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(Applause)
Good afternoon, thank you.
Thank you for the introduction.
As you just heard, we sell packaging
that is disposable, organic and environmentally friendly.
I don't know who amongst you, during your coffee break or lunch hour,
had the chance to use one of these cups.
Everyone. (Applause) I'm going to hand them over to you,
so I can explain some of the material's characteristics
and so you can touch them and see
that they were Green Pack cups.
Can you do me the favour of passing them around.
The disposable organic compounds that we sell
are substitutes for plastic
but with superior characteristics.
If you have ever bought coffee in a styrofoam cup
or in a plastic one, you'll have ingested more than 23 different toxins,
which is not ideal for drinking coffee.
So, we are focused on developing new technology
to make a product that is 100% organic,
which is what we are made of.
We use an inedible corn starch
which is not approved by the FDA, in case anyone wants to attack me,
for making prices go up,
because that's not the case. If we didn't use this rejected corn
to make packaging, it would be burned.
So we use inedible corn starch
and inedible tuber starch.
How does this work?
Well, in reality, thanks to the technology that we have developed
for packaging material, we have made a product
that has a microscopic porous texture,
which enables micro-organisms to degrade it
and that is what it really means to be "biodegradable,"
it's the ability for a raw material
or a finished product to be degraded
by micro-organisms over a certain period of time.
Certain plastics, like OXO, contain additives
which enable the plastic to degrade
and to break down,
but it is never consumed by micro-organisms,
so we're talking about something that is worse
because it's harder to collect
and only a small percentage
of these products are compatible
with normal plastic recycling systems.
So, it's worse,
but really,
I won't talk to you about how harmful plastic is,
because I think that we are all aware
of how harmful plastic is to our ecosystems.
I took the liberty of including some slides
so that you can see the things
that happen every day but which we don't see.
These are really alarming pictures.
In this one, it's not that the bags are really well coordinated. (Laughter)
It's a photoshopped image alluding to what animals eat
because some animals eat jellyfish. There is a food chain
and it is sad to see animals eat plastic
and then end up dying.
Two million turtles die every year, solely due to the consumption of plastic.
It's a truly alarming statistic.
Can someone tell me what this is?
No, How about now?
60,000 plastic bags are eaten
every 5 seconds, that's astonishing!
Personally, ever since I was a boy
I thought it was incredible to be given something disposable
whose purpose is to be useful for a very short period of time
and then one has to throw it away,
and that this raw material takes some 600 to 800 years to bio-degrade.
To me, something doesn't add up, I don't know about you...
I don't know if you remember what we used to use
before the iPod came out? Walkmans, Discmans...
The Walkman was huge.
If you went jogging with a Walkman, you would end up like Julio Martinez.
Because your shorts would be down here.
(Laughter)
And if you were mugged, you could hit the thief
with the Walkman and knock him out.
There's a Steve Jobs quote that I really like.
When he introduced the iPod, he said:
"I like to think that in our own small way
we are making the planet a better place," and that way of thinking
is what I'm so fond of.
This is the way we think every day at Green Pack.
We believe that we are making a change with the product we sell
and I don't know if you can tell,
but I speak about this with great passion
and I love my product.
I'm actually going to change the subject briefly.
I think the last time I messed up an business meeting,
I remember it was a few years ago,
was when we went to a hennery to develop a new egg box
and the manager told me, "Look, your product is very good
but I need my eggs to be on display."
(Laughter)
We didn't have a good start, right?
So, we didn't fulfill this requirement,
because our packaging isn't transparent.
There's a statistic here in Guatemala
that one in every two kids
under 5 years suffers from chronic malnutrition.
That's alarming!
If you think about it, that's 50% of all kids
under 5 years old suffering from chronic malnutrition.
I think it's incredible.
A few years ago, thanks to my wife,
I got involved in an organization called "Un techo para mi país."
We helped with construction in Santa Rosa, and I've been involved ever since.
As of that moment,
my sense of social commitment was awakened.
That's why I decided to continue to be involved in this initiative,
and I started to experience first-hand
the level of malnutrition that really exists in these communities.
It's staggering!
The kids are skinny, not because they are from Zacapa
or because it's "cute," no, they're skinny
because they have a high level of malnutrition
and that is really alarming.
So, after that I decided
to get in touch with my uncle
who has dedicated roughly 40 years to social service.
I said I had to work with him, I had to meet him
to brainstorm some ideas at the very least
and see what comes out.
And he told me about a plant
that has 3 times more protein per 100 grams than eggs,
it has 4 times more calcium than milk,
7 times more vitamin C than oranges,
3 times more potassium than bananas,
and 2 times more iron than spinach.
How?
Incredible!
And besides this, he told me
it's one of the fastest growing plants in the world;
it grows 3.5 meters every 9 months.
This is great!
Then he said, "this is very interesting."
If the seeds are cold pressed,
in other words put through a simple manual press,
oil can be obtained.
This oil has the same properties
as vegetable oil. What does this mean?
It means you can use it to cook. And what's so good about that?
The nutrients will be passed
from the oil to the food
This can't be!
It's yet another excellent property of this plant.
Then he says, "But that's not all,
after you press the seeds and obtain the oil,
you'll be left with the skin, and in the middle of this skin
there's a thin layer that's very sticky
that breaks the skin when pressed
and becomes exposed."
He tells me that I can take a bucket of waste water,
river water, lake water, whatever is close to the community,
I can take the skin and put it in the bucket,
stir it for about ten minutes,
and this sticky substance makes the small particles of impurities,
14% of the bacteria, and the dirt, stick to it,
so that when I remove the skin, all these impurities are removed with it.
I won't get a bucket of drinking water,
but I will obtain a bucket of water suitable for washing containers,
for washing clothes, and for many other uses
that have developed in the community.
It's an incredible plant, can't be true, and he tells me "that's not all."
(Laughter)
I'm basically drooling.
He tells me, "This plant is used in many countries.
It's native to India, but it's used in many countries
where it's interspersed with other seeds." What does this mean?
Well, needless to say,
if I'm growing pimiento chilis, for example,
I can plant Moringa oleifera trees between the chilis,
and during the dry season their roots have such a capacity
that they can store enough water
to feed the crops during the dry season.
This means that not only is the plant good for eating,
but it also helps other crops to grow.
I thought this was impressive.
From there,
we decided to start the project.
I said, "I've got to do something with this plant, now!"
and so we implemented it in Green Pack.
And it has been a way to trade
while being socially responsible. Why?
Because people are interested in showing our product
because it is very innovative and low cost,
and here's where I give you the key word: it's sustainable.
This plant foliates year-round,
it continues to grow and produce seeds
and the results in the community have been outstanding!
The 3.5 meters that grow every 9 months did even better,
we managed 4 meters in 7 months. This is incredible!
The soil in Guatemala is very fertile
and it's obviously suited to growing this plant.
As I say, we introduced it using a very simple method.
And I repeat: it's sustainable, low cost,
and uses a small amount of resources, yet it's effective.
We take the plant.... Well, we have more than 37 families
currently enrolled in the pilot scheme
in San Basilio Suchitepéquez.
And this is just the beginning of what we intend to cover
across the entire region; it's a very, very simple system.
This is literally the first family
that we helped here in San Basilio,
the clip that you see here is our film.
And it's biodegradable. So it's a social program
with no environmental impact, which is also very important.
That's something we're very proud to be able to say.
We also produce a homemade fertilizer.
What does it include? It contains onions, garlic,
detergent for washing dishes, cigar tobacco.
A good use for tobacco, right?
Again, it's something very low cost
and it works.
This is the first harvest.
We're already growing the plant here.
This is the first crop that we were able to produce.
After approximately two months
we decided to implement a barrier,
because one of the problems
was that plagues of ants were eating the crops.
Like in every project, there are flaws at the beginning, and you correct them.
So we decided to introduce one of these biodegradable cups,
we cut it here and placed it around the stem
then filled it with fertilizer.
This means we can optimize the use of fertilizer
by only having it around the stem.
Water is also optimized because only a certain area needs watering
We use 8 ounce cups, which are watered with 8 ounces of water.
It is a really wonderful plant.
Like I said, this is the plant that, after 6 months,
had already reached a height greater than expected,
which meant that the project works.
So then, how is it used?
We hold workshops in the community on how to use the trees.
The truth is they ended up giving me a workshop
on how to harvest,
because obviously I won't teach them how to harvest crops,
when they have been doing that their entire lives.
So, it is a very simple process and everything is manual.
The plant is cut, and then left to dry for 4 days.
After exactly 4 days, it goes through a manual sieve
and it is sieved using a spoon. Simple.
This produces what is called Moringa flour.
This Moringa flour is what contains all the nutrients
that I told you about earlier,
and this Moringa flour is used in meals typical to the community
such as tortillas, chicken soup,
and I'd like to tell you, it made me very proud
when I visited that community once,
and was greeted with chipilín and moringa tamales.
To see them using it and creating their own recipes
was truly amazing.
And, finally, the rationing of Moringa.
Why do we ration it? Because we have strategic partners,
and I'll take this opportunity to thank New Guatemala.
Through these partner foundations,
we want to bring the Moringa to communities
where it cannot be grown,
because chronic malnutrition is a problem
not only where this plant grows, but throughout the whole country.
So we ration it, using biodegradable packaging, as always.
(Laughter)
And so that is the reason we ration.
It makes me very sad.
When I arrived in San Basilio, I saw the Health Center looking like this.
It was desolate and abandoned, I don't know for how long.
But what happens to these health centers?
There's enough budget to buy Incaparina
for a period of 3 months, to buy protein,
to buy vitamin A and vitamin C.
But what happens after those 3 months?
Now, there is no budget. And so it isn't followed up.
In my opinion, there is a solution, if you forgive the repetition,
a sustainable and low cost solution that can continue feeding
the community of San Basilio. Not only that,
but it also generates a revenue for the community.
The only way to get to San Basilio by car
is to drive for over an hour on a dirt road.
A very rough dirt road, I might add.
And so, no matter how much they harvest,
it is all used to feed themselves. They don't sell anything,
because no one goes all the way there to buy things.
And that's our work, channeling sales
to generate income for the community
and to transport the Moringa to other malnourished communities.
And I hope this is only the beginning of a project
that will include many regions in Guatemala,
because it's an ambitious project.
For me, it's a pleasure to bring opportunity
to the community of San Basilio.
You must get to know the people of San Basilio.
I urge the companies and individuals present here today
to pay special attention
to corporate social responsibility
because if every company took action,
Guatemala would be different.
Thank you.
(Applause)