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Buya Istiqlal and his team at Urban Biologist Bali are at the forefront of transforming organic waste and protecting biodiversity on the Island of Bali, Indonesia.
As a qualified biologist and the founder of Urban Biologist Bali, Buya has developed a successful sustainable business. He offers services such as Urban Compost and Urban Mosquito to Bali’s inhabitants to increase biodiversity in nature and improve soil health on the island. This impact business focuses on solutions addressing primarily SDGs 11 (making cities and human settlements safe, resilient, and sustainable) and 12 (ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns).
“Your food scraps can be really useful, can benefit the environment and benefit people”
After experiencing some career setbacks, Buya realised he could turn his skills into a business simply by harnessing the power of an overlooked resource, organic waste. Now, Urban Biologist Bali collects kitchen and garden waste from the main towns and turns them into valuable fertile compost. His processes are applicable globally, and may even make a great school or community project which can help spread the impact.
Sustainable Business
“As a teenager…put your daily life into something that’s meaningful, don’t waste your time.”
Using similar observation skills, he later realised that what he had learnt about mosquitos as a child in Bali’s natural surroundings inspired him to develop natural solutions in tackling a difficult pest problem in the tropics. His solution is the natural alternative to fogging and pesticides and tackles the issue at its source rather than just its symptoms – a very important component of ensuring any impact business is sustainable.
Building a sustainable impact business requires a profitable strategy, and also the ability to develop solutions based on observation of common problems in nature.
“Without a profit margin, it is not going to be sustainable.”
How exactly can Buya’s inspiring impact business change your lifestyle habits today? Listen in and find out.
Listen on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts or any of your favorite Podcast players.
In this episode you will learn:
- 7:15 How the Urban Compost idea was born
- 12:50 Why an impact business should be profitable
- 14:34 The chemistry behind making organic compost
- 21:50 Environmental project idea for students and schools
- 25.20 Movies about benefits of soil diversity
- 28:10 Mosquitoes vs biodiversity
- 29:40 Identifying mosquito hotspots
- 32:30 Summarising the impact business model
- 35:15 How young people can tackle the world’s problems
Mentioned in this episode:
- Urban Biologist Bali website: https://www.urbanbiologistbali.com/
- Documentaries mentioned in this episode: Fantastic Fungi, Kiss the Ground (all available on Netflix)
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