Regenerative manufacturing turning bamboo and craftsmanship into a livelihood path. One of several threads in this practice. See the systems-change thesis.
Communities in Desa Ban, East Bali, had spent more than seven years reforesting land damaged by eruptions of the Agung volcano, planting bamboo. By 2016 they had an abundant resource, real craft skills, and no business model to turn either into income.
I arrived in Indonesia in March 2016 to help them find one, working alongside the East Bali Poverty Project.
The problem with the obvious answer
Market research killed the first instinct quickly. Neighbouring markets were saturated with near-identical bamboo products selling at very low prices. Competing there would have meant thin margins and poor wages, which defeats the purpose of a social business.
A viable model needed products with high enough value to pay properly for skilled work. That reframing set the direction for everything after it.
Prototyping and funding the workshop
Research and networks led us to bamboo speakers, prototyped in collaboration with a brand already manufacturing and selling them successfully in the Philippines.
The team needed machinery and a workspace, so we ran a series of fundraising events and a crowdfunding campaign to pay for both.
The campaign succeeded. It financed the workshop and equipment, and it also built strategic partnerships that mattered more than the money.
The pivot that actually worked
The speaker product never consolidated. What emerged instead came through one of those new partnerships: an Indonesian philanthropist who donated machines also arranged for the whole team to be trained in manufacturing bamboo bicycle frames.
Months after I left, having sold their first 40 bikes, the team launched East Bali Bamboo Bikes. Local coverage of the project ran in NOW! Bali.
The product we set out to build was not the product that worked. The value of the six months was the capability left behind: a workshop, trained makers, partnerships, and a business model aimed at margins that could pay decent wages. Those assets outlived the original idea.
My role
- Market research and product innovation
- Bamboo product development and testing
- Campaign and PR management
- Social business model design
- Finance and fundraising
Why it fits this practice
Regenerative projects live or die on whether the economics work for the people doing the work. Bamboo grown to heal volcanic land only becomes regenerative when someone can earn a fair living from it, which is a supply-chain and business-model problem before it is an environmental one. The same reasoning drives the methodology in designing a circular economy from scratch and the fisheries work on circular fishing nets.
If your team is working on regenerative supply chains or community enterprise, our services page explains how we engage.