MK-Africa recently launched its landmark online sustainability course – The Sustainability for Business in Africa program. This is a course designed to take business leaders on a learning journey to identify the issues underpinning sustainability for their businesses so as to be able to report on these issues using globally recognised standards. The first training cohort has just completed the 4-week course and I am thrilled by their overwhelmingly positive feedback.
“The Sustainability for Business in Africa course has been so profound for me,’ said Achieng’ Oluoch, the Head of Marketing at HF Group. “It is clear that sustainability is a decision problem rather than an environmental and social issue. I have found myself going back to our Sustainability Reports of 2018 and 2019 and reading these with a new lens. I now see the bigger picture and how our intentional actions as a company can build up to propagate sustainability.”
Achieng’ also sees her personal responsibility in sustainability. “We so often consider sustainability as a corporate issue yet in its rudimentary form, it is the individuals in the business who make a difference. You simply cannot ignore sustainability in a personal life and expect to make significant changes in your business.”
Sustainability for Business in Africa has been an eye opening opportunity for me in clarifying my own vision and purpose for Africa. The course gives great contextual information and one can just feel the dedication and commitment of the facilitators. I am so glad to be a part of cohort one
Maryann Nderu, Sustainability Manager, East Africa Breweries Ltd.
Sustainability is also about paying closer attention to the things we are wilfully blind to. From a business perspective this could mean ignoring the needs of support staff who may be viewed as having insignificant roles in the organisation and yet are key stakeholders. For Maryann Nderu, the Sustainability Manager at East African Breweries Ltd., and another participant in the SBA course, completing the first module of the program increased her stakeholder awareness. She gave the story of how, one evening on her way home from work, she saw an estate guard relieving himself behind a sentry box. Ordinarily, she would not have given this a second thought however she now recognised the issue as being that the guard’s employer has not provided him with convenient bathroom facilities. From a sustainability lens, this is not only a lack of recognition of the needs of the guard, as a stakeholder in her home community, but is a public health concern that could lead to untold issues for the entire community.
Hearing these testimonies from course participants is like music to my ears. After months of preparing our material and relevant case studies, it is exciting see the course participants begin to take sustainability actions on a personal and corporate level. Clearly the Sustainability for Business in Africa course is achieving its objective of supporting business executives in responding effectively to the rapidly changing social, environmental and economic context, which underpin sustainability. Please visit http://www.mk-africa.com to find out more about the program and how it can help you better understand sustainability trends, effective business responses and actions.
Sustainability Stories 