Industries still slow in warming up to green habits
Industries still slow in warming up to green habits
JAKARTA (JP): More government incentives are needed to convince Indonesia's rapidly growing industrial sector that being environmentally-friendly does not necessarily mean losing profits, an environmental activist says.
The office of the State Minister of Environment, in particular, must also do more public relations work if it wants industries to apply and produce more environmentally-friendly techniques and products, said Hira Jhamtani, Executive Director of the National Consortium for Nature and Forest Conservation in Indonesia.
"Indonesian businesses are only at the beginning stages of being more environmentally conscious. The process is there but it will take a long time before we can see the results," Hira said during a panel discussion held by the United States Information Service on Friday.
The discussion was held shortly after the launching of the Indonesian translation of the Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment, written by Stephan Schmidheiny in collaboration with the Business Council for Sustainable Development.
The book, based on a number of studies of several environmentally-friendly industries, stated that contrary to popular belief, it is still possible to combine industry with a sustainable environment and reap reasonable profits.
J.R. Garnett, an executive advisor at IBM and speaker at the discussion, said IBM and its branches world-wide have been producing environmentally-sound products in an environmentally- friendly atmosphere without a loss in profits.
Hira said it is most difficult to convince Indonesian businesses since they believe eco-responsibility is unprofitable. "The government's political will is highly needed in this case."
Assistant to the State Minister of Environment, Surna Djajadiningrat, admitted that there were lots of constraints faced by the government in advocating environmental awareness in industry.
Although the government has provided a number of incentives to attract environmentally-friendly industries, more needs to be done to strengthen and enforce the existing laws.
Decentralization of the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), for example, is not an easy task. "A decentralization of duties would mean a decentralization of power... and not many people want to let go of power once they have it," said Surna.
Aside from that, he said, many officials from the office of the state minister of environment lack the educational background needed to conduct and design environment-related programs and policies.
"These are not only your problems, but mine as well. So even before NGOs or students come up to me to complain, I already know what they will talk about," he said in response to questions from a number of university lecturers.
Both Hira and Surna consider the low environmental awareness of many Indonesians a result of the country's poor educational system, which fails to emphasize the importance of sustainable environments in development.
Hira pointed out the need for better cooperation between universities, where most research is conducted, NGO's and the government. She expressed her hope for "...study results to be actually applied and not ignored after research is finished, as often happens now." (pwn)