Green Batik Forum: A Step Towards Sustainable Batik Industry in Pekalongan
Innovation and Collaboration for Sustainability of Batik Industry
On 14 November 2022, Bappeda Pekalongan held a forum where many stakeholders were involved in this forum. Green Batik Forum is a forum held by Bappeda Pekalongan aims to gather insights and ideas on how to create a sustainable city through the improvement of the Batik textile industry. Many guests were involved in this forum, including the mayor of Pekalongan City, batik artisans, and many local government officers.
The event was started with the opening remarks from the Mayor of Pekalongan City, Achmad Alf Arslan Djunaid. The event then continued with a sequence of workshops. The first workshop was presented by Dr. Sri Budi Santoso from Dinperinaker Pekalongan, followed by Arief Wicaksono from Kampung Batik Kauman, Zahir Widadi from Batik Kelir, Maghfiroh from Universitas Pekalongan, Arka and Semeru from Bell Society. The speakers highlighted the urgency of starting to convert the production of Batik into more sustainable.
"Hopefully, more people will conduct their own research to preserve ancient/ local wisdom in textile-making and natural-dyeing traditions for future generations," said Zahir Widadi, a batik artisan that uses the natural dye for his batik product.
Lastly, the workshop session ended by the presentation from Dutch Water Authorities about Blue Deal project. Blue Deal program is a collaboration program between the Netherlands and Indonesia that aims to solve water problems in Indonesia. One of their programs is to improve the water quality in Pekalongan city, which is impacted by batik wastewater.
The Steps Toward Green Batik
At the end of the forum, participants were asked to write down their ideas on making Pekalongan city more sustainable for its batik textile industry. The opinions were varied. Some give their input on a more eco-friendly resource and production, and some give input on how the marketing of batik Pekalongan can be profitable and, at the same time, sustainable. Digitalization in marketing the batik product and using natural materials for the batik production were some of the ideas from the participants. From this Green Batik Forum, all stakeholders were asked to work together toward a more sustainable city for Pekalongan.
Written by: The Water Agency/Elvira
