Plastic Smart Cities bootcamp Sprints kick off

After undergoing a 60-day challenge to achieve milestones, five enterprises presented their accomplishments, challenges, learnings, and next steps to a selection panel last May 31. Panelists from xchange, Villgro Philippines, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines, The Incubation Network, and makesense assessed the entrepreneurs’ progress, learning agility, entrepreneurial mindset, and commitment to determine which of the entrepreneurs would go through to the Sprints stage of bootcamp.

We are proud to announce that all five enterprises Ato Ani Biopack, AUDEO, Cloop, Nanolabs, and Salin PH will continue on for the next three months until August 2021.

Ato Ani Biopack is developing packaging made from agricultural waste to replace single-use plastic packaging. AUDEO is creating a trading ecosystem for sustainable community projects, anchored on an ecobrick that is earth-friendly and budget-friendly.

Cloop transforms and upcycles plastic waste into high value home and garden items. Nanolabs is a nanotechnology enterprise that is developing various nanotechnology applications with the use of plastic waste.

Salin PH aims to reduce packaging waste by offering accessible and fair-priced refills for everyday products and providing SMEs with an easy to adopt system to transition to sustainable packaging materials.

The founders and entrepreneurs that will go through the Sprints stage of bootcamp are Maria Wilvenna Anora of Ato Ani Biopack, Danielle Ralleca and Michael Garcia of AUDEO, Ric Alendayu and Alexis Glenn Espina of Cloop. Ryan Corpuz of Nanolabs, and Krishia Ellis, Donna Formalejo, and JM Dumdum of Salin PH.

According to Danielle Ralleca about the 60 Day Challenge, “Being a part of the xchange bootcamp has been a game changer for us. In the past 60 days we laid out a set plan with them, which has allowed us to rethink our business model and identify key factors we were unable to see before.” And from Ric Alindayu about the Sprints phase “We at Cloop are very honored to be part of the Sprint stage of the bootcamp. It has been a very meaningful 60 days and we can’t wait to achieve more in the next 90 days.”

The Sprints consist of 9 modules on innovation, systems thinking, the entrepreneurial mindset, strategy, marketing and communications, stakeholder management, behavioral change, the circular economy, gender, diversity, and inclusivity, the basics of doing business in the Philippines, finance and accounting, and designing a pilot. In addition to the masterclasses and workshops, each Sprint will have an ecosystem event. The first one was held on 8 June 2021.

It was a webinar on An Ecosystem Approach to Solving for Plastic Waste – Perspectives from government, NGO, funding, and corporate sectors. The webinar brought different stakeholders together to start a conversation on what it will take to end plastic pollution. The speakers highlighted the different levers to address the plastic waste problem to spark ideas, questions, and actions around collaborating with other sectors.

Plastic Smart Cities is a WWF initiative working with cities worldwide to keep plastic out of nature. Since 2018, the initiative supports cities and coastal centres that are taking bold action to stop plastic pollution. WWF is working with 25 pilot cities to achieve a 30% reduction in plastic leakage by 2025, through better waste management and advancing circular economy. Together, we aim to achieve 1000 plastic-smart cities globally to join this movement by 2030. For more information, visit plasticsmartcities.org