Editor's Note: The post is a guest Blog contributed by Marcus Chan. Marcus, who is 19 this year, most recently helped out at the Global Compact Network Singapore Youth Forum. He is currently a student at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, studying Clean Energy Management.

It was interesting, and impressive, to see how one man’s vision and will was able to transform part of Pangkalan Kerinci into a bustling town, one of the most developed township in the Riau province. The presence of APRIL Group and its subsidiary, Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper, has thoroughly benefitted the local community through the development of critical infrastructure such as schools, housing and healthcare. This truly embraces the founder, Mr. Sukanto Tanoto’s vision of “Good for Community, Good for the Country, Good for the Climate, and Good for the Company”.

APRIL —one of Indonesia’s largest pulp and paper companies – is renowned for its cutting-edge mills that have an annual production capacity of 2.8 million tonnes for pulp and 1.15 million tonnes for paper, but the company is also widely admired for its holistic community-centric initiatives. That APRIL has managed to juggle between its obligations to both the shareholders and stakeholders is a modern-day miracle in itself. 

Having a solid track record in conservation and restoration, a total of 250,000 trees have been conserved under its Restorasi Ekosistem Programme (RER). APRIL has also been at the forefront in the management of forest fires, with its revolutionary work; with the Fire-Free Village Programme and Fire-Free Alliance having received recognition by both the public and private sectors.

Editor's Note: This post is a guest blog, contributed by Rachel Ann Kenyon. Rachel is a 20 year old, who most recently helped out with the GCNS Youth Forum. Rachel is currently a second year student at Singapore University of Social Sciences.

On a breezy Monday morning, a small team of Global Compact Network Singapore (GCNS) volunteers had took a 40-minute flight to the Indonesian island of Riau to visit Pangkalan Kerinci to learn more about the sustainability efforts of APRIL and how companies could help to build and empower the local community. Fresh out of the recent GCNS Youth Forum that had professionals in the field of corporate sustainability sharing how youths could be empowered to effect a change within their companies, some of the participants were presented the prized opportunity to visit one of the leading firms in sustainable operations.

Diabetes is often talked about as a silent killer -- surreptitious, debilitating and sometimes fatal. Furthermore while many suffer from the disease, not everyone suffers in the same way. For some, they are resigned to a lifetime of medicine and insulin injections -- along with high medical bills and a lowered quality of life -- others, meanwhile, suffer from painful complications from the disease. These can include kidney failure, blindness, or even amputation. Diabetes has a high preponderance among Asian populations, but one man is leading the fight against it, with the help of Tanoto Foundation Founder Sukanto Tanoto.

Diabetes: The Insidious Disease

Professor Karl Tryggvason is currently the Tanoto Foundation Professor of Diabetes Research at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore’s only U.S. styled graduate medical school. The Professorship, established through a gift provided by Tanoto Foundation in 2013,  aids Prof. Tryggvason’s work in understanding what has become a pressing issue for the region. As Prof. Tryggvason laments, “Diabetes is increasing everywhere. It is, unfortunately, worse in Asia.”

Sulaiman is a man with both his feet firmly planted on the ground. Every day, he surveys the operations of his coco peat company, which supplies 200 tonnes of the ecologically friendly, bio-degradable and recyclable material derived from the husk of the coconut per month to APRIL's operations in Riau.

Sulaiman's company, Rifky Pratama Sanjaya, today employs 40 staff, spread across Pangkalan Kerinci and Lampung Province, and is an integral part of APRIL's supply chain. Sulaiman's success story as an entrepreneur is one of many supported by the numerous opportunities created by the Indonesian pulp and paper industry, which collectively contributes 6.7 percent of the country's national manufacturing industry gross domestic product (GDP) and US$ 3.9 billion (non-oil export) to the country's exports.

Medicine is a vessel of hope that improves the lives of millions around the world. Yet, ironically, there exists in medical research a "valley of death" i.e., a lag between the lab bench and the commercialisation of a drug. Exacerbating the lag is often a lack of funding integral for the taking of newly-discovered drugs to the marketplace. One expert keen to avoid this pitfall, is Professor Stuart Cook.