THEY say with passion, determination and hard work, any dream can come true, regardless of who you are.
That is exactly what happened to a man who turned his love and passion for plants and the environment into a successful business.In 2009, Theo Ickua left his comfortable and well-paying job as a transformation consultant at Old Mutual Namibia, where he was responsible for managing the company’s corporate social responsibility projects as well as the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) component, and started a company called Green Earth Farming and Trading. The firm is a Namibian-owned and managed small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), which offers nursery and gardening services, the retailing of plants and gardening accessories as well as compost making and the propagation of indigenous trees and seedlings.The firm started in 2003 as a backyard operation in Windhoek, but today, Green Earth is a well-established enterprise with a growing customer base all over Namibia.The business initially confined its operations to southern Namibia, and a nursery and gardening centre was established at Rosh Pinah in 2006, which serviced the towns of Rosh Pinah, Oranjemund and Aussenkehr. Major customers at the time included the two mines Skorpion Zinc and Rosh Pinah Zinc.In 2008, a micro-nursery was opened at the Trade Centre complex in the Kleine Kuppe residential area of Windhoek. Business systematically expanded and over the past two years, Green Earth has been offering a diverse range of services within the Khomas Region, and it now plans to expand its services to northern Namibia.At the 2010 Namibia Tourism Expo in Windhoek, the company introduced a new facet of the business, which involves the hiring out of plants to clients.According to Ickua, Green Earth has developed and enjoys a cordial relationship with local growers and suppliers such as Namib Roses, Wilde Eend Nursery, Ferreira’s Garden Centre and the Government Nursery.Green Earth is also responsible for the landscaping maintenance at the City of Windhoek offices, as well as the National Housing Enterprise (HNE) offices in Katutura.The company further sells plants to NICE restaurant near the Polytechnic of Namibia and to Namib Rand Safaris (lodges), and is also responsible for plants and tree-planting at various schools in the Oshikoto region.Ickua runs the company together with his wife of 10 years, Odette.His wife takes care of most of the company’s administration side, and also runs the couple’s chocolate shop in Windhoek’s Maerua Shopping Mall.Green Earth aims to operate nurseries that provide a full range of gardening services in Windhoek and northern Namibia. In the longer term, the firm plans to service the Angolan market from its northern operations.Ickua said the vision of Green Earth has always been to establish and successfully run the first black-owned nursery in Namibia, specialising in indigenous flora. ‘The foundation of growth will always be based on excellent service, continuous learning, stakeholder engagement and customer satisfaction. Customers and colleagues are the centre of everything and anything that Green Earth undertakes. In this regard, the firm subscribes to six values that expresses how it goes about its business,’ he said. He said Green Earth is comprised of a dedicated and focused team that works hard and smartly. The 14 employees, half of whom are women, receive continuous training to provide the comprehensive range of services required in a business entity that provides gardening operations and refuse removal. According to Ickua, plants do not only decorate a place, but they provide beauty, inspiration and a cleaner atmosphere. He said scientific research shows that plants in a home or in the office significantly clean the air, thereby removing common toxic pollutants.’Because living plants absorb harmful toxins, they improve the air we breathe and at the same time beautify our homes and offices. Green plants naturally filter contaminants from the air, and provide a source of oxygen, resulting in a healthier environment in which to live and work,’ said Ickua. On community projects, Ickua said the company incorporates an environmental focus in its business as part of a tree-recycling project.The recycling project involves the debushing of Prosopis invader trees from the Nossob River in the Hardap and Karas regions. He said tree trunks are used to make planks and to manufacture furniture, while the sawdust is used to make compost. The remaining smaller branches and off-cuts are bagged and sold at a small rate to lower-income residents in townships like Katutura as a source of energy for cooking.As part of its corporate social responsibility focus, the company is also investigating the possibility of introducing the Earth Box system in Namibia. This system helps lower-income urban dwellers to turn refuse into compost, and then cultivate vegetables for own consumption. Ickua said Green Earth prides itself in its tree-planting project, which was launched at Rosh Pinah and later expanded to the northern regions of Namibia. The project aims to offer a double benefit for the community and the environment. ‘Thousands of trees are felled each year without being replaced. Our already arid landscape continues to grow barer. ‘We grow and plant indigenous trees that we plant once a year in areas where trees are needed and will provide much-needed benefits to the inhabitants and wildlife, such as shade, fuel and food. The project creates much-needed employment and training, as well as encouragement to communities to take better care of their environment,’ he said.Ickua is self-trained in landscaping, and went on to train his employees in that same field.He also tried to train himself in compost-making, but found out that he needed some expertise because the work process in that particular area is very complex.He then went and got trained through a Dutch experts’ organisation in The Netherlands, and never looked back from there.Ickua now also owns a compost-making plot just outside Okahandja, where he has someone that he is training to do the work when he is not around.The self-made entrepreneur is also looking to grow other produce, such as different types of spinach as well as button and oyster mushrooms this year.Meanwhile, Ickua said although he has always had a love for plants and the environment and had always wanted to study something in that area when he went to university, his father insisted that he studied business management – and that is what he did.But he never forgot what he truly loved, and is now busy studying Environmental Science through the Polytechnic of Namibia on a part-time basis.He also plans to get more involved in educating the Namibian youth about the importance of planting trees and taking care of the environment.He is indeed already busy with such a project, involving a few schools in rural northern Namibia.’If I can get even three kids out of 10 interested in this, then I will feel that I have truly done something for the environment, and that is worth so much to me.’ – Nampa
