IN many meetings and regional forums, Indonesia is often described as “a big market with big challenges”.
Yet throughout 2025, another side of the country is increasingly visible: Indonesia is gradually emerging as an ESG innovation laboratory whose solutions are highly relevant for adoption across Asean.
Here are four technological breakthroughs and business models from the payment, retail, construction and energy sectors.
Cross-border QRIS
Payment standardisation is becoming one of the region’s most strategic agendas, and Indonesia comes with a “ready-made product”, Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) Cross Border.
Bank Indonesia reported that until 1H 2025, QRIS had been used by around 57 million users and 39.3 million merchants, recording more than six billion transactions worth 579 trillion rupiah (RM143.7bil).
A portion of this volume is now driven by the cross-border feature, which allows the same QR code to be read by payment applications from partner countries.
Initial interconnection is already operating in several countries including Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and has recorded a net inflow of transactions, especially from the food and beverage, hotel, restaurant and transportation sectors.
For micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), this means tourists can pay with their home country’s apps without the hassle of manual currency conversion. For regulators, QRIS Cross Border serves as the foundation for digital diplomacy and regional integration of real transactions across the region.
From an Asean perspective, QRIS provides a clear prototype:
> A relatively low-cost QR-based payment rail
> An interoperable design between countries
> The potential for integration with cross-border MSME financing schemes.
If more countries eventually adopt a similar format, it is not impossible that QR codes could become Asean’s “practical currency”, even before any form of a common currency becomes reality.
UCollect at Alfamart
From the retail world, innovation comes in a much simpler yet meaningful form: used cooking oil collection machines (UCollect Box) at Alfamart outlets.
Through a collaboration with environmental startup Noovoleum, Alfamart has placed UCollect machines across its store network.
Consumers bring used cooking oil to the store, pour it into the collection machine and receive cash through e-wallets or points for every litre deposited. In the initial phase, these machines were placed in 10 to 12 outlets in several major cities.
The exchange value for used cooking oil is approximately 6,000 rupiah (RM1.50) per litre and may fluctuate according to market prices.
The collected oil is then processed into value-added products, including feedstock for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), ensuring that the oil truly enters a waste-to-value chain.
From an innovation standpoint, the strength of this model lies in:
> Easily transferable technology – The UCollect machine is a module that can be placed in any retail network across Asean.
> Direct consumer incentive – The public is not only encouraged to “avoid dumping used cooking oil into drains”, but is instead given cash or point rewards.
> Concrete ESG effect – Reducing pollution, opening a supply flow for green energy feedstock and educating households.
For markets also dominated by franchise retail networks like the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam, UCollect offers a circular economy template that is highly adaptable.
ADHI’s ESG roadmap
Public infrastructure is the most visible face of development in Asean, yet it is also one of the largest sources of emissions and waste. In Indonesia, PT Adhi Karya (Persero) Tbk (ADHI) is attempting to address this dilemma in a more systematic way.
The company has launched an ESG roadmap for 2025–2034 as a guide for long-term operations and investment.
The roadmap covers targets for emission reduction, energy efficiency, construction waste management, workplace safety and community engagement around project sites.
ADHI emphasises that ESG is not merely a reporting obligation, but part of a strategy to reduce risks, strengthen reputation and enhance global competitiveness.
In practice, this step is translated into:
> Project designs that are uses materials and energy more efficiently
> More orderly construction waste management
> Selection of suppliers that adhere to environmental and social standards.
For investors and regulators in Asean, ADHI demonstrates that even contractors from local state-owned enterprises can begin to play in the more serious ESG league. If such standards are adopted in the tender requirements for public projects in other countries, the impact could be multi-layered:
> Narrowing the space for environmentally damaging construction practices
> Improving the quality of infrastructure assets
> Opening access to green financing for public projects.
ADHI provides an example of how innovation in the construction sector is not always about new technologies, but also about internal policy design and management systems that can be replicated from one country to another.
Medco and geothermal
In the energy sector, Indonesia is leveraging a trump card unique to the Ring of Fire region: geothermal power. MedcoEnergi is one of the most aggressive yet mature players in ESG management.
Through Medco Power, the company operates and develops several geothermal fields, including the Sarulla geothermal power plant (330 MW) and the Ijen geothermal project, while also exploring other potential areas such as Bonjol and Samosir.
Beyond geothermal, Medco also operates a 25 MWp solar power plant in East Bali and other clean energy projects.
This consistency is reflected in the improvement of MedcoEnergi’s MSCI ESG rating from A to AA, positioning the company among the sustainability leaders in the oil and gas exploration and production industry.
For investors and regional readers, there are two important layers:
> Technology and expertise – Developing geothermal power requires exploration capacity, drilling capabilities and reservoir management that cannot be built overnight. If packaged as a service or partnership, this expertise can be brought to other Asean countries with geothermal potential.
> Energy transition model – A portfolio shifting from pure fossil fuels to a mix of geothermal and solar shows how oil and gas companies can become key players in the transition, not merely parties that are “left behind”.
In the regional context, Medco’s experience proves that renewable energy deep tech is not the sole monopoly of developed countries.
Asean countries on the Ring of Fire, such as the Philippines and parts of Vietnam or Myanmar, have the potential to be the next expansion locations, provided that financing schemes and exploration risk mitigation can be managed collectively.
