Promoting Effective Waste Management Practices for Environmental Conservation and Climate Change.
The recent Africa Waste is Wealth Conference, convened by TakaTaka Ni Mali, the East African Business Council, and the Alliance for Science, featured incredibly insightful discussions on waste management, climate change, and environmental practices that the various organizations in attendance could learn from. There were several enlightening panel discussions, one of which focused on advocating for effective waste management practices for environmental conservation and climate change. The discussion, moderated by Maina Chege, included key stakeholders like UN Global Compact, Unilever, and KEPSA. The UN Global Compact was represented by Mr. Martin Ochieng’ who is the board chair and the Chief Executive Officer of the biggest agricultural business in East Africa- Sasini PLC. Unilever was represented by the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Unilever Kenya, Mr. Luck Ochieng’. The Kenya Private Sector Alliance(KEPSA) was represented by its board chair, Flora Mutahi, who is also the founder of Melvins Tea. They had discussions about what each organization is doing at its spheres of influence in terms of collaboration initiatives or the adoption of sustainable practices, whether at the global, regional, or local level. They also shared the challenges they face.
Effective Waste Management from a Global and Regional Perspective– UN Global Compact and Sasini PLC.
In the words of Mr. Martin Ochieng’ UN Global Compact is the biggest sustainability initiative for corporates. He affirmed that this sustainability initiative, helps businesses and companies to embed sustainability strategies to their organizational structure. The UN Global Compact has four main pillars namely, Human Rights, Labor, The Environment and Anti-Corruption. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the 10 guiding principles of the UN Global Compact are condensed into these four pillars. https://unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles
Mr. Martin Ochieng’ noted that the pillars are championed for with the same zeal but spoke extensively on the environment because the context at hand was waste management. He continued to state that their main contribution from a global viewpoint is to convince as many companies and organizations to integrate the 17 sustainable goals into their corporate culture. ” We are the generation most responsible for degrading the environment and we need to begin taking action,” said Mr. Martin. He expressed, however, that there is so much empty rhetoric and little action in terms of improving the current environmental conditions. “It is only about 8 years to 2030 yet we are not even half way in achieving the 17 sustainable goals.” he noted. He believes the solution to this would be to incorporate these dialogues into daily operations, which is why they are to be integrated into the organizational structure. The Board Chair of UN Global Compact further recommended reporting as a tool to ensure action and accountability because one cannot report what they have not done.
As the CEO of Sasini PLC, he stated that because it is the largest Agricultural Business in East Africa, they equally produce a large amount of waste. Mr. Martin admitted that they release significant amounts of carbon into the environment because they use wood fuel for firing their boilers. He noted, however, that they have elaborate forestry programs, have a single-use plastic policy, even for their suppliers and they report their impact aggressively. He further recognized that because they are a leader in their sector, they are careful to set a good example and influence other organizations in the same sector.
Effective Waste Management from a Local Perspective – Unilever, KEPSA and Sasini PLC.
Speaking for Unilever, Mr. Luck Ochieng, the CEO for Unilever in Kenya spoke about some of their greatest achievements in terms of making the world a more habitable place to live in and maintaining the resources that we have been accorded. He expressed Unilever’s north star or reason for being as making sustainable living commonplace through their brands, health and sanitation, and doing good especially at the community level. At the global level, he mentioned that Unilever has a striking track of translating thought leadership into action. And that they have been able to achieve this through partnerships with the United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) and Ernst & Young which came together to form the Transform Program. He stated that they had been able to fund and support environmental projects and that organizations like Mr. Green Africa and TakaTaka Ni Mali were beneficiaries of the same. They were also founding members of PAKPRO, formerly known as PETCO. It was quite clear that Unilever thrives in forming partnerships for action.
In terms of their production facilities, he noted that, Unilever- Kenya can be able to brag about not releasing any effluents into the city council system because they have an 100% water recycling and cleaning system within their facility. Some of their brands like Sunlight and Vim have 100% recycling packaging. He brought to light, some of Unilever- Kenya’s plans in their journey of promoting sustainability. Some of which were, transitioning to 50% recyclable material across their whole business, commissioning a biomass boiler by August and using solar energy. The general take-home from Mr. Luck Ochieng was the importance of working together to achieve sustainability.
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance, board chair, Flora Mutahi, recognized the inputs that the organization has made especially in decision-making in terms of policies in the environment sector. It has formulated the Waste Sector Board, that has worked hand in hand with the Ministry of Environment as advisors. KEPSA works with the ministry of environment and forestry on areas of policy advocacy, capacity building and joint initiatives. She noted however, that the main challenge they are facing is lack of awareness among the masses on matters sustainability. She concluded by saying cost-saving overtime, resource conservation and regulatory and compliance reputations were just but a few of the benefits organizations would be able to reap if they would practice sustainable waste management practices.