus reusable goods that are needed in developing countries,” Dippie explains. “Long-term, we want the government to help fund the recycling and shipping costs, giving them a recycling project they could be proud of and a very cost-effective form of overseas aid.”   

Launched by a single Rotary club a few years ago in a garage, DIK West Footscray now works with four of five Rotary Districts in Victoria. Since 2000, this DIK store has delivered over AUD $78.3 million in donated goods to 33 other countries. On average, each donated dollar delivers $15 worth of equipment.    

The West Footscray DIK operates out of a warehouse near the Port of Melbourne, at an annual operating cost of $160,000, mostly for rent. It is fully funded by Rotary clubs and staffed 100% by volunteers, half of them non-Rotarians.   Volunteers can spend a rewarding day sorting and packing donations.  “The DIK store is the greatest membership incentive we have,” says Dippie.  “Taking a prospect out to dinner may not be that exciting, however visiting or volunteering at DIK shows them what Rotarians can do collectively.”  Just one example:  a group of people who toured the DIK warehouse in West Footscray were inspired to start a Passport Club with members from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Australia, “people involved on both ends of a project.  It’s a great way for Rotary to meet.”  

This video tells the inspiring story of how DIK provided $150,000 of medical equipment requested by Moyo Hospital in Uganda, at a shipping cost of $15,000. 

The process starts with a wish-list, for example from a rural hospital in Timor Leste, an island nation north of Australia.  Then DIK planners get to work on the reality checks, essential in deciding what equipment to send: “Is someone available to run it? To maintain it? Are the consumables available?” Dippie explains.  In scheduling shipments, DIK teams also factor in other dynamics like monsoons and national holidays.  For example, “Will the roads be passable?  If you can’t deliver the container to the destination, you might have to get a team of people to carry the goods up a hill.”  

“Experience prevents a lot of heartbreak and frustration,” Dippie adds. “A whole container can get confiscated because of errors in documentation.”  Other obstacles include complying with country-specific import regulations, and the planning needed to prevent delays and demurrage charges at the port. 

Rotarians are leveraging DIK’s expertise and economies of scale to change the business model of schools, health care providers, and businesses in Australia. “I’m cheeky enough that I talk to an Australian education department:  What do you do with your waste? Would you rather pay for landfill, or help fund us?  “DIK offers a better alternative to landfill.” DIK also opens minds and hearts in the community: “Kids from donor schools have written messages to recipient kids on the donated desks, and parents have come down to help us pack.” 

Dippie also sees DIK as a force multiplier for Rotary.  In a strategy being piloted this year by District 9800, Clubs can become Project Partners by a donation of as little as $500 to the RAWCS shipping account. Due to the huge inflation in shipping costs, DIK has had to turn down donations of goods for lack of funds to ship them. The D 9800 pilot gives Rotary Clubs a way to pool small sums to close the gap. If your club would like to be a partner in a great project, donate here.  

As an incentive, DIK allows donor Clubs to nominate and vote for recipient projects which become eligible for District and other grants.  Even more valuable is DIK’s ability to bring Clubs in one country together to work strategically with another nation on big goals.  “We know what they want in Timor Leste, such as 50,000 desks and chairs for schools,” says Dippie.  “We can get 500 desks in a container.” In Australia, DIK relationships yield huge donations of goods. “We get donations of 1,000 hospital beds. We can ship 60 repurposed hospital beds for what it would cost to buy one new.” 

“We’re developing communication hubs so people who care about a country can talk together,” Dippie explains.  Organized in individual clubs and districts, Rotary often lacks the structure to pursue a national strategy, he points out.  “We need to develop a national spotlight rather than 1,000 individual candles.  Let’s work together on this, as we’re doing with polio.” Citing one project in Timor Leste that involved Clubs from several Districts, he noted this makes international projects something local Clubs can afford and “own,” with a good outcome they can talk about and take pride in.” 

DIK’s model is tested and scalable. The team is hoping to host a field trip during the 2023 Rotary International Convention in Melbourne. To find out more about DIK, note your interest in visiting then, or to enroll your Club as a Project Partner, email David Dippie in Melbourne.  Photo credits: DIK West Footscray. Packing containers with school furniture and hospital beds for Timor Leste.

The lithium-ion battery can power the rickshaw for up to 100 km per charge at speeds up to 50 km/hour, a significant improvement in range and speed over earlier models. It can be recharged in 4-6 hours. The electric rickshaws cost about the same as diesel-powered – an average of INR 300,000 (approximately USD $4,000).  Most drivers take out five-year bank loans to buy one.  Obviously, a vehicle with dramatically lower operating costs will make a huge difference in the owner’s net income.  

RC Ulwe Node chose this project from a list of several options developed for district Clubs by Rtn. Jaideep, a member of ESRAG’s Renewable Energy Task Force who was recently elected to the Board of the International Solar Energy Society.

“This project will inspire Rotary Clubs in South Asia region to consider activities to address the environment,” he says. The Indian government “has an ambitious target of substituting fuel-based passenger auto-rickshaws with electric auto-rickshaws in order to address climate change and reduce pollution. District 3131 plans to multiply this by involving all the Clubs under it, providing employment opportunities. Plans are afoot to set up solar charging stations by involving commercial entities. Clubs also plan to train women drivers who can provide an additional income source in the family besides the husband.”

To learn more about the specifications of these new e-taxis and how the project was implemented, email Rtn. Jaideep.  Photo:  Jaideep Malaviya at the RC Ulwe Node celebration of the first Rotary auto-rickshaw project for South Asia.  Photo provided by the Club.

First, they researched environment-focused organizations, businesses, non-profits, and leaders in the greater Tucson area and developed a database of potential members. They contacted each person personally, explaining the concept of the environmentally-purposed club and what Rotary could offer. The team was amazed with the enthusiasm expressed by their contacts. 

To maintain and grow interest in the idea, the provisional Rotary Club of Tucson Verde began meeting periodically at eco-centered locations in Tucson to view environmental solutions and opportunities.  Pictured:  Joel Johnson, Conservation Gardener at Native Seeds, talking to RC Tucson Verde members before they start working on an on-site service project.


Michael, Ellie and Kirk continued to meet with potential members individually and via Zoom. Michael emphasized the importance of “buttonholing people and using person-to-person contact.” This involved an abundance of time and effort, but the results were fruitful. 

Following three exploratory meetings and dozens of personal contacts, the Rotary Club of Tucson Verde chartered in August 2021. Charter membership consisted of 31 members: 27 were new to Rotary, 17 were women, and the ages of members ranged from 26 to 92. Since chartering, seven more members have joined the club, five in response to a news story on Tucson.com.

The best recruitment idea, according to Michael, was researching the base of potential members and talking with them directly and frequently. Michael also noted that, since the chartering of the club, the most important ongoing challenge is getting members engaged and keeping them engaged – giving them a job so they quickly become team members and feel they are making an important contribution to the work of the club. Emphasis is on “acquaintanceship” – the feeling of belonging and fellowship.  Photo:  club members storing seeds they've hulled at Native Seeds.

How will the new club measure its success when its first anniversary rolls around in August? Interestingly, it will not be the number of members in the club. Four data points were identified by Michael as a measure of success: 

1. Is the club functioning well? Are members satisfied?
2. Are committees active and fully engaged?
3. Are individual members engaged with Rotary outside of the meeting room walls? To
   what extent are they involved in District 5500 activities? Note: Almost half of the members participated in the district conference last fall – 2 months after chartering. 
4. Do members participate in a variety of projects? Do they participate willingly?

New Rotary Clubs form for a variety of reasons and purposes. This is the story of one such club that has experienced great success. Their story is illustrative for others who are thinking about forming new clubs. 

Admiral Barrie is a former RAN naval commander and Chief of the Australian Defense Force.  As a professor at ANU he is now tackling climate change through the lens of analyzing the national security risks of inaction.  Professor Steffen is a celebrated and widely-published international climate change researcher and co-founder of the Climate Council.  Zara Bending is an award-winning lecturer and researcher exploring how environmental law influences business actions, the imperative of maintaining biodiversity and the role of gender bias in climate action.  

By clicking the three dots next to a policy option, you can adjust the implementation timeline and other factors such as price, tax and subsidy.  The simulator also offers a quick summary of some of the co-benefits of changes, such as preventing disease by reducing air pollution from the combustion of fossil fuels.

This is a great resource to start a constructive discussion of climate solutions by putting participants in the role of policy-makers.  It can be used in workshops for Rotary clubs, students, business groups, local government, philanthropic organizations, or a mixed group of stakeholders. ESRAG’s Climate Solutions Task Force invites you to get trained in how to use it. Task Force member Tim Conners is coordinating a team of En-ROADS Ambassadors who can provide a workshop for your group. Contact Tim to schedule an ESRAG-sponsored training, or sign up for one of the upcoming En-ROADS workshops sponsored by MIT alumni. 

The model shows that carbon pricing has huge potential for fast action in reducing emissions. If you are an American Rotarian, “Join Citizen’s Climate Lobby (CCL),” recommends ESRAG Board Member Steve Solbrack.”As we learned in the workshop, there is no silver bullet, but this group (started by a Rotarian!), is focused on the biggest piece of silver buckshot.  Their monthly calling campaign takes a minute or two to accomplish and sends a message to your representatives in Washington!”

Joey O’Brien’s professional passion is environmental sustainability, mitigation, and education.  After owning or resurrecting four alpine resorts over 40 years he pivoted to climate action. In the last decade he has been focusing on improving the world for his grandchildren. 

Joey has lived in the mountains of Alberta for 19 years with his wife, five children, and two grandchildren. He was one of the first in town to install solar panels on his home which is energy positive annually. When not working on climate action, he loves being a hiking guide, a ski instructor, and viewing life through the lens of a first-class power engineer: a technical focus combined with practical applications.

Upcoming Biodiversity + Seminars:

• Jan. 26:  Club Projects on Emerald Planet, Drones, iRo Tree
• Feb. 2:  Cleaner Cookstoves, a talk by Keith Tovey
• Feb. 9:  Club Projects on Design for Reuse, Bats
• Feb. 16: Water Batteries, a talk by Peter Bubik

Click here to register for any talk in the Biodiversity+ series.  See the article "Showcase your project in ESRAG's Seminar series," this issue, to propose your project for an upcoming seminar.

1. The facilitators were engaging and conveyed concepts well (92.9%)
2. The course met my expectations (92.9%)
3. The course materials will be useful to me in promoting the Environment in my Club or District (94.3%)
4.  The mentor sessions were valuable (97.1%)
5. Overall the course was of high quality (95.7%)

The ACES manual explains how to develop projects that qualify for carbon offset revenue – also called PES, for Payments for Ecosystem Services. It outlines field-tested strategies for building community buy-in so the environmental protection lasts. This is similar to planning steps now required by Rotary from applicants for Global Grants to help ensure the project’s durability. “Communities are empowered to manage the natural resources upon which they depend for sustenance and income,” the authors write. “Where there are insufficient government resources to enforce and manage conservation, local people can be empowered to act as stewards and managers, sometimes without requiring additional salaries, provided they receive some of the benefits of doing so.”   

The manual explains the economic benefits provided to local communities by mangroves and seagrass meadows: as habitats for fisheries and buffers to accelerating marine impacts of climate change. Instead of being perceived as a resource only valuable to faraway investors, these ecological resources are recognized as part of the community’s essential infrastructure. 

The manual offers guidelines on:

• choosing the appropriate carbon standard to certify the project
• calculating environmental and social benefits to appropriately price the carbon credits.
• partnering with research institutions for ongoing monitoring whose costs and technical requirements may exceed local resources

It points out the importance of start-up funding, which Rotary Clubs or Districts could provide.

How did this model surface in the Rotary world?  In December, ESRAG GBI emailed members a daily “Advent Calendar” newsletter sharing effective actions Rotarians can take on climate change.  The Dec. 9 Advent Calendar quoted an article on major decisions taken by the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, then posed the question: “what’s missing?” 

“I suggest that COP26 delegates seriously underestimated the capacity of the rural poor in Africa and Monsoon Asia to implement projects which simultaneously benefit both the local community and environment,” Paul Keeley wrote in the Advent Calendar on Dec. 24. “‘Environment’ means both local habitat - where local biodiversity and environmental resources such as water are improved - and the global environment and common good, as climate mitigation is a core part of such projects.” 

He then offered an overview of Mikoko Pamoja, to which his NGO Sustainable Global Gardens has pledged £1,000. Locally-led and right-sized for a Rotary Club to work with, this groundbreaking project packs a mighty impact, capturing and storing over 2,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Launched in 2012 at Gazi Bay on Kenya’s southern coast, Mikoko Pamoja won the UN Development Programme 2017 Equator Initiative Prize as an innovative solution to climate change and poverty.  Partnership is key. A community-based organization organized by residents of Gazi Bay co-manages a 117 hectare mangrove forest with the Kenyan government.  Other key partners include: ACES, which sells the carbon offset credits; research institutions that monitor the health and extent of the protected ecosystem and document carbon sequestration; and the international carbon credit-certifying Plan Vivo standard.  Mikoko Pamoja is used as a training site by the World Wildlife Fund and UN Development Programme.  

ACES provides technical support to community-led protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems. It is also now supporting a project called Vanga Blue Forest on the Kenyan-Tanzanian border, which builds on the success of the Mikoko Pamoja pilot and protects a mangrove forest four times larger. This has won start-up funding from the Leonardo DiCaprio foundation.  Plan Vivo has posted the project design.

Rotarians and Clubs can contact ACES to learn more about buying carbon credits, volunteering, and other ways to support these projects.  

For a deeper dive into the biology, you can watch botanist and ESRAG Director Dr. Chris Puttock's talk on mangrove biodiversity and ecological services – and how human activities are destroying these  – at the Jan. 5 ESRAG Biodiversity + Seminar.

As Paul Keeley noted in ESRAG GBI's Advent Calendar, “Mikoko Pamoja is an example of environmental ‘win-win’ projects which benefit both the local community and the planet. This type of environmental project can be replicated a hundredfold.”

The first photo shows project scientist Tabitha Muriuki taking tree measurements to record forest recovery.  The second is a picture of a fishing boat at the mangrove forest on Gazi Bay. Source:  Mikoko Pamoja and ACES.

The smoke from open cook fires contains carbon monoxide, methane, black carbon, and other carbons that penetrate deeply into the lungs.  This exposure harms pregnancies, cognitive development, and eyesight, and elevates the risk of diabetes and cancer. The impacts are most severe on women and children, who spend hours inhaling the toxic smoke. Women also bear the heavy burden of collecting the firewood, often walking great distances.   Photo: on the road in Central America, courtesy of Dr. Doug Thompson

It is estimated that open fires produce 2% of global greenhouse gases and more than half of all black carbon emissions: 1,500 times more potent than CO2 in warming the earth’s atmosphere.  The demand for charcoal in towns drives deforestation. The process of producing charcoal wastes a lot of energy.

The good news is that progress is under way!  Cleaner cookstoves transform lives, improve health, reduce pollution, mitigate climate change, and help women and children reach a better quality of life.

It’s vital to choose the right technology for the community and culture where you are working. Here are some examples.  

 “It's estimated that 1.6 million cleaner cookstoves are needed in Africa,” writes Taskforce member Maya Smeulders, a solicitor with extensive international experience who leads the Uganda projects of Abington Vesper Rotary Club, UK. “People in rural areas are very poor. They live in villages without electricity, and have no means of transport, having to hike along unpaved roads. Gas is only available in towns and is too expensive, so wood-fuel is their only option.

“The best solution, given the current circumstances, is a stove which people can construct themselves from free local materials, and which does not need spare parts or technicians for repairs. We teach villagers how to build mud-stoves. For schools we use teams of local people, led by a trained Key Farmer Trainer ,to build stoves, paying a fair wage, transport costs, and for chimneys. People trained on these jobs pass this knowledge on to others in their community. When reliable, more carbon-neutral electricity eventually becomes available in the future, a switch to electric cooking should be made.”  Abingdon Vesper’s projects include tree-planting to help communities mitigate the terrible deforestation taking place in East Africa.  

Cleaner Cookstove Taskforce members Doug Thompson, a physician, and pharmacist David Knoppert, both Canadian Rotarians, are implementing a different technology with their partners in Central America: the insulated brick Justa rocket stove. They came to this solution after a careful study of how families cook and manage the economic and infrastructure limitations they face.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Doug Thompson: a Justa stove in Nicaragua

Liquid gas or electricity are both far too expensive for most households. “Most of the people in the communities we serve cook with firewood,” says Doug, a member of the Stratford Rotary Club in Ontario.  For that reason, his club’s projects also include reforestation.  The Justa stove uses at least 50% less firewood than open fires, can be constructed locally once people are trained, and has been embraced by the villages the Canadian Rotarians work with.  

“Cooking is very much a cultural phenomenon,” Doug adds. “People cook certain foods in a certain way. Even switching from an open fire stove to an enclosed, more efficient stove was a learning experience when families are used to open fires and feeling the heat from that.”  The metal griddle on top of the Justa stove works beautifully for cooking more efficiently the foods people prefer: beans and tortillas.  The chimney directs almost all of the smoke out of the cooking environment.

“In rural communities in Africa mud-stoves are enthusiastically accepted as a replacement of open cooking fires,” Maya says. “People love them and are proud of them. In Middle America, though, Doug and David tell me that would not be the case.”  The mud stove is ideal for Ugandan cuisine, with stew pots fitting into the openings, but wouldn’t work well for cooking tortillas.

“It is important to get input from the area where you are doing the project to understand these cultural preferences, economic considerations, and availability of appropriate materials,” Doug says.  “While solar cooking isn’t viable for all cultures or climates, it’s a good option for some," adds David. "The technology has been very much improved and is being used in a number of settings in India and Africa.  Cooking with solar power is carbon-neutral, and can be very effective in areas with lots of sun but devoid of other fuel, like deserts. Visit this website for an example of a successful project."

We all agree these are interim solutions, but they significantly reduce environmental damage and promote community health now, while we work towards a more carbon-neutral solution in the future.  We can't afford to wait!

Join us in this work!  We can help your Rotary District or Rotary Club develop a strategy to initiate or support a Cleaner Cookstove project. In addition to our direct experience in Africa and Latin America, we have contacts with other organizations worldwide. Through the Rotary Family's network of over 48,000 clubs, its fundraising expertise, and the availability of District and Global Grants, we can be the boots on the ground and we can make a difference.  Visit the Clean Cooking page on ESRAG’s website for more information and to get inspired, and click on our names to contact us by email.

Maya Smeulders, Abingdon Vesper Rotary Club, UK
David Knoppert, London Hyde Park Rotary Club, London, Ontario, Canada
Doug Thompson, MD, Stratford Rotary Club, Ontario, Canada

The first step to tackling a problem is to talk about it.  In Earth Emergency, climate scientists from the Woodwell Climate Research Center (formerly known as Woods Hole) explain how warming caused by human activity is triggering Earth’s own natural mechanisms, releasing additional greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and further heating up the planet. The film conveys the urgency of stopping these cycles, letting natural systems remove carbon to preserve the delicate balance necessary to maintain Earth’s temperature. 

“Most people I know or encounter haven’t even heard of feedback loops or tipping points,” says Greta Thunberg. “But they are so crucial to understanding how the world works. We have such lack of respect for nature and for the environment. We just think that things will work out in the end. But we cannot solve the climate emergency without taking these feedback loops into account and without really understanding them. So that is a crucial step.”

Earth Emergency focuses on four of earth’s many environmental feedback loops, explaining how warming in forests, permafrost, the atmosphere, and the poles work together to accelerate dangerous, amplifying cycles. 

These feedback loops are pushing the climate to a point of no return, but they are not generally understood by the public or many policymakers. Hosting a watch party fits Rotary International’s call to promote community-based environmental education, awareness, and advocacy, and strategies to facilitate engagement and behavior change to support environmentally sustainable living (RI Environment Area of Focus Policy Statement, goal 6).

Because of its compelling presentation of little-known drivers of climate change, Earth Emergency was presented to the Members of the House of Parliament and by HRH Prince Charles as part of his COP26 participation at the Terra Carta Action Forum at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow on November 4^th, 2021. Rotary’s COP26 delegation attended the screening and met co-writer Susan Gray and senior producer/writer Bonnie Waltch.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History held a summer film and discussion series based on the film. The program has begun to be broadcast on television stations around the world. 

In a speech Nov. 10 at the UN Climate Conference, Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta announced that mangrove restoration will be a central focus of Rotary’s environmental work in the year to come.  “The impact of climate change is rising sea levels, tornadoes and cyclones, and the best and first defender of these in tropical coastal communities are the mangroves,” he said.  He noted seeing first-hand the protection provided by mangroves from storm surges. In the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Sri Lanka, the areas buffered by mangroves suffered much less damage. He then went on to cite the loss of 30-50% of the world’s mangrove cover over the past 50 years.  This Ecological Society of America review article explains the vital role of coastal wetlands - “blue carbon ecosystems” - in long-term carbon sequestration. 

President Shekhar spoke at the beginning of the ministerial-level roundtable Nov. 10 at the Commonwealth Pavilion, after a warm welcome from Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Patricia Scotland, QC, and ministers of the environment or forestry from the commonwealth nations of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, Pakistan, Seychelles, Maldives, and Tanzania as well as the representatives from several global environmental organizations.  Rotary of Great Britain and Ireland cited President Shekhar’s roundtable at COP26 as “the biggest showpiece event of his COVID-hit Presidential year so far.” 

From the speakers we learned about the broad range of Nature-based solutions that mangrove restoration bring to the climate and biodiversity crisis: assisting with mitigation by sequestering up to 10 times more carbon dioxide than land-based trees; adaptation and resilience by stabilizing coast lines and buffering storm surges, managing sediment and reducing salination of farmland; supporting biodiversity by restoring habitat for shrimp, fish, and crabs, thereby also supporting local food systems and livelihoods.  

Several spoke of the need to build capacity in local communities by providing alternate employment to replace destructive firewood cutting, shrimp farming and salt making. Examples of new careers are maintenance of the new plantations during the crucial six years as saplings take hold and beekeeping for honey and ecotourism.  The Maldives representative reminded us of the need to educate the local communities that the benefits from mangrove preservation, restoration and ecosystem services outweigh the short-term gains from destruction for firewood or alternate land uses.  We were cautioned that even the hardy mangrove could itself be put at risk as storms driven by climate change continue to intensify and as oceans became too saline, even for mangroves. 

The opening for President Mehta’s roundtable featured ESRAG Director Vic Grosjean’s video on the mangrove restoration project of the Rotaract Club of Malindi, Kenya. Vic spent six months documenting mangrove work by Rotarians and Rotaractors in Australia, Nassau, Kenya, and Mauritius.  His films were shown at the Pavilion in collaboration with the Blue Charter initiative through which all 54 Commonwealth nations agree to partner on environmental initiatives. You can see Vic’s Rotary mangrove videos online at Ocean Innovators.

Just transitions for local economies: Though the event could not be live-streamed because it was a high-level ministerial event, President Mehta’s roundtable at COP26 thrilled ESRAG members worldwide as evidence of Rotary’s determination to step into the breaches so painfully evident in major emitting nations’ failure to pay for the climate change damage they are causing. 

As Rotary’s observer delegate representing ESRAG at President Mehta’s Roundtable, I suggested that eco-friendly stoves could be a promising strategy by reducing communities’ need to cut mangroves for cooking fuel. Our December newsletter will feature how ESRAG’s Cleaner Cookstoves Task Force can help you advance communities’ adoption of more fuel-efficient, cleaner-burning stoves, which also reduce exposure to smoke and harmful particulates.

Call to action for Rotarians, and how ESRAG equips it: RIP Shekhar closed the meeting with a strong call to action, outlining next steps including a follow-up for Roundtable participants, and a stocktaking of progress in one year. “There is the money and there is the hard work from Rotary to make this happen,” he told the delegates. “I know this is something which Rotarians would want to do. We will be hands-on.”

Thanks to RI President Shekhar Mehta and his commitment to climate solutions, Rotary’s mangrove initiative is well launched. Now we must build on the limited successes of COP 26, recently gaveled closed.  Alas, the goal to ‘keep 1.5 alive’ did not advance as far as necessary to protect the most vulnerable and least responsible for the climate crisis. 

This letter was left outside the national delegation offices at COP26 in the final hours. We Rotarians are challenged to push for more than the bare minimum. Now is our opportunity to assess how we work in our communities and with our governments to enhance ambition, ensure that national plans for NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) are strong and filed timely, to encourage strengthened commitment to mitigate where we can, and to adapt and build resilience where mitigation will not come in time. 

It’s crucial for Rotarians to support the rapid phase-out of coal and elimination of fossil fuel subsidies. We can encourage faster and more robust action than the minimum promises that were able to garner consensus from nearly 200 nations. We must leverage the ethical and moral power of our Four-Way Test to help developed countries to:

• adequately compensate loss and damage
• keep commitments to double their funding for adaptation
• increase their mitigation efforts, and 
• support rapid implementation of transparent carbon markets as part of the climate solution. 

Kudos to Judith Diment, MBE, Dean of the Rotary Representative Network, and Doug Wills, RI Representative to the Commonwealth, for investing their time, skills, and resources in creating the November 10 Roundtable with RI President Mehta at the Commonwealth Pavilion.  It was an extremely well-received and successful event.  They have ushered in a new era in Rotary’s engagement to protect the environment and to serve to change lives.  

In the lead picture, from left: Commonwealth Secretary General Baroness Patricia Scotland, Rotary President Shekhar Mehta, and Hasanthi Urugodawatte Dissanayake, who serves as chair of the Commonwealth Action Group on Mangroves and Sri Lanka’s Director General of Ocean Affairs, Environment, and Climate Change.  

The calamitous impacts of climate change on tropical islands and coastal communities - and its disproportionate burden on women and people of color - make Baroness Patricia Scotland an especially timely leader for the Commonwealth. Born in Dominica in the Caribbean, she was the first black woman to be appointed Queen’s Counsel (QC) and the youngest woman ever to appointed as a QC.  Her incredibly distinguished legal career includes being appointed in 2007 as the UK’s first woman Attorney General since the role was created in 1315.  

Speaker: Dr Gene W. Kim, Aquatic Ecologist with the USDA
Time: 9:00 am EST, 2:00 pm UTC

Seafood is a primary source of animal protein for billions of people. Whereas global wild fisheries harvest has remained flat since around 1990, aquaculture is the fastest growing form of animal food production worldwide. The application of modern technology to the ancient art of aquaculture can result in a highly efficient production system. In addition to food production, aquaculture raises aquatic species to restore habitats, support depleted fish populations, and supply fish for recreational sport or ornamental purposes. As the global population continues to increase, both wild-caught and farmed sources of seafood are needed to meet increased demand for seafood. Currently, aquaculture produces half of all seafood consumed globally.

Dr Gene W. Kim is the National Water Quality Specialist/Aquatic Ecologist with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Science and Technology Deputy Area, Ecological Sciences Division. He brings almost 30 years’ experience leading federal research and technology programs, providing technical and policy expertise for agriculture, conservation, fisheries, aquaculture, and water quality. His presentation will focus primarily on U.S. Aquaculture.

Register here for this Zoom webinar, which includes a half hour talk, time for discussion, and wonderful opportunities for networking.  After registering you'll receve a confirmation email with a link to join the meeting. 

Upcoming Biodiversity + Seminars:

Nov. 24:  World Rivers Roundup. Speaker: Subijoy Dutta. Time: 9:00 am EST,  2:00 pm UTC

Dec. 1: Solar Cookers. Speaker. Paul Arveson. Time: 9:00 am EST, 2:00 pm UTC

Dec. 15:  Industrial Recycling. Speaker: Dr. Binish Desai. Time: 7:30 am EST, 12:30 pm UTC

Dec. 22: Winter Solstice Overview. Time: 10:00 am EST, 3:00 pm UTC

• Solar Crowdsource (a U.S. company) for group purchasing discounts
• Grants from the Virgin Island Community Foundation
• Private donations
• 26% solar tax credit from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service
• University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Green Technology Center
• Two Virgin Island environmental nonprofits
• Community Action Now (CAN), a major local social service agency which administers the Share the Sun program.

• methane reduction
• stopping deforestation
• increasing private philanthropy for green energy projects
• managing the world’s capital with an eye to emphasizing and accelerating investment in climate-smart and decarbonizing projects
• getting money directly to the community for the LDCs (Least Developed Countries), and
• investing in climate-smart agriculture. 

• a sense of emergency, and
• climate justice.

• oil and gas industry leaks, and intentional releases and flaring;
• animal agriculture from belching, flatulence and manure management, and
• solid waste landfill emissions. 

• Plan a family-and-friends watch party on Dec. 29, 2021 when "Earth Emergency" airs on PBS stations across the US.  Watch for details and additional viewing opportunities. You can view the five segments now at the Feedback Loops website. 
• Consider the framing in this article as you prepare to talk to decision-makers who think acting on the climate crisis is “noble (but too expensive)” rather than “necessary (because I have skin in the game).”
• Learn and teach stakeholders in your community how to use Climate Interactive to understand how our mix of energy and consumption choices determine whether we will reduce emissions by 50% by 2030.
• introduce your friends, club, and colleagues to the tools of Global Footprint. This includes National Footprint and Biocapacity accounts which nations can use to choose high-impact strategies.

• Education
• Training,
• Public Awareness,
• Public Participation
• Public access to information (transparency)
• International Cooperation