On September 11 and 12, 2014, TotalEnergies Kenya staged two very important environmental activities, the TotalEnergies Tree Conference 2014 and the TotalEnergies Eco challenge Gala Awards ceremony 2014, which were held in partnership with the Kenya Forest Service.
The TotalEnergies Tree Conference is an annual convention of environmental experts, scholars, scientists, government and tree planters who come together to debate and deliberated on general and pertinent issues affecting the environment. The convention serves as a platform for discussing environmental policy issues and action plans related with the practice of planting trees and the economics of tree farming.
On the other hand, the TotalEnergies Eco challenge Gala awards dinner (held on September 12) is an annual gala dinner in honor of tree planting champions who have achieved amazing personal levels of tree planting or have been an outstanding inspiration to others within their localities.
While speaking at the dinner, TotalEnergies Kenya’s MD, Ada Eze, said, “The annual Eco Challenge awards scheme looks at the achievements of individuals and small groups and even whole armies of tree planters over the past year. Those recognized at the annual gala night are the best of the best in terms of the number of trees planted and the efforts put into the exercise.”
These two events underscore TotalEnergies’s commitment towards the environment and community empowerment. In particular, the TotalEnergies Eco Challenge program is so far Kenya’s biggest tree planting project. It is run under the slogan “Miti Ni Mali, Miti Tosha” which stands for overall purpose of wealth creation through tree planting. The TotalEnergies Eco challenge program was started in 2003 with the aim of inspiring and helping all Kenyans to plant trees in every possible place. The target was 100 million trees per year, every year, forever. Today, the program has more than 5,000 projects that have seen the planting of over 600 of millions of trees since its inception. With the partnership with the Kenya Forest Service, the program targets to expand it’s reach through a long term partnership that will eventually change the face of Kenya.