Sustainability Week: Dangote unveils waste-to-wealth, recycling initiatives

As part of activities marking 2019 Global Sustainability Week, employees of the pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote Group at the weekend flagged off a Waste to Wealth initiative to create a sustainable environment, generate revenues from environmental waste, and also give back to the company’s host communities.

The Company marked Sustainability Week with the theme: “Our Community, Our Passion” with various activities held in the Lagos Head Office and across the plants and Business Units.

These activities focused on investment programmes directed towards turning waste to wealth, and reviving reading culture in young children in host communities.

In Lagos, over 200 Sustainability Champions and employee volunteers across the business units assisted five international facilitators to train the children on turning the most insignificant materials and waste in the environment into tangible assets of economic value to the nation.

Dangote employees took the initiative to St. George Primary School and Aunty Ayo International School in Ikoyi, where the facilitators, with additional help from the volunteers, trained the children on how to manage their wastes and create sustainable products that are marketable from their, every day generated wastes.

Speaking on the initiative, the Group Chief Sustainability and Governance, Dangote Industries Limited, Dr Ndidi Nnoli, said the company’s sustainability approach is driven by a desire to contribute and impact positively towards the development of host communities and the society at large.

According to her, the 2019 Sustainability Week is directed towards safeguarding the environment by educating the host communities on how to turn waste to wealth to achieve sustainable development.

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She said, “We chose St. Georges School because the school is a neighbour to Dangote Head Office building in Ikoyi. Charity begins at home.

We started to engender the sustainability culture as an employee volunteering initiative. We honestly believe that people are at the centre of any organisation and sustainability needs to begin with the individual person.

It is a culture in Dangote to celebrate the sustainability week every year and this year we decided to bring it to a neighbouring school”.

“It is so important that we bring the initiative to the schools around us because we need to be very concerned about our children, their future, and most especially, education outside the classroom. We need to be concerned about educating our children on sustainability beyond the definition”, she added.

She noted that the Dangote Group has a responsibility to the environment and society. “We are looking for ways to ensure that value is added to things around us.

We have many volunteers who are so eager to learn and impart knowledge to the children. The children are also very excited to learn about new ways to transform the environment.

Giving insight into the programme, Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Dangote Cement Plc, Dr Musa Rabiu, said the company’s intention was to create an environment “where we keep improving on how we operate and interact with the environment and regarding people as the most valuable assets”.

He said the company organised the programme to touch the hearts and minds of children who are the next generation by teaching them how to re-use trash.

Rabiu said the initiative was all about reigniting children’s creative ability through innovation by leveraging on technology. “We need to let them know that managing the environment in terms of creativity and innovation is key.

With this knowledge, the children are expected to grow up and be conscious of how they can re-use materials in the environment”, he added.