Since the launch of Sustainable Inclusive Business – the knowledge & network centre at the end of 2015, we have been hosting the Annual sustainable inclusive circular Conference.
From the start it has brought together on average 300 people from businesses, NGO’s, civil society, government and academia. The conferences have proven to be a fertile ground for businesses to exchange knowledge on sustainability and inclusiveness and to enhance their application abilities of sustainable inclusive business principles.
2016 – 1st Annual Sustainable Inclusive Conference
The first Circular Economy Conference was held on the 27th of April 2016 at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, bringing together members of the private sector, public sector, civil society and academia, working on various issues to speed up the process of creating sustainable and inclusive businesses in Kenya.
The aim of the conference was to provide a Meet, Learn and Share opportunity for all the multi-stakeholders in the Kenyan economy, to look at ways of how to turn the various challenges facing businesses into opportunities. Useful networks were created with other business players, thus creating a strong ‘coalition of the willing’ to benefit from each other and make their businesses ‘future-proof’.
The conference had various workshops relevant to each sector, and created engaging platforms for conversations on various pertinent issues. These included the Tourism – sustainable investments, Dairy & HortiCulture – safety, quality and the inclusion of the youth, Transport & Logistics – Flower sector – how to improve the value chain, Renewable Energy – trends & the future for Renewables and Businesses, Marketing & Communication – the ways to raise awareness consciously , Future Workforce – equality and synergies, IT & Innovation, Transparency – the reality and the peace, Health – inclusion to the bottom of the pyramid, and Education – business scan how to be sustainable.
The key guests included Ambassador Frans Makken (Netherlands Embassy in Kenya), Arch. Lee Kariuki (Former Chair of KEPSA Foundation), the Late Richard Leakey (Former Chairperson of Kenya Wildlife Service) Steve Howard (then Chief Sustainability Manager IKEA), Willem Lageweg (then CEO, MVO Nederland), Jane Ngige (then CEO, KFC), Edward Mungai (then CEO, KCIC) and Ron Ashkin (then Team Leader, PSP4H).
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