Impact in Numbers
- To date they have trained 445 women in vocational and entrepreneurial skills through the Liberty Society Foundation
- Created & sold products for over 200+ clients worldwide today
- Raised awareness to 10 million people worldwide of their upcycling corporate waste to corporate souvenirs, while empowering women story
- In 2024, they have: upcycled 4 tonnes of waste, created 5 training centers across Bogor, Tangerang, Jakarta and Manado and reduced 66% average carbon emissions
Key Insights
- Set a solid standard of excellence for your product - not just through outstanding impact, Liberty Society also invests in ensuring their product is of the finest quality. The result - a rejection rate of only 2% that is well above the industry standards
- In sustainability, solutions not only need to be functional and impactful, but also affordable. Liberty Society is constantly evaluating where to invest in production, manufacturing, product marketing, and sales to stay competitive
Berdaya Talk is an initiative that explores the stories of change makers and the initiatives they have developed to support sustainable development in Indonesia. This time, we are joined by Tamara Dewi Gondo Soerijo (Tamara), CEO at Liberty Society and Liberty Society Foundation.
Hi Tamara , can you give us a brief introduction of the journey that you've gone through Liberty Society and what inspired you to start it ?
Liberty Society’s story started five years ago when I encountered a group of Afghan women who were sewing in a refugee organization that I volunteered in.
This inspired us to create Liberty Society, with the goal of using business to lift women out of poverty by creating products that would restore their dignity and purpose.
We started by training and employing these women, and selling their crafts as merchandise to corporate clients. Through this work, these women are now able to earn income. Over time, we’ve expanded our impact and established multiple centers in Jakarta, which we call Houses of Freedom.
Our mission continues to evolve, focusing on empowering women by helping them generate income and support their families, including sending their children to school.
On one hand, you mentioned the corporations that you sell these merchandise to, and on the other, the women - refugees you aim to empower. In the context of a social enterprise, who are your customers, and who are your beneficiaries?
Our beneficiaries are the people we are helping lift out of poverty. While we initially focused on refugee women, we’ve now expanded our reach to include survivors of sex trafficking, teenage dropouts searching for jobs, and women living in poverty, many of these individuals earning less than $2 a day.
On the customer side, we work with those who have access to funds, particularly in CSR and marketing divisions of companies. These companies often seek CSR activations, such as merchandise or workshops, and we help them meet those needs.
The core reason corporates and brands choose to work with us is because we are able to connect them with communities involved in recycling and upcycling, ensuring they are able to procure high quality products while achieving their sustainability goals.
How do you reinvest the profits you earn from your customers back into the communities and your beneficiaries?
This is integrated throughout our supply chain – starting with empowering seamstresses at the upstream of the supply chain and paying them fairly for the products they create.
Additionally, 10% of our proceeds are reinvested, through our sister foundation, Liberty Society Foundation, where we’ve trained 445 women in vocational and entrepreneurial skills.
We also reinvest our earnings to raise awareness and break the stigma surrounding refugee women and women being unable to work . Through showcasing the quality of products they create along with other forms of campaign, we’ve reached 10 million people worldwide.
Our impact is measured in three key areas: increasing income for our beneficiaries, improving sustainability, and enhancing social and emotional skills, including confidence.
Part of Liberty Society’s work involves manufacturing goods, and given that the people you work with come from diverse backgrounds and skill levels, how do you ensure that the products meet the standards of the corporate companies you serve? What types of training do you provide to these communities to maintain quality?
We recently became a certified B Corp Company, and as part of that, we undergo a rigorous supply chain assessment to ensure that the products and materials we source are of high quality.
What’s remarkable is that the women we work with are incredibly resilient – our product rejection rate is less than 2%, which is exceptionally low for the industry. The quality of our products meets international export standards, and we’ve worked with brands like Uniqlo, Columbia Sportswear and H&M.
This reflects the level of detail and the hours of investment we dedicate to training these women. Ultimately, we run this as a business, and we don’t want our clients to see the products as charity items. It’s all about the design, marketing, and maintaining the highest quality standards.
Congratulations on achieveing B-Corp Status! What does this accomplishment mean to you personally, and how does it impact Liberty Society?
We’ve been working towards this for three years, and we’re very grateful to have achieved it. This certification now opens doors for us, making it much easier to enter markets in the US, Australia, and New York.
This marks an exciting beginning for us, as it’s also an opportunity to integrate and implement a recognized standard of excellence into our internal company policies.
One of the interesting challenges of running a social enterprise is balancing impact and profit. How do you approach that balance, and how does Liberty Society navigate this while staying true to its mission?
We operate with a dual structure: a foundation and an LLC. This decision allows us to have separate teams with distinct KPIs – one focused on business and financial metrics, and the other on impact.
This structure ensures that while we meet our financial goals, our impact team isn’t burdened by compromising on their objectives. The separation in teams, structure, and financial tracking helps us stay more focused and effective.
By having this distinction, we’ve been able to attract different types of backers and supporters. When we initially started, I was hiring people with charitable mindsets but limited business experience. However, once I shifted my focus to treating this as a business, I started bringing in more experienced professionals, even at higher salaries. This investment was worthwhile, as it allowed us to scale both our business and impact.
Ultimately, our products and services are ESG-driven, including upcycling workshops, green events, and eco-friendly products. Our success is measured not just by financial performance but also by the number of environmentally friendly initiatives we support.
Liberty Society has been running for five years now. What are some of the challenges you're currently focusing on, and how have those challenges evolved compared to when you first started?
When we initially started, there were not as many other similar organizations in the space, we had to do a lot of education, a lot of outbounds and operational focus – but now we’re starting to see a lot of inbound leads.
Companies also now already establish their own ESG department, where our task is to align ourselves with their mandate and goals team, as opposed to having to help them define the possibilities of their ESG plans.
As a CEO running a social enterprise, there are times when founders need to step back. Is that the case for you at Liberty Society? Do you still actively engage with the beneficiaries, or has your role shifted more towards a more strategic one?
As CEO, my role is to always understand both the needs of the market and the needs of our beneficiaries. Having spent 10 years in community impact development, my thesis is firmly rooted in the belief that vocational training leading to employment is crucial.
As new initiatives like ROBRIES and Precious Plastic emerge, there’s this notion of a shared marketing cost that collectively helps raise awareness and understanding of what we do, which leads to customer acquisition becoming much cheaper and easier.
While I still try to make time to meet with beneficiaries on the weekends, most of my time is spent looking ahead – identifying trends that we can observe in other markets, figuring out what’s relevant and how to localize it here and developing packages that align with consumer demand.
My primary responsibility now is ensuring that we are able to drive the necessary revenue. I’m always exploring how Liberty Society can become an innovative and forward-thinking business in a highly competitive sector and resilient despite various economic conditions.
In sustainability, solutions not only need to be functional and impactful, but also affordable. I’m constantly evaluating where to invest in production, manufacturing, product marketing, and sales to stay competitive, knowing that both good and great ideas require the same marketing dollar.
Meanwhile, my team, especially our growth officers, work directly with our beneficiaries on a day-to-day basis.
What are interesting trends you see in other markets that could potentially be adapted to Indonesia, and how do you plan to tailor them to meet the specific needs of the Indonesian market?
There’s a lot of exciting initiatives like Sustainability Week where we can potentially organize zero-waste events together with our clients. We can create offerings and merchandise that is carbon neutral, upcycles and empowers women – strongly upholding the people-planet aspect.
In terms of localizing it,again, how can you make the price competitive?
What were some of your most memorable experiences running Liberty Society?
It’s personally rewarding for me to be able to show how companies can potentially create circularity within their business.
Take our recent works with Uniqlo for example. When they approached us with the problem of plastics in their stores – we tried to learn their needs, brainstormed with them together and eventually came up with the solution to upcycle these plastics into hangars.
For another project, we upcycled denim off-cuts from their stores into coin pouches, which were given to consumers at store openings. Not only do these initiatives create massive PR for brands, they are also massive in terms of impact.
Our latest campaign with Garuda Indonesia, we upcycled their seat covers to be eco-friendly. This snowballs and other aircraft carriers are now also looking to do the same. There’s a ripple effect created through such initiatives that can not only create win-win solutions for clients, but also inspire others within the wider industry.
What kind of advice would you know to offer someone who's interested in pursuing social entrepreneurship ?
Before starting any initiatives, understand the already existing initiatives around you through research or volunteering.
I didn’t start my own company right away, I volunteered and interned for five years – I traveled the whole Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore to see other social enterprises that existed at that time. Seeing no similar organization that is already doing what I wanted to do, I decided to start my own.
The next is to truly understand the value of collaboration – I think what’s super great about this social entrepreneurship landscape in Indonesia is how collaborative it is.
I actively seek mentorship from the founders of similar organizations, and I still maintain open communication with them. In fact, I openly share my challenges with one of my competitors and often engage in discussions together. This transparency and cooperation are crucial. I’ve noticed that those unwilling to collaborate are often the first to close down.
It’s a sentiment shared by many in this space, and I hope this spirit of collaboration and knowledge sharing continues to inspire others.
What are some exciting trends about the social enterprise landscape in Indonesia that you currently see?
I’m really excited to see that many founders today are young, fresh out of college, and entering accelerators. There are so many grants and mentorship opportunities available now, making it an ideal time to start something.
However, despite the abundance of funding and mentorship, I’d also love to see more innovation and technology in this space.
If people want to learn more about Liberty Society, where can they find you?
Learn more about Liberty Society by clicking their social links below
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