This column celebrates the vision of three long-time Bali expats to help generate more options for sustainability on the island they love. Their deep commitment to the environment is reflected in their lifestyles, products and services.
Little Tree Bali – A Green Building and Lifestyle Centre
Steve Palmer moved here 35 years ago to enjoy the surf, and built a good life around the surf-wear businesses. Living in Kuta he has witnessed the worst of Bali’s uncontrolled and thoughtless development and wanted to give something back to Bali. He decided to create a store where many of the hard-to-find elements of ecologically sound construction and lifestyle could be found.
It was a long slog just to get the building finished. What is now an airy, pleasant space punctuated with bamboo, glass and running water was once a bengkel and then a tropical fish farm. Steve recycled the original building, and finished it with the sustainable materials which the store would later sell. “The building was a steep learning curve,” he recalls. “It was very valuable in terms of finding out what people go through here when they try to make a ‘green’ building. It was hard to find the appropriate builders and materials, but we are nearly there.” Soon a full solar roof array will provide most of the building’s power; solar is becoming more affordable and Little Tree Bali will be selling some interesting units from China. The building has a waste water garden and a 70 cubic metre rainwater catchment tank under the parking lot which provides most of the water. Upstairs is a seminar room for public use, and soon there will be a comprehensive eco-library. In the back is a charming garden café serving Sari Organic’s wholesome fare.
The natural bamboo shelves display a range of sustainable building products not usually available in Bali including safe paints and wood stains, clay wall finishes and natural wood finishes like tung oil, beeswax, linseed oil and pine oil. The store carries a good range of LED and high quality, dimmable, high- end fluorescent lights. There’s also a range of hand-loomed naturally dyed cotton upholstery fabric. Oh yes, and wooden bath tubs (bather not included).
Some of his products are revolutionary for Bali. A fully certified Australian waterproofing product called Metacream uses a membrane technology that lets moisture escape from wood without letting water in. Another product from Sweden sands old wooden floors, capturing the toxic dust in a powerful vacuum system. Speaking of wood, the store offers a range of certified woods and plywoods which carry the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) stamp of approval. This international NGO accredits certification bodies which then use FSC standards to certify the forest management of timber companies, or provide a chain of custody for the timber coming from the certified forest and for reclaimed wood.
One of Little Tree’s most exciting new products is an ozone-friendly, CFC-free, energy saving gas for air conditioners called Hycool HCR-22. The store can replace the gas in your current air conditioning unit or use it to charge a new unit. It is not only cheaper than the usual gas, but Steve tested it in two units in the store and found that it used 22% less energy. This type of gas is not ideal for large, industrial scale air conditioners but it’s perfect for homes and shops. What happens to the standard gas Steve’s staff vacuums out of your air conditioner? It’s compressed into a tank and sent to Jakarta where Holcim Indonesia injects it into a very high temperature cement furnace where it is harmlessly vapourized as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility Program.
Steve’s knowledge about environmentally sustainable products is encyclopaedic. For the past two years has spent hours each night researching products on the internet, and he travels internationally to further his knowledge. Small companies like Little Tree Bali can be catalytic in needling larger stores into offering more green products and services. The website at www.littletreebali.com will soon feature the full range of products. Next time you’re on Sunset Road, drop by for a look. It’s right opposite Rip Curl.
Indonesiaorganic.com – Linking Sustainable Agriculture and Connectivity
What BaliSpirit.com is to holistic Bali, Indonesiaorganic.com is to the burgeoning chemical-free Indonesian agriculture and food industry.
Recent articles in the Jakarta Post cited surveys in Jakarta which indicated that many people are choosing healthier food and drinks, skipping the processed food and digging a little deeper into their pockets to eat organic fruits and vegetables. This is good news for the growing number of producers who are leaving the chemicals on the shelves and growing their vegetables with good old-fashioned compost. But how do they reach this lucrative new market?
The inspiration of Darsi Sawnick, Indonesiaorganic.com is a social entrepreneurial start-up that provides an effective platform for organic farmers, products, cooperatives, distribution, export, projects, retail, restaurants and more. It links Indonesian wholesale producers and retailers with domestic and international buyers in a single, easy-to-navigate format. Banner advertising and summary listings offer low-cost, effective promotional vehicles in Indonesia and the mini-website alternative was designed especially for smaller organizations without the financial resources and expertise to create and manage their own website. At this time, the site is the only national networking tool for organics. Its constantly updated content is relevant to educators, students, project managers, businesses, producers and consumers.
Indonesaiorganic.com especially benefits small organic farmers and producers who need solutions to distribute their products by offering an affordable window to new local and potentially international markets. “Hopefully the site will help small producers form cooperatives and access markets,” Darsi points out. “Small farmers only get profile if someone writes about them. Their lack of skill and experience prevents them from networking. I know that many of the small organic producers in Bali have some support from a foreigner behind them, who hopefully may assist them to have a presence on this website.”
In the course of her research, Darsi found that it was difficult to identify the players. Many of the big producers don’t even have a website. Ironically, although big business may not be taking advantage of the internet, small producers stay in touch with each other with Facebook and hand phones. “There is so much potential here for producers, once they can raise the quality of their produce,” says Darsi. “For example, one international buyer was looking for a supplier for two 40 foot containers of certified ginger every two weeks. I’ve just talked to a woman in Nusa Dua who’s ordering organic rice from Jakarta because she wasn’t aware of Bali producers.”
Although the site has only been up since February, it gets up to 500 page hits a day with an average of four minutes on the site -– a sign that users are taking advantage of the wealth of information to be found there. Check out www. indonesiaorganic.com. And if you happen to know a small organic producer, consider helping him or her move into a larger, more profitable marketplace by sponsoring a listing on the website that is linking the people who will change Indonesia.
Stylish, Sustainable, Beautiful Bamboo
One corner of Little Tree Bali is dedicated to eye-catching examples of locally produced bamboo furniture, flooring and wall materials produced under the Ibuku brand. Once considered a low-end building material, bamboo has become something of a fashion statement. In the hands of talented designers, it can hold its own in any contemporary environment.
Elora Hardy, who recently returned to Bali where she spent the first 14 years of her life, is now creative director of Ibuku. The company designs and builds cutting-edge furniture from several different species of bamboo. Probably Bali’s only design-based sustainable furniture, it makes sophisticated use of bamboo’s structure and shape. Thick bamboo is sliced to reveal its intriguing honeycomb silhouette. Slender strips of bamboo are pinned tightly together with rattan, then polished in a beautiful mosaic as gleaming tabletops. No metal nails or screws are used in the construction.
Bamboo is a member of the grass family, and once it is well established can grow up to a metre a day. This makes it the fastest-growing plant on earth and one of the most sustainable; it can be harvested annually. “It’s not logical to make things that aren’t sustainable,” states Elora. A well-managed clump of bamboo will never need replanting, and makes an excellent income-generating crop for subsistence level farmers living on marginal land. Ibuku sources some of its material from neighbouring farmers’ existing bamboo clumps, and looks forward to buying back petung bamboo from local families participating in a bamboo-planting project. Indonesia has about 120 species of bamboo, some of them quite valuable.
Ibuku has also developed a variety of sliced, split and woven bamboo flooring and wall materials, many borrowing traditional Balinese techniques. Little Tree Bali offers a selection of flooring and two choices of pinned bamboo wall covering.
I ask Steve about his philosophy. Why is he doing this? He mulls over his answer beside the tranquil water garden behind the store. “I guess it’s about trying to do the right thing,” he answered at last. “You can’t go far wrong using that as a standard.”
If only we all would.
Dragons in the Bath, a collection of Ibu Kat’s stories, it is available at Ganesha Books in Ubud and at Biku in Seminyak, and at Periplus bookstores in Bali. It can be ordered nationally and internationally through www.dragonsinthebath.com <http://www.dragonsinthebath.com>
