Gojek Strengthens GoGreener Carbon Offset Feature

Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised a US$ 100 million reward for developing the “best” technology that captures carbon dioxide emissions. Gojek and Jejak.in revealed the challenges in developing this technology, one of which is validation.

Founder and CEO of Jejak.in Arfan Arlanda said the company has been providing artificial intelligence (AI) -based carbon emission reduction services since 2018. This startup is engaging business entities to environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Gojek, in collaboration with the Jejak.in startup, released a new feature, namely the GoGreener Carbon Offset in September 2020. Through this feature, Gojek users can calculate the carbon footprint they produce, then convert it to planting a number of trees.

Now in early 2021, Gojek announced that it has added the capabilities of the GoGreener Carbon Offset feature in its application. In addition to absorbing the vehicle’s carbon footprint, users can now calculate the carbon footprint absorption in electronic goods, such as TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and laptops.

“The development of this feature cannot be separated from the high enthusiasm of customers for the GoGreener Carbon Offset feature in the Gojek application,” said Group Head of Sustainability Gojek, Tanah Sullivan in an official statement, Thursday (4/2/2021).

High Enthusiasm from the Community

This enthusiasm, according to Tanah, is evident from the achievement of the tree planter target in less than three months since this feature was launched. In fact, the tree target for the DKI Jakarta area was achieved in just one month.

To note, the GoGreener Carbon Offset feature is also equipped with a monitoring dashboard. Tanah said, the presence of a monitoring dashboard is a form of the importance of transparency for users.

“We believe that in order to develop a new behavior or adopt a new lifestyle, it is necessary to create a process that is transparent and easy to understand,” Tanah added.

Users who want to use the GoGreener Carbon Offset feature can do it directly from the Gojek application. Starting from calculating the carbon footprint, choosing a planting location, to making payments with GoPay.

Adding the Planting Area

Gojek also said that the development of the GoGreener Carbon Offset feature was also supported by the addition of planting areas. Now, there are two new locations in Semarang and Surabaya. In addition, Gojek is also committed to doubling the number of trees planted by consumers in a total of five locations in Indonesia.

This feature itself also received the support of the senior researcher of The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), Dr. Beria Leimona. “The GoGreener Carbon Offset is proof that when executed properly, science accelerated by technology can be stronger in driving change,” said Beria.

All the results of the carbon footprint absorption initiative from the user are also registered with the National Registry System (SRN) which is managed by the Directorate General of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Tree Planting Process

For information, the trees collected from this feature will be planted by conservator partners Gojek and Jejak.in, namely Protect Hutan, an online fundraising platform specifically for forest and environmental conservation. The Protect Forest Team will carry out planting, monitoring tree growth, and a sustainable evaluation report that can be accessed by Gojek users.

Users simply enter the Gojek application, then select the Jejak.in shuffle card from the main page. After that, consumers can calculate the carbon footprint produced every day, and buy trees to absorb carbon footprint. Payments are made via GoPay.

In the first phase, trees will be planted in the Pantai Indah Kapuk Mangrove Ecotourism Area, DKI Jakarta, the Coastal Mangrove Conservation Bedono, Demak, Java, and the Laskar Conservation of the Bontang Mangrove Park National Park, East Kalimantan. Mangrove trees will be planted in these three locations.

“The initial stage is only in the three locations, and this is still in phase I. It will be expanded later,” said GoGreener Carbon Offset Program Manager, Yoanita Simanjuntak.