On March 17, Knowledge Pele, a South African development company, Costa Rica’s Environment & Energy Ministry and Sussex University will launch their sustainability research collaboration in the province of Puntarenas in Costa Rica. The solar-powered, Controlled Environment Agriculture projects seek to investigate ways of growing local economies through sustainable agricultural practices that place women ownership and employment at the centre of production processes.
The World Wildlife Foundation has demonstrated that, “humanity must now produce more food in the next four decades than we have in the last 8,000 years of agriculture combined”. This growing global food crisis is in tandem with an escalating climate crisis. It therefore stands to reason that solutions to the food crisis must factor in climate change. In addition, historical social issues persist. Women remain on the periphery of the global economy. Specifically, in reference to the agriculture sector, the United Nations reports that ‘globally, women are just 13 per cent of agricultural land holders’. By taking a multi-dimensional perspective on the matter, this collaborative research project, seeks to provide practical solutions to these challenges that can be scaled across the world.
Importantly, Coldplay, the British rock band, is standing behind this effort. Having set out to make a meaningful contribution to the sustainability agenda, Coldplay selected Knowledge Pele in 2021 to be amongst its global sustainability affiliates. The selection recognises Knowledge Pele’s global leadership as a company that designs and implements cutting-edge sustainability projects in the most vulnerable communities. They are thus providing funding support to the project. Costa Rica, a country that is leading the world in sustainability is notably 99% renewable energy powered, amongst its many achievements. Sussex University is ranked the number 1 university in Development Studies, in the world. The collaboration thus brings together leaders in the field of sustainability who seek to provide guidance to the global community.
Initially, the projects will be implemented in Costa Rica and South Africa. However, the intention is to expand them across the world, with the explicit intention to achieve scale and demonstrate long-term social and commercial sustainability.
‘We are honoured to be working with partners that we revere to take our work to the global stage. Our intention is to take our experience from the South African market to new geographies, demonstrating that social, environmental and economic returns are not only complimentary, but be achieved in unison’ said Fumani Mthembi, managing director of Knowledge Pele.
