Community Highlights
Thank you to Pick Up The Mic for the Sustainability Advocate Award.
The IE Collective UK is pleased to be recognised by the communities we work with for the start of our work engaging historically under-engaged communities in sustainability.
Motivez UK: We have made it to the finals!
IE Collective UK’s founder Enna Uwaifo’s London Borough of Southwark team of year 10 girls won the semi-finals, and will be competing in the finals of the Motivez’ STEM Hackathon ‘Sustainable London”.
Their sustainable fashion product idea ‘Minted”, seeks to end the textile waste crisis by making clothes out of recycled and recyclable materials. Allowing the company to give back to the community and reduce fast fashion waste through eco-awareness and partnerships with insulation companies.
Thank you to Eden Lungby, George Imafidon and the rest of the dream team at Motivez CIC
I have joined SOS-UK and zedela PACE Index Advisory Board
This year, I joined the PACE Index Advisory Board. I will be providing strategic support to Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK) and zedela to drive European enviroonmental organisations to take meaningful, measurable action on equity and inclusion. Using data-driven approaches, we platform all voices.
UDS
Creates measurable social impact that turns under-engaged linear fashion consumers into circular fashion community builders and textile citizen scientists.
Over the next 10 years, Uninhibited Development Solutions aims to catalyse business value for circular fashion products and services across the UK, Europe and the African continent, driving the future of circular fashion.
To do this, we focus on tackling historic under-engagement of environmental strategy, policy and action through cultural-informed community engagement in three pathways:
LEARN
TURN
EARN
I offer a free strategy to help brands engage with under-reached audiences—today. Click here to develop your sustainability strategy right away by becoming a ‘cost-of-living” realist.
Let’s be clear:
Not everyone who challenges the current environmental movement is a “climate denier.”
And not every sustainability or circularity initiative is or needs to feel like a “carbon tax” aka “a sacrifice” that makes everyday life harder.
What we need is more honest conversation—spaces where we can trade lived experience, practical ideas, and cultural insight. That’s how real innovation happens.
At the IE Collective UK, we are a team dedicated to making environmental sustainability a top priority for wealth creation and business ownership.
We focus on developing creative-science solutions for the most inclusive engine of sustainable innovation and value creation.
IE Collective UK: Textile waste in Accra, Ghana
IE Collective UK is an exclusive eco-system of strategy, resource sharing and collaborations driving strategic investment in climate adaptation for systemically excluded communities through a focus on scaling up highly sustainable businesses.
INSPIRATION BEHIND IE COLLECTIVE UK
IE Collective UK was created as a response to my master’s research in University of Bristol’s MSc Global Development and Environment programme.
I developed and conducted an international participatory research project in Kantamanto market, in Accra, Ghana, with the great support my local host Richmond Osei-Bonsu.
According to The OR foundation, 15 million pieces of second-hand textiles flow into Kantamanto market weekly. Some are such poor condition that they cannot be resold. Ghana’s existing waste management structures cannot process all the textile waste flowing into the market.
However, the informal traders made it clear that are not seeking an end to their livelihoods, they want better quality clothing and trade conditions.
I wanted to a design a solution that provides generational support rather than one-off advocacy.
Read more my article about my research here
EXPERIENCE WITH KAYAYEI’S DAUGHTER
I realised the answer was not a short term campaign. I was deeply touched my experience with a Kayayei’s (female head porter) daughter, who was a very happy child but her future was already looking bleak. Despite being school age, her mother had no capacity to take her school, as every cedi counts in the work as kayayei - so she stayed with her mother in the market.
With the dwindling quality of clothing and the potential of new EU environmental regulations impacting the trade, it was clear that the worst hit would be Kayayei and - by extension - their children with any significant losses to the market.
Learn more about the Kantamanto research here.
PREVIOUS AND CURRENT CLIENTS/WORK EXPERIENCE
I have a rich and deep experience spanning 8 years working in corporate social responsibility, community investment, gender equality, environmental sustainability and participatory research co-created with marginalised communities and youth.
