Indonesian social commerce startup Evermos has released its first sustainability report, which highlights the company’s approach towards ESG, and also provides insights on the challenges faced by micro entrepreneurs in Indonesia.
In the report, themed “Fostering Local Culture”, the Bandung-based startup outlined as many as 13 impact areas that has been a focus for Evermos since its inception in 2018, but highlighted three in particular which it classified as being “critical priority”. These are sustainable SMEs, inclusive economy and gender equality.
As a platform that offers an array of support services for local brands and a network of resellers, a lot of Evermos’ work involved empowering small, middle and micro enterprises. Other than providing a services for SMEs, the company says it helps facilitate financing for its SME partners, and also provides training sessions to equip them with effective business strategies.
With regard to inclusivity, Evermos reports that its reseller programs are designed to reach people in underserved areas, which encompass communities in tier-5 cities and include bottom of the pyramids and the disadvantaged groups.
On the women empowerment front, Evermos says that the bulk of its over 625,000 resellers are women; and over 81,000 of them have received business training. Its goal, the company says, is to create more female digital microentrepreneurs and help them generate more income and ultimately create a higher level of social impact in Indonesia.
The report, Evermos explains, reflects its efforts to focus on sustainability in areas where it can make the most significant contribution to the economy and society. This comprises consideration of its business operations, stakeholder communications, including its two main value chain stakeholders of SMEs and resellers.
“Our goal is to enhance the productivity of SMEs and local entrepreneurs. Through this report, we wish to convey our existing initiatives, serving as a foundation and baseline for our sustainability endeavors. The impact it has generated is just a glimpse of what we aspire to achieve, motivating us to make an even more profound and extensive impact on the community,” says Evermos co-founder and chief of sustainability, Iqbal Muslimin.
Going forward, the IFC-backed company says its aim will be to operate “in a manner that upholds the triple bottom line” of profit (economic impact), planet (environmental stewardship) and people (community engagement).
To this end, the company will work towards a host of SDG targets, which include empowering women-led SMEs, fostering inclusivity and equal opportunity, advancing circular economy principles, reducing GHG emission, and achieving zero waste to landfill.