Doing business for good isn’t anything new, but here in the Philippines, there is a renewed and amplified interest in starting up enterprises that puts social responsibility at the core of their operations. Recognizing the need to encourage and empower this sector in the country’s business landscape, The Bank of the Philippine Islands have put together a program that honors social enterprises that have gone out of their way to do good in an impactful, measurable, and still profitable manner called the BPI Sinag.
According to Sarah Alli, BPI Foundation’s Program Manager: “At the heart of it, it’s still a business challenge but what we’re realizing is that there’s this huge opportunity to do more for the social enterprise industry… One of the challenges [social entrepreneurs] really face is how to penetrate the market. And on top of being financially sustainable, the pressure on them is double because they have a community to support — a community that they’ve committed to so seeing the demand and seeing the opportunity for the change and impact that they can make, that’s kind of what pushed BPI foundation to grow its wings.”
For its 5th year, BPI Sinag has chosen and awarded 10 Filipino social entrepreneurs. These ten have gone through months of the deliberations, whittled down from an initial pitch of 45 businesses that were part of a bootcamp put together with their training partner, Bayan Academy. The group further trimmed down the 45 entrants to 21 finalists who went through another bootcamp, before the final ten winners were chosen.
“So before, you scratch the surface. The second bootcamp is more of a deep dive and on its final day, they [the 21 finalists] have another pitch. This one, it’s to vie for the prices already,” Alli said.
The ten winners get to have a six-month mentorship as assigned through Bayan Academy, an upcoming Christmas bazaar in Glorietta, and media exposure opportunities.
adobo magazine got the opportunity to chat with some of the winners, and from the conversations got a glance as to why they deserved to win in the competition.
Carlomagno Aguilar’s farm consultancy business called Organic Growth, for one, partners with resorts, restaurants, and culinary schools. According to Aguilar, the reason for this is that these are the businesses with vacant lots for planting. While the businesses are the ones that hire the farmers, it’s Organic Growth that trains them how to grow organic vegetables and introduces them to new and prolific variety of seeds.
Aguilar shared: “We bring the farm closer to the chefs kasi ang problem nating mga chefs, yung quality ng food… But if it’s growing closer to the kitchen, it’s always fresh.”
In essence, Organic Growth’s twofold mission are to develop a new generation of farmers; and through a farm to table model, to bring the food closer to its customers.
For Ann Marie Cunanan, she wants to make traveling an immersive experience. For her, getting to know the culture of the place you are traveling to is just as important as sightseeing or having an adrenaline-filled adventure.
“Minsan yung mga travelers may sense of entitlement — dadaan lang, di man lang babatiin yung locals in the area but here, what we try to do is we make them a part of the creation of the experience,” Cunanan said.
This is the value built around Cunanan’s Meaningful Travels PH. Apart from fixing tours, she also encourages traveler education about their trips, and giving back to the local communities they visit.
“How do we compost in Manila’s concrete jungle?” This is a question that Nicolo Aberasturi, the grand winner of BPI Sinag, has the answer for.
“Tower gardens are a compact system that allows households to be able to compost their fruit and vegetable waste,” Aberasturi said about the biodegradable waste solution for those with no access to a garden or a plot of land.
Aside from composting, Aberasturi aims to bring farming to urban areas. According to him, the number of farmers in provinces are slowly dwindling because it’s difficult for them to survive on farming alone. He believes that the future of farming will be in urban areas, which is why Down to Earth also holds Urban Farming Workshops together with Backyard Farming.
When asked about the most important thing they learned from BPI Sinag and how this affected their social enterprises, the three agreed that through the boot camps and mentorships, their businesses were given a structure.
“The idea, the passion, the heart is there, but we really need a system to help us do the work,” Cunanan said.
Aguilar adds, “Everything should have a structure para ma-upscale mo yung business and once it’s upscaled, then you can help our people.”
As for Aberasturi: “I think most of the BPI Sinag finalists, all of us work so passionately with what we are doing but we really lack the experience and the knowledge in coming up with a business that can really go forward like finance and a lot of the documentation. This is really something that was an eyeopener for everybody.”
Aside from the three, the other seven winners of this year’s BPI Sinag Awards are the following: Gi Crafts Shell Museum & Gallery, Malingkat Enterprise, Mavil’s House of Mushrooms, Halal Organic Crops Production, Sabang Daguitan Surf Camp & Dao Balay Kawilan, Subida, and Yumi’s Farm.
