Solar C³ITIES Solutions, an organization founded by PCGS Climate Concentration Director,
Dr. T.H. Culhane, focused on promoting sustainable solutions through biogas, has won
four awards in three categories at the 2023 AD and Biogas Industry Awards, organized
by the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association and the World Biogas Association.
On March 27th & 28th, Dr. T.H. Culhane and his team from NGO Solar C³ITIES (“Connecting
Community Catalysts Integrating Technologies for Industrial Ecology Solutions”) attended
the AD and Biogas Industry Awards in Birmingham, England. The conference brought together
system thinkers, professionals, and academics in various domains, who were all unabashedly
enthusiastic about technologies and policies that revolve around problems associated
with production and consumption residuals. Solar C³ITIES was indisputably one of the
highly recognized organizations of the event with 6 finalist nominations and 4 awards
in 3 different categories.
Dr. Culhane, with his prolific work in the biogas sector, won “AD Hero of the Year.” Solar C³ITIES co-founder, Kathy Puffer received the “Women in Biogas” Award, and their other co-founder and Solar C³ITIES CEO Janice Kelsey was short-listed as a “Women in Biogas” finalist. Furthermore, Solar C³ITIES was nominated for “Education Campaign of the Year,” while Kathy Puffer’s online Biogas Education Hub received the “Highly Commended” award. Janice was brought up on stage to accept the winning of Education Campaign Award for Solar C³ITIES colleague Boma Mohammed Chi, who took his own training with the organization. He has since become a world-renowned trainer-of-trainers, founding the “Common Initiative Group/RRECAM Group,” teaching his small-scale biogas in his native Cameroon.
Dr. Culhane and his team first incorporated Solar C³ITIES in Cairo, Egypt, in 2006 when they were living and working with the Zabaleen trash-recycling community: “One man’s trash is another’s treasure.” For the last 17 years, Solar C³ITIES has been teaching their applications of sustainability ideas within their international network. 15 of those have built their own household and community-scale biodigesters, teaching others around the world how to craft and operate their own. Their objective is to eliminate 100% of so-called “organic waste” at the point of generation and rendering the rest of the trash amenable to efficient and cost-effective recycling – even “upcycling.”
At PCGS, Dr. Culhane has been sharing and teaching his work for the last 7 years in several courses: Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, Envisioning Sustainability, and Waste Not Want Not: Repurposing Refuse as Resource. All his teaching, along with Solar C³ITIES, has always focused on connecting community catalysts, inspiring others to see things through the circular economy and zero-waste lens, and applying hands-on training and life-tested experience to eliminating waste.
Indeed, attaining such achievements at the AD and Biogas Industry Awards is a testament to Dr. Culhane and Solar C³ITIES ’s dedication and contribution to sustainability. However, this mission of creating a sustainable planet still has a long journey ahead. “It is our continued focus on this very realistic goal that will drive our problem-solving work into the future, a future where we know there is only one place for humanity to put and keep its ‘garbage’: in the past!”, said Dr. Culhane.