The meaning behind relationships for rubbers
[Music]
[Applause]
did you know
that these are balloons
well i’m kidding they’re condoms
did you know what condoms and balloons
have in common
well they are both made from rubber
latex
and did you know where rubber comes from
well it comes from trees have you ever
heard about
organic balloons or debates about
sustainable rubber cultivation
well me neither up to a few years ago
and this
although 14 million hectares
are covered with rubber worldwide that’s
an area
as big as england rubber grows mostly in
the tropics
which is home to the biodiversity hot
spots of our earth
it grows in areas similar to palm oil
so what does all this have to do with me
let me start from the beginning i’m
linda i’m an average young woman
i live in an urban area like meeting
people having fun
traveling long distances and i have a
passion for asia
i studied southeast asian studies and i
speak malay
sayasangat gambira chakapi sini padahari
ini
i like very much speaking here today
so when i was looking for a purposeful
job i came across this company
called einhorn who were looking for
someone
who would find sustainable latex for
them
they said they wanted to produce condoms
made from sustainable latex
and they said they did not want profit
maximization
but reinvesting 50 of profits into fair
sustainability with a vision of giving
something back to the planet and caring
for future generations
so they were looking for someone who
would go to southeast asia for them
because most of the rubber worldwide
grows in southeast asia
well that sounded like me so here i was
when i started my job four and a half
years ago i had a lot to learn
and most of the things i had to learn
were about
rubber rubber is not just in condoms and
balloons
just look down to your feet your souls
rubber baby’s pacifier
rubber you travel by car bicycle bus
tires made from rubber it’s a gigantic
market
rubbers everywhere so i got my trip to
southeast asia and i went to malaysia
and there i learned everything about
rubber and how rubber is grown
for three months i lived next to a
rubber plantation
and i became friends with the people
working there i improved my malay
and among many other things i learned
how to get latex out of a tree
so this is a rubber tree how do you get
latex out of it
it has to be tapped regularly so you
take a tapping knife
and you remove the upper layer of the
bark like ishvaran is doing on this
picture
and then the latex gets collected into a
cup
so this process remains the same for
most of the latex
and the rubber basically most of the
rubber grown worldwide
but i wanted to understand the local
realities better
i wanted to get a deeper insight into
why things were
done on plantations the way they were
done
so this is a rubber tree plantation
can you actually see the empty spaces
between the trees
well once upon a time these areas have
been covered with rainforest
to get those empty spaces glyphosate is
applied
so i was wondering glyphosate really
that was didn’t sound so well to me but
hey wait i was there to build
relationships with the people and in
relationships
you ask questions and you listen so i
asked them
why do you do this why is it important
to you
and the people replied well because it
makes it easier walking from tree to
tree
and this is how a well-managed
plantation is supposed to look like
but really glyphosate that was nothing i
would want to have
near a condom or a baby’s pacifier and
it can’t be healthy for the people
applying it on the fields or
for the animals on the plantations
so i was wondering if it’s just to win
space
can’t we cut the grass and the bushes
between the trees
and by that time we had built a trusting
relationship with a plantation owner
who agreed on hiring a person who would
walk over the plantation to cut grass
and brushes with a machine
well done no chemicals needed and a job
was created
glyphosate kills habitat of animals and
i was very happy
seeing insects had returned after six
months
the soil softer and more moist the water
cleaner
biodiversity coming back to the
plantations
well for a moment i was proud of thought
yes this
is the impact i dreamt of this is how
you make the world a better place
but the story goes on
while i thought rubber cultivation
without chemicals
is the top i came across
i heard about those farmers in thailand
who were doing things differently who
are bringing
back the forest to plantations
to me that sounded like a fairy tale too
good to be true
so i thought let’s go there and i took a
bus over the malaysian thai border to
hatyai
and i visited the farmers and i met them
and i thought crazy there was so much
more to discover
than just how to not use chemicals
together with dr sarah from the local
university i went to visit their fields
and i was simply amazed they have never
even thought about using glyphosate they
didn’t have to
if you see this picture this is a
monoculture plantation
and this is an agroforestry plantation
what i saw in thailand with those
farmers
so again i wanted to understand why are
they doing the things they are doing and
why is it important to them
so i asked them what are
those little houses for and they said
stingless bees which produce a delicious
honey
all around us it was humming and
singing without me being
able to identify where those sounds were
coming from
so they pointed out to me the different
fruit trees which attract insects and
birds
and also the little earthworms in the
ground which make the soil
softer so it can absorb water better
and they also pointed out that the
different
leaf faults the falling leaves of the
different trees cause faster
decomposition
so nutrients go back to the soil and
they don’t need to apply artificial
fertilizers
i asked them what other differences do
you do you see or feel next to compared
to monoculture plantation
and they highlighted it’s more shades
higher humidity cooler microclimate
which were all conditions perfect for
latex
so their way of cultivation resulted in
higher latex yields which means more
latex for the farmers to sell
and not because they’re extracting the
land to the maximum taking out as much
as they can from the soil
but because they see the earth as a
system
which you need to listen to and observe
so yeah you can extract but you also
need to focus on giving back
regenerative agriculture is the term for
this practice
so the farmers and me did the same i
listened to the farmers
the farmers listen to the earth
i was humbled i thought rubber
cultivation without chemicals
was the top and i realized i had
so much more to learn
but this was the sustainable latex i
dreamt of
i wanted to have it for einhorn but
i could not easily buy it these were
farmers not processors
you can imagine fresh latex
like raw milk if you don’t process it
quickly
it turns sour and then it cannot be used
for condom
production anymore except if you wanted
to make cheese out of it but cheese
doesn’t go so well with condoms i guess
so and those farmers have not been
asked for their sustainable latex yet
the rubber market being gigantic
but nobody has asked for their
sustainable latex yet i couldn’t imagine
this but it was the case
so i needed to find someone who would
process the latex
for us a processor so i drove around in
the car for a week
and i visited different latex processors
in the region
pitching our idea of buying these
farmers latex with a premium price
because my initial judgment was i could
only convince
those processors with typical market
benefit arguments
and then i met sudita she’s a latex
processor
and she was very thrilled about the idea
of giving something back to
to the nature and of working together
with the farmers
so i gathered together the dita and the
farmers for a workshop
and i was very nervous they would not
like each other
because by that time i had learned you
can only
create something new and create an
impact
if you build relationships if you
trust the people you’re working with and
if you’re interested in the people
you’re working with
but they clicked they clicked so well
that after a couple of meetings they
created a common vision together
it’s in thai in thailand we have gaga
and michael our local consultants who
facilitated all those workshops and who
helped me translating the thai
words from which you’re reading there
for me so it says
grow trees with love build
security and sustainability planned for
future generations
do you remember what i said at the
beginning about einhorn and their vision
care for future generations and
love spread love maybe i didn’t mention
it but i was
supposed to mention it so
these were the same thoughts we had had
back in berlin in front of our computers
so for us it took us a long time finding
sustainable latex
but with asking thousands of questions
and listening to the people we managed
to get a full
new beginning of the value chain of our
condoms
so today ein condoms
are made from these farmers sustainable
latex we are proud we’ve achieved this
impact together with those farmers who
are now getting a premium price paid for
the great work they do
well what i witnessed in thailand is
still pioneering in sustainability
if you ask me this kind of rubber
cultivation
has to become industry standard
guess what we are planning next i want
to make
this kind of latex available for all the
other companies out there
which care for our planet because
together and together with the team in
thailand we are working on selling it
not only
to einhorn a small startup but to also
to other condom companies
to increase the actual impact because
true
impact only works if it gets big and
contagious
only if you share your knowledge and if
you
create a common vision together you can
make it big
so i would like to share with you
what i think is important everyone can
contribute to
making this world maybe a little better
place
we have to understand the systems we
want to change
if we judge immediately we will not
learn from
and with each other so
look behind the scenes ask questions
be curious build trust in relationships
because the knowledge lies in the people
so ask them and listen to them
and don’t be surprised if the ecosystems
you’re trying to change
already know the answer without you
telling them
and don’t be surprised if the fairy
tales you thought were too good to be
true
become reality thank you
you