Innovation

At the beginning stage, Nara Kreatif started by collecting paper waste from a business free of charge. Then, they converted the paper waste into value added products such as corporate gimmicks (paper bag, wallpaper, notes etc). Neza (the founder) thought this is not sustainable because demand from corporations is not always stable. Next, Neza and his partner Banyu founded Nara Bepro with quite a different business innovation model.

Nara Bepro devised services for waste management by offering to their clients a catalyst program, which is an awareness program for their clients’ employees. The company also picked up trash from their clients’ sites for a fee.

The wastes are then converted into the following products:

1. Paper: recycling into value-added products such as notes, wall paper, tissue boxes, etc.

2. Plastic: up-cycling into fashion products

3. Organic: organic fertilizer in coorporating with rumah organik

4. Non-organic waste: waste bank

These conversions all involve the communities in which the businesses are located.

Inspiration

Back in 2012, when the founder of Nara Kreatif, Neza, was still in college, he saw many children on the streets who could not continue their studies due to financial problems. He was concerned and tried to do something by finding ways to coordinate and relocate these children to solve their social and educational issues. In order to do this, he needed resources/energy to solve these problems. On the other hand, he also saw issues with the environment that could potentially be the energy/sources to assist in solving the social and educational issues. This later became Nara Bepro, a company focusing on environmental management systems.

Neza mentioned, “What I tried to do was to combine two major issues and make those became solutions for the two problems. Social and Educational issues are the foundation, meanwhile the environmental is the energy to solve the issue on social and educational impact."

Overall impact

The innovation provided by Nara Bepro has been creating impact outside of the company itself allowing them to create profit, also for corporations, communities and the environment.

Short-term impact for the corporation is to change their paradigm on waste problems while complementing their existing programs. For example, segregation of paper waste from the other types of waste would have value-added instead of the wastes being mixed together.

Long-term impact would be on reducing wastes, which helps improve the environment and helps the communities with their economy at the same time. For example, the process of converting paper waste to fashion products, this involved community, which helps the economy.

Business benefit

This business innovation model benefits the business from its revenue charged to clients from the concept of awareness to their clients’ employees, picking up the waste.

Nara Bepro still has no outside investors. Revenue growth of Nara Bepro is reinvested into the company, such as human resources increasing the number of employees from 7 to 15. Furthermore, from the company’s profit, it can fund the Nara Kreatif Foundation.

Social and environmental benefit

This innovation has helped companies to reduce their waste and even converted into more value-added products such as paper boxes, wallpapers, fashion products, organic fertilizers and waste bank.

From the society’s point of view, this creates employment opportunities. For plastic waste management, it impacts 10 housewives in Cigudeg Bogor whom work on conversion of plastic bags into pouches. For organic waste management, it impacts 10 farmers who received organic fertilizer and grow the paddies to sell to the company.

The profits made at Nara BePro, besides being invested in the company’s future development, are also used for funding education for children.

Interview

Nezatullah Ramadhan, CEO of Nara Bepro