Jakarta, September 2024 – Air quality issues currently still one of the major environmental pollution issues in Indonesia besides plastic waste, food waste, and waste management. Based on the World Air Quality report (IQAir) 2023 released in March 2024, Indonesia is ranked 14th as the country with the highest level of air pollution in the world, with PM2.5 (particulate matter) concentrations reaching 37.1 μg per cubic meter.
Concerned about air quality issues in Indonesia, PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA (Ajinomoto) has Health Provider initiative. Ajinomoto Health Provider is an integrated initiative of Ajinomoto Indonesia Group, which not only include activities in supporting human health but also health for the earth (environment). One of the efforts for health of the earth (environment) from Ajinomoto Health Provider is to actively participate in supporting Nett Zero Emission (NZE) or reducing carbon emissions.
After previously on October 2023 replacing coal with biomass as fuel for boiler machine at factories to make it more environmentally friendly, this time Ajinomoto has added an environmentally friendly instrument by collaborating with PT PLN (Persero) to use certified Renewable Energy (REC).
The start of collaboration between Ajinomoto and PLN was marked by the signing of MoU by Naoto Minemura - President Director of PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA and Faisal Muslim – Vice President Enterprise Solution, PT PLN (Persero) on Thursday (05/09/2024) at the Jakarta Convention Center. According to Samsul Bakhri - Director of PT AJINOMOTO INDONESIA, before using Renewable Energy by PLN, Ajinomoto factories in Mojokerto and Karawang previously had several efforts to reduce the amount of carbon emissions.
"Before this, to reduce the number of carbon emissions, Karawang & Mojokerto factories had used solar panels in several office and production buildings. Then, at the Mojokerto Factory, we have also used biomass as fuel to run the boiler machines in factory. Our total use of renewable energy is still 30%," said Samsul.
"With the use of new certified renewable energy (REC) in collaboration with PLN, our use of EBT to reduce carbon emissions has increased to more than 45%. This is one of the important steps to achieve the company's decarbonization target of 60% by 2030," he continued.
According to Samsul, Ajinomoto Indonesia's contribution to reducing environmental impacts are included in one of the company's initiatives called Ajinomoto Health Provider. Ajinomoto Health Provider is also the term for all Ajinomoto Indonesia employee who equipped with knowledge related to activities that support implementation of healthy lifestyle and activities that support environmental sustainability owned by the Ajinomoto Indonesia Group. Thus, all Ajinomoto Health Providers can share education related to activities that support the implementation of healthy lifestyles and activities that support environmental sustainability.
“In addition to the decarbonization activities mentioned earlier, in the environmental sector, we as Ajinomoto Health Provider also process waste from the MSG product production process into value-added by-products (co-products) such as AJIFOL (foliar fertilizer), AMINA (soil fertilizer), and FML (animal feed supplement), which are useful in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry. Ajinomoto carries out this process as a circular economic practice in order to create an environmentally friendly production process. Then, highlighting the problem of plastic waste management in Indonesia, the amount of which is increasing from year to year. The Ajinomoto Indonesia Group has contributed to overcoming this problem through various steps such as: reducing plastic material in the header part and eliminating inner part plastic in the Masako® Brand, in addition Ajinomoto has also innovated new paper packaging products that can reduce up to 30% of the use of plastic material in AJI-NO-MOTO® MSG products. Not only that, in order to increase active community participation in managing plastic waste, Ajinomoto also collaborates with one of the recycling service platforms to withdraw plastic waste in the Community so as not to pollute the Indonesian sea. We are also open to various forms of collaboration that can help reduce GHG (Greenhouse Gases) with renewable energy," said Samsul.
Through the contribution of Health Provider, Ajinomoto hopes these activities can inspire many parties to carry out other movements aimed at increasing public awareness to implement healthy lifestyle with their family, while continuing to preserve the environment. Ajinomoto is committed to continue create positive contributions to society, by extending the healthy life expectancy of Indonesian families through high-quality products and services, and also creating eco-friendly business. To find out all the efforts of the Ajinomoto Indonesia Group through Health Provider activities and other products and services, the public can visit the Ajinomoto Corporate Website (https://www.ajinomoto.co.id/id/artikel).