Rocío González

I have always been a big fan of design. While studying Architecture I experimented with resin, the same material buttons are made of. My hobby, became an everyday project once I came across a button factory and started making unique pieces of jewelry reusing faulty buttons. This was the beginning of Greca, a sustainable design company that made objects and fashion accessories from discards of button factories. Founded in 2009, Greca was certified as BCorp in 2012. The brand’s impact was measured not only in the upcycled materials but in the work opportunities given to cooperatives that produced their accessories.

As a result of this entrepreneurial journey in 2015 I co-founded PAPASTUDIO with Lorena Núnez (Director of Totebag) giving design, tools and strategic advice to purposeful entrepreneurs.

During 2016 we participated in the ECLA Program (Entrepreneurship and Competitiveness in Latin America) in Columbia Business School and I was also a Fellow of The Global Good Fund. Both programs made me focus in generating more impact.

Clearly my “aha moment” was during the study trip to Dharavi in Mumbai, India. In Dharavi, the biggest slum in Asia. There I saw how discards became prime matter, products and opportunities for the most vulnerable people and all this in scale. I understood that in order to impact, Greca had to be part of something bigger, made to give back and with an obsession for scalability, where to find the real impact.

This project became DARAVI, and it’s now my main project: a model factory of products from discarded materials to create new jobs and give back, focused in women.

In 2017 we founded the first factory of Daravi. Once this model factory is working, the expansion plan is to replicate it throughout Argentina.