Lopez Group HR Council Chairman Cedie Lopez Vargas presents a token of appreciation to Messy Bessy founder Krie Reyes-Lopez after her inspiring talkThe Lopez Group HR Council’s General Membership Meeting (GMM) series continued last May 7, 2015 at the Eugenio Lopez Jr. Corporate Center in ABS-CBN compound, Quezon City. The topic of the 2nd Quarter GMM was “Made in the Philippines: Harnessing the Filipino culture and heritage to achieve sustainable development”.

Hosts for this 2nd Quarter GMM were SKY and ABS-CBN.

Organized quarterly by the HR Council, the regular GMMs take the form of learning and sharing sessions where HR practitioners and Lopez group employees are invited to be updated about relevant trends, be aware of best-practices, and to acquire fresh insights.

For this 2nd GMM, the topic focused on Filipino culture and heritage, and the attendees were made to appreciate that our country’s rich culture can be an important driver of sustainable development.

To pursue this direction, the HR Council invited speakers from proven socio-ecological enterprises to share how they harnessed culture in addressing issues and challenges, such as poverty and lack of education.

Giving the GMM’s first talk was guest speaker Messy Bessy founder Krie Reyes-Lopez. Krie shared how she started and developed their cleaning product company from humble beginnings, and related how Messy Bessy was helping employ, training and educate the disadvantaged young adults that work for their company. What the GMM attendees found inspiring about Messy Bessy was that their environment-friendly products are helping nature; and at the same time, they make great strides to develop, give livelihood, and help their employees finish school.Lopez Group HR Council Chairman Cedie Lopez Vargas presents a token of appreciation to Messy Bessy founder Krie Reyes-Lopez after her inspiring talk.

Equally-impressive was the GMM’s second guest speaker, Bryan Benitez McClelland, founder of Bambike. Bambike is an enterprise that hand-makes bamboo bicycles with fair-trade labor and sustainable building practices. Bryan during the GMM shared Bambike’s programs that include scholarships, sponsoring a preschool teacher, and a weekly feeding program for children, as well as a bamboo nursery for reforestation.

Completing the talks during the GMM was the portion of First Philippine Holdings Chief Sustainability Officer Agnes de Jesus, who introduced to the attendees the “Carbon Calculator”. Agnes’ software application allows users to see and become more aware of their carbon footprint by simply inputting in the app the activities that they do. (Story/Photo by: Dimpy Jazmines and AR Ticzon)