CEMEX-TEC Award celebrates 10th anniversary, commends Filipino innovativeness

Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, CEMEX-Tecnologico de Monterrey Center for Sustainable Development is all set for the CEMEX-TEC Award 2020 Edition – with a few changes in accordance with the current global pandemic. Over the years, 22,500 people around the world have benefited from a total of 128 winning projects from 74 countries, including the Philippines.

“This year, we celebrate ten years of the CEMEX-TEC Award, and we are also ten years away from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN. Through this award, we continue to recognize and collaborate with agents of change who are also working towards the same goals of the 2030 Agenda,” said Martha Herrera, Corporate Social Responsibility Director at CEMEX and Director for the CEMEX-Tecnologico de Monterrey Center for Sustainable Communities.

Last year, Philippines’ Robert de la Serna’s project called Peace Crops won the award for the Communitarian Entrepreneurship Category 2019 Edition. Peace Crops aims to promote agro-enterprise activities for the youth in Lanao del Sur amidst the threats of war.

In 2017, a group of militant terrorists attacked the City of Marawi causing excessive lost of lives and damage to properties. With the aim to bring back normalcy and provide livelihood, Robert’s winning entry focused on social entrepreneurship. “We took and adopted a community and that actually started the ideation to go beyond relief and help them with their rehabilitation through agricultural productivity,” Robert shared.

“People were losing their jobs, their livelihood, that's when we thought perhaps it's time to change the paradigm. Instead of building arms, let's build farms," Robert added. The award has since helped Peace Crops to widen its reach across the entire province.

Together with some global bodies championing entrepreneurship and social innovation, the CEMEX-TEC Award grants organizations an opportunity to present their high-impact projects and proposals on sustainable development and social innovation. The objective of this award is to enhance the well-being and quality of people’s lives through the initiatives of diverse groups worldwide.

CEMEX-TEC Award has four categories, ensuring an array of applications globally:

• Transforming Communities Category aimed at graduate and postgraduate students with proposals that involve sustainable community transformation;
• Social Entrepreneurs Category for entrepreneurs with projects that create social impact and systemic change;
• Collaborative Action Category is for organizations whose social impact projects are implemented through partnerships with at least three sectors of society, and;
• Community Entrepreneurship Category intended for community-based organizations with sustainable projects that solve the problems of their community;

“The changes to our Experience Week have been performed hand in hand with our incredible allies and experts on social innovation. Together, we have designed a virtual program that fosters community participation and interaction among the winners. Through this innovative approach, we know that Experience Week 2020 will remain a very enriching experience for our winners,” Martha Herrera explained.

CEMEX has a rich history of improving the welfare of those it serves through innovative building solutions, efficiency advancements, and efforts to promote a sustainable future in more than 50 countries worldwide. In the Philippines, CEMEX subsidiaries Apo Cement Corporation in Cebu and Solid Cement Corporation in Rizal produce and market a broad product mix of building solutions. These cement manufacturing plants carry the well-established cement brands Apo and Rizal. More information is available at www.cemexholdingsphilippines.com.