The African Iconic Woman CEO Leading in the Fight Against Climate Change
Following in the footsteps of her Freedom Veteran Father and Mentor, the DKF CEO, EVELYN WANJUGU KIMATHI, has become a trendsetter in the global women leadership fraternity, making strides in the fight against climate change.
Evelyn was the first woman in Kenya to publish articles on Climate Change impact from a global perspective; laid the foundation for the discovery of the greenhouse effect. The groundbreaking articles, written more than two years ago, drew a direct link between carbon dioxide and the warming of our climate, helping define climate science as we know it today.
Exhibiting her innovation acumen in Climate Change, Madam Evelyn Wanjugu is working to educate the public, building solutions to mitigate the effects of Climate change, and advocating for policies that will help protect our planet. Through DKF, Wanjugu aims to make information from big data more accessible to scientists and communities directly impacted by climate changes from Africa to a global scope.
She’s currently the CEO of Dedan Kimathi Foundation. As a pace-setter for women in halting and mitigation of Climate Change impacts, she has unlocked completely new technological capabilities in how the Private sector, Governments, and communities bring on board their resources in protecting our planet through climate science and exploration.
As the DKF CEO, She has initiated the DKF “Climate Change team,” an open-source platform supported by climate change professionals connecting regional and global restoration and conservation to the data, funding, and knowledge they need to succeed and scale.
Courtesy of her ingenuity and enterprise in environmental conservation, Kenya and the whole Africa are now home to over 100,000 restoration sites and counting, shining a bright light on efforts happening worldwide to restore and conserve nature.
“The restoration of nature has incredible potential for climate, biodiversity, and people,” says CEO Evelyn Wanjugu. “In order to unlock that potential, you really need to bring together everyone involved in that work, ensure that more people can get involved, and that we have a transparent view of what’s happening where.”
She implores the governments and communities to cast off the usage of plastics and other non-biodegradable materials that will end up in landfills but revert to regenerative materials to mitigate climate change effects.
The goal is to make it easier for everyone to produce regenerative and sustainable materials, ultimately transforming the materials market. CEO Evelyn has long supported the green energy movement by working with coal communities, both in Kenya and internationally.
Concerned about those whose livelihoods depend on coal production, she set out to solve the problem from an economic angle. She co-founded the DKF transition fund, helping rural Kenyan communities that relied on coal transition to more sustainable sources of income as plants and mines close.
“We will only build broad public support for climate solutions if we can ensure that the economic benefits of a green economy are equitably shared,” Evelyn says.
She has remained an astute advocate for communities affected by development and land rights and has fought for the protection of environmental defenders as well as against deforestation in the Mt. Kenya region. CEO Evelyn remains the most conspicuous model as an ambassador and advocate for environmental conservation for posterity.
