Co-Founder, Conceptos Plasticos
About The Leader
About The Leader
Oscar Mendez created his own entrepreneurial path after identifying a business opportunity that would tackle his environmental and social concerns at the same time.
Oscar Andres Mendez, co-founder and strategic business manager of Colombian company Conceptos Plasticos, focused on the circular economy and closing the plastic cycle, transforming recycled plastic to benefit vulnerable populations.
He’s the winner of The Chivas Venture award ("for social entrepreneurs with business ideas that turn a profit and make a difference to the world") of 2016
His Purpose
Mendez's ambition to build long-lasting solutions for environmental issues led him to take an outsized challenge and that could yield an impressive impact on the communities he serves.
Oscar Mendez is an architect and social entrepreneur focused on creating solutions for closing the plastic cycle and extreme poverty housing at the same time.
His company empowers communities of recyclers both in Colombia and in Africa, buying plastic that's difficult to dispose of and turning it into high-quality bricks that can be easily used to constuct houses and other edifices in a lego-like manner.
Mendez has obtained international awards such as The Chivas Venture (USA), Unilever Sustainable Living Young Entrepreneur (UK), Viva Schmidheiny (Guatemala), Aim2Flourish (USA), as well as recognitions such as 40Under40 from Impact Design Hub (USA).
“When having to make a decision regarding a path you will take, take the path of change.”
Case for Change
Case for Change
"To educate and promote behavioral changes in waste disposal, involving recyclers and generating value in plastics by transforming them into alternative construction systems for the benefit of vulnerable communities."
Growth Gap
Growth Gap
“To provide housing to people in extreme poverty in rural areas, with the ability to adapt to any environment and can be assembled and disassembled in a very short time, whilst reducing plastic waste."
Investment Portfolio
Investment Portfolio
“More than a simple plastic block, it is much more a development project. It is a project with social, environmental, and development impacts in many aspects.”
His Leadership Qualities
His Leadership Qualities
Mendez’s passion has encouraged determination and perseverance to create and grow his organization, gaining international recognition and support.
Path-builder
Path-builder
The company uses recycled plastic to build homes for impoverished communities. The company has built around 43,000 sq ft and transformed over 500 tons of waste.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Mendez combined his partners' knowledge in architecture and plastic reuse. After identifying a business opportunity in plastic waste, one partner insisted on including social impact to the model. He researched and realized there was a big housing deficit in developing countries that could be targeted and decided to transform these recycled plastics into construction systems.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Concentrate on building long-lasting solutions.
Jointly create a vision with partners.
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
Leaders find possibilities because they are willing to look into them.
Mendez initiated solving one pressing societal problem and used his competitive advantage and team’s know-how to solve a second one, amplifying his field of play.
His ability to research and see beyond what he knew allowed him to make a decision that would bring his company into a promising new path.
Innovative
Innovative
Mendez started out Conceptos Plásticos with the intention of generating an environmental impact, and today it is a social enterprise that offers solutions for change, based on recycling. Their business model involves the communities it serves and includes an educational component focused on recycling and sustainability.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Mendez realized the importance of consumers in the life cycle of plastic; therefore, he decided that he would educate and promote behavior change in waste disposal. He involved recycler communities in the logistics of his business and improved their income by generating value in plastics that would not normally be commercialized or transformed.
Leadership Behavior
Leadership Behavior
Challenge the status quo
Seek out information, ask good questions and be a good listener
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
Leaders understand that all stakeholders play an important role in value creation.
Mendez improved on what already existed in Conceptos Plasticos and heightened its value proposition by seeing the bigger picture and thinking of all stakeholders' participation and needs
Despite the fact that the communities working with the recycling programs were not very sophisticated about recycling issues, he adjusted the programs for this audience to ensure success
Global Mindset
Global Mindset
Mendez represented Colombia at the Chivas Venture competition and acquired funding and a great deal of international exposure. He partnered with major institutions around the world such as the United Nations, Dow Chemicals, and CAR (the development bank of Latin America) to scale his business model.
Key Actions
Key Actions
Mendez entered several competitions and international acceleration programs in Oxford and Cambridge, working with mentors to boost Conceptos Plasticos' strategy, studying similar problems around the world, and leveraging networks and international exposure to pitch his solution to key organizations in other regions.
Leadership Behaviors
Leadership Behaviors
Develop strategies that facilitate adjustments to other cultures
Continuos learning and drive to generate higher impact.
Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned
Leadership and growth involves connecting with others, facilitating effective and successful outcomes.
Mendez’s drive connected him with the right network to open new doors and grow his business into new markets.
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