Dangote Group unveils waste-to-wealth initiatives to commemorate sustainability week

As part of activities to commemorate the 2019 Global Sustainability Week, employees of Dangote Group on Thursday flagged off a Waste-to-Wealth initiative to create a sustainable environment, generate revenues from environmental waste and give back to the company’s host communities.

Guided by the theme: “Our Community, Our Passion,” the company organized various activities at its Lagos Head Office and across the plants and business units in the country. These activities focused on investment programmes directed at 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 everyday 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.

She said, “We chose St. Georges School because the school is a neighbour to Dangote Head Office building. 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.”

Nnoli disclosed that the company brought international artists to educate the employees that the type of waste that can easily be thrown into the waste bin could be transformed into usable items.

Giving further 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.

General Manager, Sustainability, Dangote Cement Plc, Eunice Samson, said the company’s intention was to ensure that Dangote employees key into the Group’s vision and volunteer to reach out to the local communities through value addition.

She said the theme for this year’s Sustainability Week “Our Community, Our Passion, the Dangote Way” was a way to make the host community to begin to see the social side of Dangote.

Speaking also at the event, the managing director of African Creative Hub, Jumoke Olowookere, said her responsibility was to teach the participants on how to create a sustainable world without wastes through upcycling wastes towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.