Nanette Medved-Po

Widely known for connecting sustainable business with social impact, Nanette Medved-Po is the founder and executive chair of Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) and founder of GenerationHope. Her work focuses on two pressing Philippine challenges, plastic pollution and access to quality education, using business models that create measurable environmental and social outcomes.

Through PCX, Medved-Po developed a system that allows businesses to take responsibility for post-consumer plastic waste by financing its collection and recovery. The organisation works with businesses, communities and waste processors to move plastic waste into formal recovery and recycling systems rather than allowing it to enter the environment. Her work earned international recognition with the Asia Game Changer Award in New York in 2022, followed by recognition from the Real Leaders Impact Awards in 2023.

In 2025, Medved-Po’s influence expanded through the early success of the Philippines’ Extended Producer Responsibility law, demonstrating how a “polluter pays” mechanism can exceed its targets without relying on taxpayer funds. Her Aling Tindera waste-to-cash initiative also grew from four sites to 146 locations, diverting more than seven million kilogrammes of plastic waste while generating income for participating communities. This expansion contributed to PCX Markets funding the collection and responsible processing of more than 120 million kilogrammes of plastic waste to date.

The same year, Medved-Po launched Generation HOPE, a collaboration with Filipino brands including BDO, Penshoppe and SM Supermalls to fund and build public school classrooms. The initiative builds on GenerationHope’s social-enterprise model, including Hope in a Bottle, which directs 100 per cent of its profits towards education infrastructure. Its wider work also supports smallholder farmers through profits from its Hope products.

In 2026, PCX continued to work with businesses on verified plastic recovery and recycling initiatives, recognising partners including Mitsubishi Motors Philippines for achieving 100 per cent plastic offsetting. Medved-Po has also continued to contribute to international discussions on environmental policy, including the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee working towards a legally binding global plastics treaty.

Medved-Po’s work demonstrates how private enterprise can be structured around measurable environmental and social outcomes. Through PCX and GenerationHope, she has developed models that bring businesses, waste workers and communities into practical solutions for plastic pollution and access to quality education.