Eco-engineers of sustainable developments
We are proud that our work has been able to reduce the impact of development of our beautiful island home, and that our clients have also become advocates for sustainable design.
Tell us your story – how did you get here?
Growing up in Bali in the 80s and 90s, we were blessed by the island’s beauty; a natural playground that swept from the fisherman-lined shores, spanning rice terraces, up to the holy heights of Mount Agung.
After completing University and working in Europe, we (Maitri and Nino) returned to Bali in 2013, back to a home that we did not entirely recognise. Mass tourism had spread across the island, with development and urbanisation swallowing the quiet coastlines and rice fields that used to be cornerstones of our childhood. It was just as Joni Mitchell said, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”.
Between 2005 and 2010, tourism numbers in Bali had doubled, and by 2014, they tripled. It was clear that Bali had allowed mass tourism through its doors, but local infrastructure and government policies were unprepared. Bali had surpassed its carrying capacity. The environment and local communities were under immense pressure.
So, we started out in 2013 by improving existing properties and saved them between 40-50% of their resources. This made clients interested in implementing sustainable solutions into the construction of new properties. This is where positive impacts can really be made, as environmental-sensitivity and resource-consciousness can be embedded into the design, construction, and operation of developments from the ground up. Mantra was finally founded in 2014 by us: Sean Nino, Maitri Fischer and Wayan Lam.
Since 2017, Mantra has helped start new projects with sustainability at its core. For us, this opens up the potential to implement innovative technologies, analyses and systems, such as: renewable energy systems, off-grid hybrid energy systems, efficient hot water systems design, rainwater harvesting, storm water recharging, green building certification, building envelope heat gain analysis, waste management systems and sustainable infrastructure design.
Our Environmentally Sustainable Design ESD service has become a holistic design consulting package that brings together all of our experience and expertise, integrating our knowledge of environmental systems design, engineering, green building certification, efficiency audits and retrofitting. Our approach and design framework makes sustainable development accessible and achievable to leaders who have a desire to create regenerative and net zero projects for a better future. Our principles of ESD ensure that sustainability is prioritised, cost effective, budgeted for, properly engineered, and successfully built into any new development.
What accomplishment are you most proud of?
From our humble beginnings of research and audits, to optimising and improving building engineering systems, we have cultivated in-depth knowledge of what is needed for future-focused destinations. Our Environmentally Sustainable Design ESD services are the culmination of our experiences over many projects, creating what we believe is an incredibly comprehensive and effective approach to environmentally-friendly development.
Our work has shown to reduce water and energy consumption by 40%, and waste-to-landfill by 90%. We are now developing net-zero energy buildings, carbon neutral construction, zero-groundwater buildings and more. We are proud that our work has been able to reduce the impact of development of our beautiful island home, and that our clients have also become advocates for sustainable design.
What impact have you made in Bali?
We did our last environmental impact tally in 2021, and these are the direct impact savings from Mantra Engineered properties since 2015, which is when we started keeping an annual tally:
Electricity savings: 58,379,128 kWh
Water savings: 1,603,294,000 litres
Financial savings: USD 7,792,886
Carbon reduction: 66,259 tonnes of CO2e
Materials recycled: 6,710 tonnes
In 2018, we started an NGO that builds MRF Material Recovery Facilities, and we have now grown a team capable of growing more facilities and village partnerships by themselves. By 2022, the combined facilities that we helped build around the region of Gianyar, Bali had recycled 24,747 tonnes – this is equivalent to the waste that Jakarta’s entire city produces in 4 days.
What does the future look like for you?
From the stand point of an environmental design and engineering company in Bali, we see that our climate and weather is changing in a way that will increase the frequency of large-scale storms and floods and longer periods of drought. At the same time, an increasing population density leading to excessive ground water extraction, waste production, air pollution, traffic and too much uncontrolled construction.
Bali and Java continue to face the threat of massive over development. The combined crisis will bring many challenges.
In the future, we need to put more of our collective time and energy into building transparency and partnerships between environmental monitoring and environmental protection programmes. We continue to believe that Bali will revolutionise the idea of environmental management and governance and that the world will follow the island’s footsteps in its innovative ways of managing its environment.
What do you love most about Bali?
Weekend getaways. Either in the cold mountains where we can drink hot chocolate and snuggle up in cosy clothes, or beach getaways around the Bukit.
What does being sustainable mean to you?
At Mantra, we understand sustainability and environmental sustainability as a precautionary principle. That means we see and understand there is future risk of the environment and society running into many problems (groundwater, biodiversity, climate, energy, waste) and we intended to prevent something unpleasant or dangerous from happening.
We ask our clients and partners to become visionaries, leaders and change makers, and to take responsibility and to help carry the burden of this future risk.
Once we accept this responsibility and accept the fact that there is an actual and very real environmental crisis, as well as the fact that there is conclusive proof that our ground water is running out, our landfills are over capacity, our air pollution levels are high, our beaches are eroding and our ocean is full of plastic, and that the climate and weather is changing, then we can make quick progress and a direct impact, and work on direct solutions.
Unfortunately, we are wasting most of our precious and short time and energy on arguing what the actual environmental problems are, and what the healthy and sustainable historical level was. Sustainability as a precautionary principle requires us to agree on the risks and problems as a collective and it requires visionary leaders to take responsibility and to help carry and communicate the burden of those risks.
Who is your Local Legend and why?
Sayan Gulino the owner and CEO of Waterbom Bali – he runs the most sustainable waterpark in the world. Also Arief Rabik – the bamboo forestry advocate working on building 1000 bamboo villages across Indonesia.
Both of them have always served as an inspiration to us and have been part of our journey since the very beginning when we started our company.