Bukit Vista was once again successful in holding their event, BV C&E-Talk #16 with the theme “Sustainable Community in Today’s World”. For this month’s event, it feels a little special because the team from Bukit Vista combined their two main events, BV E-Talk and BV C-Talk into one! Held on July 23, 2021, BV CE-Talk provides trusted industry professionals with an opportunity to talk about their passion for empowering local communities and share inspiring insights for Indonesian students and young people.
We specifically invited professional speakers from R.O.L.E. Foundation, Piet Van Zyl, and Annisa Fauziah from Tri Upcycle to share their experiences and knowledge in the field of Environmental Conservation. Apart from speakers, we also managed to invite great co-hosts from Watery Nation, AIESEC and KMBA from President University as well as media partners from HIMA Management UII and HIMA Management UNAIR.
R.O.L.E. Foundation is an environmental conservation and learning organization formed in 2007 by Mike O’Leary. Mike realized that there was no regular waste management system in Bali, seeing the impact of existing waste on the environment and the health of the local community, R.O.L.E. Foundation was founded with the idea of improving the waste management system by educating the public so that they can apply it in their work environment and daily life. In addition, Mike also built a high-quality skills education center focused on the Balinese hospitality industry in Sawangan to empower young, marginalized Indonesian women to break the cycle of poverty and develop a sustainable society in Indonesia. R.O.L.E. stands for Rivers, Oceans, Land, and Ecology.
Shared with the desire to make changes to the better environment, especially Indonesia’s forests, Ben & Tim Fijal founded a social enterprise focused on using recycled materials from fabric waste to promote conscious consumption and donate the profits to a grassroots organization that protects forests, called Tri Upcycle. Inspired by the Tri Hita Karana philosophy, Tri Upcycle started production with handkerchiefs in 2016, and has successfully expanded its eco-friendly collection to bandanas, face masks, tote bags, hats, pillowcases, cutting boards, and tableware sets.
For environmentalists, there are certain difficulties to be faced in carrying out its activities. The percentage of people who care about the environment is still very low, their perception is different and some think that throwing garbage into the river is not a problem. Even some companies still produce products that pollute the nature. According to Annisa, Indonesians love to be active and participate in lots of events. So, Tri Upcycle, as a social enterprise, started to organize several informative activities that are wrapped in a fun way to make people who care about the environment but don’t know what to do could be the one who makes the change, such as creating craft products using old clothes.
Not only lack of awareness, the pandemic also brought a more severe impact on the environmental community. For R.O.L.E. Foundation, Piet argues that their foundation has stopped getting people coming to educational sites. The pandemic also presents another challenge where their partner hotels have no funding and has left the R.O.L.E. Foundation with less waste to pick up from hotels since tourism stopped.
Not giving up, this challenge actually gave the two speakers the opportunity to rack their brains on their activities and restructure many things over the past 2 years. They realize that there will always be too much trash in Bali that won’t just go away, especially in recent years when packaging from online stores is on the rise. By focusing on innovative waste-based workshops, Annisa and Piet believe that the environment gets a million things better by making a difference from small communities.
During the event, the participants were actively involved to satisfy their curiosity in question-and-answer sessions, quizzes, and huddle time. For more complete insights from Piet Van Zyl and Annisa Fauziah’s discussion, please watch the full session here!
Bukit Vista as a start-up company engaged in property management with 150+ properties based in Bali, Yogyakarta and Nusa Penida is currently opening long-distance remote internship and full-time vacancies for positions in Community Management,Hospitality, Air Support and Reservation, and many more. Register directly on our job landing page and have a professional and enjoyable work experience! We hope this BV C&E-Talk series can inspire you and see you at our next event!