Building the Foundation for Indonesia’s Green Workforce

Editor: Agnes Sulistya, Tasya Salsabilla K. P. (LCI Team)

As Indonesia moves toward a green economy, the demand for professionals who can measure, manage, and reduce environmental impacts is increasing. Yet professional skills in this area remain fragmented, without a unified national benchmark.

To address this gap, the Ministry of Environment (KLH/BPLH) has initiated the integration of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)–a key method for evaluating resource use, emissions, and waste across the entire value chain of products and services–into the Indonesian National Qualification Framework (Kerangka Kualifikasi Nasional Indonesia/KKNI). By establishing LCA as a national competency standard, Indonesia creates measurable qualifications for training, certification, and professional development. Beyond technical alignment, this step builds a foundation for a green workforce that can meet national priorities and compete internationally.

Agreement through the 2025 Convention

Turning this initiative into practice requires collaboration across sectors. Academic institutions contribute scientific grounding, industries provide practical input, and government agencies set the regulatory framework. A milestone was reached in September 2025, when the KKNI LCA Convention brought stakeholders together to align on a shared framework. It produced several key agreements:

• Defining competency units and learning outcomes for practitioners, reviewers, and executives.

• Using the framework as the basis for National Work Competency Standards (Standar Kompetensi Kerja Nasional Indonesia/ SKKNI) and certification.

• Expanding the role of professional certification bodies (Lembaga Sertifikasi Profesi/ LSPs) to deliver training and assessment.

• Strengthening collaboration between academia, industry, and regulators to align competencies with global sustainability challenges.

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Building Indonesia’s Green Workforce

These agreements lay the groundwork for how LCA will be practiced across Indonesia in the years to come. With LCA formally embedded in KKNI, industries will gain access to professionals with recognized expertise, governments can rely on consistent environmental data, and academic institutions have a clear pathway for developing relevant curricula. 

KKNI was Presented at Life Cycle Management Conference 2025 in Palermo, Italy

This initiative was also presented at the Life Cycle Management (LCM) 2025 Conference by Jessica Hanafi (LCI Founder & Principal). She showcased this initiative on the global stage, underscoring Indonesia’s pioneering role in shaping future competency standards for sustainable industry.

Ultimately, the integration of LCA into KKNI helps Indonesia build a stronger green workforce, supports the adoption of circular practices in industry, and ensures that local professionals are prepared to meet global standards where verified competencies and data-driven sustainability are becoming the norm.

Reference:

• https://kemenlh.go.id/news/detail/terapkan-life-cycle-assessment-lca-sebagai-standar-kompetensi-nasional-klhbplh-siapkan-sdm-hijau-unggul