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Jakarta Post

Aiming for clean, green batik

Cut the waste: Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta (center) cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the Clean Batik Initiative program last week in Jakarta

Andrea Booth (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, March 11, 2010

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Aiming for clean, green batik

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span class="inline inline-center">Cut the waste: Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta (center) cuts the ribbon to inaugurate the Clean Batik Initiative program last week in Jakarta. JP/Andrea Booth

The Clean Batik Initiative inauguration kicked off last Tuesday at Museum Tekstil in West Jakarta in an effort to begin the “cleaner” production of Indonesia’s national dress.

Fronted by the German-Indonesian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (EKONID), the CBI aims to help produce batik in a sustainable manner, by minimizing the negative effects the batik industry has on the environment. The program will run from 2010 until 2013.

“Batik is a very important industry in Indonesia, employing almost 1 million workers,” EKONID managing director Jan Rönnfeld said. EKONID works to promote bilateral trade and investment between Germany and Indonesia.

“As a leader in technology, we can utilize available resources to help it be produced in an environmentally friendly way.”

According to the CBI, the batik industry produces the highest amount of annual CO2 emissions, among other small-and-medium size business (SME) subsectors. The department of Industry estimated that in 2009, 48,000 companies were involved in batik-producing in Indonesia.

“Batik production is one of the heaviest polluters in the country,” EKONID program coordinator Martin Krummeck asserted. “The SME industrial sector is characterized by inefficiency, a poor environmental record and lacks law enforcement and sensitive consumer behavior.”

Along with the support from the German-Malaysian chamber of Commerce and the IHK Akademie Munich, the CBI is also co-financed by a grant from the EU SWITCH-Asia program.

SWITCH-Asia aims to promote economic prosperity and poverty reduction in Asian countries through sustainable growth and reducing environmental impact.

Erik Habers, the EU head of operations, pointed to the importance of ensuring batik followed sustainable production measures at the inauguration.

“By using resources inefficiently we contribute to a negative environmental impact,” he said. “It’s necessary to shift to sustainable production.”

Habers said the Asian region accounted for 40 percent of the global economy and was recognized as the world’s largest manufacturing arena. But he added that Asia’s industrial sector also encompassed outdated and inefficient technology, preventative maintenance and use of raw materials, and improper production.

The CBI also has technical support from the Indonesian En-vironment Ministry. Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta advocated the CBI on the day.

Hatta expressed concern that many industries were reluctant to handle environmental problems and had no idea how to handle waste.

“Companies throw away unprocessed waste, causing pollution that brings health and social problems.

“It’s unfair on the public,” he said. “Their limited access to water is polluted, even though people use this water to drink.”

 Also attending the event was UNESCO officer in charge Anwar al Said who commented the inauguration was aligned with the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

He also said the initiative aimed to ensure consumers received a socially responsible product.
“This program shows a clear respect for the environment.”

But presently, Krummeck said, the batik industry was ridden with environmental problems beginning with heavy dependence on fuel (kerosene) and electricity.

Additionally, the industry overuses water resources. Krummeck said it played a large role in water-reserve depletion. When water shortage occurs, it then turns to water solutions that use an even greater amount of energy.

The batik industry also uses excessive amounts of wax, chemical dyes and bleaching agents, the CBI said. Not only is this harmful to wearers of batik, but it contributes to increasing water pollution.
“Within the batik industry, chemicals are not properly stored, there is a high quantity of excess material and inadequate waste facilities,” he continued. “High water spillage and chemicals thrown into the garden and river are great hazards to the environment and local community.”

Trendy Batik: Two models wear outfits made of Batik at a fashion show. Batik is coming back into fashion, with top Indonesian fashion designers incorporating batik into their collections.
Trendy Batik: Two models wear outfits made of Batik at a fashion show. Batik is coming back into fashion, with top Indonesian fashion designers incorporating batik into their collections.

Krummeck said the CBI aimed to reduce the impact the batik industry had on the environment following three steps: sustainable production, sustainable consumption and policy dialogue.

“As one of Indonesia’s most highly developed art forms and traditional handicrafts, Indonesian batik is expected to be in synergy with the environment and create a harmonious balance of the ecosystem,” he stated. “The program is expected to assist batik SMEs in implementing cleaner, safer and more efficient production.”

To reach its objective, EKONID said it would work with more than 500 SMEs, government bodies, NGOs, universities and other associations in six provinces in Indonesia.

In promoting sustainable production, the CBI said it would work toward reducing water and electricity consumption as well as excessive toxic chemicals.

The program aims to achieve these objectives by providing batik associations with free workshops on environmental-oriented cost and chemical management, as well as water and energy efficiency.

It is also providing SMEs with free technical assistance to implement the cleaner batik concept as well as in-field supervision and ongoing technical consultancy over the program’s duration.

The CBI predicts that reusing liquid waste from batik’s padding process, at an Rp 400,000 (US$43) investment, will result in annual savings of Rp 6.48 million by reducing harmful coloring materials and 1,800 liters of water annually from the dyeing process.

Installing a connecting device between a basin unit can reduce the cost of wastewater processing by up to Rp18 million per year and reduce clean-water consumption by around 3 million liters.

The program believes that reusing bleaching liquid will result in an annual saving of Rp 6 million by reducing chemical-use consumption, aiding the environment by also reducing wastewater by up to 4,000 liters per year.

It also plans to install a catchment basin worth Rp 1. 6 million to reduce the amount of water and cleaning agents used in the batik washing process.

One problem the CBI acknowledges, however, is that it may be difficult to get batik workers to embrace the program.

“Changing the mindset of people may be difficult, it may take a long time to introduce this concept,” Krummeck said. But he added that having the program run for a substantial four-year timeframe would help the initiative achieve its objective.

“Most programs run for only one to two years. This is a considerably long program.”

The second component of the agenda, sustainable consumption, works to help customers understand the benefits of the clean batik program. SMEs have access to marketing training material, consultancy and promotion support at domestic and international trade fairs, for example.

However, concern lies in that producing batik in a different way may detract from its authenticity and negatively impact on its rich tradition.

“The quality of the product won’t alter,” Krummeck said. “But the process will become more efficient.”
He also commented that batik’s price would remain affordable. “We have to be competitive,” he said. “The product will remain the same.”

The final aim of the CBI is to form a dialogue with government authorities.

“It is also targeting a policy dialogue for the Indonesian government to develop batik SMEs that consider the environmental impact in their production process.”

To strengthen policy dialogue, batik associations will, according to the CBI, be given the chance to participate in dialogue with local-, regional- and national-level government authorities, become members of program lobby groups and link with potential international customers in Asian countries.

“These steps will help make batik production more sustainable,” Krummeck asserted. “We foresee good results for the four-year program but we still need to generate more awareness.”

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