Unique Approach to Environment by Tanoto Foundation

The fact that Sukanto Tanoto loves education and environment is something unquestionable. This is evident from various efforts, which Tanoto Foundation has made to encourage the communities in the area, where Royal Golden Eagle companies operate, to maintain and love the environment. The Indonesia richest businessman admits that the love for the environment must be developed since the early age.

Among the environmental stewardship programs managed by the foundation are training sessions, which involve environmental themes, for elementary school students and teachers. The following are two unique approached recently used by the foundation.

Tanoto Foundation Held Doll Puppetry for Environment

Tanoto Foundation recently managed a unique program to increase the community awareness about the environmental sustainability. It held a doll puppetry entitled Ice Cream from Waste for a group that consisted of students and teachers. The puppetry show was a part of Pelita Sekolah Sehat and Pelita Sekolah Ramah Lingkungan (PSS-PSRI) Training managed by the foundation at Batubara Regency, North Sumatra Province and involving 33 teachers.

The puppetry show made use of doll character to deliver different messages related to environment. The show essentially focused on the importance of sorting the waste and providing waste bank. On the other hand, the students from the surrounding areas were involved in sorting the garbage they collected around the area. Then, the money was used to buy ice cream.

Tanoto Foundation Established an Environment-Oriented School

Another unique program managed by Tanoto Foundation to promote environmental sustainability efforts was establishing an environment-oriented elementary school called Global Andalan Elementary School at Pelalawan, Riau. This is the manifestation of how Sukanto Tanoto cares about education in the poverty alleviation efforts. The alternative elementary school is established within the area managed by Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper (RAPP).

Global Andalan is an alternative elementary school, which focuses on three elements, namely, individual approach, holistic approach by involving individual students, family, and teacher, and talent and experience-oriented approach. It was established as an effort for promoting awareness about the environment among the local villagers by means of education. Since most of the surrounding villagers are agricultural labors with low education and low income.

The surrounding environment brings huge opportunities for the surrounding communities. Therefore, Global Andalan Elementary School under the control of Tanoto Foundation encourages the students to be closer to the environment. Therefore, the curriculum is designed to make use of the nature as the main media. It is designed to develop their hard skill to plant vegetables and soft skills in teamwork and helping each other in doing their jobs.