Komunidad Founder and CEO Felix Ayque has been named as one of the ten awardees of the Sustainability Leadership A-List members of Eco-Business, a Singapore-headquartered regional media and intelligence company.
Ayque and nine other sustainability champions were recognized for spurring change “across government, business and civil society delivered outstanding work in their spheres of influence over the last 12 months.”
According to its website, Eco-Business is “Asia Pacific’s largest media and business intelligence organization dedicated to sustainable development and ESG performance.” With presence in China, India, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia, Eco-Business provides space for news on sustainability while also connecting organizations to advisory and training services on relevant innovations.
In Eco-Business’ write-up for Ayque, it highlighted the Komunidad CEO’s background of growing up in a coastal community that allowed him to witness first-hand the devastating effects of typhoons and earthquakes and how, after training to become a tech engineer, he learned that “the simplest technology, if applied effectively, can save lives.”
Ayque, for his part, said Komunidad’s partnership with Quezon City is one of the most important things they did in 2023. Apart from the project bagging an award and gaining recognition across different sectors including the Office of the President, iRISEUP also allowed Komunidad to deepen its involvement through the implementation of a grassroot approach, he added.
Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte was also named as one of the Sustainability Leadership A-List awardees.
Negros Occidental-native Cherrie Atilano, founder and CEO of Agrea Agricultural Systems International, also made it to the list.
Teamwork
Ayque credited his teammates and their passion as his strongest motivations. He shared that his team is very passionate in providing solutions for climate resilience and sustainability. “So, when I look at them, they’re much more motivated than me so every day I look at them and I think to myself that I need to catch up… so that makes me more motivated,” he said.
“As a team we work well. Everyone works well together, and I’m just happy that we have a very passionate team and it motivates me every day,” Ayque added.
Rounding up the ten awardees are sustainability leaders from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Nepal. They are Aida Greenbury, Independent Oil Palm Smallholders’ Union Senior sustainability adviser; Cate Harries, Lendlease group head of sustainability; Celine Lim, Save Rivers manager; Eric Lim, United Overseas Bank chief sustainability officer; Krista Milne, chief heat officer and climate change director of the City of Melbourne, Australia; Mahesh Nakami, Health Environment Climate Action Foundation founder chairman and executive director; and Vijay Prateik, demitasse CEO.
To form the judging panel, Eco-Business invited Ramnath Iyer, Sustainable Finance Asia, IEEFA lead; Su-Yen Wong, Singapore Institute of Directors board director; S Viswanathan, Nanyang Technological University professor of operations and corporate sustainability; and Tom Brzostowski, The Nature Conservancy, Singapore country director.
The awarding was held at Parkroyal Collection Marina Bay in Singapore last February 1.
