Nakumatt Holdings, mid last year unveiled an internal initiative to reduce the use of plastic paper bags across its branches in East Africa through an elaborate behavioural change campaign.
The Nakumatt campaign is geared at imploring shoppers to consider allowing their shopping to be packed in reusable bags, used cartons and bales instead of plastic or paper bags.
The Project has already started bearing fruit with Nakumatt managing to reduce its plastic and paper bag usage by more than 15% in just less than six months. However the hard part of ensuring project sustainability has just started.
To encourage the uptake of the project, Nakumatt Smart shoppers now earn two extra 
smart points every time they come shopping with their reusable bags at Nakumatt. In addition, a donation of KShs.5 is made by Nakumatt Holdings to AMREF for every purchase of a Nakumatt re-usable bag. All these are efforts geared at reducing the consumption of plastic bags.
Before rolling out the campaign our internal research findings had confirmed the viability of the initiative which is projected to provide a more than 50% cut on the firm’s use of plastic paper bags in the next two years. At Nakumatt, we believe that the plastics war can only be won through an integrated, focused and sustainable approach such as the ambitious Nakumatt campaign which is geared at sensitising end users. Through such a campaign, we are able to engage our shoppers to adopt a more responsible attitude by refraining from the use of plastic bags and opting to use reusable bags.
Besides shoppers, we are also engaged in a consultative process with keys suppliers to reduce unnecessary use of plastics in product packaging.
Objectives
Encourage consumer behaviour change over-time focused on reducing bag use, effectively reusing bags, and recycling them at the end of their useful life.
Across the region and with daily customer traffic of close to 150,000 customers daily, Nakumatt facilitates the dispensing of more than 350,000 plastic paper bags.
We believe that through the Nakumatt campaign, we shall encourage at least a million shoppers to reduce their usage of plastic bags and accept goods packed in papers bags, reusable bags and even paper bales.
Our desired effect is to reduce our 350,000 daily dispensing to less than 50,000 paper bags in five years.
This is a project that is spearheaded by all our 5,500 staffers across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Results
Essentially, the project is expected to provide positive impacts going forward as it encourages and sensitizes the final consumer to play an active role in environmental management.
Use of reusable bags is an effective avenue to instil discipline and ownership amongst consumers. Non-woven plastic (polypropylene) or ‘Green Bags’ are manufactured from polypropylene gas, a by-product of oil refining. They are strong and durable, and can hold more than a conventional single use HDPE shopping bag.
The Project has already started bearing fruit with Nakumatt managing to reduce its plastic paper bags usage by more than 15% in just less than six months. However the hard part of ensuring project sustainability has just started.
How to
So far, Nakumatt Holdings has invested more than US$5million in this project.
The Nakumatt Project was inspired by a series of research studies. As a responsible corporate organisation, Nakumatt has been actively seeking avenues to ensure business sustainability. Business sustainability covering revenue generation, footprint expansion, human resource development and most importantly, environmental sustainability. At Nakumatt, we are alive to the emerging global trend towards the mainstreaming of environmental and social criteria in the business arena means future success lies with businesses ensuring they are, and are seen to be, good operators.
Due to the nature of our business, we have to brace ourselves at the prospect of voluntarily reporting in more detail on the application of environmental innovations and the environmental and social performance of our products. Examples include innovations to reduce electricity use in stores, use of reusable bags and packaging of products and the provision of eco-friendly and eco-labeled products to customers, such as organic foods.
Our voluntary role to raise public awareness amongst our customers will eventually have a major ripple effect helping curb/reduce use of plastic bags in coming years. This reflects on corporate social investment more than just environmental excellence.
Contact Information
Nakumatt Holdings Limited, Head Office, Roads C,Off Enterprise Road
P.O Box 78355, Postal Code No. 00507 Nairobi
Tel.+254+20-551809/10/12/13, 3009988,650137-9, 650179
+254 733-632130, +254 722-204931, 020-3599991-4
Fax.254-20-650150, E-Mail: nakumatt@nakumatt.net
Tools
- Media Releases
- Print and Broadcast Adverts
- In store Point of sale material