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“When I first started Bokashi Pinoy, I used to just say ‘one household at a time’. After joining BPI Sinag, I would say ‘one community at a time’. Now, I can confidently say ‘one city at a time’.”

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The second day of the 2023 Philippine Social Entrepreneurship Summit highlighted BPI Foundation’s Sinag Program and the social enterprises (SEs) that it has empowered over the years. Among these SEs is Bokashi Pinoy, which takes its name from the Bokashi method of composting that originated in Japan. Through this process, organic waste is fermented in airtight containers and turned into nutrient-rich plant food. 

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In a session that highlighted sustainable development, Lanie Francisco, Bokashi Pinoy’s founder, shared her journey in building a social enterprise that would deliver triple bottom lines for profit, people, and the planet.

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An advocate of climate justice and environmental protection, Lanie gave context to the issues she aims to address. An estimated 2.2 billion tons of waste is thrown out globally. Of this amount, 60 percent is food waste. In 2001, the Philippine Congress enacted the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (RA 9003) in the hopes of addressing the country’s issue of pollution. However, 23 years after the law’s inception, the country has not yet moved past the narrative that traditional segregation alone can resolve the Philippines’ solid waste problem. 

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Lanie thus founded Bokashi Pinoy in 2019 to advocate for “sustansyability” – her own spin on sustainable development, which combines “sustainability” with the Filipino word for nutrition: “sustansya”. She envisions a movement where food waste is diverted from landfills and, instead, used to regenerate farmlands for sustainability. 

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Bokashi Pinoy focuses on turning food waste into nutrient-rich soil. It facilitates a program called the “30-day Garbage to Garden” challenge to train individuals, organized communities or businesses who want to reduce their food waste for a greater purpose. In addition, Lanie and her team actively work to raise awareness for their environmental advocacy by conducting training sessions, seminars, and workshops, as well as through social media. 

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While the Bokashi Pinoy Movement continues to grow, there were many operational challenges in forwarding its agenda, the most critical being the lack of compost facilities in local communities. Each barangay is required to have one, according to RA 9003, but this policy is rarely enforced. Two other bottlenecks were the lack of skilled compost-makers and the high price of compost delivery. These factors make it impractical for communities and households to engage in composting.

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Given these obstacles, Lanie joined the 2022 BPI Sinag Social Entrepreneurship Challenge and made it to the final round. After finishing in the Top 5, Bokashi Pinoy was awarded a grant by BPI Foundation. This grant, coupled with support from the Coca-Cola Foundation,  allowed Lanie to give her team of volunteers a salary and to scale up her operations by hiring more compost-makers. She explained that raising awareness on the practice of composting and teaching relevant skills to the community must be met with equal incentives: “Capacitating people alone does not make an SE sustainable. Kung hindi mo sila bibigyan ng paraan kung paano kumita and it is not profitable, wala rin.”

With the help of BPI Sinag, Lanie also partnered with the Local Government of Quezon City, which helped mobilize urban farm communities to attend her experiential training programs. She is presently negotiating with the LGUs of Pasig City, Cainta, and Lipa City in Batangas. For 2023-2024, Bokashi Pinoy is set on partnering with at least 29,000 households. This shows us the potential of empowered SEs and how much they can contribute to sustainable development.

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Reflecting on her SE journey so far, Lanie is hopeful that the Bokashi Pinoy Movement will gain greater traction in the coming years: “When I first started Bokashi Pinoy, I used to just say ‘one household at a time’. After joining BPI Sinag, I would say ‘one community at a time’. Now, I can confidently say ‘one city at a time’.”

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