An Overview Of Our Solution
The project will be intervened at the Cacalan River as the main river in Dusun Pancer (Pancer Village), Banyuwangi, Indonesia. The river is highly polluted due to a large amount of waste being dumped into the river. For the last 2 years, the EcoRanger team at Dusun Pancer has been conducting research in the site and conclude that a behavioural approach is urgently taken. It is the key to reducing the potential for water pollution in the Cacalan river. The target participants in this intervention were 1500 Dusun Pancer residents. There are 2 outputs of this intervention program: increasing residents' behavior in disposing of waste in its place, and increasing residents' participation as customers of waste management centres. The approach will be carried out by several intervention strategies: social influences, information, and material incentives.
- Population Impacted: 1500
- Continent: Asia
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Context Analysis
Cacalan River has been categorized as a heavily polluted river based on Indonesian government regulation. The impact of water pollution from the river significantly affects the surrounding area's environment and productivity. In recent years, the river has experienced silting due to piles of waste and cause flooded residents' houses up to a radius of 4 km. Waste management is the main thing that must be intervened to improve the river water quality. The EcoRanger program has established the only waste management center in the site called SEKOLA. However, 70% of other Dusun Pancer residents still burning waste and throw it into the river. The main factors causing the low service coverage is the limited waste management capacity and the lack of public knowledge in managing waste. By supporting the massive change in people's behavior, it can increase management centres' service coverage to 100% and 0% leakage of waste into the environment, reducing water pollution in the Cacalan River.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
Two technical solutions that are considered the roots of problem:
1, The Resident can dispose the waste in the right place: The current behavior is related to the perception that the river can become landfills for waste disposal. Therefore, changing people's behavior can be started by intervening in their perceptions and knowledge. Increasing knowledge and changing people's perceptions can be done with innovative local wisdom.
2. The Residents are willing to become a member of the SEKOLA: The SEKOLA is an extensive waste management facility managed by EcoRanger and is the only waste management facility in Dusun Pancer. The waste collection system is established to ensure that the household sector's waste can enter the processing facilities and is not scattered in the environment. 70% of the residents currently do not realize the importance of joining these facilities and choose to throw waste into the environment without being processed.
Describe your behavioral intervention.
- Increased residents' behavior in disposing the waste in the right place
The strategy is banner provision containing social influence messages. The concept of social influences messages is social norms and similarity. The social norms consist of descriptive and injunctive norms. The message can describe the waste generation that pollutes the Cacalan river and an appeal for residents to dispose in the right place. Descriptive norms, combined with injective norms, have been shown to increase pro-environmental behavior (Goldstein&Griskevicius, 2018). The similarity consists of using representative photos to accompany the injunctive norm message. Therefore, combining the two social influences concepts is expected to improve people's behavior in disposing of waste in its place.
- Increased residents participation as a SEKOLA member
The first strategy is giving an informational sign that will provide a picture of The SEKOLA waste management system. Previous studies showed that providing information about policies can affect the residents' motivation, perception, cognition, and norms regarding pro-environmental behavior(Fan, 2019). The second strategy is providing free waste transportation services as material incentives. Each new member will be given a service coupon. The strategy of providing economic incentives has successfully been implemented in a pro-environmental context(Xu 2018). The third strategy is providing a notification board as a normative feedback prompt.
Behavioral Levers Utilized
As needed, please explain how you utilized the lever(s) in more detail.
Output 1: Social Influences: The concept chosen is social norms and similarity, which consists of using photos of representatives of citizens to accompany the injunctive norm message. Pictures of residents were chosen so that the intervention target felt close to the banner's issues.
Output 2: Information: The concept chosen is the use of the informational sign, which is a calendar measuring 38x53cm. This technique can be used as a medium together with informational messages. Material Incentives: The concept chosen is the provision of free incentive waste transportation services. The media used in applying incentive techniques is the provision of subscription coupons. The members will be given a service coupon every time they pay a monthly fee. Social Influences: The concept chosen is the use of social norms in the form of normative feedback. This feedback technique encourages behavior by eliminating the discrepancy between the performance and the behavior standard.
Describe your implementation
A baseline study aims to identify the behavioral variables to be intervened, the river's water quality, and identify the waste composition around the Cacalan River. The subsequent baseline study also measured the socio-cultural variables. We will use the planned behavior theory's conceptual framework, modified according to the specific behavior to be intervened. We also conduct mapping by selecting using intervention techniques based on the salient variables that affect the behavioral variables and tested them on a smaller scale. The next stage in preparation for intervention includes an inventory of all equipment, briefing, making monitoring, evaluation, and risk mitigation sheets.
The first intervention that will be carried out is the provision of waste sorting facilities and educational materials. We will carry out monitoring activities every 1 month for 3 months. The monitoring form contains perceptions of educational materials, perceived norms, knowledge of sorting waste, the intention of sorting waste and becoming a member of SEKOLA, and the behavior of sorting waste in the form of self-reports. The second intervention is to encourage residents to become SEKOLA's members. At this stage, we will add a call-to-action effect using a banner that includes a normative feedback message. It is hoped that every citizen who sees it will increase their intention to become SEKOLA's member. The limited literacy skills of Dusun Pancer residents, which may occur, will be assisted by a simple visualization that is easy to grasp. Of course, this visualization will involve citizen representatives in the compilation process. We also offer an incentive promo, a 1-month free service after participating in 10 months of service. The evaluation will be carried out every 6 months. The evaluation form can be in the form of an intervention trip checklist, potential unplanned change, a graph of behavior changes from the monitoring results every month, etc.
Describe the leadership for your solution. Who is leading the implementation?
This project will be led directly by the EcoRanger Program Site Coordinator in Dusun Pancer, Banyuwangi. Over the past 2 years, the EcoRanger site coordinator has managed many project excellently, has received a lot of praise and support from various stakeholders. Site Coordinators are residents representatives who can lead and are close to the Dusun Pancer residents. This is important to ensure that the program development process can prioritize participatory aspects. The Site Coordinator will also recruit a local team in charge of managing activities in the field, approaching the residents, organizing activity points, measuring impacts, and other technical matters. In its implementation, the field team will also work together in implementing all series of projects, especially in strengthening partnerships with potential partners, such as local governments and local communities. Therefore, we, the site coordinator's leadership, can encourage the future of the program well.
Share some of the key partners or stakeholders engaged in your solution development and implementation.
This project's implementation will collaborate with various stakeholders, including government agencies, communities, academics, and business actors. The EcoRanger team, which has been actively operating at the site for 2 years, has connections to all stakeholders and regularly maintains relationships with each sector. The EcoRanger team will also try to strengthen relationships with existing stakeholders and form relationships with stakeholders who have never collaborated.
Several government sectors are currently collaborating with the EcoRanger team to optimize regional authority and regulation of area use, local policies and research, authority, and district waste management policies. Those are South Banyuwangi Public Corporation, Environment Service of Banyuwangi Regency, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Republic Indonesia. Collaboration with local communities is critically important. The existing local community is mostly an environmental community, fishery residents business group, household waste transportation, and waste bank. The community residents will have collaborated with increasing technical involvement in the field. Another vital stakeholder in the private sector is MSME entrepreneurs, hotel owners, restaurant owners, FMCG companies, etc. The private sector stakeholders need to be involved in collaborations and stimulate the development and innovation of behavior change intervention models.
Who adopted the desired behavior(s) and to what degree? Include an explanation of how you measured a change in behavior.
Changes in knowledge, perceptions, beliefs, intentions, and behavior are expected to be fully adopted by the Dusun Pancer residents. This includes the head of the village, youth, and resident leaders. It is hoped that the behavior will continue after this program ends. The key is to prepare a reliable EcoRanger team oriented towards the program's sustainability and development. The EcoRanger team can take advantage of the solopreneur approach in managing waste originating from Dusun Pancer residents who have sorted their waste. The involvement of SEKOLA as a center for education and social business can also encourage more investors and external donors in its operational processes. Therefore, the formation of behavior during the program needs to be measured systematically and credibly. Meanwhile, the involvement behavior as a SEKOLA member will be measured using a list of SEKOLA service members updated every month.
How did you impact water pollution? Please be specific and include measurement methodology where relevant.
At the end of this project, the residents are targeted not to dispose of their waste into the river anymore by making a scheme where waste from settlements is collected and managed in SEKOLA's waste management centre. Reducing the generation of waste entering the river will improve water quality and be measured by water quality analysis, area observation, and residents' interviews. We will compare the final water quality after the intervention with the water quality before the intervention. The improvement of the water quality of the Cacalan River is a measure of the intervention's success. The analytical method carried out was adjusted to Indonesian standards, measuring physical, biological and chemical aspects. It will be carried out 3 (three) times during the project, particularly in the early, intermediate, and final stages. Measurements were carried out several times to see water quality changes before and after the project's intervention.
How has your solution impacted equity challenges (including race, gender, ethnicity, social class/income, or others)?
The proposed solution can solve the challenges of inequity in Dusun Pancer by changing the residents' paradigm towards social status and providing potential employment opportunities for residents affected by discrimination. Currently, in Dusun Pancer, waste management officers are still underestimated because they are not considered an important profession. Moreover, the majority of mothers and females are jobless due to discrimination. It is part of our big goal in building and strengthening the EcoRanger team as a waste management team so that this team becomes a sector that is not underestimated and changes the residents' paradigm that waste management officers have a significant role and are not to be underestimated. Furthermore, the increasing amount of waste collected and managed by the SEKOLA Facility will increase the amount of waste that can be recycled and open up workspace through this project, including women and females.
What were some environmental co-benefits?
The project is also Indonesia's government's goal of dealing with plastic waste in the sea by 70% by 2025. The project also reduces the potential for flooding in the Dusun Pancer area by eliminating the possibility of accumulating garbage in the river and overcoming silting in the Cacalan River. In addition, it decreases the probability of eutrophication in the Cacalan River. The project will also solve the damage to environmental aesthetics and residents' health disruption.
What were some sustainable development co-benefits?
the project will significantly affect the cycle of environmental management, especially ecosystems in water bodies. which support Sustainable Development Goals no. 14: Life Below Water. Furthermore, this intervention is targeted to reduce methane release into the air, which is increasing climate change. This project will reduce the possibility of burning waste and reduce waste going to landfills because it is recycled and support Sustainable Development Goals no. 13: Climate Action.
Sustainability: Describe the economic sustainability of your solution.
This project will run sustainability, whose funding will be supported by government subsidies SEKOLA membership fees, and the waste recycling business model. Increasing the residents' behavior as the primary beneficiaries proposed in this project is sustainable because it will resolve the problem root. With the increased knowledge of the residents in managing waste, it is projected that the service residents at the SEKOLA facility will also increase. As a result, the membership income, and the waste recycling business model will increase and fiscal sustainability. The EcoRanger team also partners with local governments whereby the Village Government can allocate funds to improve SEKOLA services.
Return on investment: How much did it cost to implement these activities? How do your results above compare to this investment?
The investment required in this project is the US $ 24,800. The Greeneration Foundation firmly believes that the returns to be obtained will significantly exceed the proposed investment. This is due to the massive long-term effect and the very guaranteed sustainability scenario mentioned above. Furthermore, the behavior approach is designed with an extraordinary method to ensure long term implementation. The investment includes all costs that are social assessment, water quality assessment, making guidelines, organizing capacity-building workshops, COVID equipment, personal management, opening, and closing dissemination. In doing so, the Greeneration Foundation has budgeted to partner with experts in their fields to ensure maximum results
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
Assessment is a crucial stage for starting an approach, to determine the intervention method. Besides that, the approach will be futile if we cannot implement it sustainably. Therefore, the sustainability scheme must always be considered, especially in funding. Make partnership schemes with local partners, such as communities and local governments. We have successfully implemented to the 20 residents in the same location in Dusun Pancer, 2018-2019 with The Coca-Cola Foundation Indonesia supports this project for US $ 172,129. It formed the existing high skilled EcoRanger team who manages the SEKOLA. At the end of 2019, we have also carried out a similar project, on a smaller scale, in one of the villages in 7 provinces in Indonesia, specifically Jambi, Bengkulu, Riau, Riau Islands, Lampung, Bali, and Lombok. The project received funding support from one of Indonesia's logistics companies, approximately US $ 15,000 per location.