As our project enters its final stages, this week was about bringing together everything we have learnt over the past few weeks and turning it into practical recommendations for Hagamos Composta. We are now focused on producing our final report, ensuring that our recommendations are based on everything we have learnt over the past few weeks, align with Hagamos Composta’s values and provide practical value for the team.
One of my main focuses this week has been completing our research into corporate sponsorship opportunities, including translating the CSR sponsorship document into Spanish before asking our volunteers to review it. Alongside this, I finished mapping Hagamos Composta’s operational friction points, creating a visual process map that highlights where communication breakdowns and inefficiencies currently exist. It has been rewarding to see this piece of work develop from an initial idea into something that we hope will provide a practical resource for the organisation.
This week we also realised that rather that, rather than relying solely on our own observations, we needed to ensure our recommendations reflected the experiences of both Hagamos Composta’s branches and its customers. To do this, we distributed two surveys: one to branches across the organisation to better understand their size, operating environments and local contexts and another through social media to gain a clearer picture of Hagamos Composta’s customer base. The responses have already provided valuable insights. From the customer survey, we found that respondents were exclusively based in Mexico, suggesting Hagamos Composta’s social media presence currently reaches a predominantly domestic audience. Responses from the branches also revealed that many collect fewer than 200 buckets each week, highlighting a large number of smaller sites facing similar challenges. This has led us to develop a second survey to classify branches in more detail allowing us to group similar locations together and tailor our recommendations more effectively.
Outside of the project, our weekend began with a trip to Puebla. After arriving on Friday evening, we enjoyed an excellent dinner of tacos before an early night after a busy week. Saturday was spent exploring the city through a hostel walking tour before wandering around Puebla’s beautiful historic centre and markets. One unexpected highlight was watching a traditional bakery produce over 1000 pieces of bread in just ten minutes and of course making sure we tried some ourselves. In the evening, we enjoyed live music from a gorgeous bar, delicious pizza and explored more of the city’s nightlife before travelling to nearby Cholula the following day. Seeing the Great Pyramid of Cholula, the largest pyramid in the world by volume, with a church built on top was an incredible sight and another reminder of Mexico’s fascinating history.
After two busy days back working on our project as deadlines began to approach, we travelled to Parque Las Estacas following a site visit from the Genera Territorios project team. Surrounded by stunning natural springs, the trip provided an amazing opportunity to switch off for a day. We spent hours swimming along the river, being carried downstream by the surprisingly strong current, swinging into the river from rope swings and lying in the sun (although some people are regretting a lack of suncream now!) @annie
Reflecting on this week, I think the Laidlaw value that has stood out most has been determination. As deadlines draw closer, our focus has shifted towards turning weeks of research into clear, practical outputs that Hagamos Composta can continue using after we leave. At the same time, this week reinforced the importance of curiosity, collaboration and judgement. Designing and distributing the surveys reminded us that good recommendations cannot be based solely on assumptions. We realised that despite spending several weeks with Hagamos Composta, there were still important gaps in our understanding of both the organisation’s customer base and the experiences of different branches. Taking the time to validate our ideas through evidence has strengthened both our findings and our confidence in the recommendations we are making.
Spending time at Las Estacas also reminded me of why organisations like Hagamos Composta are so important. Experiencing such a beautiful natural environment reinforced the importance of protecting the ecosystems around us and highlighted how local environmental initiatives can contribute to preserving places like these for future generations.
As we move into our final week, I am looking forward to bringing our report together and presenting our recommendations to Hagamos Composta. Seeing several weeks of research, discussions and analysis come together into a final piece of work has been incredibly rewarding and I hope our recommendations will continue to provide value for Hagamos Composta long after our project has come to an end.