Q1. What is Going Green in Jakarta?
We are a fast growing community of individuals who want to do more to reduce waste and generally live more environmentally friendly in this city.
We began as a discussion on the wall of the Jakarta Moms Support Group in December 2017 and have quickly evolved into a lively facebook community (www.facebook.com/groups/GGJakarta) of over 2000 people (Indonesians and expats) dedicated to greener living.
There is also an active WhatsApp group open to anyone who wants to be more involved in planning or running projects.
Q2. What are the group’s long term goals and plans?
We have started by focusing on the 3 goals that came top in our FB poll that was run in January 2018.
1. Helping more people to reduce their own waste and dispose of it responsibly.
2. Collecting and sharing information about living green in Jakarta (e.g. shops, restaurants, products, zero-waste lifestyle) and doing talks in companies, schools and other communities.
3. Using our consumer power to encourage shops and other businesses in Jakarta to reduce waste, and supporting relevant campaigns.
Q3. What is the group doing right now?
Our Facebook group is already a lively place for hosting discussion and sharing ideas and resources on how to live more green in Jakarta (e.g. composting, cleaning products, recycling, local campaigns, find plastic alternatives etc). We’ve also developed our first resources on how you can recycle in Jakarta and have launched this website with the Jakarta Green List in April 2019. In January 2020 we launched a consumer campaign to reduce waste and single use items in restaurants and coffee places. Since September 2019 we have had a sub group for teachers and education professionals to encourage sustainability initiatives in Jakarta's schools.
Q4. How is Going Green in Jakarta being coordinated?
In the interests of keeping this lovely and lively group all moving in the same direction, a few volunteers are taking on coordination responsibilities.
Facebook - Vics (admin), Aparna and Erou (moderators)
Talks, outreach and local partnerships - Malini (English, Indonesian), Ester (English) and Erou (English/Indonesian).
Instagram - Ester and Savirra
Website - Vics and Prachi
These coordinators are responsible for ensuring we have a clear way of working and to help streamline communication. Coordinators won't be making decisions, more like facilitating the group to make decisions... and won't be doing all the work, more like keeping track of who's doing what and making sure people have the support they need for what they're working on.
Q5. What kind of community are we?
As a new community that is 100% driven by volunteers. As we grow, we aspire to live up to the following working principles.
(1) Open and inclusive - we are a diverse group of people living in Jakarta. We seek to create a community that is sensitive to cultural differences and where all members are valued for their passion, ideas and experience.
(2) Positive and solution-driven - we want to better understand the barriers to going green in Jakarta but will work together to find solutions and generate new ideas to overcome challenges.
(3) Collaborative and value-adding - we want to work together with established local organisations and bodies who are already working on green issues and add value/momentum to their work rather than duplicating.
(4) Accountable and supportive. We will hold ourselves accountable to what we have committed to, without putting undue stress or pressure on people who volunteer to take on responsibilities or projects.
Where we fall short of these principles we will listen to feedback and commit to find ways of doing it better.
Q6. What is the Going Green in Jakarta WhatsApp (WA) Group and who can join?
The WA group is a way for communicating directly and quickly with a smaller team of people to better enable the establishment and development of Going Green in Jakarta. WA Group conversations are currently in English given the international demographic of members. Ask any of the coordinators if you would like to join. Anyone can be added to the Whatsapp group at anytime if they want to be involved on a day-to-day basis.