Lorna Rutto

Lorna Rutto is a thought leader, change maker and a social entrepreneur passionate about environmental excellence integrated with a business wide approach to sustainability and eradicating poverty. Ever since she was a little girl, she was always troubled with plastic waste littering their streets, clogging sewers and even encroaching people's homes. She used to melt the plastic litter in high school to make ornaments and sell to other pupils. After graduating in commerce, she started a career in banking but it did not feel right; she felt she needed to do more to change the environment and poverty situation in her country. To her delight, she realized it was possible by working on a project that she's very passionate about of recycling plastic waste to manufacture plastic fencing posts and lumber, and so she took the entrepreneurial plunge. So far she has saved vast acres of forests, withdrawn million kilos of plastic waste from the environment and created employment opportunities. She has developed a community engagement program whereby she works with marginalized youth and women. Her visionary approach to environmental conservation has attracted awards such as the 2011 Sub-Saharan Africa Cartier Laureate, Bid Network Nature Challenge, Enablis and SEED Award.