LifeStraw Kenya, on the carbon layer's own books

School ultrafiltration delivered by LifeStraw; Virridy is the carbon developer. This worksheet counts only Virridy's outlays, and says so everywhere.

The partner funds the filters; the carbon layer finances replacement cycles and turns delivery into credits. That makes this a different model from the Amazi Meza Rwanda worksheet: no full-delivery-cost figure exists here, so no GiveWell-comparable $/DALY is claimed. The honest headlines are climate cost-effectiveness and carbon financing per student-year.

PRELIMINARY · v1 · AUGUST 2026 · NOT YET THROUGH ADVERSARIAL REVIEW
01The Frame

What this model can and cannot claim

Cost basis: Virridy carbon-side outlays only
School delivery capex is Vestergaard/LifeStraw-borne and outside this model. The $/DALY figure below is computed on the financing basis for completeness, is labeled every time it appears, and is NOT comparable to GiveWell figures or to the Rwanda full-cost model. Misquoting it without the label is a misuse of the model, and the workbook's own critique says so.
$18.21/t
Virridy outlays per credited tonne, 10.2× below the $185 social cost of carbon.
$25.29/t
integrity-adjusted (real rather than credited reductions, integrity 0.72), still 7.3× below the SCC.
$0.89
carbon financing per student-year: $2.35M of outlays across 2.64M implied student-years, funding filter replacement cycles the partner would otherwise carry.

Program: LifeStraw Max gravity ultrafiltration (no power, ~100,000 L per unit) in Kenyan schools; target 4,500 schools and 2M+ students over 20 years. Gold Standard SDWS V2.0 yield basis, 0.049 credits per person-year, CORSIA channel with 42,000 credits contracted for 2026–2029. A real risk is stated up front: credits are currently held unsold pending CORSIA labeling, and scenario S2 prices that risk.

02The Worksheet

The entire model, cell by cell

Provenance key: Proforma input Evidence-anchored Judgment · flagged Sensor-measured Formula
↓ Download the workbook (.xlsx)
A · Program series, 2025–2033 (Virridy carbon proforma, base scenario)
Series202520262027202820292030203120322033Total
Net credits (tCO₂e)011,4495,81712,56215,61318,66421,71521,71521,715129,250
Implied students served0233,653118,714256,367318,633380,898443,163443,163443,1632,637,755 student-yrs
Buy price to partner ($/cr)9.209.209.309.509.609.709.809.909.90
Initial purchases ($)210,000808,000242,0000000001,260,000
Ongoing credit purchases ($)000119,339149,885181,041212,807214,978214,9781,093,029
Virridy carbon outlays ($)210,000808,000242,000119,339149,885181,041212,807214,978214,9782,353,029

Credits and prices are proforma inputs; the implied-students row is a formula (credits ÷ 0.049 yield) and is flagged: the 2026 credit figure includes an issuance backlog, so that year's implied students overstate actual reach. Initial purchases are the guaranteed first batch plus early replacement-cycle financing; ongoing purchases are credits × the contracted buy price from 2028.

B · Cost basis: one denominator, honestly named
TOTAL VIRRIDY OUTLAYS, 2025–2033$2,353,029Formula initial purchases + ongoing credit purchases
Implied student-years served2,637,755Formula total credits ÷ 0.049
Carbon financing per student-year$0.892Formula outlays ÷ student-years

Every figure on this page divides by this one cost, and the build fails programmatically if any figure uses a different denominator. What this cost is NOT: it is not the cost of delivering safe water to these schools. Filters, distribution, and program operations are funded by the partner and do not appear in the proforma. A full-delivery-cost $/DALY would require the partner's capex data and is deliberately not computed.

C · Health chain inputs (for the labeled financing-basis figure only)
InputValueProvenanceBasis
Diarrheal incidence, school-age0.60 episodes/child-yrJudgment · flaggedCloned from the Rwanda model; Kenya-specific GBD lookup pending. Tested 0.30–1.20 in S3–S4.
Diarrhea reduction, point-of-use filtration34%Evidence-anchoredWolf et al. 2022 (Lancet), filtration risk ratio 0.66.
School share of daily drinking water30%Judgment · flaggedNo time-use survey; same assumption as the Rwanda model.
Delivery effectiveness (safe at the point)90%Sensor-measuredPortfolio monitoring record: 90.3% of samples safe under monitored delivery (n=1,685).
YLD per episode0.002215 DALYFormula0.188 disability weight × 4.3 days ÷ 365
D · Calculation chain
StepValueComputation
Episodes averted, 2025–2033145,2882,637,755 student-yrs × 0.60 × 0.34 × 0.30 × 0.90
DALYs averted (raw)322episodes × 0.002215. Years lived with disability only; mortality excluded (conservative).
$ / DALY, carbon-financing basis$7,312 not GiveWell-comparable$2,353,029 ÷ 322. Dollars through the carbon layer per DALY in the system, NOT DALYs purchased by Virridy: the partner delivers the health impact.
Evidence adjustment (section E)× 0.432322 → 139 DALYs adjusted
$ / DALY adjusted, financing basis$16,927$2,353,029 ÷ 139
xCash, three frameworks0.094× / 0.041× / 0.147×GiveWell default / egalitarian / wellbeing weights; moral-uncertainty weighted 0.097×. Stable, and immaterial: the basis label, not the framework, drives interpretation.
E · Evidence-adjustment pipeline
FactorScoreBasis
Internal validity0.80Meta-analytic anchor, judgment links in the chain.
External validity0.75Household point-of-use trials transferred to Kenyan school delivery: a cross-country, cross-setting transfer.
Publication bias0.80Systematic review without an independent funnel-plot confirmation here.
Implementation quality0.90Operational program, credits issued and held; CORSIA labeling still pending.
Composite0.432Formula product of the four, reported alongside raw, never silently multiplied in.
F · Credit integrity and carbon metrics
Residual baseline-practice factor0.80Judgment · flagged The yield is already reconstructed to SDWS V2.0 (0.049, like Rwanda); this prices residual baseline risk pending a measured school baseline survey.
Delivery effectiveness0.90Sensor-measured The same cell the health chain uses. One usage number, two consumers.
Credit integrity ratio0.72Formula 0.80 × 0.90 × 1.00 leakage
$ / tonne, credited basis$18.21$2,353,029 ÷ 129,250 t · 10.2× below the $185 social cost of carbon
$ / tonne, integrity-adjusted$25.29$2,353,029 ÷ (129,250 × 0.72) · 7.3× below the SCC
CORSIA labeling statusPENDINGCredits are held unsold until labeled. This is the model's load-bearing commercial assumption, priced in S2.
03Scenarios

One-way scenarios; a preliminary model carries no Monte Carlo

ScenarioVaried inputDALYs$ / DALY fin. basis$ / tonnevs SCCReading
Base case322$7,312$18.2110.2×as above
S1 · contracted-only volumes42,000 cr105$13,825$34.425.4×downside book: $1.45M outlays; financing $1.69/student-yr; still well under the SCC
S2 · CORSIA labeling never landssell voluntary $10/t322$7,312$18.2110.2×proceeds $1.29M against $2.35M outlays: net −$1.06M. The commercial reversal condition, stated plainly.
S3 · incidence low0.30161$14,626$18.2110.2×
S4 · incidence high1.20644$3,656$18.2110.2×
S5 · buy price $9.90 flat$9.90322$7,361$18.3310.1×outlays $2.37M: the model is insensitive to the buy-price path

Recomputed, not asserted: the climate metric stays 5.4–10.2× below the social cost of carbon in every scenario, including the contracted-only downside. The fragile finding is commercial, not climatic: without the CORSIA label, the carbon layer runs a roughly $1.1M net loss at voluntary floor prices.

04Critique

The model's critique of itself

DimensionRatingAssessment
Effect-size qualityWEAKThe chain is cloned from the Rwanda model with zero Kenya-specific inputs: incidence, school water share, and severity mix are all pending. Preliminary is the ceiling until the Kenya burden lookup and any program evaluation data are traced.
Counterfactual robustnessMODERATEAnother carbon developer could plausibly serve the partner; the counterfactual for Virridy's outlays is partner-funded replacement cycles at a slower cadence, not modeled in v1. The health-side counterfactual is not Virridy's to claim.
Moral-weight transparencySTRONGAll frameworks reported; ranking stable. The labeled cost basis, not the framework, is what drives interpretation.
AttributionFLAGThe central caveat of the whole model: Virridy finances replacement cycles; the partner delivers and capitalizes the health impact. The $/DALY figure is dollars-through-the-carbon-layer per DALY in the system. Quoting it without that label is a misuse of the model.
Excluded factorsFLAGFull delivery cost is unknown to this model (partner-borne). CORSIA labeling risk is real and priced in S2. The 2026 implied-students figure overstates that year because the credit figure includes an issuance backlog.
Ranking stabilityMODERATEThe climate metric is robust in every scenario (5.4–10.2× below the SCC, 7.3× integrity-adjusted). The commercially fragile finding is S2: CORSIA labeling is the reversal condition.