Here at CLEAR Community we have a great group of trustees using their varied expertise to help us empower communities in Java. Get to know them and see how they support our vision of providing Indonesians with effective waste management solutions and sustainable living practises.
William – Chair
Who I am
I live in London and am a management consultant. I have been married for 17 years and am a proud father of two teenagers.
What I do for CLEAR
I am the Chair of Trustees
Why I joined CLEAR
I joined CLEAR to help make a difference. I particularly liked the community based and ground-up approach that CLEAR uses.
3 Goals for CLEAR
- To attract funding to provide a sustainable future for CLEAR.
- To develop unique and effective interventions.
- Enthuse others about the importance of waste management/solutions to environmental challenges.
What I do in my spare time
I’m a keen climber and cyclist. I love spending time with my family and being among nature.
Trevor – Treasurer
Who I am
I’m retired from a teaching career and as well as being a Trustee of CLEAR Community, I work with local groups supporting refugees who have settled in the UK and refugees abroad through fundraising and collections of goods. I try to cycle as often as I can and I attend classes in Tai Chi and Yoga on a regular basis.
After teaching in the further education sector in the UK I joined Greenwich University as a trainer of teachers until my retirement in 2013. For a period I was a manager in the industrial fasteners industry.
What I do for CLEAR
As well as being Treasurer of CLEAR I currently act in the lead role for Fundraising.
Why I joined CLEAR
My daughter, Chani, founded CLEAR in Indonesia. I came to understand the issues of global plastic pollution and developed a commitment to reducing plastic waste and supporting the environment.
3 Goals for CLEAR
- Continue supporting the spread of local waste banks in Indonesia.
- Expand its supporter base both in the UK and internationally.
- Secure regular funding support to continue its work.
What I do in my spare time
My partner and I try to get away in our campervan when we can. I enjoy spending time with my children and grandchildren. I like to cook and try to make the effort of growing vegetables and doing some gardening. I also try to keep up DIY and have hopes of doing more ‘art’!
Rob – Secretary
Who I am
I try to live locally with an international outlook, whether here in Devon or in Dvokolwako where I lived for 21 years. I’m semi-retired after a varied career in the UK and Eswatini which ranged from peasant farming to shopkeeping, from community development to museum marketing.
What I do for CLEAR
I’m the CLEAR secretary and help organise blogs, newsletters, and social media.
Why I joined CLEAR
I’m a friend of the founder’s family. My interest in environmental issues, international outlook, and charity experience are a great match with CLEAR’s objectives. I was honoured to be invited to contribute towards this exciting project.
Three goals for CLEAR
- Develop a waste management system that can be adapted to village life globally.
- Improve the lives of people in Java.
- Spread the lessons and improve lives far and wide.
What I do in my spare time
I work, walk the land, read, run and cycle between fun with friends and family.
Nemone
Who I am
I’m Nemone, I’m a freelance branding and communications specialist.
What I do for CLEAR
I help CLEAR with communications and I’m currently working on a redesign for the website.
Why I joined CLEAR
I was asked to join CLEAR by Chani, who I’ve known all my life. I’ve always been passionate about the environment and when I heard about the situation in Indonesia I was keen to help out. I have family in Myanmar and it’s a similar situation: a lack of waste infrastructure and education around plastic pollution. With the huge amount of Indonesian coastline, this isn’t just their problem.
3 Goals for CLEAR
I’d love CLEAR to be successful in its mission of spreading ideas, empowering locals and building resilient communities. I think the Waste Bank initiative has so much potential and I’m really excited about the prospect of opening up a refill station.
What I do in my spare time
I live on a cruising solar-powered electric houseboat with my partner and two kids who we home educate, so I don’t have a lot of spare time! Recently I joined my local Zero Hour group to get MPs to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency (CEE) Bill. For me the climate emergency is the most pressing issue of our time and I want to do whatever I can to avert the worst of the fast-approaching disaster, especially as a mother. It’s been good for my mental health – the climate news is so depressing and with so much inaction from our government – “the optimism of the action is better than the pessimism of the thought!”
Brian
Who I am
I live in West Wales, mostly off-grid for water, electricity and heating. I’ve always had a deep interest in sustainability, particularly renewable energy and along with my wife Gwenda, who was also involved with CLEAR, try and live in a way which is comfortable, sensible yet minimises our environmental footprint. Before I retired I was a consulting building service engineer specialising in the design of low energy low environmental impact engineering systems for buildings, infrastructure and master plans for towns and cities. In 2002 I was asked by the UK government to take up a public appointment as one of the 16 members of the Renewables Advisory board tasked with devising a route-map for the UK first to achieve the EU 2020 directive target for renewable energy uptake before achieving the more onerous 2050 Climate Change Act target.
What I do for CLEAR
As a chartered engineer I am very comfortable helping with any technical or academic input required for CLEAR and was very proud to be involved in the Royal Academy of Engineering funded study where CLEAR were asked to work with a leading Indonesian and UK university to study different measures to deal with Indonesian beach plastic pollution, this lead to an interesting conclusion that a well know technology known as pyrolysis could relatively simply convert mixed waste plastic to useable fuel at 80% efficiency with very few negative environmental impacts, we already have the technical answers, what is missing is the political will to use them.
Why I joined CLEAR
To use my technical expertise to help. Indonesia is developing at an astonishing rate and as a nation of hundreds of islands, is still mostly disposing of their waste at sea and as yet has no real waste collection and treatment infrastructure, fine for banana leaf packaging in the past but now terrible for marine plastic pollution leaving Indonesia presently responsible for an estimated 20% of global plastic pollution of the sea.
3 Goals for CLEAR
- Explain to funders throughout the world that in terms of cost benefit, if you are interested in funding measures to reduce marine plastic pollution, money spent in Indonesia saves more plastic pollution than anywhere else.
- Show the people of Indonesia that waste management improves quality of life in many ways.
- Demystify the technical cultural and financial implications of waste management in Indonesia.
What I do in my spare time
I am a director of 2 local Community Energy Benefit Societies involving larger wind turbines and am involved with the Town Council and County Council where I live in developing a community based energy company with sufficient renewable energy generation to make Aberteifi, my local large town zero carbon.
