Greenit Decors, is an idea inspired by an extraordinary story- that of a Meru oak, a deciduous tree capable of growing to a height of 35m and only found in Kenya.
It’s a business that tells a story of our love for nature and her conservation. The decision to start Greenit Decors was motivated by a story I call “My Meru Oak story”.
We were building our home and we got to the level of installing the kitchen cabinets. My desire was to have a kitchen with soft/ warm look hard wood kitchen cabinets with some little dark grains. I went shopping and was happy to identify the kind of hard wood that I desired. In the process, I learnt that the wood I had chosen for my cabinets was from a tree known as the Meru oak. When the cabinets and shelves were fixed, they were so beautiful and I was amazed with the great finish.
A year later, we needed to add some shelving in a corner of our house.
I went back to the same cabinet supplier to request them to arrange to visit our home and take measurements for the new furniture fittings. When they asked me to remind them which wood I had used, I told them that it was the Meru oak.
“No! No! No! We cannot do that,” they quickly replied.
“Why?” I asked them.
“Meru oak is becoming extinct and as a result it’s now a protected tree species,” they sadly answered back.
The response broke my heart. I was sad and felt low. Some sort of despair ran through my body. As a nature lover, it suddenly dawned on me how we the users of wooden products unknowingly contribute in making our forests become extinct.
My case was a good pointer. When I made an order for my Meru oak cabinetry, a Meru oak tree had to be felled. Think about how many Meru oak trees have to be cut down so as to meet the demand for furniture and other uses.
As a nature lover, if I had gone to the forest where the Meru oak for my kitchen cabinet was cut, I would have questioned it… you know…. “Why are you cutting the trees?” Maybe the answer I would have been given is, “Don’t worry, those are misguided young men who are involved in illegal logging”. My Meru oak story gave birth to Greenit Decors, a business that has a bias for indigenous Kenyan trees. It’s not just about making money, but also a business full of passion and love. We are an indigenous solution to adding life-affirming nature to homes and office interiors and exteriors.
After registering the business in 2016, the setup of the Garden Centre took more than three years to complete.
The process of setting up Greenit Decors ignited memories of my childhood. Growing up, I was surrounded by green and rare species of indigenous trees like Sandal wood. I observed my grandfather make use of various tree barks, leaves and roots (dry and raw) to make concoctions which I could barely comprehend. He travelled far to get some that he could not get within his immediate surroundings. The concoctions he made were applied to cows, goats, sheep, chicken and invasive insects among others. There were also those that he drank and shared with many, including myself. Miraculously, they worked.
These childhood memories reminded me that in the olden days in the village set-up, information was passed from generation to generation by parents, grandparents and great grandparents. A lot of our indigenous stories around trees and sometimes around the traditional fireplace are getting lost because the people who knew a lot about them are no longer there. These thoughts gave birth to our Mizizi Eco Circle that impacts on conservation for future generations, a place where learning about and planting indigenous Kenyan trees is the main activity.
Greenit Decors + Mizizi Eco Circle is a family of nature champions that care and nurture it by involving every generation of Kenyans. Every family is encouraged to plant a tree or more of the great and timeless Meru Oak and other precious indigenous trees species that would become the direct source for their use in any activity that they choose. In essence, this will promote responsible usage and conserve our remaining forests to regenerate without interference.
By promoting the growing and support of indigenous trees that are conducive to the wellbeing of our environment, we help contribute in a big way to conserve our precious ecosystem that is a priceless gift. We recognize that we have borrowed the earth from our children and for this reason, our business values are deeply rooted in traditional African wisdom to conserve the earth that sustains us with our main target being family units.