TOWARDS A GREENER THAILAND
Achieving Environmental Sustainability
Thai initiatives offer reasons for optimism
Thai government and private sector green initiatives across the board have gained prominence. Alternative 'clean' energy and conservation top the list. The three Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle - are now commonly known if not universally practiced. For some it is strictly about caring for the environment, but others are joining the green ranks because it can pay.
Thailand has made significant gains in alternative energy use with the government subsidizing solar, wind, small hydro, biogas and other clean energies.
Cities have made great strides cleaning up their air, streets and water with official incentives for doing right, and penalties for doing wrong.
In the past decade, the Board of Investment (BOI) has shifted towards promoting sustainable development, culturally, socially and environmentally based on the Sufficiency Economy philosophy of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX. The BOI Fair in 2011, November 10 – 25, 2011, has the theme Going Green for the Future, and will focus on the environment.
Government agencies have become more involved and private industry more active. For example, after the government decided to subsidize solar power, Thai companies have started building some of the largest solar power plants in the world. These include Natural Energy Development’s 73 megawatt solar plant in Lop Buri. It is due to come on line in 2011 and will power over 70,000 homes.
Bang Chak Petroleum Company is building a 30 megawatt solar plant in Ayutthaya province for early 2012. Bang Chak, with its oil refineries and petrol stations, aims to be a zero global warming company by 2015.
While the main reason for going green is environmental concern, such initiatives undoubtedly improve a company’s image. And they can pay off, too. Twarath Sutabutr, deputy director of the department of alternative energy at the Energy Ministry, said returns on solar projects can reach 12 per cent a year. Investment has been so strong, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) may increase its existing goal of 500 megawatts of solar production by 2020.
The energy sector is leading the green charge, but others are also on the move. In November 2010, the Federation of Thai Industries’ Thailand Institute of Packaging and Recycling Management for a Sustainable Environment launched a campaign to increase recycling. This will run through 2011 and aims to establish a recycling network for the future. The non-profit group hopes to reduce municipal waste by nearly 20 per cent in five years by teaching the three Rs.
Other initiatives include a waste-separation campaign by Sansiri called Siri Green Community at three of their Bangkok property developments. This will raise awareness about what can be recycled and how to dispose of toxic waste.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) has run several campaigns in the past decade to promote recycling, and the public has grown more aware with each one.
Industry feels a new pressure from consumers to address environmental issues and adopt green Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies. They are always a good selling point, but in some cases, such as selling to Europe, they are increasingly required.
Charoen Pokphand Foods, plans to expand the Carbon Footprint label project it started for its chicken rearing to cover about 40 products from 115 farms, it announced in November. The aim is to build a low-carbon economy, said Vice-President Boonpeng Santiwattanatarn, and to secure access to markets that are starting to require it, such as France in mid-2011.
Thai efforts have made it a green leader in the region. It was the first Southeast Asian country to tap solar power when it introduced a 15 megawatt goal during the Eighth National Economic and Development Plan (1997-2001). That included EGAT solar power stations and private homes with solar panels on their roofs. Excess electricity could be sold back to the national power grid.
The Department of Alternative Energy, Development and Efficiency in 2002 introduced subsidies for factories and commercial buildings to install energy conservation measures including heat recovery systems, insulation pipes, and renewable energy programs. This was an energy conservation springboard to cost reductions of 10 to 30 per cent.
Such measures have become much more ambitious in recent years. For example, the Ministry of Energy’s national strategy to promote alternative energy focuses on converting motorists to ethanol, biodiesel and biogas.
Research is making inroads, too, as officials see the long-term payoffs. The National Science and Technology Development Agency is given funds to research existing global technologies, such as solar, and see how they can be improved for various Asian climatic conditions. This all requires people to see the value of long-term green investment.
The government is increasingly active in making industry include environmental protection in their development strategies. The BOI gives maximum incentives, including tax breaks, stream-lined customs procedures and licensing, to green companies that invest in Thailand, says Ajarin Pattanapanchai, its deputy secretary general.
Penalizing polluters is another option, and the cabinet has recently approved draft legislation for a green tax on polluting industries, products and services.
The past decade has seen Bangkok’s environment improve significantly. Natural-gas powered buses have replaced diesel buses belching black clouds of smoke, the electric skytrain quietly zips people around above the traffic, construction sites have been properly wrapped to keep dust levels down, and anti-litter campaigns keep the streets cleaner. Tree planting programmes have literally greened the city.
Governments and companies can feel good about doing right by the environment, but cost payoffs are also a factor. Tesco Lotus started early down the green road with conservation efforts that included removing unnecessary lighting in their stores at minimal cost with immediate savings. More recently they installed solar and wind generation systems at some stores. It’s an effort customers can identify with through good company PR, but it also pays for itself in the medium term. A solar power system on the roof of the Rama I Road store in Bangkok provides about 12.15 per cent of its power needs.
EGAT is collaborating with environmental institutes and private companies on carbon reduction certification for buildings, encouraging owners to use green technology to reduce emissions and giving certificates to those that can cut greenhouse gases by ten per cent.
A Chulalongkorn University architecture professor, Soontorn Boonyatikarn, says green architecture and technologies show great promise which Thailand is beginning to tap. He uses them on his Bangkok home and at the DNA Resort & Spa in Khao Yai. The 35 guest units there were built with recycled material, and designed to fit in with the environment and have minimum impact.
The professor's home produces its own power with solar cells and collects its own water. Even after air-conditioning, lighting and modern appliances it produces a surplus 5 kilowatt-hours per day that is sold on to the grid. He estimates that with three million similar homes, electricity demand would be met and Thailand would not need to build new power plants.
The BMA, with help from HSBC Group, is building the Green Library in Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district using many of the same technologies and heat-reflecting materials on the roof and natural light through double-glazed glass panels. Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra sees it as an example of green architecture that others can follow.
The Thai hospitality industry has been quick to learn the advantages of going green. Hotels, resorts and spas are often on the cutting edge of developments and new technologies.
Anthony Wong, Managing Director Asian Overland Services Tours & Travels, and Secretary, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), says there is growing environmental consciousness in the industry which has created the Green Leaf Award and other initiatives. In addition to the Green Leaf Foundation’s certification programme, which rates hotels on their environmental practices by awarding one to five leafs. Kasikorn Bank and the French Development Agency have meanwhile introduced soft loans to coastal area hotels to improve waste water treatment, solid waste management and energy efficiency in their Green Accommodation Programme.
Thai Airways International (THAI) is the first Asia-Pacific airline to join a carbon offset programme with the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This allows customers who book online to check emission levels of their flight and make financial contributions to officially approved renewable energy projects worldwide.
Wong said many people still think incorrectly that going green is expensive. “It is not if proper planning is done from the beginning,” he says. “It may cost slightly more — between five and fifteen per cent — but this investment can be recouped in say three-to-five years and then the hotels actually begin to make more money.”
He believes further initiatives are needed, including incentives for green building: “These could be special schemes to employ people who are experts in this area, with say tax incentives. Some simple examples that require no incentives are rainwater harvesting, and using solar hot water as well as solar electricity.”
Others who know the situation well say challenges remain, but they can best be addressed with improved co-operation between government agencies and the private sector, and improved longer-term thinking.
Government and industry are the keys to improving care of the environment, but it’s individuals who often lead the way. Everyone can make a difference starting with the three Rs, or in some cases with a new initiative.
Samut Sakhon native Vorapol Dounglomchan, who for decades watched mangrove forest being destroyed around his childhood home, decided to reclaim the coastline a generation of neglect had lost.
Vorapol built bamboo barriers to protect against waves and give the mangrove he replanted time to take root. He then pushed another bamboo barricade into the mud about 50 metres farther out to sea and replanted more mangrove forest behind it.
When this technique worked, the government caught on and turned his local effort into a bigger one. It is a showcase project for local solutions to a local problems.
The next important step is for more people to get involved. From practicing reduce, reuse, recycle as a way of life, to buying clean energy, or volunteering for one of the many habitat-rebuilding projects.
Credit: TAT News (www.tatnews.org)
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