Blog #3: Team Prompts

Air quality in Almaty

Our research: Cognitive ability vs air pollution [comparing cognitive performance]

Goal: Motivating citizens to take action individually and collectively to reduce air pollution by raising their awareness of the severity of air pollution through our research and project. (Last year’s research studied people’s general attitude on the issue.)

1. What SDGs does your project target? What might be reasonable indicators for those SDGs? 

• https://sdgs.un.org/goals

• SDG#1. Quality Education [#4]

Indicator#1: Community’s attitude towards air pollution

• SDG#2. Good health and well-being [#3]

Indicator#1. Health conditions caused by air quality 

Indicator#2. Declining cognitive abilities caused by air quality [comparing students’ test performances at different times of the year]

• SDG#3. Sustainable cities and communities [#11]

Indicator#1. Not eco-friendly, sustainable heating system (fossil fuels)

Indicator#2. Infrastructures and buildings (overheating→opening windows during winter)

• SDG#4. Climate Action [#13]

Indicator#1: Ecosystems declining due to water heating in Kazakhstan 

Indicator#2: Fossil fuel usage and emitted air pollutants and their impact on climate change

1. Crystallize the larger challenge your venture seeks to address, the specific problems you are targeting, and the kinds of opportunities you hope to leverage. 

1. 1. Larger challenge: Climate change and air pollution
   2. Specific problems: Almaty people’s  lack of knowledge on the severity of air pollution and their attitudes on the issue

• Opportunities:

• Last year’s research and project
  • Research on the attitude of the general public toward the issue
    • Now that we know how the people in Almaty perceive the situation as indifferent, we can work this year to address the situation.
  • Project of building affordable air monitors
    • Now we know how to build it easily, we have the necessary parts, and thus, we would be able to move on to our next project of establishing an Air Monitor Assembly Shop in Almaty.
  • Project of recommendation notecards
    • We have all the necessary information for the recommendation, so now we will transfer it to poster size and place it around the city.
• Fieldwork in May
  • Meeting our local partners
  • Conducting our research and collecting data
  • Setting up the Air Monitor Assembly shop
• Partnership with locals [high school; university; hospitals]
  • Local high school
    • To collect data on our research on the effect of air pollution on cognitive ability
    • Collaborating on the innovation of affordable air monitors
  • Local hospital
    • Distributing our posters and notecards with recommendations regarding preventing from exposure to air pollution

3. Identify the two most important social, economic, and environmental bottom lines that matter to your project. 

Triple bottom line:

Our goal: Raising people’s awareness of the severity of air pollution

• Social: Change the social aspect of how Almaty people perceive poor air quality and health issues caused by it

• Economic: Saving annual medical expenses caused by poor air quality by introducing effective and affordable ways to prevent exposures [air monitors; informational posters] 

• Environmental: Reducing air pollution in Almaty by motivating people to find an alternative, more sustainable way of heating

4. Describe ten cultural factors that might impact your project at various phases in its lifecycle. 

• General cultural differences: It is necessary for us to put ourselves in Almaty’s people’s situation to understand them and to also find a sustainable solution to the problem, but as we do not have any experience (except our one member who is from Almaty, Kazakhstan) with Kazakh culture, we might miss cultural aspects those need to be considered in our research and project. 

• Language barriers: Even though we have a team member who is proficient in the language, it still might be challenging for us to communicate with our local partners. 

• Different views on topics (such as air quality perception): As we lack personal experience with air pollution, we might have completely different views on the air pollution topic compared to that of the Almaty people. Therefore, we might miss considering factors that later can affect the implementation of our project. 

• Political views: We might come across someone with opposing political views which come from different cultural backgrounds. We have to remain considerate of this, and not allow it to bother us or treat anyone differently.

• Poor air quality: In studying poor air quality, we will most likely find ourselves in places with poor air quality. Coming prepared with masks and other things endorsed by healthcare professionals will help minimize risks associated with breathing in polluted air.

• Different views within Almaty’s class system: Lower classes use the coal-burning centralized heating system and higher classes have their own heating systems. Lower classes must open windows to cool down their houses, whereas high classes get to control their own heat.

• Transportation difficulties: We may find ourselves trying to get someplace and not having a direct route, so patience is important.

• Time Difference: People may value time differently than we do in the US, and its important to maintain patience and understanding if a meeting runs longer than expected, or starts later than was planned.

• Time Zone Change: Since we are going to a different country, we will have to deal with time zone differences at the beginning of our trip as well as when we get home

• Clothing differences: Some types of clothing may not be culturally appropriate, and we must be mindful about offending locals when we dress for our trip

5. Give three examples of cultural practices that can be leveraged to address community/market problems.

• Learning the most common phrases in Russian

• Researching/learning about Kazakhstan more

• Wearing masks/covers to help with air quality