Sustainability Matters in Africa | Africa Sustainability Matters

Social Responsibility

Edward Mungai is conferred with a PhD in sustainability

Pamela Okutoyi - December 4, 2020

Economic Responsibility

Why today’s work should save future

Economic Responsibility

Sustainability should be part of review in performance

Economic Responsibility

African countries lose almost USD 5 Billion yearly due to poor sanitation

ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY

Economic Responsibility

Why today’s work should save future

Edward Mungai - December 3, 2020

I'm excited to share with my readers that on Friday I'll be conferred with a PhD in business and management from Strathmore University...

Economic Responsibility

Sustainability should be part of review in performance

Edward Mungai - November 26, 2020

Tough as it has been, the year 2020 is coming to a close and companies will soon be reviewing their annual performance.

African countries lose almost USD 5 Billion yearly due to poor...

November 20, 2020

KCB green fund nod promises a sustainable future

November 19, 2020

Climate finance is good for business and earth

November 13, 2020

Banks are Funding the Destruction of Nature

November 6, 2020

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Social Responsibility

Edward Mungai is conferred with a PhD in sustainability

Pamela Okutoyi - December 4, 2020

Dr. Edward Mungai, group CEO of Kenya Climate Innovation Centre Group, has today been awarded his PhD in Sustainability at Strathmore University....

Social Responsibility

An inside look at Kenyan ecofriendly fashion house

Pamela Okutoyi - November 18, 2020

Michelle Pino is a fashion enthusiast, an artist at heart and founder of One Hundred Years – a fashion house in Kenya....

We Are What We Eat

November 9, 2020

Inside A Quaint Eco-Hotel Reclaimed from A Quarry

November 3, 2020

Successful Health Responses to COVID-19: The Case of Mauritius and Senegal

October 23, 2020

Africa’s Pulse: Digital Sector Responses to COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa

October 16, 2020

Global Impact of Covid-19 on SDG’s: 2020 Goalkeepers Report

October 8, 2020

Avenues Abound to Build Brand Kenya

October 1, 2020

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBLITY

Economic Responsibility

African countries lose almost USD 5 Billion yearly due to poor...

Vivian Kwame - November 20, 2020

Almost USD 5 billion is lost yearly due to unimproved sanitation across 18 African countries. This is according to the new research...

Green Parenting

November 19, 2020

Why rain is double-edged sword for Kenya’s green energy mix

November 17, 2020

Younger people are less forgiving in terms of sustainability sins

November 13, 2020

COVID-19 has accelerated firms’ perspective towards environmental issues

November 12, 2020

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Toxic waste dumping in the Gulf of Guinea amounts to environmental racism

External Source - December 4, 2020

Air pollution linked with increases in anxiety and depression

External Source - December 3, 2020

Africa: Oil exploitation threatens biodiversity in the Okavango Basin

External Source - December 3, 2020

Africa: Children left behind in the treatment of HIV

External Source - December 2, 2020

How can the shipping sector unlock the ‘first wave’ of net zero emission shipping?

External Source - December 2, 2020

Can forest restoration reduce the threat of megafires?

External Source - December 2, 2020

Covid-19 – urgent call for sustainable healthcare reforms in Africa

External Source - November 30, 2020

The competition is on for Eastern Europe’s nuclear power market

External Source - November 30, 2020

Is Africa ready to roll out a covid-19 vaccine?

External Source - November 30, 2020

Crop Certification: Going green unlocks global markets for farmers

External Source - November 27, 2020

Nearly 90% of new electricity generation will be renewable this year

External Source - November 27, 2020

Kenya: two million slide into grinding poverty as country slips into recession

External Source - November 27, 2020

DON'T MISS

Toxic waste dumping in the Gulf of Guinea amounts to environmental racism

External Source - December 4, 2020

Edward Mungai is conferred with a PhD in sustainability

Pamela Okutoyi - December 4, 2020

Why today’s work should save future

Edward Mungai - December 3, 2020

COVID 19 TRACK CASES IN THE WORLD

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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

Consumers in Kenya will soon be able to tell the l

Consumers in Kenya will soon be able to tell the level of pollution resulting from producing different products, in what aims to promote responsible operations among manufacturers.⠀
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Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), a representative body for manufacturers in the country, is moving to roll out a carbon footprint calculator that will track emission levels from industries and award certification based on pollution levels. This information will be shared with the public, pointing them towards green consumerism by going for low-carbon products.⠀
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Carbon-neutral factories will earn a green certification – a strong demonstration of their ethical practices.⠀
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“Industrial emissions have an impact on climate change. With this in mind we need to prepare Kenyan manufacturers for tomorrow’s markets in which priority is not just about selling but also tracking the effects of your processes and products on the environment,” Sylvester Makaka, KAM energy advisor said in a webinar on how industries can adopt climate-smart technologies.⠀
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“We’re currently building local capacity through trainings to be able to do the analysis and progressively move industries towards the certification regime,” he added.⠀
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KAM recently launched a Centre for Green Growth and Climate Change aimed at promoting sustainable practices in factories.⠀
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📸: Unsplash - Alexander Tsang⠀
🔗: africasustainabilitymatters.com

Some 1.7 million urban poor families in Kenya are

Some 1.7 million urban poor families in Kenya are set to have their living conditions upgraded through modernised basic infrastructure like clean water in a social project funded by the World Bank.⠀
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The World Bank approved a $150 million concessionary line of credit to Kenya last Friday under its International Development Association (IDA) programme, meant for poor nations.⠀
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Besides being packed in shanties, the urban poor grapple with lack of access to clean drinking water, proper sanitation and healthcare, among other basic amenities. About 61 percent of urban households in Kenya live in slums.⠀
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“Rapid urbanisation and an increasing share of the poor living in urban areas has outpaced services and infrastructure provision, and this project will contribute to reducing this infrastructure and services gap,” said Camille Lampart Nuamah, World Bank operations manager and acting country director for Kenya.⠀
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“The project will also cushion urban informal settlement residents who depend on daily earnings against the negative socio-economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”⠀
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Read More On : africasustainabilitymatters.com

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