Circularity in action: social projects in Caracas
Lata de Agua and Proyectos MAF are two remarkable Venezuelan initiatives that exemplify the principles of the circular economy. Both ventures showcase how creative thinking and disruptive solutions can bring positive change to longstanding issues while fostering community collaboration.
- Impact Hub Network
- Global team
At the heart of the CirculUP! project lies a compelling mission – to spotlight and celebrate pioneering entrepreneurs within the Impact Hub Network, who exemplify the principles of the circular economy. By sharing their journeys, our goal is to boost awareness and promote the adoption of a circular economy in Armenia, catalysing a transformative shift toward sustainability.
This is the inspiring story of circular projects, Proyectos MAF and Lata de Agua, two Venezuelan ventures contributing to the circular economy. Through purposeful design and creativity, they bring quality products and services to their communities, while keeping their environmental impact front and centre.
Lata de Agua is a social project with an innovative model for rainwater collection, treatment and storage for communities with water scarcity issues. Proyectos MAF is a construction services company that works with upcycled materials and sustainable design practices.
The teams at Lata de Agua and MAF align with Impact Hub Caracas’ mission to create communities of social entrepreneurs to catalyse change and build effective networks to accomplish shared goals. Their work is significant to the Venezuelan circularity landscape because they are pioneers in their respective industries, bringing forward new ways of generating positive impacts in the fields of water access and architecture.
Lata de Agua
Laurencio Sanchez is the co–founder and director of Lata de Agua. His work is guided by the communities that he serves. This is why he centers their experience in every aspect of the water and sanitation system that he designed. The system consists of rainwater catchment, purification, and storage.
The schools in which the project is present, involve both students and teachers in the maintenance and operations of the system. This empowers them with useful tools and knowledge, in addition to clean water.
Lata de Agua’s system can be found in schools, clinics and gardens in Venezuela’s urban landscapes, bringing fresh water to communities that suffer from chronic water scarcity issues. Instead of looking underground for water sources, he looks upward to the heavy rainfall that central Venezuela receives every year.
Proyectos MAF
Monik Bule and Veronica Palermo are the architects behind Proyectos MAF, at the core of their business is creativity and innovation. They are driven by the need to generate new ideas, solutions, methods and even construction materials, to build structures that are both aesthetically valuable and environmentally conscious.
The company places significant importance on innovation. They operate an internal project called Sr. Hoja (Mr. Leaf) with the sole purpose of iterating with new materials. The project aims to create new, beautifully designed objects through upcycling and the use of alternative methods.
MAF is also committed to education. They have hosted several workshops and programmes focused on effective waste management, bringing upcycling and the creative use of resources to people and communities that wouldn’t have had access to it otherwise.
Lata de Agua and Proyectos MAF understand that circularity’s greatest strength is in its ability to drive innovation and force us to look at processes, systems and existing methodology differently.
These initiatives are examples of how much is possible when entrepreneurs understand that integral solutions to problems require disruptive thinking. It takes the courage to propose creative answers to longstanding problems and contribute to traditional fields with new ways of doing business.
The CirculUP! project has given these entrepreneurs a well-deserved opportunity to share their work with global and local audiences. Building a sustainable future is only possible if we create spaces for collaboration and community, where entrepreneurs can thrive, grow and learn from each other, no matter where they are in the world.
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This article is presented in collaboration with Impact Hub Caracas.
The CirculUP! project in Armenia is a transformative initiative spearheaded by the collaborative efforts of the Impact Hub Network, Impact Hub Yerevan, and the Environment and Health NGO, with support from the European Union in Armenia.
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