Sustainability Commitment of Kao Indonesia in Realizing Kirei Lifestyle for Indonesian Society

Jakarta, February 21^st, 2025 – Curently waste has become an issue for the environment and life. In Indonesia, national waste generation in 2023 reached 56.63 million tons / year with its management achievements only reached 39.01% or around 22.09 million tons / year, and the remaining 60.99% or 34.54 million tons / year not being managed. This is of course become a problem for the environment and also landfills in Indonesia, where 54.44% (306 areas) of the total are still operated using open dumping system.

Collaboration between various parties is needed to be able to overcoming this waste problem, both from Government, Private Sector, Community and Society. Kao Indonesia as a Private Sector is committed to contributing sustainably through the Company’s ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) strategy, namely Kirei Lifestyle Innovation which is realized in various initiatives implemented from upstream to downstream by paying attention to the impact of environmental sustainability from the process of selecting responsible raw materials to managing the packaging waste of the Company’s products and education and community involvement.

One of the implementations of community-based ESG activities that is being carried out is Kao BERGERAK BISA – Kao Empowers Community Movement Waste Wisely. This program aims to invite society to be directly involved in reducing household waste so that it does not end up in landfills through environmental awareness education, program preparation and Waste Banks empowerment.

In line with the theme of the 2025 National Waste Care Day commemoration, namely Collaboration for a Clean Indonesia, Kao Indonesia throughout its 40 year journey is committed to improving the quality of life of the Indonesian society by providing quality products and services to create Kirei Life where every individual can live a cleaner, healthier, more beautiful daily life and in a sustainable environment.

Wisik Restu as Associate Vice President Legal, Compliance, IR and Corporate Communications at Kao Indonesia said, “Kao BERGERAK BISA program is a concrete manifestation of Kao Indonesia’s community-based ESG strategy. We realize that the participation, awareness and collaboration of all parties is important. This is what drives us to carry out comprehensive and measurable ESG strategy mapping and planning, where the implementation also involves the Company’s key stakeholders, including the community and for this activity waste management partners and the Government. We hope that this program can continue to be well received by the community and be duplicated in other localities.”

Kao BERGERAK BISA program empowers 11 Waste Banks in Cikoko Subdistrict, South Jakarta in a sustainable manner with 3 main activities, namely household waste management education, support for waste management facilities for Waste Banks, as well as a program to seggragate and collect Kao product packaging waste at the Waste Bank. Kao packaging waste that has been collected then is being forwarded to waste management partners to be recycled into tables and chairs which are then handed back to the community through the Cikoko Village.

Besides empowering society, Kao Indonesia also invites school age children to be agents of change in the spirit of Anak KAO BISA (Waste Wisely), part of the Anak KAO (Creative, Active, Optimistic) – Healthy Schools initiative to bring knowledge into practical and care more about the environment through direct practices such as waste seggragating.

In this activity, Kao Indonesia also provides Waste Points in several schools as a pilot project so that children can start practicing wisely waste seggragate through simple things in everyday life by collecting used packaging of Kao products to be recycled by waste management partners into useful objects which are then handed back to the school.

Kao Indonesia has also been continuously inviting the Company’s internal stakeholder to actively contribute to the collection of Kao product packaging waste, calendars and other inorganic waste under Bring Back to Care and Donate campaign since 2020. In 2024, in this campaign there were more than 1,149 kg of calendar waste and Kao product packaging that has been collected and can be prevented from ended up in landfill by being passed on to waste management partners and 100% recycled.