Are ESG conversations in Indonesia just skin deep?

In January this year, President Joko Widodo launched Indonesia’s Green Taxonomy at the 2022 Financial Services Industry Annual Meeting (Pertemuan Tahunan Industri Jasa Keuangan) which looks to classify sustainable financing and investment activities to aid shareholders in Indonesia carry out sustainable economic activities.  The Green Taxonomy is one of the first policies by the nation to encourage the private sector to put green investments as a priority, and incentivise businesses to comply with ESG-related regulations.

Meanwhile, in a report by PwC in 2021, Eddy Rintis, territory senior partner, PwC Indonesia with the fourth-largest population globally and a 67% labour force participation rate, Indonesia is expected to continue to attract investment across industries. He added that technology can play a critical role in helping organisations achieve their ESG ambitions.

“Once a company determines its ESG goals, the identification of related data points will require new data-collection methods. Companies can leverage various technologies – such as geospatial planning, satellite imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles – to generate reliable, verifiable and real-time data for analysis and monitoring. Data analytics can process a high volume of statistics to provide more reliable and useful information,” he shared.

This focus on topics such as ESG and sustainability has also trickled down to the PR industry. H+K Indonesia CEO Marianne Admardatine added that today, more than 50% of the agency’s conversation with clients tends to be surrounding sustainability. One key topic that has taken off for the company is around waste management, and e-waste. “We are tasks to explore any parties or NGO we can collaborate with as part of our clients’ proof point within their CSR program,” she added.

However, despite sustainability being a major topic in the business world in Indonesia for some time, many PR firms have not yet taken the initiative in leading the discussion, Ong Hock Chuan, managing partner of Maverick PR said.  The thought leaders have mainly been the sustainability practitioners and one or two public affairs firms. In recent times, the conversation is also leaning more towards ESG given the push by the Indonesian government in imposing reporting standards.

While this has led to countless webinars and talk around the topic, most of the conversations where communications professional do get involved in revolve around packaging of the reports. Ong added that clients also reach out to agencies such as his to help in strategising CSR and sustainability efforts to receive more exposure in the media, “reflecting the level of understanding of corporations here on the role of PR in sustainability and ESG issues”.

Ong added that despite the discussions, the communications industry in Indonesia still has a rather superficial understanding of sustainability and ESG. As a result, many agencies also end up packaging or marketing the corporation’s sustainability or ESG reports that has been prepared by sustainability specialists. 

Where does the emphasis need to be

More needs to be done to get PR professionals, across all levels, to deepen their understanding of ESG to advice clients on how to get started with ESG, said Ong. Agencies must be able to advice clients on the areas they should commit themselves to, identify key stakeholders and communicating with them in a manner that is authentic and devoid of any traces of greenwashing.

He added that further focus needs to be laid on the fact that sustainability and ESG is not another means to greenwash, but to increase the trust in a company. “Having ESG and sustainability at the core allows the company not only to mitigate risks but to also spot and take advantage of opportunities in a changing environment and social norms,” he said.

Admardatine added that clients also need to be more focused and dedicated towards sustainability and not within the habit in putting all agendas including sustainability into one communication program.

“Many brands don’t realize that they have been doing a lot of sustainability programs due to their sporadic approach. Packed it with other marketing and communications program makes the efforts less noticable and less valuable. I would like to see this habit changed to a more focused and dedicated act,” said Admardatine.

Sje added that the sustainability program should be separate from the regular marketing and communications of the brand itself to see the true impact/results. As such sustainability programmes need to be sustained over longer periods with better focus paid on measurement of the results.

Challenges to the agenda

According to Admardatine the story telling of most sustainability program is still a challenge to many. The usual routine of most pr activities were always surrounding the announcing of the program and the short-term actions, and not many share the results and process regularly nor create a PR campaign to get stakeholders feel the good result from the program and wants to be part of the program (lack of an effective call to action campaign and measurements)

While there is no doubt an increase in the number of brands seeking PR support in the ESG and sustainability space, there remains a lot of work to be done around educating the Indonesian market on the benefits of ESG and building genuine awareness around it, said Joyce Hutapea, market lead - Indonesia, PRecious Communications.

Most companies in Indonesia employing ESG and sustainability communications initiatives today are mostly trying to keep up with what their competitors are doing, and the challenge is for brands and businesses to combine authenticity, consistency and sensitivity.

“Going green is not about being fashionable, but with the greater goal of delivering significant impact in the communities they serve,” said Hutapea. As such, a lot of conversations PRecious is currently having is around providing context and explaining the sensitivity and challenges of genuinely talking about sustainability.

“This is a matter of business ethics rather than quick wins,” she said, adding driving consistent action, and education around the topic continues to be a big challenge.

“At PRecious, we hope we can steer conversations towards how communications can serve as a force that helps industries and ecosystems move in tandem towards promulgating a sustainability mindset,” she added.

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