The Journey So Far

Youth4Green Waste Management Initiative is a youth-led environmental initiative implemented by Vikima Cleaning Limited. What began in 2025 through small-scale, volunteer-led environmental activities has progressively developed into a more structured initiative focused on sustainable waste management, community sanitation, youth engagement, and circular economy solutions.

These early activities provided an opportunity to engage communities, mobilise young people, and better understand the environmental challenges facing urban markets. They also helped lay the groundwork for a more structured approach to environmental action, partnerships, and long-term impact.

In 2026, Vikima advanced Youth4Green into its pilot phase, beginning with activities in Juja Market. This phase marked an important step in the initiative's development, including collaboration with Juja Municipality, increased youth participation, and external funding support through the Global Youth Mobilization (GYM), a funding mechanism co-funded by the European Union. The current funded project runs through December 2026.

Today, Youth4Green is developing beyond individual clean-up activities towards a broader approach that connects community action, responsible waste management, environmental data, and circular economy opportunities.

Turning Environmental Action into Community Impact

Through clean-up exercises, market engagement, waste segregation, and environmental education, Youth4Green works to promote cleaner public spaces and more responsible waste management practices.

To date, the initiative has:

• Scaled to 4 markets in Juja, Witeithie, Murera, Kimbo.
• Engaged over 800 young people, directly and indirectly, in environmental activities.
• Reached over 6,000 market traders through activities and market communities engaged by the initiative.
• Benefited an estimated 700,000+ residents through markets serving wider residential communities.
• Conducted community clean-up exercises and promoted improved sanitation in public spaces.
• Encouraged the separation of organic waste from plastics and other waste streams.
• Engaged traders and community participants in environmental awareness and sustainable waste management education.

These efforts reflect the initiative's commitment to making environmental action more participatory, connecting young people with practical community needs, and encouraging more sustainable waste management practices. The figures above reflect the initiative's reported engagement and estimated reach. The resident figure is based on the populations served by the markets, rather than individually verified beneficiaries.

Recognition for Youth-Led Environmental Action

The work being advanced through Youth4Green has also received recognition beyond its immediate implementation activities.

Our Founder, James Kimani, has been nominated for the 2026 QS ImpACT Awards in the Climate Education For Change Award (Organisation) category. The nomination recognises his work through Youth4Green Waste Management Solutions, an initiative of Vikima Cleaning Limited advancing youth-led environmental action and progress towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This recognition highlights the importance of youth-led initiatives in addressing environmental challenges and advancing community-driven sustainability efforts. For Vikima, it also reinforces the importance of documenting impact, strengthening environmental education, and developing practical solutions that can deliver measurable results over time.

Looking Beyond Waste Collection: Our Circular Economy Ambition

While clean-up activities and environmental education remain central to Youth4Green, Vikima's longer-term ambition is to address what happens to waste after it has been collected and segregated.

One of the initiative's key development areas is organic waste recovery. Organic waste generated in markets presents an opportunity to explore resource recovery approaches that can transform suitable biodegradable materials into useful products, including compost and organic fertiliser.

Vikima aims to develop this opportunity into a more structured model that connects market-level waste segregation and collection with organic waste processing, product development, and green livelihood opportunities for young people and women.

The longer-term ambition is to progress towards large-scale compost and organic fertiliser manufacturing in 2027, subject to the development of the necessary infrastructure, technical capacity, partnerships, and financing. This represents an important step in Vikima's vision of moving beyond waste management services towards practical circular economy solutions that create environmental and economic value.

What's Next? Q4 2026 and Beyond

As Youth4Green moves towards the next stage of development, Vikima is preparing to strengthen its environmental data capabilities, expand partnerships, and advance its circular economy plans.

Q4 2026: Developing our environmental data models

During the final quarter of 2026, Vikima is working on developing its intellectual property (IP) and data models to support more structured environmental data collection, analysis, and verification. The objective is to build a stronger foundation for measuring environmental performance, documenting outcomes, and producing reliable evidence that organisations can use to understand and demonstrate their environmental progress.

Q1 2027: Preparing to introduce ESG as a service

Building on this work, Vikima plans to roll out Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) services in Q1 2027. The planned offering will focus on helping organisations strengthen environmental data collection, reporting, and evidence-based sustainability practices. This represents a new development direction for Vikima, connecting practical environmental experience with data-driven solutions for businesses and other organisations.

2027: Advancing towards large-scale organic waste processing

Vikima also plans to progress towards large-scale compost and organic fertiliser manufacturing in 2027. This ambition will build on the waste segregation and organic recovery approaches being explored through Youth4Green. The goal is to establish a pathway through which suitable organic waste can be recovered and converted into valuable products while creating opportunities for green employment and supporting more sustainable resource use.

Expanding municipal partnerships

Vikima is also exploring additional municipal partnerships, with potential collaborations in the pipeline. These opportunities could support the expansion of Youth4Green's approach into other municipalities and market hubs, adapting activities to local environmental needs and building on lessons from the pilot phase.

Building the Next Chapter

Youth4Green represents an evolving journey: from small-scale volunteer activities to a structured pilot, from community clean-ups to exploring resource recovery, and from grassroots environmental action towards data-driven and scalable sustainability solutions. Through Vikima Cleaning Limited, the initiative continues to bring together young people, communities, municipal stakeholders, and supporting partners around a shared goal of improving waste management and advancing environmental sustainability. As we look towards 2027, our focus is on strengthening what works, developing the systems needed to measure impact, expanding partnerships, and turning our circular economy ambitions into practical solutions.

The journey is still unfolding, and exciting developments lie ahead.

Contact us: Email: info@vikimacleaning.com or by mailing us: P.O BOX 30-01001 Kalimoni.