Part 1: Choice or Survival?
The current strategic planning leading to the “Green Economy” is inevitable. If companies still want to take a stand in the market that is, this was made clear from a survey conducted by PWC between August and September 2012 by which executives from 211 companies in 5 ASEAN countries took part in.
Mr Sira, CEO of PWC Thailand gave his thoughts in the publication “Going Beyond Philanthropy? Pulse-Check on Sustainability” that sustainability will become a key driving factor to strategic decisions made by businesses. From the survey, 81% of companies realize the importance of business sustainability. The survey also revealed that energy and carbon-related costs also act as a key factor to drive changes in strategies to contribute to sustainability of the business community in 5 years’ time.
An example of state enterprises developing into Green Industries from the program “Green Port”.
LamChabung port is advancing into the “Green Port”. Large amounts of investment have been spent with the purpose of creating windmill fields which will be used to generate electricity on an area of 100 rais near LamChaBung port. This project uses wind and solar power to generate electricity and focuses on using alternative energy to support the production of green electricity where possible. This also goes concurrently with another project which focuses on turning LamChaBung port into an environment friendly port which is expected to help save 10-20% of electricity usage.
When developing and constructing a deep sea port, it is vital that research should not only be conducted for the purpose of analyzing profitability. It is crucial that research also be conducted on the environmental effects of such ports. The third project concerning LamChabung focuses on how development and construction could be done to have minimal effects on the ecosystem, the water quality, the air. Such projects were conducted with the objective of creating a high-tech port which is all environmentally sustainable.
For Better Weather
Choose electricity driven machines, such as cranes and forklifts. Support the usage of electric vans, or vans that uses natural gas. Encourage the usage of electricity driven boats, instead of fuel driven boats. Establish a pollution control system which checks the level of pollution released by machines, cars, and boats to maintain a specific threshold.
For Better Water
Water quality will be checked before and after the construction is complete. Especially when drilling, strict enforcement to follow the EIA’s policy will be done to prevent any potential environmental damage. A water treatment plant is also constructed to clean polluted water which may result from activities near the port or from the docking of ships.
For a Sustainable Source of Energy
The design, construction, and managing of buildings must be done whilst keeping a focus on saving energy and sustaining the environment. Usage of environmentally friendly materials is used (materials that can be recycled).
For a Sustainable Environment
Encouragement and policy setting for people to become conscious of the environment and to act on such conscience is vital. The first phase is to design and construct the port according to leadership of energy and environment design (LEED), reduce waste and the usage of paper, recycle objects, train human resources, give information regarding the environmentally friendly port to visitors, check enforcement of policies, and follow up with the progress from different departments.
Case Study: Wind power
The port of Thailand is considered to be another organization which uses large amounts of electricity as it is a key logistics point for Thailand’s seas. To support this organization and at the same time save energy, a large area is devoted to the construction of windmills to focus on alternative energy.
The windmill project will have its beta siteat LamChaBung port. The port has been one of the most electricity consuming organizations since the year 2010, as more than 195 million baht worth of electricity was used with a steady rise of 9.2% in electricity consumption each year. Alternative energy is a good solution to help save energy and to upgrade this port into an environmentally friendly port or as we refer to, the “green port”. The objective of the “green port” is to decrease potential environmental issues and save energy consumption from fossil fuels which is one of the factors that contributes to global warming. This program involved the construction of 84 10 kilowatt windmills. The electricity generated from these windmills will be used to fuel public areas such as lighting on the roads, automatic doors, warehouses, and key office buildings of LamChaBung port.
Mr. Prasert, the Minister of transportation and communication stated that other key objectives are to advertise and communicate learnings to neighboring areas in society, to help save energy and start using alternative energy as a means to create a clean environment. Such developments should not be restricted to only LamChaBung. Carrying out windmill projects to save energy by using alternative energy sources is a leading example of projects which help save the environment, decrease global warming, decrease the use of fossil fuels, and provide a good example to the communities on the uses of alternative energy. Mr. Prasert stated that “the most important thing is to build a good image to the port, by showing respect and responsibility to society, and set a good example by using alternative energy in many aspects. This also befits the policy which encourages the use of alternative energy. This project is said to be able to save as much as 20% of the energy previously used”.
Mr. Virachai, the Associate Dean of engineering at RMUTT stated that 80% of the technology used to develop the windmill is developed in Thailand with the exception of the magnets. As Thailand does not have any policies to make magnets, such items have to be imported from Korea and China. The windmill itself is 18 meters tall with the blades expanding as long as 4 meters and is specifically designed for Thailand. “This windmill is designed to generate electricity from wind levels as low as 2 meters per second, a level that is comparatively very low as most windmills are only able to generate electricity at wind levels that are at 4 to 5 meters per second. The windmill is very light with high durability which is very different from windmills that we would otherwise import. The windmill will work automatically, generating electricity up to the wind speed of 13 meters per second. Beyond this level, the windmill will automatically stop moving to avoid damages that can occur to the blades. The mill will automatically start again when wind levels drop back to normal. Mr Virachai further explained that if the windmills are generating more than 420 volts they will automatically stop as there is a policy stating that windmills could not generate more than 380 volts of energy. Windmills have the life expectancy of 15 years and maintenance is done annually to ensure that the mill is working properly. In the future there are plans to develop windmills to produce 50 kilowatts of electricity at LamChaBung which will be done in the near future. It is believed that after one step there will be another, nonetheless the reasons this project was started was to support and encourage the usage of alternative energy sources.
Captain Attichai, Deputy Director of Port authority of Thailand stated that “this project is able to show the vision and policies of the port authority of Thailand in which we plan to save the environment and use alternative energies to support and help the current energy usage in our modern day life. Usages can be done in buildings, public areas, automatic doors, and warehouses.
Captain Suthinan, Director of LamChaBung stated that “the factor that the port wants to improve the most is the respect and responsibility that we show towards the environment and the decrease in energy consumption that produces pollution. LamChaBung port complies with the research facility to research wind, water, and solar energy. RMUTT considered the most convenient sources of energy when comparing solar and wind power, wind energy is better as solar energy requires a need for a larger area and high maintenance
Our previous goals is to see yields after 8 years however from the past year we have seen promising results”
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