I write this week’s Green Mes­sage col­umn with immense joy and pro­found grat­i­tude, still glow­ing from the hon­or of receiv­ing pres­ti­gious awards at the War­riors for Good Awards held this past Fri­day evening, beau­ti­ful­ly orga­nized by Relinked Group. This spe­cial event high­lights extra­or­di­nary lead­ers, inno­va­tors, and orga­ni­za­tions pas­sion­ate­ly ded­i­cat­ed to sus­tain­abil­i­ty, cli­mate action, and social impact. It cel­e­brates inspir­ing ini­tia­tives that uplift com­mu­ni­ties, dri­ve sus­tain­able prac­tices, and encour­age a regen­er­a­tive future.

Wit­ness­ing var­i­ous less­er-known yet incred­i­bly impact­ful orga­ni­za­tions present inno­v­a­tive tech solu­tions in health ser­vices, pay­ment sys­tems, and oth­er vital sec­tors was heart­warm­ing. Orga­ni­za­tions such as Com­mu­ni­ty Sus­tain­able Agri­cul­ture and The Healthy Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­gram (CSHEP), Micro Enter­pris­es Sup­port Trust, Unit­ed Women Empow­er­ment Pro­gramme, Fam­i­ly Group, The Kenya Red Cross, and promi­nent cor­po­ra­tions were cel­e­brat­ed for their ground­break­ing inno­va­tions. Haller Park, owned by Bam­buri Cement and renowned for its remark­able envi­ron­men­tal con­ser­va­tion efforts, was also hon­ored. Haco Indus­tries received spe­cial recog­ni­tion for sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhanc­ing employ­a­bil­i­ty and job cre­ation. Our Green Africa Foun­da­tion received the Envi­ron­men­tal Action Award, rec­og­niz­ing our impact­ful Green Africa Vil­lage ini­tia­tive, trans­form­ing lives far beyond Kenya’s bor­ders. To my hum­ble sur­prise and heart­felt grat­i­tude, I received the Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Cham­pi­on Award, reaf­firm­ing our shared com­mit­ment to sus­tain­able growth and innovation.

As I stepped away from the podi­um, filled with inspi­ra­tion, the immense poten­tial of pos­i­tiv­i­ty res­onat­ed deeply with me. It became clear that sup­port­ing even the small­est ideas can trans­form entire com­mu­ni­ties and our nation. This is the tremen­dous pow­er of pos­i­tiv­i­ty that filled me when For­mer Pres­i­dent Kiba­ki launched the then lit­tle-known ‘Plant Your Age’ ini­tia­tive on April 30, 2012, in Kitui, which has led to the tan­gi­ble plant­i­ng and grow­ing of 908 mil­lion trees today.

First, con­sid­er the chal­lenge of youth unem­ploy­ment, which cur­rent­ly stands at near­ly 40% accord­ing to the Kenya Nation­al Bureau of Sta­tis­tics. Every entre­pre­neur­ial idea we nur­ture has the poten­tial to change lives. Look at M‑PESA, which began as a mod­est mobile mon­ey con­cept. As of 2024, M‑PESA sup­ports over 34 mil­lion sub­scribers and has facil­i­tat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 17 bil­lion trans­ac­tions worth KSh 20.85 tril­lion in just six months, sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost­ing mer­chant pay­ments through Lipa Na M‑PESA to KSh 972.6 bil­lion from over 1.4 bil­lion trans­ac­tions. Imag­ine repli­cat­ing such suc­cess by sup­port­ing inno­v­a­tive ven­tures across Kenya.

Sec­ond­ly, envi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion is anoth­er urgent chal­lenge. Kenya aims to plant 15 bil­lion trees by 2032, a goal that can be achieved with inno­v­a­tive approach­es, which I will now out­line. Imag­ine if we incen­tivized every Kenyan to plant just one tree per month based on their age. In sev­en years, this could yield around 8 bil­lion trees. Ini­tia­tives like ‘Plant Your Age’ con­nect per­son­al mile­stones to envi­ron­men­tal stew­ard­ship, trans­form­ing ambi­tion into achievement.

Cor­po­rate Kenya has a vital role to play as well. With about 20 mil­lion employed Kenyans, if each employ­ee plant­ed trees equiv­a­lent to their age annu­al­ly, an addi­tion­al 2.8 bil­lion trees could grow with­in sev­en years. Cor­po­ra­tions can fur­ther encour­age par­tic­i­pa­tion through employ­ee incen­tives and rewards, embed­ding sus­tain­abil­i­ty into their core values.

Kenya’s report­ed vast mobile con­nec­tiv­i­ty, fea­tur­ing over 65 mil­lion active sub­scrip­tions, can sup­port this vision. An “Air­time for Trees” ini­tia­tive, which encour­ages sub­scribers to plant two trees year­ly, could effort­less­ly add near­ly one bil­lion more trees with­in sev­en years. Now, imag­ine if every phone own­er caused the plant­i­ng of one tree per month for air­time — this alone could result in an aston­ish­ing 5.46 bil­lion addi­tion­al trees over sev­en years! Don’t we have our 15 bil­lion trees? The Kenya For­est Ser­vice then seam­less­ly col­lab­o­rates with com­mu­ni­ties and cor­po­ra­tions alike because we all become pas­sion­ate tree huggers.

Final­ly, let’s tack­le Kenya’s silent epi­dem­ic: men­tal health. Imag­ine a ‘Men­tal Well­ness Wal­let’ inte­grat­ed into Kenya’s mobile mon­ey plat­forms. This solu­tion could pro­vide imme­di­ate access to pro­fes­sion­al coun­sel­ing. Sup­port­ed by small, reg­u­lar con­tri­bu­tions from indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es, this ini­tia­tive could make men­tal well­ness an every­day resource for everyone.

These pres­ti­gious awards inspire each Kenyan to advo­cate pos­i­tiv­i­ty, coop­er­a­tion, and prac­ti­cal solu­tions, turn­ing dreams into endur­ing, sus­tain­able real­i­ties. Think Green, Act Green.