LONDON – Cagayan de Oro Handmade Paper Craft‘s Pinyapel, developed by the Design Center of the Philippines has just been awarded with a Wood Pencil at the D&AD Future Impact 2019 for its efforts in Environment and Sustainability. This is the country’s first win in the category, and will be propelling the project into an accelerator program called the Future Impact Accelerator which will help improve the production and marketing of the paper alternative.
Pinyapel aims to solve the problem of agricultural waste and deforestation by reusing discarded pineapple leaves to create specialty paper and packaging. It is an initiative that was developed by different institutions around the Philippines. While the Cagayan de Oro Handmade Paper Craft works in producing the material together with the Design Center of the Philippines, the discarded pineapple leaves used as the raw material in creating the paper are sourced from Nature’s Fresh Pineapples. The product’s application into packaging materials on the other hand is handled by Ideas Tech Packaging.
With the Philippines being the second largest pineapple producer, Pinyapel offers a solution for agricultural wastes by giving them a new purpose and value – increasing the livelihood of pineapple farmers.
Reflecting on being part of the D&AD Future Impact Cohort, Rolyn Lomocso of The Design Center of the Philippines earlier commented, “Our ambition is for Pinyapel to be commercially and industrially available and to be the impetus to spark innovation in using agricultural wastes to replace forest trees in producing paper. The Future Impact Programme shall provide the Design Center and its collaborators with the necessary guidance, mentoring, network, and funding to take Pinyapel to the next level, which is to be commercially and industrially available.”
Apart from taking part in the accelerator program, Pinaypel’s win also gives them access to a shared prize fund worth $150,000.
The D&AD Future Impact Programme is part of the D&AD Impact Awards, a global initiative and and awards programme that exists to use creative thinking to drive positive change. D&AD is globally renowned for being one of the most prestigious global awards in design and advertising.
