One of the main challenges facing our government as it seeks to replace sustainable development patterns with environmentally sound and sustainable development is the need to activate a sense of common purpose on behalf of all sectors of society. It has long been our vie that many of the most pressing challenges threatening the environment and the prosperity of our country can only be addressed by business, government and community leaders working together in a spirit of partnership. There is no was of achieving the other than through a multi stakeholder national environment award scheme. It is against this background that the first ever national Cleaner Production (CP) award was held in October last year as a way of demonstrating that businesses and industry have a critical role to play in the process of partnership building for sustainable development.

The key in the promotion of this national CP award include the Ministry of Trade and Industry through KIRDI, the private sector, KNCPC, NEMA, KAM, UNDP and UNEP among others. The award is designed to recognize businesses that have embraced Cleaner Production and are now benefiting from its economic and environmental benefits. The ultimate goal of the award is to enable businesses acquire global competitiveness through Cleaner Production or Waste Minimization. This year’s national CP award is scheduled for November 20, 2008 to coincide with the celebration of the African Industrialization day. We are taking this early opportunity to invite you to participate in the event. Attached, please find the proceedings of last year’s award and the 2008 Award Assessment Tool that should be filled up by you and returned by end of October so as to facilitate your participation in this important event. A participation fee of Kshs 25,000 (twenty five thousand only) will be levied to each participating company and is payable to the “Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre” before or at the submission of the completed Assessment Tool.

We also would like to take this opportunity to thank all those companies that financially supported the award ceremony and made it a success last year, namely Pwani Oil Products (Mombasa), BOC Gases, and the Standard Group among others. UNDP provided 50% of the Award budget, the Private sector 30% with KNCPC topping up the remaining 20%. Given that the UNDP support is not guaranteed this year, we are calling for additional support for the private sector. The ultimate goal is to ensure that the award is solely driven by the private sector. Several companies namely Uniliver Kenya Limited and Magadi Soda among others pledged to support this year’s event. We are calling on many others to join this event and be part of global leaders in their respective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. We look forward to your support and participation in this year’s event.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Jane Nyakang’o
Director
Kenya National Cleaner Production Centre

CLEANER PRODUCTION AWARDS.

The launching of the National Cleaner Production Award was held on 26 th October 2006 at the Kenya International Conference Centre.This was a joint effort by KNCPC, the Ministry of Trade and Industry, KIRDI, UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO, KAM and the private sector to recognize businesses that have embraced Cleaner Production and are benefiting from its economic and environmental benefits. The awards were also aimed at increasing the number of businesses in Kenya that are eco-efficient, sustainable and hence more competitive in the liberal market. KNCPC has been championing the uptake and implementation of Cleaner Production in Kenya since the year 2000. This has enabled industries and businesses to increase production efficiency and reduce risks to humans and environment. Over this period over 80 enterprises have successfully implemented CP and have achieved considerable financial and environmental gains through easy compliance with environmental laws, reduction of production costs and increasing their competitiveness. The Centre together with the stakeholders hence recognized the need to acknowledge such excelling businesses through an award system. This will also to encourage more businesses to adopt cleaner technologies and better manufacturing practices. CPAward 2006 Report(Pdf) (MS Word)

The Cleaner Production Award 2006 Winners.

 For Unilever the winning streak started early as the Gala night climaxed, when they were declared number two in the CP innovation Awards. They were chased closely by Mabati Rolling Mills, the winner of the prize to settle ahead of BIDCO, the second runners up. Unilever again dominated the charts, scooping the solid waste reduction award, the waste water reduction award and CP leadership award to celebrate as the winners of the overall corporate CP award. Mabati Rolling Mills won the coveted CP innovation Award and the Occupational Health and safety awards. Pwani Oil Refineries walked away with the air pollution reduction award. BIDCO Oil refineries were declared the second best overall corporate producers after winning the second position in CP leadership category and third in waste water reduction and CP innovation categories. Chandaria industries were the second best in solid waste reduction and Twiga Chemicals the second best in Occupational Health and safety. GlaxoSmithKline won the third prizes in solid waste, waste water reduction and CP leadership categories to be declared the third best overall, Nairobi Hospital and BOC gases were not left behind, scooping the third position in air pollution reduction and Occupational Health and Safety respectively. Indeed it was a win-win event for everybody as all went home satisfied to prepare for another battle next year. Leading musical group, Kayamba Fiesta and local poetess Carol entertained guests as they sampled the best of Tin Tin Cuisines.