As Sustainability Manager at Absa Bank Kenya, Rufus Mwenda is contributing to environmental sustainability by crafting a pathway towards science-based targets supporting the Bank to become a net zero company by 2040.
Rufus recognizes the crucial and urgent call to act against the looming climate change crisis and his passion has led him to drive efforts within Absa Bank Kenya in the areas on Goal 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and Goal 13 (Climate Action).
In 2020, Rufus led efforts in the implementation of LED retrofit across all the Bank’s facilities resulting in 13% increase in total energy efficiency and a 289tC02e decrease in GHG emissions (Kes. 20.8M).
In the same year, Rufus proved the business case of adopting eco-friendly bottle-less drinking water dispensers. This project resulted in a decrease of 3936tC02e in the Bank's carbon footprint in 2021, a 33 percent reduction year-on-year (Kes. 4.32M).
With the advantage of touching each colleague at the bank, the two projects have helped sell the sustainability narrative and embed the culture among colleagues.
Rufus has supported Absa Bank Kenya's commercial services by serving as a subject matter expert in the development of a sustainability action plan that incorporates green construction and green procurement best practices to help the bank achieve its net zero target by 2040.
Absa Bank Kenya has been a participating company of the United Nations Global Compact since October 2019.