Being an entrepreneur doesn’t only have to be about making money. Some of the biggest business people in the world set out to do something they loved and were truly passionate about. That is what has enabled them to become successful beyond what they had imagined.
Thus is the story of one Lorna Rutto an ecopreneur whose love for the environment and passion for wanting to conserve it has enabled her to build a successful business and win multiple awards and recognition around the world.
Her Story
As a young child, growing up in the Kaptembwa Slums in Kenya, Lorna Rutto experienced more than her fair share of poverty, unemployment, garbage and rotting waste in the streets, and clogged, overflowing sewers encroaching people’s homes.
As a young schoolgirl, her eco-consciousness came to the fore, when she noticed the huge amounts of plastic waste littering the environment.
SEE ALSO >>> She Quit Her Job At KQ To Start A Business With Just A Laptop & Facebook Page
She decided to start making a small difference to addressing the situation, recycling this plastic litter and making creative pieces of jewelry and small ornaments by melting the plastic, reshaping and decorating it into new objects.
After school, she went to college, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting, and went into a career in banking, a solid career choice given the tough employment market in Kenya at the time.
However, she felt unfulfilled and longed to work with people and in the field of science, instead of working on financial systems and structures.
Her passion for the environment, and her desire to do something to address the increasing waste problem in the country, led her to take the entrepreneurial plunge, leave the banking sector, and start up in business together with her co-founder, Charles Kalama, a biochemical engineering graduate.
The Business
This was how Eco post, a green business manufacturing beautiful, durable and environmentally friendly fencing posts using plastic waste came about.
READ ALSO >>> “The Early Bird Catches The Worm,” Maggie Ireri Shares Her Secret To Success
The venture does not only provide effective solutions to the management of plastic waste created in Kenya each day, but also converts this waste into usable fencing products which in turn helps conserve forests that are under threat from logging.
EcoPost is also directly providing a solution to the terrible unemployment situation in the country, creating over 300 jobs for young people and women who were previously marginalized in society.
What To Learn From Lorna Rutto
This clearly goes to show that as you think about what business to start, you should look at your surrounding and see what the problems are and how you can fix them.
This is the only way to better your life as well as that of millions of other people in the country.
EcoPost has saved hundreds of acres of forests from destruction as well as removed over a million kilograms of plastic waste from the environment. Not to mention, because of decided to do something she is passionate about and trying to improve the lives of people in her area, Lorna Rutto ended up creating a business worth millions.
RELATED ARTICLE >>> How 22 Year Old Built A Multi-Million Business In Just 6 Months
Source: Lionesses Of Africa
0 Comments