Innovation

Ximena Velez, co-founder and partner of Envés, told us they are "dedicated to transforming waste into useful and functional objects, including grassroots communities and vulnerable populations as part of the production process".

Envés works for organizations that are interested in sustainable development, corporate communications and people committed to sustainability. Envés provides added value to companies that have ignored the opportunity to reuse their postindustrial waste, and in turn convert this waste into useful elements that help their client companies in brand positioning.

Among its reusable projects, "Envés designed for Bavaria SA, the largest beer company in Colombia, several products based on the reuse of awnings that were discarded after the end of sales campaigns". They developed these products through training and improving the quality of the production workshops with several women in Ciudad Bolívar and Suba in Bogotá. Among the products are: bags, beer coolers, waterproof cases for tablets and briefcases.

For the design and development of a waterproof case 710 grams of reusable truck tarp are recovered.

Another project at Envés is the product development role of water hyacinth, which is to diversify the products of handmade paper made aquatic silver called water hyacinth, in its decay process this plant depletes dissolved oxygen in water sources.

Envés has worked with this community of women for over 5 years making an impact in their level of production and sales, designing products for clients such as first Ecopetrol, an oil company of Colombia and the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia.

Inspiration

Ximena told us that “Envés was born seven years ago out of the passion they have for design. Jorge and co-founders are Industrial Designers from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. They are strong believers that design can create environmental and social impact because they have the freedom to choose which materials to work with - those drawn from nature or contain pollutants- or choose another path and they decided to work with waste”. She also told us that the logo and name have meaning, because for them there is always a better way of doing things and every day something can be improved.

A better way of doing things from design is envés's use of recycled materials that do not add to contamination. Envés works with a "maquila" (assembly plant) that generates social impact, the lower leaf surface, the other way of doing things.

Ximena told us “that the logo is infinity because they have always thought that matter or waste is raw material that is transformed”, as Heráclito said, "Matter is neither created nor destroyed only transformed."

Overall impact

Ximena told us that all the products Envés designs are made from reclaimed textile waste, tires and natural fibers and that their products are always accompanied by a story.

Envés includes as an added value delivered to customers a report of two leaves, where they indicate on the product label how many grams or kilos of recycled material were recovered and those involved in production.

In the process Envés has initiated the creation of messages that allow both customers and end consumers, detailing the amount of recycled material recovered in the development of a product in order to create education and awareness as it shows them that you can have a useful and functional quality product that generates social and environmental impact; Some of the messages used by Envés:

Messages:

• “By purchasing this bag you're avoiding 200 kilos of textiles going to a landfill.”

• “Thank you for allowing increased transformation of waste and contributing to poverty reduction.”

For Ximena, the added value of Envés in terms of numbers for customers is very valuable because,

“it is what Sustainability managers always want, it is practical and tangible and generates economic value within companies”.

Each production has a report at the end of the year consolidating tons, kilos and people involved.

Record environmental impact: between 2014 and 2017, Envés has transformed more than 100 tons of waste going to landfills improving soil and air quality.

Business benefit

Ximena told us that Envés “works with large and medium enterprises that have a clear commitment to sustainability making it easier to talk with customer, sustainability or marketing managers who have the ADN of sustainability”.

The raw material is obtained in various ways, working with recyclers and storage centers, allowing them easily obtain reusable raw materials like bottles of wine. Tires are acquired through a person working for 10 or 14 years who specialized in recycling tires. She commented that Envés has alliances with companies that generate industrial waste that are new, and instead of paying others to dispose of them Envés helps them to create usable products for these same companies.

Ximena also shared that among the services offered by Envés, “create projects of circular economy within large companies” and for this Envés carries out a study to show that waste generated by these large companies to analyze them and see how they can close the loop within themselves.

Among these companies is Juan Valdez Café, a multinational coffee chain based in Colombia, with the help of Envés reuses bottles and juices through a process of designing and melting and creating butter dishes for their own use.

Social and environmental benefit

Envés in the process of designing and recover post industrial waste is contributing to three goals of sustainable development that benefit society and the environment as follows:

Ximena told us that “with the transformation processes both recovery of waste as production involve grassroots strata 1 and 2 of the city of Bogotá, unemployed, disabled and displaced persons and female-headed households, parts of the population that do not have easy access to work, thereby contributing to ending poverty in the entire production chain”. Contributing as well to another goal of sustainable communities and cities; finally with a clear commitment to their contribution in improving the social and environmental aspect in a third goal of responsible consumption, and every day working to include more objectives in its business.

Through research and development of waste, they analyze how they can include a larger spectrum of recovering and transforming waste, entering new segments such as construction and tourism.

Finally, Ximena told us that Envés produces and promotes sustainable consumption by offering design products made from waste production and sustainable consumption. This company generates very favorable possibilities for improving economic, social and especially environmental levels and generating employment opportunities for vulnerable populations, providing opportunities for progress and wellbeing and directly attacks the subject of pollutants and hazardous waste for the environment, mitigating the consequences of misuse of nonrenewable resources .

Envés is a company that helps the sustainable growth of the country, although it is not such a big company it has gradually positioned itself very well in the market, increasingly attracting potential customers as multinationals and large companies that are able to generate changes in the importance and impact of the implementation of sustainable development within the vision and organizational goals of any company. Demonstrating that collaborating with sustainable development is very profitable for any company regardless of size or dimension in the market. On the other hand, in December of 2012 Envés was certified as a B Corp company joining the community of companies leading new economic forces and who are constantly evolving.

Interview

Ximena Velez Robledo, Co-founder