Sustainability Matters in Africa | Africa Sustainability Matters

Economic Responsibility

Climate action spans individuals, corporate

Dr. Edward Mungai - November 19, 2021

Economic Responsibility

How firms can reap from climate change

Economic Responsibility

Importance of Public Private Dialogue in Africa

Economic Responsibility

Innovations hold the key to climate action

ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY

Economic Responsibility

Climate action spans individuals, corporate

Dr. Edward Mungai - November 19, 2021

The recently concluded Conference of Parties and (COP26) in Glasgow and the Corporate Commitment to Climate Change Kenya (4C-K) in Kenya have...

Economic Responsibility

How firms can reap from climate change

Dr. Edward Mungai - November 12, 2021

COP26 is coming to a close and it is business unusual based on the commitments being made by nations. There is a...

Importance of Public Private Dialogue in Africa

November 5, 2021

Innovations hold the key to climate action

November 4, 2021

Starting at the source; Supporting sustainability in firms’ supply chains

October 29, 2021

Why eco-funding is banks’ best bet

October 22, 2021

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Economic Responsibility

Agriculture still requires youth, women on farms

Dr. Edward Mungai - October 22, 2021

If you have ever driven along any major highway in Africa, you will not miss women and youth crowding at bus stops,...

Environmental Responsibility

‘How is it sustainable if only 1% can afford your food?’:...

External Source - August 27, 2021

Chris Newman, 38, and his wife, Annie, 35, always planned to retire with a farm. But after a health scare in 2013,...

How youth, women-led agri-firms can be aided

July 15, 2021

African universities rising above Covid-19 through impactful innovations

April 29, 2021

Why it pays to be a manager and leader

January 15, 2021

Urban farming amid the coronavirus storm

December 9, 2020

Mini-Grids to connect 110 million households to electricity- report

December 8, 2020

Edward Mungai is conferred with a PhD in sustainability

December 4, 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBLITY

Economic Responsibility

Climate action spans individuals, corporate

Dr. Edward Mungai - November 19, 2021

The recently concluded Conference of Parties and (COP26) in Glasgow and the Corporate Commitment to Climate Change Kenya (4C-K) in Kenya have...

How firms can reap from climate change

November 12, 2021

Innovations hold the key to climate action

November 4, 2021

Starting at the source; Supporting sustainability in firms’ supply chains

October 29, 2021

Greening cities for a sustainable Africa and lessons for counties

September 30, 2021

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

African countries to speak in one voice at UN food summit

External Source - September 9, 2021

‘Traffic-light system’ quantifies foods’ health and environmental impact

External Source - August 27, 2021

Comfort meets sustainability in Allbirds’ new activewear collection

External Source - August 20, 2021

Can we eat fish sustainably and maintain health benefits?

External Source - August 20, 2021

Customers care more about sustainability post-lockdowns. Now what?

External Source - August 6, 2021

An Architect With an Eye on the Environment

External Source - July 13, 2021

Are China’s banks going cool on coal power plants in Africa?

External Source - July 13, 2021

Australia ranks last for climate action among UN member countries

External Source - July 9, 2021

The Pandemic Shouldn’t Be a Reason to Punt Sustainability

External Source - July 9, 2021

European banks struggle to put ESG strategy into practice

External Source - July 6, 2021

How to preserve Africa’s forests and build a green economy

External Source - July 1, 2021

Sustainability center starts Undergraduate fellowship

External Source - July 1, 2021

DON'T MISS

Climate action spans individuals, corporate

Dr. Edward Mungai - November 19, 2021

How firms can reap from climate change

Dr. Edward Mungai - November 12, 2021

Importance of Public Private Dialogue in Africa

Tobias Meso - November 5, 2021

COVID 19 TRACK CASES IN THE WORLD

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As you pursue your hopes and dreams, may this year

As you pursue your hopes and dreams, may this year bring you much success and may your journey be wonderful. New is the year, new are the hopes, new is the resolution, new are the spirits, and new are our warm wishes just for you. Have a promising and fulfilling New Year 2021! #HappyNewYear #HappyNewYear2021

May the closeness of friends, the comfort of home,

May the closeness of friends, the comfort of home, and the unity of our nation, renew your spirits this festive season. Merry Christmas to your family.

Rwanda is the first African country to submit a to

Rwanda is the first African country to submit a tougher climate target to the UN, promising to cut emissions at least 16% by 2030 compared with a business-as-usual baseline.⠀
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The submission marks a commitment to climate action from the country of 12.5 million people as governments around the world are reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.⠀
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Under its first climate plan presented in 2015, Rwanda set out a number of policies to reduce emissions but without a quantifiable target. The target’s sectorial scope was also extended and now includes hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).⠀
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Rwanda’s economy is fast growing. The World Bank described the country in the “middle of an economic boom” before the Covid-19 outbreak, with growth exceeding 10% in 2019.⠀
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Under business as usual, Rwanda’s emissions are forecast to more than double between 2015 and 2030, rising from 5.3 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent to 12.1 million tonnes in 2030, driven by a rise in fossil fuel use, increasing energy demand and road transport.⠀
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With technical and financial support, Rwanda estimated it could reduce its total emissions by 4.6 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030. Measures include the deployment of hydro and solar energy, improving energy efficiency in industrial processes, introducing vehicle emission standards, rolling out electric vehicles and promoting on-farm biogas use.⠀
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Source: ClimateHomeNews

African countries are at the forefront in strength

African countries are at the forefront in strengthening their public health systems to tackle COVID-19. While there remains huge uncertainty, the rates of infections and deaths in the region have not been as high as previously anticipated.⠀
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According to the Africa’s Pulse report, charting the road to recovery, the region had one confirmed case in every 1,000 people and about 25,000 deaths as of end of September 2020.⠀
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🇲🇺 In Mauritius, the Africa’s Pulse report says that the country has successfully contained the number of infections and deaths from covid-19. The country has registered no fatalities for almost five months due to the government’s quick response to the health pandemic.⠀
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At the beginning of the year, the country imposed a series of protocol measures for visitors arriving from abroad-including temperature checks and 14 day quarantines for travelers from high risk countries.⠀
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The country later on closed its borders by mid-March after registering its first three Covid-19 cases and a full lockdown by the end of the month.⠀
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Health services in the country were fully functional. The government managed to setup a mobile application beSafeMoris which enabled citizens to obtain real-time information about health and safety measures.⠀
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The country leads Africa in testing 1,000 people (193.6)per day, a rate that is comparable to that of Norway and New Zealand. The country has not registered any deaths since the end of April.⠀
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🇸🇳Senegal on the other hand has managed to successfully reduce the number of cases since mid-August and slowed the death rate in September. ⠀
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“Senegal’s strategy to combat the health effects of the pandemic included fast action, clear communication, and learning from the 2014 Ebola lessons,” says the report.⠀
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The report adds that the Health Emergency operations were activated immediately the first case was confirmed. The country also declared a state of emergency, enforced a curfew, and suspended domestic and international travel. (Continued in caption)

The UN has listed Kenya and Ethiopia as the only A

The UN has listed Kenya and Ethiopia as the only African countries aiming to kick start their economies by repairing nature. ⠀
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According to the UN, some states are using restoration as an engine of employment, especially in rural areas where jobs are badly needed. It says, the strategy not only has the potential to kick start economic growth, it’s also key in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.⠀
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Reviving nature is at the core of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global push to repair lands lost to development that is set to begin in 2021.⠀
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In Kenya, the UN says that the country’s capital, Nairobi, has hired once-destitute families to clean up its parks and waterways, helping many to earn income and get off the streets. City officials are already seeing environmental benefits: 1,200 tons of garbage have been removed and fish are returning to the Nairobi River.⠀
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Ethiopia on the other hand, the UN says, is aiming to plant 5 billion seedlings this year, as part of an effort to double its forest cover by 2030. Together with the Economic Commission for Africa, the country has focused on forest restoration as a way to create green jobs, improve the health of its citizens and spur a recovery from COVID-19. In 2019, Ethiopia set a new world record when over 350 million trees were planted in one day as part of President Abiy Ahmed’s Green Legacy Initiative.⠀
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“A green recovery is one that tackles the climate, biodiversity and pollution crises at the same time,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme.⠀
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Read more on our website: africasustainabilitymatters.com⠀
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#Environment #Sustainability #SDGs #GreenRecovery #BuildBackBetter #Kenya #Ethiopia #UN

Did You Know 💡⠀ .⠀ .⠀ The textile industr

Did You Know 💡⠀
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The textile industry alone produces 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year and accounts for around 2️⃣0️⃣% of global industrial water pollution.⠀
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While most companies, brands and designers are increasingly focusing on circular fashion models, resale, rental and repair, to mitigate these impacts, people are often left out of the conversation. The inustry has billions of customers and over 60 million employees worldwide in its value chain.⠀
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According to the people-centered approach to a circular fashion economy report by Business for Social Responsibility(BSR) and Laudes foundation, despite the major social implications of a shift to circular business models, social issues are largely absent from the circular fashion discourse and design compared to environmental impacts.⠀
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We therefore need to take a people centered approach to sustainable fashion👗🕶️⠀
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“By taking a people-centered approach, we can build a more resilient industry and respond to the calls from stakeholders—through safer inputs that increase the health and safety of workers and production communities, enabling creative and dignified employment, and building inclusive models adapted to the needs of a diverse consumer base.” - BSR

Equal representation on women in leadership positi

Equal representation on women in leadership positions {Governments, board rooms, everywhere decisions are made} is key to solving the gender inequality issues affecting women and girls around the globe.
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Urgent action is needed because this is not only a gender issue, this is a human rights issue.
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We must act now.
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#Sustainability #GenerationEquality #SDGs #UNGA #ASM #BuildBackBetter

Poland is for the first time placing a timeline on

Poland is for the first time placing a timeline on ending coal, which accounts for around 75% of the country’s electricity generation.⠀
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The agreement was struck on Friday in the city Katowice, in the coal-rich southern region of Silesia, following several days of negotiations. It comes after hundreds of miners joined strikes this week by staying underground after their shifts in protest against threatened mine closures.⠀
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The agreement sets out deadlines for the completion of hard coal production in individual mines and provides social guarantees to workers. The government is also due to draw a social contract with the sector which will directly influence its energy policy, the document says.⠀
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“We signed the liquidation of one of the most important industries in the history of the Republic of Poland,” Dominik Kolorz, head of the Solidarity trade union in Silesia, said of the deal.⠀
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#CoalMining #Sustainability #Poland #GreenDeal #RenewableEnergy #SDGs #BuildBackBetter #EU #FossilFuels

The once clear waters of the Ngong River are curre

The once clear waters of the Ngong River are currently either black or grey in color with a sulfur-like smell that has made life impossible for the neighbouring communities.⠀
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The Ngong River running through Kibera, the most populous slum in Nairobi, is choking with human, industrial and medical waste which has replaced aquatic life forms and other essentials. The slum convulses in water stress, chaotic stench and open sewers.⠀
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The Ngong River, a pale shadow of its former self, is an open sewer with visible industrial chemical pollution, raw sewage and plastic waste. Over the years, the government has tried to rehabilitate the river with no much success, raising the question whether the regeneration program is a fallacy or cosmetic.⠀
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However, all is not lost. A group of youths have shunned complaining and taken upon themselves to clean the river and make their dwellings clean and livable.⠀
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The Mazingira Yetu Organization has mobilized one hundred and ten young people from the Kibera sub county to restore the Ngong River.⠀
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The holistic river restoration exercise involving construction of abolition blocks, solid waste separation centers, sewer lines repair, cleaning up of the river and offering job opportunities to the youth is indeed a game changer.⠀
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#Sustainability #NgongRiver #Sanitization #CleanUp #Nairobi #MazingiraYetu

Today is #OzoneDay and we are celebrating 3⃣5⃣

Today is #OzoneDay and we are celebrating 3⃣5⃣ years of ozone protection.
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Wondering how you can be part of protecting our ozone layer? Here are a few tips 👆🏿📽️
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#ozone #OzoneDay #ClimateAction #nature #environment #savethefuture

How can we make rural areas more 'appealing'? ⠀

How can we make rural areas more 'appealing'? ⠀
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In most developing economies, Kenya included, urbanisation has long been seen as the best if not the only vehicle for economic development, moving people from the ‘unproductive’ countryside to more productive cities.⠀
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Then Covid-19 arrived. A search for greener pastures in the form of well-paying jobs and social amenities such as education and healthcare has fuelled rural-migration numbers in recent years. Kenya’s urbanisation rate stands above Africa’s average, at 4.3 percent per year.⠀
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Faced with limited opportunities, young people are forced to escape the underdeveloped rural economies. As a result, most rural communities have been hollowed out of energetic human capital.⠀
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Kenya, like many economies on the continent, continues to rely on urbanisation to drive growth. Turning rural labour into urban labour workforce has always been seen as a way of boosting the country’s productivity.⠀
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While the model has its fair share of merits, the pandemic has exposed it as unsustainable and in need of a rethink. ⠀
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To be clear, I’m not pushing for a reverse in #urbanisation. It has many merits. It has, for instance, accelerated the pace of innovation as a result of competition, widening the range of products available to consumers and enabled faster sharing of best practices.⠀
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I’m instead advocating for policies and mechanisms geared towards strengthening rural economies through deliberate development programmes without necessarily undermining the role of cities. Cities are also in need of upgrade, especially in informal settlements which are badly in need of modernised basic infrastructure such as water and sewerage and roads alongside housing.⠀
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As it stands, current policies continue to discount the economic value of the countryside world. That people can only relocate to villages as a last option after being boxed into a corner is quite telling.⠀
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This should not be the case. It is time to revamp rural #infrastructure, including roads and utilities and open up remote regions to investment as well as better social amenities like schools and hospitals.⠀
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Read More: https://buff.ly/2wCFCfj

The Ministry of Agriculture, recently launched the

The Ministry of Agriculture, recently launched the One million kitchen garden initiative aimed at cushioning vulnerable households by ensuring access to nutritional fruits, vegetables and herbs.

Annie Nyaga, CAS Agriculture went on Twitter to update the progress of the initiative noting that so far, they have supported 206,742 households in setting up kitchen gardens. The Ministry aims to continue rolling out the initiative to all counties.

Vulnerable households are also being provided with a startup kits that consist of various vegetables seeds as well as small livestock ie rabbits ans poultry.

Images: Twitter - CAS, Agriculture Annie Nyaga

#Africa #Kenya #Agriculture #VijanaNaKilimo #SDGs #Ecofriendly #COVID19 #Farming

Swipe ➡️ to read more. Rising water levels a

Swipe ➡️ to read more.

Rising water levels along Kenya's Great Rift Valley have forced thousands of people from their homes.
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There are also fears of an ecological disaster as two lakes are getting closer - causing fear of contamination, and threatening wildlife and livelihoods
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Story : Al Jazeera.

Images: Unsplash.

#Sustainability #ClimateChange #ClimateAction #nature #environment #savethefuture #Riftvalley

Facebook Inc. is buying a huge amount of clean pow

Facebook Inc. is buying a huge amount of clean power across the U.S. and Ireland to support its operations. ⠀
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The social-media giant -- already one of the world’s biggest corporate consumers of renewable energy -- signed contracts to buy 8️⃣0️⃣6️⃣ megawatts of additional solar and wind power, the company said. ⠀
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The contracts support eight projects in Utah, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Ireland, and involve several different developers, including Brookfield Renewable Partners LP, D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments and Apex Clean Energy.⠀
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Corporate appetite for cheap clean power has been a big recent driver of wind and solar growth in the U.S. and beyond. Tech giants including Facebook have led that push, in part to power their data centers.⠀
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Facebook has deals for more than 5 gigawatts of clean power, 2 gigawatts of which is operating today. It expects another 1.5 gigawatts of wind and solar power to come online by year-end.⠀
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Story Source: Bloomberg ⠀
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📸: Unsplash

Green innovations and business ideas are key to he

Green innovations and business ideas are key to helping mitigate #climatechange. The #ClimateLaunchpad Kenya finals will be happening on the 27th of August 2020. Don't miss out on the 13 great pitches participants have prepared. Just 2 days to go.

Waste oil including used engine oil, if not well m

Waste oil including used engine oil, if not well managed, can be a hazard to the environment as a result of unchecked dumping. A portion of it is actually misused to adulterate fuel or recycled and sold off as cheaper contraband lubricants. This malpractice negatively affects motorists since the substandard products could hurt the performance and lifespan of vehicle parts. Likewise, the unfair competition undercuts oil marketers while bypassing the taxman.⠀
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Kenya churns out about 60 million litres of waste oil annually.⠀
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To provide an avenue for safe and environmentally-friendly disposal of fuel waste, Bamburi Cement through its waste management division Geocycle has partnered with several petrol stations to co-process the generated waste in its kilns.⠀
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Co-processing involves use of waste materials as alternative fuel to primary thermal energy sources like coal in industrial processes such as cement or steel production. It enables recovery of energy from waste.⠀
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Cement production is energy-intensive, with energy accounting for 30-40 percent of production costs. Traditionally, in addition to electricity, the primary fuel has been coal and petroleum.⠀
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Co-processing of waste in cement kilns offers advantages for the cement industry as well as for authorities responsible for waste management. Cement producers can save on fossil fuel and raw material consumption, contributing to a more eco-efficient manufacturing. Also, this waste recovery method uses an existing facility, eliminating the need to invest in a new, purpose-built incinerator or secure landfill site.⠀
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Read full interview on our website : africasustainabilitymatters.com

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