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In April and May, 2011, up to 900,000 LifeStraw Family water filters will be distributed to approximately 90% of all households in the Western Province of Kenya. The "Carbon for Water" distribution program will provide more than four million residents with quick access to safe drinking water at home.
The program is led and solely funded by Vestergaard Frandsen (VF), a European company that specializes in disease control textiles, including LifeStraw Family water filters, in partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. VF’s expenses will be reimbursed by carbon financing. This funding model gives companies in developed countries potential revenue, in the form of carbon credits, for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. Carbon credits can then be sold to carbon credit buyers that want to reduce their carbon footprint or improve their environmental stewardship. The revenue generated, in large part, will be re-invested into the program to make it sustainable over a 10-year period.
In the “Carbon for Water” program, residents in Kenya who receive LifeStraw Family water filters will no longer have to treat water by boiling it using wood, which generate greenhouse gases. This behavioral change is expected to produce more than two million tons of carbon emission reductions annually.
As the supplier of the water filters and implementer of the program, Vestergaard Frandsen will earn the carbon credits. Since the company only gets paid for performance (i.e., emissions reduced) it has a strong incentive to invest the revenue it earns back into the program – to maintain and replenish the LifeStraw Family water filters and to educate residents on proper and consistent usage.
The program is ambitious and visionary. It is the first that directly links low-carbon development with access to safe drinking water and positively impacting health outcomes.
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