Girls' school adopts green energy, saves Sh600,000 on fuel
Ms Triza Sogomo, the Principal AIC Litein Girl's secondary school in Kericho county, and Mr Allan Motelin the Litein branch manager of Equity bank show the LPG gas that has been adopted with the help of the bank by the school as green energy to replace wood fuel saving the institution Sh600,000 yearly/
A guard dressed in a jungle green uniform-cap, sweater and trousers – black leather shoes shined to a glass-like sheen, opens the gate, ushering us into the neatly kept compound.
A paved driveway leads to an administration block. A bus and a private saloon car are parked in a bay to the left.
Dressed in a grey apron, Mr Gilbert Bii, the chief chef at Litein AIC Girls Secondary School in Bureti constituency,
Kericho County, is stirring a pot full of beans in the kitchen, while his colleagues are cleaning utensils in a sink.
The workers are preparing lunch for students, who are in their last lesson before breaking for the midday meal.
A first-time visitor to the school would find it difficult to locate the kitchen, as unlike in others, there is no billowing smoke emanating from it.
But that had not always been the case at Litein AIC Girls, which has more than 1,000 students. It only recently weaned itself from using wood fuel.
“A few months ago, like other schools, we had smoke all over the place due to the use of wood fuel. But that has completely changed with the adoption of LPG gas for cooking,” said Mr Bii.
Ms Eunice Bii (left) the AIC Litein Girls' secondary school cateress at the school kitchen on February, 8, 2022.
Ms Eunice Langat, the matron, says the shift to clean energy has had a direct positive effect on the health of workers, who no longer have to grapple with respiratory diseases.
Equity Bank was instrumental in the school’s conversion from wood fuel to a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) system that is environmentally friendly.
LPG is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, propane, butane, and propylene. It is used for heating and cooking, and in motor vehicles, among others.
Equity Group CEO James Mwangi prevailed upon school administrators to re-examine its fuel strategy when he visited Kericho to donate Covid-19 equipment to hospitals, said Principal Triza Sogomo.
“We had an engagement with Dr Mwangi and he challenged us to embrace the LPG gas system like other institutions that had taken the initiative. We took it up and we are reaping the benefits from it,” she said.
The shift has had a positive impact not only on environmental conservation but also on the school’s financial balance sheet.
A burner at the kitchen of AIC Litein Girls' secondary school, an institution that has adopted use of LPG gas to save Sh 600,000 annually and conserve forests by abandoning wood fuel
Ms Sogomo said the school now saves Sh600,000 yearly as a result of the shift from conventional fuel to green energy.
“The school used to spend Sh1.9 million yearly on wood fuel, but we now use Sh1.3 million following the switch-over.
It is very encouraging that we are making our small contribution in conserving the environment,” she said.
In effect, the school is saving 450 tonnes of fuel a year, contributing to saving forests and increasing the tree cover in Kenya.
To conserve the environment, indigenous and exotic tree seedlings have been planted around the school in the last one year.
“We are also planting fruits on the farm so as to address the issues of food security and nutrition,” said Ms Sogomo.
Institutions that have adopted green energy save between 25 per cent 40 per cent compared with wood fuel, the traditional form of energy, especially for cooking and heating boilers.
Equity Bank has rolled out an environmental conservation programme that will see it plant a total of 35 million tree seedlings across the country in the next two planting seasons.
The programme is being implemented through branches with various development partners, said Mr Eric Naivasha, the Equity Foundation director in charge of energy, environment and climate change.
Ms Triza Sogomo, the Principal AIC Litein Girl's secondary school in Bureti constituency, Kericho county showing a boiler at the school that uses LPG gas to heat water for use by more than 1,000 girls at the learning institution.
Depending on the use and targeted population, it costs between Sh300,000 and Sh3 million to install an LPG gas system, Mr Naivasha said.
“The programme is being implemented by Equity Bank in partnership with Engineering Procurement Construction Companies (EPCCs) across the country. The bank comes in to cover the capital expenditure for the benefiting institutions,” Mr Naivasha told the Nation.
Some 529 schools have been assessed for the system, with 79 now converting from wood fuel to gas, he said.
“The conversion from wood to gas is a fuel substitution programme that reduces operating costs and creates efficiency in the various institutions,” he said.
The bank is targeting 30,000 institutions in the ambitious programme to wean them from wood fuel to green energy and reduce the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the environment.
Prisons departments, hospitals and schools have already bought into the programme.
But the greatest hurdle for schools seeking to adopt the LPG system is the slow approval process in the Ministry of Education.
“The government should take the lead in creating awareness in its institutions on the need to adopt green energy so as to progress its environmental conservation programmes,” Mr Naivasha said.
“The Ministry of Education should encourage any learning institution that wants to abandon the use of wood fuel to do so.”
The bank is also rooting for the lowering or scrapping altogether of taxes on LPGs so as to encourage more homes and institutions to buy into it and mitigate the effects of climate change.
In the interim, the bank is targeting 7,180 public and 3,000 private schools in the country. It hopes to eventually rake up the numbers to capture 23,000 primary schools.
In targeting schools, the bank hopes to have a lasting impression on learners on environmental conservation in what is expected to be replicated in homes.
The Kenya Forest Service (KFS) has also roped in learning institutions to increase farm and forest tree cover.
“We have partnered with schools to rehabilitate forests and plant trees in schools. It is important as a society to impress upon the children at a tender age the benefits of environmental conservation,” said Dr Julius Kamau, the chief conservator of forests.
