Ecobricks are simple, collaboration powered technology that enable companies like Ubud Raw to manage their plastic, connect with their staff and community and inspire deep plastic transition.

Ubud Raw is a small company in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia that is reknown for its astoundingly rich raw organic chocolate.  After joining the Global Ecobrick Alliance (GEA) Catalyst Program in 2018, the company has turned the same mind-fullness that created its revolutionary chocolate, to its company plastic transition.  Through yearly ecobrick trainings, Ubud Raw strives to bring all its staff, from managers to chefs, from drivers to the president, on the same level of plastic consciousness.  This ensures that the whole team is deeply in sync with the company’s green goals. 

Each week, Ubud Raw’s employees pack the plastic that they couldn’t avoid.  Each month uses their Catalyst account to log their monthly plastic generation to make sure they are on track with their green goals.   And each year, the company undertakes an ecobrick building project!  In 2019, they used their ecobricks to make modular tables and chairs for their staff’s sitting area.  In 2020,  they used over 200 ecobricks to build an earthen wall for their new factory washroom.  So far, the Ubud Raw team has kept almost 100Kg of plastic out of the Bali biosphere.

Ubud Raw started off the Catalylst Program with an Ecobrick Starter workshop for all its staff on July 2nd, 2018.

Ask anyone in the food business– its almost impossible to avoid using plastic! Everything comes wrapped and secured in plastic.

According to Rolf Gibbs, founder and president of Ubud Raw „We’ve worked with all our suppliers and are continuously looking for every opportunity to reduce the amount of plastic we use, but we’ve still got plastic to deal with.“

This is where Ecobricking and the Catalyst Program come in.  Using their GoBrik Catalyst account, the company is able to track their commitment transition from plastic and goal of being a fully regenerative business.  The plastic that goes out (i.e. their product packaging) they track and tally up.  The plastic that comes in (i.e. the packaging of the raw supplies they need to make chocolate), they ecobrick.

Olivia, the company manager, calculates that each month the company consumes an average of 17kg of plastic (i.e. styrofoam from butter shipments, plastic for cacao shipment bags, wrappers, etc.).  Olivia also estimates that each month the company produces 5kg of plastic in the products that it sells and ships (the packaging for their raw cacao product, etc.).  On average, 5-10Kg of the plastic that comes in, they ecobrick.

With this data they can ensure their plastic transition and make their customers feel even better about buying their chocolate!

After completing an ecobrick, the staff logs it on the GoBrik app.  Through the app, the total plastic packed and all the ecobricks made by Ubud Raw is tracked.  Over the course of the year, the company is able to track their ecobricking vs their plastic generation.  The ratio of ecobricking to net plastic generated is what we call their Plastic Transition Ration (PTR).  The PTR is displayed as a percentage of zero waste.  For the year of 2019, Ubud Raw acheived a PTR of 13.5%  This is an amazing number, consider the waste majority of companies have no PTR at all!

During Covid-19 Ubud Raw’s PTR has skyrocketed above 100% (zero waste)!

But this is just the beginning!  Rolf aims to not only pack all of its produced and consumed plastic, but to inspire even more packing in the community.  Eventually, Ubud Raw will find itself in a position that almost no other company can claim:  they are sequestering more plastic than they produce!  This means a PTR above 100%.

During the Covid-19 period Ubud Raw is making a big push to get on top of its plastic.  See Ubud Raw’s PTR graph above: In April 2020, its staff pushed their monthly PTR to 64%.  In May, at the time of writing, they are on track for an incredible 143%!

What to do with all the ecobrick packed by the company?  In 2019, the company made half a dozen modules with their ecobricks.  In March, 2020, after saving up 200 ecobricks, the company put them to use in a day of collaborative earth building.   Led by GEA earth builders, the staff took the day off to build the final wall for their factories new bathroom.   The wall used earth and ecobrick building techniques to ensure that the ecobricks are effectively sequestered, yet use-able in a decade or two when the factory comes to its end and the wall destroyed.

Ubud Raw put over two hundred ecobricks to use to build an earthen wall for its new factory bathroom. The wall was built in conjunction with a GEA training weekend with all the company staff assisting.

Ubud raw still uses plastic for its packaging– but labels it with the ecobrickable designator icon.

 As required for hygenic reasons, some of its products it packs in plastic materials.  These packages are all labelled with the ecobrickable designator symbol as a conscious and responsible step towards circular packaging design.

Ubud Raw continues to pack and track its plastic and save up for its next big earth and ecobrick building project. 

As the staff return home and share ecobricking with their families and communities, even more plastic will get packed and diverted from the rivers and beaches of Bali. It is important to note, that this additional plastic is being packed as a direct consequence of Ubud Raw’s investment in the focusing and staff training towards plastic transition.  Through our special Catalyst Program software, ecobricks that inspired by Ubud Raw and logged on GoBrik, are directly credited to the company.