Having grown up being exposed to RGE’s operations including spending school holidays immersed in verdant plantations in Pangkalan Kerinci, Riau, the affinity for the businesses that their father RGE Founder and Chairman Sukanto Tanoto established was nurtured early in RGE directors Imelda Tanoto, Belinda Tanoto and Anderson Tanoto.

Bracell, a global leader in high quality specialty pulp produced responsibly and sustainably from plantation wood, made further strides in its sustainability journey as evinced in its latest 2016 Sustainability Report.

On a fine morning in 1967, a gentleman entered the premises of Toko Motor, a spare parts supply shop in Medan, Indonesia. There, he found Sukanto Tanoto, who confidently showed him what the shop had to offer.

Impressed by the fair pricing, the gentleman returned the following week and identified himself as an auditor for a state-owned oil and gas company. He wanted Sukanto Tanoto to supply spare parts to his company.

Through his commitment to competitive pricing, Sukanto Tanoto, who was only 17 at that time, earned his first big break—and sowed the seeds of what would eventually become RGE, whose business groups today hold assets exceeding US $18 billion and collectively employ more than 60,000 employees worldwide.

Supporting entrepreneurship among Asia's family businesses is a topic close to the heart of Tanoto Foundation Founder Sukanto Tanoto.

From his first foray into the world of business 50 years ago in Medan, Indonesia to chairing RGE--a company that manages a group of resource-based manufacturing companies with operations the world over--Sukanto Tanoto's family has been a constant source of support. Today, Sukanto Tanoto's family work alongside a team of dedicated professionals as they take the family's businesses to the next lap.

Employees at RGE and its business groups who have heard Founder & Chairman Sukanto Tanoto in-person are familiar with his refrain that it is not only in the legal licenses obtained from the government that its companies across the world are allowed to operate, but the social license earned by partnering local communities and by uplifting them. This eventually became crystalized in RGE’s 5Cs philosophy.

In this week's edition of Inside RGE, we feature the employees whose photos adorn July to September in our 2017 desktop calendar. These winners have so aptly and lovingly captured 5Cs business philosophy espoused by RGE Founder & Chairman Sukanto Tanoto — Good for Community, Country, Climate, Customer, and Company — in last year’s contest that saw over 500 entries from RGE’s global workforce. 

All three photos were taken by proud Asian Agri employees such as Willam, whose winning entry beautifully captured plantation workers tending to high-yield Topaz seeds. Through the use of cutting-edge technology, Asian Agri has managed to ensure greater sustainability in their practices, which also include a strict no-burn policy and investment in R&D to cultivate the most productive oil palms.