“In this year’s Awards, unfortunately we don’t have a winner in the climate change category. This isn’t because there weren’t any businesses working on the issue. Yes, we have many companies with great initiatives to concur the climate change issue, but we need more.,” Shinta Kamdani, President of IBCSD.  “All businesses – especially those that to date have been silent on the threat of environmental and social challenges – need to step-up to raise ambition and actions to tackle the problems, to achieve our sustainable development goals,” she continues.

In his keynote speech, Mr. Suharso M. the minister of National Development Planning Indonesia (BAPPENAS) put emphasis on the importance of SDGs, quote “SDGs is a business opportunity, not a business burden. SDGs is an investment opportunity for creating higher returns in the future”.

Currently in its 8th year running, SBA Indonesia is organised by Global Initiatives, alongside local partners PwC Indonesia, Indonesian Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD), Control Union and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN). Global Initiatives has also released the inaugural SBA Indonesia Insights Report, which outlines the best practices and trends of sustainable business practices in Indonesia. 

An advisory panel advised on the winners:

•  Irhoan Tanudiredja, Senior Partner, PwC Indonesia
•  Bayu Krisnamurthi, Former Deputy Minister of Trade and Agriculture/ Chairman, Indonesian Society of Agricultural Economics
•  Shinta Widjaja Kamdani, President, Indonesia Business Council for Sustainable Development (IBCSD)
•  Endy Bayuni, The Editor-in-Chief, The Jakarta Post
•  Erna Witoelar, Founder, Chairperson and Governing Board Member, KEHATI Foundation
•  Josaphat Rizal Primana, Directorate for Energy, Mineral, and Mining Resources, BAPPENAS
•  Denny Situmorang, Head of Finance, Control Union
•  Anthony Gourlay, Former CEO, Global Initiatives
•  Shefali Chaddha, COO, Global Initiatives

SCG introduces Circular Economy as a make-use-return concept, by encouraging maximum utilization of resources and reducing the amount of waste as much as possible. Reflecting on the current environment global situation, especially the environmental problems in location where it operates including Indonesia, SCG wants to introduce opportunities for collaboration while introducing innovation as a solution, under the umbrella of a Circular Economy. That is all in order to maintain and run a sustainable business to create a better environment in the world.

SCG incorporate Circular Economy through 3 business activities strategies:

• Reduced Material Use and Durability, e.g., Green Carton, which requires 25% less raw materials but remains the same durability;
• Developing innovations to replace existing products or raw materials with new ones with Upgrade and Replace strategy, e.g., SCG Hybrid Cement that use superior raw materials than traditional cement to improve structural strength and durability.
• Reuse and Recycle, e.g., CIERRA™, functional materials that offer a single material with diverse applications to replace the use of many materials, enabling better recyclability.

IBCSD was invited to give a presentation on “Circular economy and the Role of Industry” to encourage its implementation in the corporate world. IBCSD collaborates with PPBN in promoting Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) presented by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) and the Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia with support from the Swiss Government (SECO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

All these times, IBCSD and BAPPENAS have established good cooperation for a long time. In the future it is hoped that there will be more collaboration between IBCSD and BAPPENAS.

In connection with this initiative, the transformation of the domestic market through building consumer awareness to choose palm products that are produced responsibly is chosen as one of the main strategies. The aim is to build incentives for palm oil producers to operate with regard to aspects of sustainability, and compliance with human rights values and norms.

Global demand for Indonesian palm oil is now beginning to decline and is followed by falling prices, following foreign market awareness about the need for compliance with human rights in the production chain with the principle of sustainability. This has an impact on the lives of farmers and oil palm workers in the village.

As a business association that applies the principle of sustainability, IBCSD sees that awareness of the risks of climate change at the consumer level has encouraged people to prefer sustainable products. This was later revealed by IBCSD executive director, Indah Budiani, “With increasing demand in consumers, the creation of sustainable products will ultimately be able to improve the competitiveness position of Indonesian palm oil in the global market.”

“Meanwhile on the producer side, support for this good initiative has also increased due to the many companies that are aware of business risks if they remain in ‘business as usual’ and do not progress to ‘responsible business'”, continued Indah, “this can be proven by implementing sustainable sourcing and various innovations carried out in an effort to meet the demands of the global market for sustainable products. “

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Various key stakeholders from province and district governments, companies, NGOs and academia actively participated in the discussion. “I appreciate the initiative and smart work of IBCSD by conducting this workshop to mobilize business opportunity to support SDG 2. This discussion is very important to solve barriers and seize opportunity to increase business investment in the local flagship commodities, such as shrimp and coffee”, said Choirul Anam, Head of Fisheries Department, Gresik District. Three resource persons are also invited to share their expert knowledge on the workshop topic. They are Satrio Nugroho from PT Central Proteina Prima, a company working on shrimp commodity; Sigit Ismaryanto from Board of Indonesia  Sustainable Coffee Cooperation (ISCC) and Andi Kurniawan from Centre for Coastal and Fishery Study, Brawijaya University.

A number of challenges are discussed in the plenary and group discussion, in particular relating to coffee and shrimp as parts of the local flagship commodities in East Java. On shrimp commodity, the market opportunity at both international and domestic levels are still very high. The challenges, among others are how to provide quality seeds, including different variety of shrimp seeds that can be productively cultivated in different local conditions. Other challenges are how to help small fish folk to get access to financial support, assist capacity building and innovative technology to improve shrimp product quality that can compete at international market and improve coordination and public private partnership in particular to achieve 250% increase of the national target fishery products in the coming years. On coffee commodity, the challenges include how to revitalize the already old coffee plantation; address the current trend that  the increase of coffee consumption is much higher rather than the increase in production;  and provide capacity building and innovation supports, in particular to the fast growing SMEs in coffee value chain industries.  

The result from the workshop will be presented in Jakarta in December, as a final discussion in completing the study.

In response to this critical issue, the Indonesian government has put serious measures to improve the Indonesian palm oil industry in line with sustainable development principles. Through the Ministry of Agriculture Regulation No. 19/ 2011 the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) regulation was issued. This ISPO certification is made mandatory for palm companies that sell their products to international markets through the Minister Regulation No. 11/2015. The Government of Indonesia also has developed policy benefiting smallholder farmers that work in the palm oil sector through the launch of smallholder Replanting Program in 2017. Through this program, President Joko Widodo targeted 2.4 million ha of Replanting Program in 16 provinces. Currently the smallholder farmers share 45.64% of the total palm oil areas along with 49.17% of big private companies and 5.19 of big public companies (BPS, 2018).

The development of sustainable palm oil industry in Indonesia, however, is not only the responsibility of government. All key related stakeholders, including the private sector, civil societies, and consumer communities share equal responsibility to build responsible and sustainable palm oil industry that will bring benefits for decent living of the communities (people), economic sustainability (profit) and environmental sustainability (planet). This is where all of  us, as consumers can contribute by being responsible consumers. Choose products responsibly! 

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Committed to sustainable sourcing and efficient manufacturing, APR’s products address customers’ needs, while touching the lives of the communities around their areas of operations. APR upholds the principles of No Deforestation and source wood fibre only from sustainably managed plantations and forests. It is committed to the transparency of its supply chain. APR aims to achieve a clean production of viscose fibre and will constantly strive to operate in the top quartile of viscose manufacturing in the areas of reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improved carbon disulphide (CS2) recovery, and waste water management in line with industry leading practices.