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I started my climate action journey when I was 13, after my house flooded because of environmental mismanagement in my community. My subsequent work on environmental education was then featured on Asian’s of The Year 2009 from Channel News Asia and acknowledged through a Satyalencana Wirakarya medal from the President of Indonesia. I received a bachelor’s in management at Universitas Airlangga, turning my thesis into heySTARTIC, Artistic Eco-Fashion. The house that was flooded now proudly serves as our workshop and mini gallery. In 2019, I was selected as a Green Ticket winner by UN Foundation, presenting heySTARTIC at the UN Youth Climate Summit.
Vania Santoso - Indonesian, Asia and the Pacific
2020 Winner | Entrepreneur | Indonesian
We mobilize upcycled innovations through heySTARTIC with a focus on accelerating corporate’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and consumer behavior-change. heySTARTIC collects used and rejected packaging in partnership with corporations and stakeholders at the grassroots level and upcycles this waste into beautiful highly saleable products - with many corporations buying finished products back from our handicrafters to be used as their dedicated line of corporate gifts/merchandise. To date we have sold more than 5,000 products and art installations made of waste packaging. Examples include turning cement sacks into artificial leather, sachet packaging into woven textile, milk carton cardboard into lining material, plastic bags into crochet, amongst many other applications. These sustainable fashion products are also available for sale to end-users, along with public workshops to raise people’s awareness. To date heySTARTIC has held over 50 workshops, training over 1000 people in waste issues and has empowered 11 pioneers from underprivileged communities to be crafts (wo)men, resellers or independent sellers, and even facilitators of these workshops - all while more than doubling their monthly income.
Disclaimer:
NOTE: This content was shared online for the 2019 cycle of the Young Champions of the Earth programme and has not been updated. This listing does not constitute any endorsement by nor status with the UN Environment Programme.
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Young Champions of the Earth is a forward-looking prize designed to breathe life into the ambitions of brilliant young environmentalists.