UN Women Celebrates Female Sustainability Champions National Women’s Month 2022

Manila, Philippines – This year, in honour of and the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women and International Women’s Day theme, UN Women put a spotlight on the intersectionality of gender inequality and climate change with an event on the theme: “Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow,” underscoring how women and girls continue to bear the burden of climate change while leading empowerment and sustainability efforts across the globe. 

Through “Eco-fluencer”, a virtual round-table discussion on female leaders and sustainable businesses, UN Women brought together Filipina champions of sustainability and gender equality to talk about achieving sustainability for women, by women in the Philippines.

The event, hosted by Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) Youth Leadership Champion awardee and AGREA CEO Cherrie Atilano, featured ECHOStore CEO, Chit Juan; Messy Bessy CEO, Krie Reyes-Lopez; and Unilever Philippines Head of Digital Commerce, Anna Mangilin, who shared their visions towards a more sustainable future and their advocacy in promoting women’s empowerment in their organizations. 

Making sustainability a lifestyle

“When we founded ECHOStore, we wanted to show others that it is easy to live well while we make others live well,” explained Chit Juan. “Since the founders are all women, we wanted to create more opportunities for women producers, suppliers and partners.” 

The sustainable lifestyle brand, ECHOStore, led to the creation of its non-profit arm, Empowering Communities with Hope and Opportunities through Sustainable Initiatives (ECHOSI), which supports marginalized groups, women entrepreneurs and cultural communities to create their own products through the sustainability value chain. 

“Sustainability should always be reflected in the leadership. In the course of our daily business at Echo Store, we make sure that all of us — from the CEO and board members to the staff — live it, eat it, drink it and see it every day,” said Ms. Juan. 

Creating scalable change for women

Messy Bessy, a pioneering local brand the produces eco-friendly personal care and home goods, creates social impact innovation through sustainable products and poverty-alleviation programmes. 

“The future of sustainability is in regeneration – being able to replenish and restore what we use up, and building economies and communities that thrive, while allowing the planet to thrive as well,” said Krie Reyes-Lopez. 

While creating products that are friendly to the environment, Messy Bessy also empowers underprivileged young women to become self-reliant through education and work opportunities under their work-study programme.

“These past two years, we shifted our focus to scaling and replicating our programmes. Faced with the reality of our own sustainability during the pandemic, we pitched our model to bigger organizations to ensure that we can continue providing opportunities for women in our communities,” said Ms. Lopez. 

Building brands that care

As one of the world’s largest and most influential consumer goods companies, Unilever also places sustainability at the core of their business and operations.

“Unilever is driven by a purpose of making sustainable living commonplace,” said Anna Mangilin. “Our brands are our gift to the people, and we make sure that our products are made and created with sustainability in mind. We do this by sourcing materials responsibly and shifting to renewable energy.” 

Through their Condition for Greater Online Learning programme, Unilever leveraged their wide network of partners to provide women access to learning and resources at the beginning of the pandemic. “We always pivot our advocacy in order to serve the needs of our communities and consumers. At Unilever, we believe in both equality and equity and that everybody should be given what they need in order to succeed,” said Ms. Mangilin.

“Our focus now should be more on intergenerational well-being,” said Cherrie Atilano. “Business is no longer transactional. More importantly, it should be transformational. It should help transform us to be better, make us more mindful of our business and individual actions, and it is in this way that we can convert sustainability to resiliency in our communities.”

Eco-fluencer was organized by WeEmpowerAsia, a UN Women programme funded by the European Union that aims to increase sustainability and women's participation and leadership in business. 

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About WeEmpowerAsia

WeEmpowerAsia is a UN Women programme funded by and in partnership with the European Union that aims to increase the number of women who lead and participate in business in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. Launched in 2019, its purpose is to advance inclusive and sustainable growth and build gender-sensitive trade and supply chains between European and Asian markets through its focus on the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

About UN Women

UN Women is the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, the organization was established in 2010 to accelerate progress on women’s rights worldwide. UN Women’s efforts are based on the fundamental belief that every woman has the right to live a life free from violence, poverty and discrimination, and that gender equality is a prerequisite to achieving global development.

About the European Union

The European Union is made up of 27 Member States that have gradually linked their know-how, resources and destinies. Together, during a 50-year period of enlargement, they have built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development while maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms.

When Developing Tech Leaders, a Global Perspective is Key

MANILA, APRIL 6, 2022  - Over the last decade, technology has radically changed the way businesses all over the world look and operate.  Accompanying this meteoric change among businesses, is the need for different leadership traits. 

According to Forbes, key traits that future leaders will need to possess include the ability to embrace technology and employ a global citizen mindset. This mindset includes celebrating diversity and understanding new cultures in order to gain knowledge on how to enter and succeed in new global markets. On the other hand, embracing technology will allow leaders to improve efficiency in the organization.

Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, continues to instill these fundamental traits into young, tech-driven talent through the Global Leaders Program. This year marks its fourth iteration as it continues to mold tech leaders of tomorrow. 

The Global Leaders Program is a 2-year graduate program consisting of four 6-month local and overseas rotations open to final-year students and young professionals with up to two years of working experience. Participants can expect to receive mentorship from senior management, a rigorous training curriculum under the various Shopee departments, and the opportunity to work on highly impactful projects. And one of the key experiences of the Global Leaders Program is the opportunity to work in different Shopee markets across the region and gain pivotal exposure to the tech industry. Throughout the overseas rotation, Shopee will provide mobility support to GLP Associates to ensure hassle-free overseas accommodations and seamless visa applications.

Karen Perez, Head of People at Shopee Philippines, said “At Shopee, we understand how crucial developing a global perspective is in pushing the Philippine tech industry forward. Through the overseas rotations of the Global Leaders Program, we believe that we can help broaden the horizons of young Filipino talent. We are deeply committed to delivering more opportunities to hone the skills of young Filipino professionals and support the growth of our local digital economy.”

Jan, a GLP associate currently completing her second overseas rotation in Thailand under the Marketing Department, has shared what influenced her decision to apply. “The promise of diverse rotation and regional exposure at such a young age attracted me to the Global Leaders Program. I believe the program brings in many unique opportunities that would allow me to launch my career and create immediate impact.” she said.

For Lance, another GLP associate that is also currently assigned to Thailand, the opportunity to gain regional exposure abroad has provided him with a better understanding of our local situation. He shared, “Being able to live and work in the same company, but in a different country immediately provides me with a new ‘perspective’. This is quite useful because it helps me notice the differences between Thailand and the Philippines in terms of the needs of our buyers and sellers, organizational structure, and working-style. These differences helped me strategize on how we can better tailor our solutions or ways of working to fit different local contexts.”

Koko, on the other hand, completed his overseas training in Singapore last August 2021. Being trained abroad gave him the opportunity to grow as both a professional and an individual. He said,  “I was able to experience different work functions, roles, industries, and even markets in the short span of two years. I also had the opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility early on in my career, which helped me build confidence in my own knowledge and skills.” 

Young Filipinos looking to challenge themselves and drive change in the tech industry are welcome to apply to Shopee’s Global Leaders Program here: https://careers.shopee.ph/GLP. The application period has been extended until April 30 2022. 

About Shopee
Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia & Taiwan. Shopee connects shoppers, brands, and sellers across Asia and other fast-growing markets, empowering anyone to buy and sell anywhere and at any time. 

Shopee offers an easy, secure, and engaging experience that is enjoyed by millions of people daily. It offers a wide product assortment, supported by integrated payments and logistics, as well as popular entertainment features tailored for each market. Shopee is also a key contributor to the region’s digital economy with a firm commitment to helping brands and entrepreneurs succeed in e-commerce.

Shopee is a part of Sea Limited (NYSE:SE), a leading global consumer internet company. In addition to Shopee, Sea’s other core businesses include its digital entertainment arm, Garena, and digital financial services arm, SeaMoney. Sea’s mission is to better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology.

The BEST Case Scenario for Waste

Manila, Philippines – The journey of waste from your home can sometimes be a treacherous one. Ideally, waste from your home is brought to a Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) where they are segregated according to type and diverted accordingly. However, according to Department of Environment and Natural Resources, in the Philippines only 35% of barangays have established and operational MRFs. This scenario can lead to waste being dumped illegally or even ending up in the oceans. Thankfully there is something we can all do to provide the best case scenario for waste. 

Starting April 2022, Mondelēz International and Basic Environmental Systems and Technologies (BEST) are partnering to provide you more ways to properly manage your waste. Here’s how you can join: 

1. Just go to any of the 11 BEST waste drop off sites in Metro Manila from April to June 2022. You can view the list here. 

2. Bring the dry waste from your home like plastic, paper, metal and others. Make sure they are dry, clean, and free from food or other materials. 

3. For any type of waste brought in, you can earn environmental points. These points can be used to redeem select Mondelēz International snack products as well as other items and prizes from BEST. 

This program will run for three months so you have plenty of time to collect waste at home and bring them to the sites. And you can do it regularly too as BEST runs their waste collection activities all year long! For a list of all accepted materials at BEST sites, click here. You can also redeem different prizes for your points, check out this list. 

Mondelēz International is the maker of beloved snack products like Tang, Eden Cheese, Cheez Whiz, Oreo, Toblerone and Cadbury. The Company aims to empower people to snack right, with the right snack, for the right moment, and with snacks made the right way. “We believe in sustainable snacking, where we are able to produce our delicious products while lessening our environmental footprint, including the impact of waste,” shares Atty. Joseph Fabul, Country Manager for Corporate and Government Affairs of Mondelēz International in the Philippines. “We know that any waste, when not properly collected and diverted can end up in nature, particularly the oceans. That’s why we’re working with organizations like BEST to help support and strengthen waste collection efforts in the country.” 

At the end of 2021, Mondelēz International and BEST partnered for a similar initiative where people received boxes of Cadbury Shots chocolate for the wastes they brought to collection sites. This resulted in the collection of 12,893 kilos of plastic waste alone, and the distribution of 10,800 boxes of Cadbury Shots chocolates. 

BEST is engaged in contracting and consulting for waste management related businesses. Its primary mission is to provide avenues for comprehensive waste disposal systems, public cleansing, general hygiene and materials recovery that promote sustainable development through proper solid waste disposal and resource conservation. 

“We thank Mondelēz International for their continued support to our waste collection initiatives,” ends Jan Vincent Mercado, Senior Vice President for Business Development of BEST. “The challenge of collecting waste is a big one, and we encourage everyone to do their part in ensuring we do not harm the environment. At home we encourage everyone to segregate their dry and wet waste. For your dry waste, bring them to our drop off sites and we can help you to properly divert them so they do not end up in landfills or the oceans. You not only help the environment, but you also receive rewards for the enormous good you are doing the earth.” 

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About Mondelēz International

Mondelēz International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ) empowers people to snack right in over 150 countries around the world. With 2021 net revenues of approximately $28.7 billion, MDLZ is leading the future of snacking with iconic global and local brands such as OREO, belVita and LU biscuits; Cadbury Dairy Milk, Milka and Toblerone chocolate; Sour Patch Kids candy and Trident gum. Mondelēz International is a proud member of the Standard and Poor’s 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Visit www.mondelezinternational.com or follow the company on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MDLZ.

About Mondelez Philippines 

Mondelez Philippines Inc. has been providing consumers with delicious snack products for the past 59 years - since 1963. Its product portfolio includes Tang powdered beverages, Eden cheese, mayonnaise and sandwich spread, Cheez Whiz spread, Oreo cookies, Tiger energy biscuits, as well as Toblerone and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates. The company employs about 450 people in the Philippines, with a manufacturing facility in Parañaque City. Visit https://ph.mondelezinternational.com/home.