Swiss Firm Seeks Carbon Credits in Kenya with Clean Water

June 17, 2011

Employees prepare to distribute LifeStraw Family water filters to Kenyans

Something new in western Kenya homesteads: a LifeStraw Family water filter, produced by the Swiss health-products company Vestergaard Frandsen.

Community workers are distributing them for free to 900,000 households.

Through its safe drinking water project, the company aims to turn a profit by selling carbon credits in the $144 billion global carbon market.

"What we are looking at is about two million tons of carbon emissions reduced per year by providing 90 percent of the families in the province with LifeStraw Family," explained Alison Ann Hill, concept development manager at Vestergaard Frandsen's U.S. office.

That calculation is based on the amount of firewood an average family uses to boil water to make it safe to drink.

Vestergaard Frandsen's LifeStraw Family water filter project is one of more than 60 projects in Africa registered under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism, or CDM. Under the CDM, industrialized countries invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries.

Projects receive one carbon credit for every metric ton of carbon dioxide that is prevented from entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Carbon credits are then sold on the market to others who wish to reduce their carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.