ACES Open House May 19th, Kigali

ACES is a first-of-kind Centre dedicated to sustainable cooling, cold-chain and post-harvest management. It is hosted by the University of Rwanda at its Rubirizi Campus in Kigali with SPOKEs being rolled out throughout Africa to deploy ACES solutions in real-world settings; the first of these is in Kenya. The permanent Centre is developed by the Governments of Rwanda and the United Kingdom (UK), the United Nations Environment Programme and the UK's Centre for Sustainable Cooling leading a consortium of leading UK universities with more than $20M of seed investment committed by governments and industry.

The mission of ACES is to accelerate the uptake of sustainable cooling and cold-chain solutions in the agriculture and health sectors in Africa, improving livelihoods, health, food and nutritional security of rural communities, thereby bringing environmental, social and economic development.

Globally, 536 million tonnes (12% of total food production) are lost due to lack of cold-chain; around $380 billion of lost value and enough to feed ~1 billion people. In Rwanda as an example, food loss equates to 21% of its total land use, 16% of GHG emissions, and 12% loss to its annual Gross Domestic Product. Similarly, 25% of vaccines are wasted globally due to failures within cold-chains; more than 1.5 million people globally die from vaccine-preventable diseases each year. At the same time, conventional cooling technologies account for 7% of all global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, further warming the planet and contributing to their own demand. Global cooling emissions could double by 2030, and triple by 2100. The challenge we face is how to provide access to cold-chains for all in an efficient, affordable, equitable and sustainable manner that builds resilience and achieves the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Working with governments, industry, academia, communities and wider stakeholders, ACES will (i) develop optimised sustainable cold-chain strategies; (ii) demonstrate technologies and solutions, and (iii) provide the skills, capacity building and business models to accelerate the deployment of fit-for-market solutions to meet the needs of underserved communities.

With in-country and multi-national funding and industry founder partners in place, we are now moving from design to delivery, building a start-of-the-art Technology Demonstration Hall, a prototype off-grid Community Cooling Hub, an Innovation Centre (to include partner offices and meeting rooms) as well as training and teaching facilities. Please join us for a series of tailored open forums and workshops at an ACES Headquarters Open House to visit the campus, see the site plans and discuss how you can help shape and engage with ACES.

Dedicated workshops will be hosted for the following stakeholder cohorts:

·????African officials (incl. agriculture, health, energy and environment)

·????Donor and international development agencies and financiers

·????Farmers, fishers and food producers and?farmers groups/cooperatives

·????Health sector

·????Manufacturers, technology innovators, and distributors and associations

·????Food retailers, food services, food processors and trade bodies

·????Logistics companies, including exporters

·????Universities, research bodies, academics and technical trainers??

To find out more or to register for the ACES Open Day (full agenda will be circulated in the last week of April), please contact: ?Issa Nkurunziza - [email protected].