Meet Dininda and Irvan, Joining Forces For the Environment
In a previous article, we interviewed Mary-Lou to understand what was Citizen Day at L’Oréal and what was her job concretely, and also Andrea, who organized L’Oréal Peru Citizen Day to help local communities. In Indonesia, the L’Oréal Factory (led by Dininda) and the L’Oréal Head Office (led by Irvan) coordinated their Citizen Day efforts in order to have the biggest local impact as possible.
Hi Dininda, what did the Factory employees do for Citizen Day 2019?
We went to Pantai Bahagia (the name translates to Joyful Beach) in Muara Gembong, Bekasi to plant 5,000 mangrove trees. Muara Gembong is located at the downstream of Citarum River. It used to be the world’s dirtiest river. The Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry stated that Pantai Bahagia in Muara Gembong had been suffering from heavy erosion since 2008. More than 3km of their coastline has been eroded, and houses are constantly being evacuated. It was necessary to create a greenbelt…how to do this? By planting 5,000 mangroves along the shorelines!
50 employees participated and we planted 5,000 mangrove seedlings together with local farmers. We also put into place a protection program for the mangrove trees that were planted.
What are your main challenges as an organizer?
Since the location was almost 1.5 hours away by car, followed by a 30-minute boat ride from our factory, and the activity for the event required a good deal of physical activity, we were unable to get as many participants as we would have liked. We had 50 participants, but they were enthusiastic and we made sure they were ready for the activities.
What are you the proudest of?
was definitely feeling proud when all of the participants went on to grapple in the slippery and muddy soil to plant the trees themselves to give these salt-tolerant trees a chance to grow. At the end of the day, the local community bid us farewell and sent us back with a gift from their village: a package of sweets, chips and syrups made of mangrove fruits and leaf. We went home, hoping that the deeds we had done would restore the essence of the beach that had been lost for years: The Joyful Beach.
What is your best memory?
My best memory would be hanging out with local citizens, working with them as a great team to restore their land! Also we received responses from the participants that this Citizen Day was completely bold and out of the ordinary… and they felt really good after doing so much!
Hi Irvan, what action did you organize this year for the citizen day of head office employees?
Knowing that the environment is a crucial issue, the Head Office team decided to go to Taman Wisata Alam Mangrove, Pantai Indah Kapuk because it’s the last mangrove forest in Jakarta. Mangroves help to prevent abrasion, and it is a natural filter for trash and also serves as a natural habitat for fish. So the action was to plant mangroves and to create mangrove seeds.
Almost 300 Head Office employees joined to create 600 seeds and plant 100 mangroves. We also cleaned up the forest & donated some tools to help plant mangroves. We created 10 “bronjong” (a support tool for mangrove seeds so it could stand the wave of the sea when it’s planted) and donated the mold to create more “bronjong”.
What are your main challenges as an organizer?
Since it is mangrove, we have to go down in the water (probably 1m deep) to plant them, so I was worried that few employees would want to participate. Luckily we had 30 employees, including our Country Manager, who were willing to go down in the water and plant mangroves!
The number of registrants increases every year and the feedback from the employees are also improving each year. They understand the purpose of the event, their contribution, and they really support it, simply because they know it’s for a very good purpose.
What are you the proudest of?
I love listening to employees after the event, when they say that it was a good experience for them, knowing that they probably would not be able to gain this kind of experience if they didn’t work at L’Oréal!
What is your best memory of Citizen Day?
For the 2019 edition, I would like to say that my best memory is to see the happy faces of L’Oréal Indonesia employees, especially the group of people who went into the water to plant the mangroves!
They discovered the location thanks to this project, and it’s such a nice forest. They all plan to come back one day to see the forest that they have helped protect.
The happy faces and the positive feedback from employees, those are my best memories overall. It’s a really great opportunity to give our employees a memorable experience and the best memories while helping out the community.
Are you inspired by L’Oréal’s Citizen Day initiatives and want to join in on the commitment? Join our teams over the world!
