Sustainability ReportEcoWorld EcoFestival by Biji-biji

Initiative

IndexNo.

Title Page

1. Foreword 32. Project Brief 4-53. Sustainability Indicators 6-74. Sustainable Economy 8-95. Waste Materials: Purchased 96. Local Procurement 107. Employment 118. Social Impact Generated 12-209. Raising Awareness 1310. Skills Sharing 1411. Gender Equality 15-1612. Open Source Development 17-2013. Environmental Gains 21-2514. Waste Materials Upcycled 22-2315. Waste Reduction 2416. Green Technology 2517. Recommendations 26-2718. Project in Review 28-30

Foreword

Juliana Adam WongProject Manager

Being the first of its kind in Malaysia – highlighting upcycling as its main theme, showcasing various forms of ways to lead an environmentally conscious and sustainable lifestyle, as well as being an event that doesn’t generate as much waste as a normal festival would, the EcoFestival definitely created waves and lived up to its name.

In this Sustainability Report, you will find in-depth reports and statistics of different economic, social and environmental elements that are related to the project. This is our way of saying thank you for doing your part in creating a greener and more sustainable way of living.

Overall, we believe that the EcoFestival was a major success, and a great test of collaboration between two entities. We look forward to bigger and greater partnerships with EcoWorld in the near future.

Kudos to all teams involved!

Project Brief

The EcoWorld EcoFestival was held in conjunction with the World Environment Day celebrations, and was held in 3 different regions in Malaysia: Penang, Johor and Kuala Lumpur. The EcoFestival showcased a variety of different elements related to the environment and sustainable living, through different engaging activities such as educational talks, a wholesome bazaar, waste art installations and upcycled furniture showcases.  The talks were conducted by prominent speakers in the field of green living, and touched on sustainable neighborhood building as a whole, to how individual households can create an ecological and economical living environments. The bazaar, on the other hand, exposed the audience to various environmental-related organizations that touches on different aspects, including agriculture, well-being and lifestyle.

The overall ambience of the EcoFestival was of an upcycled theme, where Biji-biji Initiative produced furniture out of waste materials. This includes building from used plastic bottles, pallet wood, oil drums, discarded metal pipes, tree logs, and bamboo poles.

Project Brief

Additionally, Biji-biji Initiative’s open-source concept and principles of alternative energy generation were also on display through an aqua phonic installation, singing plants installation, and also bicycle-powered lighting and juicer installations.

There was also a waste-art installation, the Tree of Life, which was made utilizing broken bicycle rims, plastic bottles and metal off-cuts. The Tree of Life is set as a permanent feature in EcoSky, Kuala Lumpur, where it is attached to a bicycle-generator that powers up LED lights hanging from the tree.

Used plastic bottles filled with colored water makes up the Tree of Life

Sustainability Indicators

EconomicLocal ProcurementPercentage of materials sourced from local and international suppliers

 

Fair wagesHow many times more is the wage earned by permanent staff compared to minimum wage

Social InclusionTotal amount of money channeled to community-in-needs through employment

TransparencyAdherence to the Biji-biji Initiative Financial Model

Our Sustainability Indicators are used in designing sustainable solutions. They structure and enhance sustainable impacts generated by engaging with Biji-biji Initiative. The chart below summarizes social, environmental and economic indicators that we used to measure our success in delivering EcoWorld EcoFestival.

SocialCommunity EngagementHow many individuals or communities were engaged

 

Raise awarenessHow many new people were reached (no. of participants)

Gender EqualityRatio of male and female members engaged by job scope and in decision making roles

Open Source DevelopmentHow many new open source instructables were made and shared

EnvironmentWaste upcycledAmount of waste, renewables, recyclables and second-hand materials incorporated

Waste reducedNew methods and technologies explored to eliminate waste creation

Sustainable ProcurementHow was 1% sustainable procurement budget used

 

Green TechnologyAspects of green technology incorporated (energy efficiency, etc.)

Sustainability Indicators

A Sustainable Economy

Waste Materials

24%

16%48%

7% 5%

Expense by Categories of Materials

Raw Materials Associated Process MaterialsSemi-Manufactured Materials Packaging MaterialsWaste Materials Sustainable Materials

Biodegradable tableware made from fallen Areca Palm leaves were used in the EcoFestival, Since then, we have connected and created business opportunities for the supplier.

30% of the budget was allocated for materials cost. At Biji-biji Initiative, we categorize materials into six different types. In this project, we have incorporated 7% waste materials worth RM 2,400 and 5% sustainable materials worth RM 1,515.

Local Procurement

0%20%40%60%80%

100%

0% 0% 1% 0% 0% 0%

100% 100% 99%

0%

100% 100%

Non-LocalLocal

Percentage of local vs non-local suppliers

Biji-biji Initiative is committed to support the local economy. Thus, we aim to source our supplies from local suppliers. In this project, only 0.88%, that is RM 99.95 worth of materials was sourced from international suppliers. Below is a chart that shows the percentage of local procurement made within Malaysia based on the types of materials sourced. Although stretch tent was bought from South Africa, it wass not accounted for in this graph as the tent is an asset.

Perm

anen

t Staff

Freela

ncers

Volun

teers

Commun

ity-In

-Need

Intern

s0%

20%40%60%80%

100%

InternationalLocal

Percentage of local and international team members

We engage permanent staff, freelancers, volunteers, community-in-need and interns. For permanent staff and freelancers, there is a salary cap of 3-5 times between the highest and lowest earners. For this project, the lowest earner earned 2.2 times above minimum wage whereas the highest earner earned 2.7 above minimum wage. All volunteers engaged were provided an allowance of RM 50.00 per day and free accommodation.

Employment

Social Impact Generated

Biji-biji Initiative engages with various organizations that contribute towards creating a better world through sustainable living. Talks, workshops and bazaar showcase organized saw participation of event attendees. Bazaar showcase was curated to share knowledge and spread awareness on specific aspects of sustainable living.

Raising Awareness

Bazaar Showcase Vendor

Skills shared

1. Eats, Shoots and Roots Growing Food in the City2. Edible Landscapes Building Edible &

Container Gardens3. Wild Asia Rainwater Harvesting4. EcoKnights Sustainable Living

Advocacy5. GrowTong No-Dig Garden Bed

Edges6. Tree Theatre Group Upcycled Puppetry7. Zenxin (Johor) Organic Farm Fresh

Produce8. Samkkya Massage & Health

Products9. I-Cycle Recycling (E-waste)

At workshops, participants were taught to compost, make ecoenzymes, use basic woodworking tools and to grow a garden in a bottle.

Skills Sharing

Workshops Organized Skills shared

Total Number of Participants

1.

Eats, Shoots & Roots

Garden in A Bottle 45

2.

EcoKnights DIY Composting 35

3.

EcoKnights Eco-Enzymes Making

35

4.

Biji-biji Initiative Pallet Box Making 60

Hands-on workshops that are both fun and educational

Gender Equality by Job CategoriesBiji-biji Initiative’s work does concentrate more on building and production. Due to the nature of our social enterprise, our production team does have more male members. However, we provide equal opportunity to all members to explore any task that interests them. We measure our commitment to gender equality through percentage of male and female members engaged by (1) job categories and (2) decision making roles. Below is the data on percentage of male and female members engaged.

0

2

4

6

8

10 Gender by Job Categories

MaleFemale

Gender Equality

Gender EqualityGender Equality In ManagementOur management team consists of 2 women and 6 men, which brings female participation in organizational decision making processes to 25%. In the specificity of your project, a total of 4 females were involved compared to 1 male involved. Their levels of participations are as below:

Organiz

ation

Manag

emen

t

Projec

t Man

agem

ent

036

Gender by Level of Participation

FemaleMale

Open Source Open Source DevelopmentThe Biji-biji Initiative is a strong advocate of Open Source principles. Our designs are shared online for non-commercial use, which means the rights to study, change and distribute our designs are open to anyone with non-commercial intentions. This allows the designs to be constantly improved, and for us to further develop our building techniques by making new prototypes. By trying to spread good ideas instead of protecting them, we can innovate efficiently and effectively.

We will be publishing the open source designs we developed through your engagement on our website.. Below is one of the products we developed in conjunction with EcoWorld EcoFestival.

Wire Mesh Furniture

Singing Garden installation always leaves people in awe

Open Source We also use Open Source Designs shared online to develop our products. For all the products below, instructables are available online at http://www.instructables.com/

The Singing Garden and Singing Pool Installations are developed together with GeoCyclab, a collaboration between Fanch Dodeur and Barth Peron of France, who were cycling across the world sharing Open Source Technology.

Open Source

Making the water dance at the Singing Pool Installation

Bicycle powered lights that showcases renewable energy generation

Open Source

Keeping active, and using renewable energy to produce juice!

Here are the links where we found our inspirations at:

Singing Plant http://www.instructables.com/id/Singing-plant-Make-your-plant-sing-with-Arduino-/

Bicycle Blender & Bicucle Powered Lightshttp://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Build-A-Bicycle-Generator/

Aquaphonics Table http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Sound-Come-Alive-Cymatics/

Environmental Gains

Functional upcycled furniture that highlights creativity and sustainability

Waste MaterialsWe incorporate waste, renewable, second-hand and sustainable materials. We measure the amount of waste we have upcycled in meeting your engagement needs. Intentionally, we prevent creating more waste that could have been generated if we were to use conventional methods. Below is a chart that shows the amount of waste upcycled:

No. Waste Materials Upcycle Total Amount1. Pallet wood

Bought from a supplier1140 pieces

2. Bamboo PolesBought from a supplier

46 poles

3. Recycled TimberScavanged from the streets

6 pieces

4. Broken Bicycle WheelsReceived from a suppllier

20 pieces

5. Diesel DrumsBought from a supplier

20 pieces

6. 0.5ℓ plastic bottles Received from EcoWorld

450 bottles

7. Scrap MetalSourced from our own Workshop

60 kilograms

For EcoWorld EcoFestival, our production experts built furniture from bamboo poles, discarded logs, pallet woods and diesel drums. These materials were incorporated into our electronic installations to create more sustainable electronic products.

Waste Materials

Our signatory art installation, Tree of Life was made from EcoWorld’s own water bottles and bicycle wheels. We also made pedal-powered blender from discarded bicycles.

Waste Reduction Strategies Explored

• No use of plastic and polystyrene at EcoTropics-Masai, Johor and EcoSky-Kuala Lumpur as plates and cutlery made from fallen Areca palm leaves were used.

• Bags provided to vendor for their product distribution were made from tapioca-starch and thus, are biodegradable.

• There was also a ban on the usage of cup lids and straws.

• Some of the sawdust generated from the furniture builds was incorporated into table designs.

• Our production processes ensured least waste generation in fulfilling your order requirements.

Transparency Note!

• Our efforts to provide biodegradable cups were not successful, as we could not find a supplier that would cater to a small order value.

Waste Reduction

Green Technology ExploredRenewable energy installations namely human-powered lights and human-powered juicer were featured at the EcoFestival. These were built using discarded bicycles, hooked to generators that transforms kinetic energy, produced by human movements, into electric energy.

A total amount of 330 juices were sold at three locations altogether. 4,800 watts of energy is needed to produce 1 cup of juice. In total, 1,58 Megawatts(MW) of energy was produced using human-power which reduced electrical consumption from the power grid. At one instant, 1..5MW of energy can power 1,500 homes.

Green Technology

RecommendationsAs curators of EcoWorld EcoFestival, we have a few recommendations on how future engagements could be made better.

Engagement with vendors• Early and continuous engagement with

vendors are crucial in ensuring implementation of all initiatives identified. For example, food vendors at EcoMacalister, Penang used styrofoam and plastic packaging.

Soy-Ink Printing• Banners and infographics printed in

conjunction with EcoWorld EcoFestival used conventional printing methods. We suggest use of soy-ink for future printing works and to use sustainable materials to print banners and infographics on.

• Digital billboards are another option as well.

RecommendationsMore recommendations for your consideration:

Laser shows• Lighting laser shows are a very impressive

way to impress and wow guests at night. They leave a much less negative impact on the environment as compared to fireworks and other forms of entertainment whilst providing the same desired effect.

More Recycling & Composting Bins• Waste generated was not separated at

source. Providing recycling, composting and garbage bins with clear label would have added much value to the total experience.

Bottled Water• Most obvious waste generated at all three

locations was EcoWorld’s complimentary water bottles. Water rejuvenating stations would be a better and more sustainable option.

Music buskers keeping the mood lively

The Singing Garden installation that always leaves people in awe.

Great fun for any age!

Upcycled furniture made from waste materials