KINETIK Sweef Fellows Case Study: Alner
In this Fellow Case Study, we spotlight Alner ,an Indonesian social enterprise co-founded by Bintang Ekananda, making everyday essentials more accessible without the waste of single-use packaging. Through its returnable and refillable container model, Alner works with local warungs to bring reuse into everyday shopping, while creating new opportunities for sellers and helping FMCG brands move towards more circular distribution.
Working alongside the Electric Wheel team, including I Gusti Ngurah Putra Darmagita, we focused on the practical systems the company needed to turn its community-led work into a stronger foundation for growth. Through tailored technical assistance, Electric Wheel launched its first professional website, explored workshops as a new revenue stream, introduced a public grievance mechanism, and more than quadrupled its Gender ROI™ score to 3.92. These changes show how commercial infrastructure and responsible business practices can grow together, helping a small enterprise build greater visibility, trust, and accountability.
Alner’s Fellowship journey shows how targeted support can help a promising model move from early traction towards more resilient, measurable growth. Through tailored technical assistance, Bintang and the wider Alner team strengthened their B2B strategy, formalised inclusive business practices, and completed their first third-party validated Life Cycle Assessment. The findings helped the company identify logistics as its biggest emissions hotspot and move to electric motorcycle delivery, while its containers have been reused up to 13 times, demonstrating the potential of its model to reduce waste at scale.
Alner’s progress has also been supported by a wider ecosystem. Recognition through initiatives such as the ADB Healthy Oceans Technology Innovation Challenge and IKEA Social Entrepreneurship Accelerator helped validate its model, while the KINETIK Sweef internship placement strengthened team capacity as the business grew. Together, these experiences show the value of ecosystem collaboration in helping green enterprises build for scale.
Looking ahead, Alner is expanding its reuse model across Indonesia while exploring lower-emission operations and new FMCG partnerships. Its journey shows that scaling a circular business takes more than increasing reuse; it requires the right systems, partnerships, and capabilities to make the model work for businesses, communities, and the environment.
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