Prof Wangari Maathai.
The holidays remind us of the profound joy of giving, whether through gifts, acts of service, or the simple grace of sharing a meal with those we love.
This year, I am most grateful for family, friends, health, and a special campaign that is still sparking hope — the Mottainai Campaign.
As we close a year long celebration of the 20th anniversary of Wangari Maathai and the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, it is also a moment to honour an extraordinary partnership she established between Kenya and Japan. An alliance that began quietly but has grown into a beacon of inspiration and hope. What started as primarily a behaviour change campaign has become a gift rooted in shared humanity and collective responsibility.
Twenty years ago, my mother, Nobel Laureate & Founder of the Green Belt Movement Wangari Maathai, arrived in Japan for the first time and planted a seed that would grow far beyond anything we could have imagined. Together with a leading media house, Mainichi, they launched the “Mottainai Campaign”. It is rooted in a single Japanese word that carries the weight of an entire philosophy: Mottainai. This word means: reduce, reuse, recycle, with gratitude and respect. All in that one word!
Just last week, on December 22, a symposium commemorating the 20th anniversary of the “Mottainai Campaign” was held at Rikkyo University’s Ikebukuro Campus in Tokyo.
Under the theme: “Toward a Regenerative World Where People and Nature Coexist,” the event brought together participants, including corporate executives whose companies sought out an affiliation with the campaign. This would have been inconceivable earlier, when the campaign focused on individual behaviour change.
But as the climate crisis has intensified, so too has our understanding of what true stewardship requires. Personal action matters deeply, yet it is only one part of the story. Real transformation worldwide also depends on how companies design, produce, and manage the materials that flow through their supply chains. The spirit of Mottainai challenges all of us to rethink waste not as an inevitability, but as a choice. And in that choice lies the power to reshape our future.
From that moment 20 years ago, the campaign has inspired conscious living. None of us expected that campaign to catch on as much as it did in Japan: men, women, and children rediscovered this word that was part of their culture and heritage and took it on.
But perhaps what has inspired me most this season is going back to Japan and finding that the campaign has not only grown, but it has become a symbol of circularity. In a world where food loss and waste are such a critical issue, the “Mottainai Campaign” has come to symbolise what it means to address this feature element of the climate crisis.
One of the most overlooked drivers of global emissions is hiding in plain sight: the food we throw away. Harvests wasted due to poor storage, every discarded meal represents not only wasted nourishment, but squandered land, water, energy, and labor. Each loss adds to the carbon burden warming our planet. Japan’s nearly five million tonnes of annual food loss and waste is about economic inefficiency and a climate threat demanding bold, systemic action.
Across Africa, too, the scale of food loss and waste tells a story that is both urgent and full of possibility. An estimated 30–40 per cent of all food produced never reaches a plate — it’s lost to gaps in storage, transport, processing, and market access. This is both a supply chain inefficiency issue as well as a challenge to food security, farmer livelihoods, and climate resilience. In countries like ours, where millions face hunger even as millions of tonnes of food are lost each year, the contradiction is impossible to ignore. Yet within this challenge lies enormous opportunity: cutting food loss and waste in half could feed millions, strengthen rural economies, and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Africa’s food systems are brimming with potential, and when communities, businesses, and governments unite around solutions, the impact is transformative.
This is precisely where a movement like the “Mottainai Campaign” could transform lives and livelihoods. In Japan, companies like Kirin, Lawson, and the Fujita Kanko Inc. family of hotels, including their iconic Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo, are proving that reducing food waste is powerful. By embedding Mottainai principles into their business models, they are demonstrating how thoughtful stewardship can cut emissions, strengthen communities, and inspire a cultural shift toward sustainability. To see the “Mottainai Campaign” evolve into this driver of circularity has been a highlight of this celebration.
In this New Year, I look forward to working with our partners in Japan to deepen this campaign and take it global. Passing on the spirit of Mottainai is not simply about preserving a word, but about ensuring its values guide future decision-making. Happy Holidays!
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Ms Mathai is the MD for Africa & Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute and Chair of the Wangari Maathai Foundation
