Small businesses going green

In the wake of a global pandemic, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are crucial to economic recovery. Not only do they comprise  90 per cent of businesses, these enterprises are also responsible for more than half of global employment.

More and more entrepreneurs are turning their focus to another critical cause – protecting the planet. The case for investing in the environment has never been stronger. Already, global markets for climate-smart technologies and businesses have grown to $1 trillion annually. A green recovery from the pandemic could cut 25 per cent off 2030 emissions, helping get the world on track to limiting global warming to 2°C.

UNEP’s GEO for Business brief found that “‘Business as usual is no longer acceptable…we will need CEOs and entrepreneurs to steer the economy and their businesses away from the exploitation of nature and towards a new model based on green and regenerative principles.”

As the world marks Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day on June 27, we take a look at six young entrepreneurs who are embracing nature-positive business models.

Fatemah Alzelzela is trading up trash.

Fatemah Alzelzela’s home country, Kuwait, generates 1.5 kilograms of trash per person per day – twice the global average – and 90 per cent of it ends up in landfills. Kuwait is yet to embrace sustainable waste management – and Alzelzela is changing that. 

Alzelzela co-founded Eco Star, a non-profit that recycles trash from homes, restaurants and schools across Kuwait. She used her own cash as start-up capital and built her consumer base by educating people about recycling and encouraging them to sign up through her social media platforms.

She soon grew her following to more than 20,000 – through whom she publicized Eco Star services. Since its launch in 2019, the company has recycled over 3.5 tonnes of plastic, 10 tonnes of paper and 120 tonnes of metal. Says Alzelzela, “We can all take action and inspire others to take action on a bigger scale.”

Meet Fatemah Alzelzela, UN Young Champion of the Earth.

Nzambi Matee’s proof of concept.

“Don’t quit your day job” – or so we are often advised. But Matee did quit her day job. And her social life. And invested all her savings into an experimental project in her mother’s back garden.

“My friends were worried,” she admits. “Everyone thought I was crazy and so many people told me to give up.”

Matee is the founder of Gjenge Makers, a company that uses discarded plastic to produce building materials. Having observed the volumes of plastic bags polluting the streets of Nairobi, she developed a machine that compresses a mixture of plastic and sand into sturdy bricks. Lighter and more durable than cement, they are affordable and have been used to pave walkways for homes and schools – including those in low-income areas where students would otherwise have to walk on dirt paths.

Her business now produces 1,500 pavers, per day – proving that it is possible to move from a linear economy toward a circular one, in which products and materials remain in the system for as long as possible.

Meet Nzambi Matee, UNEP Young Champion of the Earth.

Lefteris Arapakis knows the opportunity cost of plastic.

Lefteris Arapakis, a fifth-generation fisherman was concerned when he saw the boats around his Greek hometown hauling nets filled with plastic waste and not fish. The plastic would be dumped back into the water but worries about the scarcity of fish would remain.  

“I was deeply concerned that my father and brothers, could not make a living out of this job”, said Arapakis. Indeed, projections suggest that there could be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

Arapakis’ concern inspired action – he founded Enaleia, the country’s first sustainable fishing school, teaching fishers to adopt more eco-friendly practices.

“We want to empower every fisherman to catch plastic and then bring it back to the port and upcycle it,” he said.

The school also brings together the local marine community, to collect plastic pollution – an exercise that has, to date, resulted in the removal of more than 80 tonnes of plastic from the sea. In partnership with a Dutch organization, Enaleia has started to upcycle fishing nets, turning them into carpets, socks and other consumer products.

Meet Lefteris Arapakis, UNEP Young Champion of the Earth.

Xiaoyuan Ren doesn’t gamble on health.

“Imagine two glasses of water, both looking the same, but one is clean and one could make you sick. How do you choose?” Ren is well aware that, in rural China, even water that looks clean may not be safe to drink. According to some estimates, as much as half of the country’s shallow groundwater is polluted.

Ren’s company, MyH20, removes the guesswork by charting water quality. The data platform and mobile phone app collate information gathered by a nationwide team of youth volunteers trained to test water quality. It provides users with current information about local water quality, offers solutions for purifying water and connects communities to companies specialized in treating contaminated water sources.

My H20 has helped provide clean water to tens of thousands, but Ren is not finished yet. “What motivates me is galvanizing others to take action,” she says. MyH20 volunteers – who are students of science, technology, engineering and medicine – “will go on to develop careers in these fields and create solutions to some of the environmental problems they have seen while working with us."

Meet Xiaoyuan “Charlene” Ren, UNEP Young Champion of the Earth.

Max Hidalgo is engineering for nature.

“I developed an electrical energy generator in the shape of a local flower and a flowerpot that can charge cell phone batteries,” says Max Hidalgo. “Now I am working on developing biodegradable packaging that’s hexagonal, like a beehive...”

His most ground-breaking invention is a technology that makes water out of the wind, using a turbine to condense vapour from the air.

In Peru, Hidalgo’s homeland, climate change has made water shortage is a serious risk. Already, many communities rely on expensive water deliveries. Serving a community of 100 people can cost as much as one million dollars – substantially more than his own system, Yawa, which costs just USD70,000.

Constructed out of recyclable materials with minimal plastic, easy-to-operate and easy-to-repair, adaptable to local air quality, Yawa is fulfilling a fundamental need. Explains Hidalgo, “When I was first testing this technology in different rural communities, I spent a lot of time explaining the technical aspects of it, and the scientific processes behind it. At one point a woman stopped me and looked me in the eye and said, ‘Young man, I just want water.”

Meet Max Hidalgo, UNEP Young Champion of the Earth.