A Small Beautiful Example of Sustainability in the Heart of Zimbabwe

Govindarajan, Venkatesh

doi:10.21697/seb.2023.01

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…In Figure 4, the aspect of gender equality (BCWQ2; SDG 5) stands out as a potential hotspot, and this may perhaps be the case even if the sample set of respondents was enlarged. Equipping women in Zambia with the skills required to work in the pellet factories of the future would, by way of contributing to SDG 5, also aid in progress toward a clutch of other SDGs [16]. Indeed, it is women who use the pellets in their kitchens and are direct beneficiaries of the reduction in adverse health impacts arising out of the use of charcoal and fuelwood in less-efficient stoves.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Streamlined Social Footprint Analysis of the Nascent Bio-Pellet Sub-Sector in Zambia

et al. 2023

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Climate change concerns have goaded countries toward seeking renewable energy options (bio-energy being one of them) to replace/supplant the conventional fossil-fuel alternatives (coal, oil and natural gas) commonly used now. Fuel pellets—at the confluence of the forestry, agriculture, waste management and bio-energy sectors—when produced from biomass residues, serve the dual purpose of ensuring energy security and environmental sustainability. By valorizing more and more organic wastes to bio-energy products, one could, to use the old adage, ‘kill two birds with one stone’. Social LCA is a method used to analyze a very wide range of social issues associated with the stakeholders in a value chain—workers, local community dwellers, society, global consumers, banks, investors, governments, researchers, international organizations and NGOs. In this analysis, the authors commence with a highly focused, niche literature review on the social dimension of sustainability in the African energy/bio-energy sector. The streamlined social footprint analysis inspired by the relatively lesser number of such studies for this sector in Africa is not a novel addition per se to the S-LCA knowledge base. The purpose of the application is to shed light on something in Zambia that must be understood better so as to bring about much-needed alterations in the direction of sustainable development. While the questions addressed to four different groups of stakeholders encompass a clutch of sustainable development goals, gender equality (SDG 5) and the need for greater interest on the part of governments and investors (SDG 9) to look at sustainable alternatives to the status quo stand out as concerns that need to be tided over. This paper and the streamlined social footprint analysis carried out are all the more relevant and timely when one considers some key changes that have happened in Zambia over the last five years—the implementation of the National Energy Policy in 2019 and the creation of the Ministry of Green Economy in 2021. These are verily harbingers of positive change auguring well for future developments in the bio-energy (and bio-pellets) sector, not just in Zambia but, by way of emulating and learning, in other countries on the continent.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This will enable the latter to focus more on their education, thereby contributing to SDG 4. If solar energy or pellets could facilitate that change, women will play a key role in the sustainable development of countries in Africa, in general [16].…”

Section: Social Aspects Of the Energy/bio-energy Sector In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%