Activists attack green campaign as 'lip service'

JAKARTA (JP): Activists are labeling some local companies' campaigns for environmental preservation as mere "lip service" and a ploy to escape government penalties.

In a discussion on green consumerism here on Saturday, environmentalists from a number of organizations described how some companies launched so-called "environmental preservation campaigns" with the sole purpose of appeasing regulations.

"They're only paying a lip service," said Mohamad Yani from the Indonesian Consumers' Agency. "They declare their companies and products environmentally friendly, but they are actually only exploiting their consumers."

Eka Budianta said the campaign was not undertaken because the companies were really aware of the need for environmental protection, but merely because they feared the government's punishment.

He then went on to name bottled-water producer PT Aqua Golden Mississippi as one example of the companies with seemingly environmental-friendly programs which actually end up threatening the environment.

Under its environmental awareness program launched in 1993, Aqua buys back its used bottles, recycles them and sells them to plastic manufacturers. From this program, Aqua has so far earned Rp 800 million, which it then allocates to fund environmental activities.

"But how about the machines they use for the `ozonification' of the water?" said the executive director of Yayasan Dana Mitra Lingkungan, a local funding agency for the preservation of the environment. He was referring to an environmentally harmful production process allegedly used by Aqua.

The discussion was organized by the Indonesian Green Consumers' Organization in observance of Earth Day, which took place last Monday. The organization originally invited 300 people to take part in the discussion, but only 50 people -- mostly students -- actually attended.

Eka said most business people have yet to take "real action" in preserving the environment, because they still see such activities as merely public relations exercises.

"They still think that it is the job of the public relations officers to deal with the environmental issues," Eka said. "They produce brochures and films about how to preserve the environment, but fail to deal directly with the whole issue."

Criteria

Eka also questioned the criteria used in declaring that a product is manufactured in an environmentally friendly manner.

"Environmental consideration should be maintained during the whole production process, not only during one or two stages," Eka said.

He said that business people and industrialists should become a moral force in the environmental campaign, because they have the funds and the technology at their disposal.

Yani called for efforts to revive green consumerism, a campaign which will help the urban community do away with its wasteful, environmentally threatening habit of consumption.

Urban dwellers once displayed environmentally friendly habits like rural people, but the growing pattern of wasteful consumption has changed their lifestyle, Yani said.

"People used to wrap their food with banana leaves and clip it with coconut leaf ribs. Now they use oil paper, rubber and even styrofoam," Yani said.

Nina Dwisasanti from the Indonesian Environmental Forum pointed to the middle class as the potential supporters for a green consumerism movement, as they are better-educated and have the purchasing power with which to decide on what products to buy.

"Unfortunately, many middle-class people have been trapped in a consumptive habit," she said. "They tend to waste money on things they don't really need."

This tendency can lead to the depletion of natural resources and the deterioration of the environment, she added. (sim)