FirstBank awards $20K to Materia Madura for environmental conservation
FirstBank and its “Uno con el Ambiente” community engagement program recognized Materia Madura with the special environmental conservation award granting it $20,000 at Grupo Guayacán’s recent EnterPRize competition.
“In Puerto Rico, four million tons of waste are generated annually while only 12% to 14 % is recycled. We were impressed by Materia Madura’s proposal, as its mission to recycle materials to create new products is aligned with FirstBank’s ‘Uno con el Ambiente’ program, through which we recognize and support financially viable companies that generate ingenious ideas and initiatives that contribute to improving the environment,” said René A. López, director of Business Banking at FirstBank.
“Faced with a real need to promote recycling in Puerto Rico, Materia Madura emerges as an excellent concept that favors environmental conservation in a very innovative way,” he said.
Materia Madura is a design company that uses recyclable materials whose raw material is obtained from local waste as a resource to create functional, everyday products such as furniture, trays, board games, containers, and kitchen accessories.
“I’m extremely grateful for the recognition FirstBank has given us in awarding our company the ‘Uno con el Ambiente’ social responsibility award,” said Ana Cristina Quiñones, founder of Materia Madura.
“Materia Madura was born as a response to the global waste disposal problem and the recycling inefficiencies at the local level. By leveraging waste as a resource and raw material for the development of sustainable materials, we managed to design functional products for everyday use that truly present an innovative, 100% locally developed alternative,” Quiñones said.
As she explained, the initiative that began more than 10 years ago as a research project when she was an industrial designer, has evolved to become a company with expansion plans.
“I’m proud to feel the appreciation for all our effort and hard work validated by programs such as ‘Uno con el Ambiente’ and EnterPRize. I’m immensely grateful and eager to continue promoting sustainable design in Puerto Rico for the benefit of our environment and our communities,” Quiñones said.
EnterPRize is a competition organized by Grupo Guayacán since 2005, which has become the most important business platform in Puerto Rico offering new companies a complete program for their business development.
