Having practiced journalism for six years, Nelly Bosare shifted lanes into the business of ecofriendly essential products like wooden toothbrush, glass straws and fabric bags.
Her journey along the green path did not stop there. She created a Vlog for sharing stories on sustainability practices, featuring entrepreneurs running green businesses in Kenya to encourage green ventures.
From media house, the founder of Green Thing Kenya has found her calling in promoting the triple bottom-line of people, planet and profit among businesses.
“In my journey as a sustainability vlogger, I realised we can talk about the protection of the environment all we want, but if we do not have the products to demonstrate how to be sustainable, what options do we have, it is very difficult. It sounds like an abstract idea to most people,” Nelly said in an interview. She recently interviewed Bambuzi Toys – a startup producing handmade children toys out of wood and African fabric.
Besides the Vlog, Nelly’s eco-shop makes green household products including wooden toothbrush and bags as part of her campaign to promote eco-consumerism.
“The problem is really not plastic rather the single-use plastic. You use an item for a maximum of 5 minutes and throw it away. Then it will take more than 100 years to break down, “she said.
With her vlog, Nelly seeks to spark discourse around conscious consumerism in Kenya and fuel a shift towards a culture of sustainable living, her goal being to see more consumers walking down the plastic-free path.
She’s, for instance, on a quest to convince restaurants around Nairobi to ditch plastic straws in favour of glass use, as is currently the case at River Café in Karura Forest. “If it is not good for the environment then it is not good for you and I,” she said.
Plastic pollution, alongside climate change, is one of the most pressing modern-day challenges facing humanity.