Ashesi campus wastewater generated from all residential and washroom facilities are treated in our biogas plant to generate effluent water as a resource for campus gardens. This significantly reduces waste in water use on campus through upcycling. Ashesi’s campus recycling initiative also includes the location of waste classification bins on campus for recycling of organic waste for fertilisers in our gardens as well.

Teaching at Ashesi also emphasises the importance of sustainability in organisations and entrepreneurial ventures business practices. Faculty work with students to lead research into best practices to ensure sustainability in various industry sectors across Ghana.
Jennipher Panashe ‘19 worked on a research project in collaboration with a faculty member, Dr. Danyuo Yiporo, to explore the optimization of plastic waste materials usage in road construction.

Ashesi’s Ghana Climate Innovation Center (GCIC) also serves as a green project incubation hub which helps entrepreneurs transform their innovative ideas into strong and viable businesses. One GCIC incubatee is the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative, a social enterprise addressing climate change, poverty, rural-urban migration, and youth unemployment by creating jobs for young people, especially women, through the building of bamboo bicycles. These bicycles serve as a more affordable alternative to transportation with little to no carbon footprint.

Every day in Accra, waste pickers sort out and recycle metals, plastics, and cardboard from 1,500 tons of waste that is dumped daily at the Kpone landfill, one of the two major landfills in Ghana’s capital city. While their work plays a vital role in environmental conservation, mechanisms have not been developed to adequately compensate these ‘informal recyclers’ for the services they provide. Earning an average of $40.00 per month, most of these waste pickers are unable to make ends meet. Students from Ashesi and MIT recently collaborated to create tools that will increase the earnings of Accra’s waste pickers and provide them access to financial platforms to help grow their savings. The financial inclusion model will thereby support continued recycling and reuse efforts in Accra.

“It’s been a very exciting project,” says Zoe Tagbota ‘20 of the Ashesi D:Lab. “We got to go into the field to understand how waste pickers actually operate, understand their importance to the society, and through design thinking, learn about different opportunities available to them. In addition, the exchange experience with the MIT team has also been exciting, taking advantage of the opportunity to learn about how they use their tools in projects they work on.”