Jakarta, November 15, 2024 – There is an increasing public interest in switching to green products. This is driven by increasing consumer awareness of the phenomenon of climate change, and its impacts, which influence the choice of products used in daily activities.
Juniko Nur Pratama, Industrial Decarbonization Program Manager at the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), said that this shift in consumption patterns will affect production patterns, namely encouraging industries to transform into green industries.
“It is important to identify the opportunities and challenges faced in integrating sustainability principles into the industrial sector, while maintaining people’s purchasing power,” said Juniko.
Andi Rizaldi, Head of the Industrial Services Standardization and Policy Agency, Ministry of Industry, explained that the government is currently trying to formulate a number of incentive regulations for industries that adopt green industry standards.
“The incentives currently provided are in the form of additional calculations of the Local Content Requirement (LCR), then we are thinking about providing incentives in the form of providing a green product label, and this product will be able to enter the catalog of public goods procurement by government agencies,” explained Andi.
Socialization to industry players is an important point in the green industry acceleration agenda. This was conveyed by Irpan Restu Ade Putra, Sustainability & Compliance Manager, PT. Ever Shine Tex, Tbk. who started trying to adopt green industry standards since 2023 but has not succeeded in getting certification and is working on certification this year.
“Last year (2023-ed), we didn’t comprehend the (certification) process so that during implementation there were still gaps and standards that had not been met. This year we are trying again to be able to certify the green industry because there has been provision from the Ministry of Industry for technical assistance, so now we understand better,” he said.
M.F. Dahlan, Vice Chief Operating Officer, Green Product Council Indonesia said that this green industry certification will be useful in addition to increasing the prestige of the company and the products, it can also be a way to find green funding.
“The certification process is very helpful for the industry so that they have primary data for the context of environmental and social governance, which is a global benchmark. This can also be used to access green financing,” explained Dahlan.
From the consumer’s perspective, this certification and labeling makes it easier for consumers to identify the goods they will use. Tulus Abadi, Chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (Yayasan Lembaga Konsumen Indonesia, – YLKI) said that Law No. 8 of 1999 concerning Consumer Protection requires producers to put out labeling in accordance with the content or manufacturing process of a product, and the affixing of this label is carried out by a competent institution that has credibility.
“The government needs to think about incentive schemes not only for producers but also consumers of environmentally friendly products, while ensuring the availability of a variety of product choices to meet their needs,” said Tulus.
Faricha Hidayati, Coordinator of the IESR Industrial Decarbonization Program, said that industrial decarbonization efforts will be unique in each sector. She emphasized the need to review in detail each pillar of decarbonization that can be implemented by industry players.
“We see energy efficiency practices can be an entry point for industrial decarbonization before entering other pillars of industrial decarbonization,” she said.
Faricha added that in terms of energy provision from PLN, reforms can be carried out, such as generating electricity from renewable energy sources such as solar energy, the basic cost of generating which is already quite equivalent to electricity from coal-fired power plants. Therefore, it is also necessary to encourage energy providers such as PLN to replace their energy sources with renewable ones.
