Dyah Ayu Sekarsari
IPMI International Business School
Amelia Naim Indrajaya
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Wood waste is reusable and recyclable. This is a story of Mario Bennet who make best use of the wood waste. Whereas the community around him is unskilled and unemployed. Combining these two, Mario has been making impactful social enterprise for more than 10 years.
The innovation is about reuse and recycle of wood waste and empowering others.
In 2010, Mario made glasses frames from wood waste as a hobby. Turned out the market's response was good. Later he started to make ornaments, furniture, and other interior applications. But he needed help. Aware that the community around him is potential, he provided education for them about woodcraft. Right after he recruited them, in 2014 the revenue was growing significantly. The marketing communication is spread through the social media and word of mouth within the city.
The wood waste is supplied by local factories. Mario provides solutions to many factories in managing their waste. Instead of paying the landfills for disposing their waste, they now have another option to provide the waste for SMEs like Rojokeling.
Beside this, Mario is now working on a movement to bring together various SMEs in his town. The platform is named “Lawan dengan Karya” or “Fight by Proving Our Work” in English. This platform is very unique because they build a studio for their members to express their talents and to attract their potential customers.
There are two huge impacts of this innovation: reducing carbon footprint and reducing unemployment. Although he is the one who initiated this, but he considers this as a never-ending learning process.
This business is generating revenue up to 150 million rupiahs per year. Although in 2020 the revenue was declined because of global pandemic, which also affected the volume of the wood waste processed.
The employees were becoming skilled and employed. But Mario does not want them to be in his business forever. He encourages everyone to start their own business as soon as they possessed the skill and knowledge. Therefore, there will always be new recruits and alumni every year in Rojokeling.
The impact for environmental is their contribution in reducing carbon footprint. They can save up to 0.5 CO2 emissions per year.
Now imagine if the whole town was to do the same!
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Mario Bennet, Founder
Wood waste is reusable and recyclable. This is what Mario Bennet does to make best use of them. Whereas the community around him is unskilled and unemployed. Combining these two, Mario has been making impactful social enterprise for more than 10 years.