Thammasat Policy on Solid Waste Management is committed to tracking and measuring the amount of waste and its management. In 2019, Thammasat University enacted a Policy on Solid Waste Management to advance the university towards becoming sustainable. The policy provides a direction on systematic and effective waste management within the university and is applied to all parties of the university, from students, staff, store owners, and individuals who perform other activities related to waste creation in the university area.
The item 6 of this policy stresses that “The University will need to be able to track and check the method of waste disposal during waste delivery to the disposal destination to note the amount of each type of waste that has been recycled and the amount of waste that has been taken to landfills, so that the university can appropriately promote activities that help increase waste recycling and reuse waste going to landfills.
The table below shows the amount of waste produced by Thammasat University in 2022. According to the data, the total waste generated in 2022 was 2,369.96 tons, less than that generated in 2021, which was 2,439.6 tons. The amount of recyclable waste in 2022 was 761.96 tons, more than that in 2021, which was 694.6 tons. The proportion of recyclable increased to 32.15 percentage in 2022, from 28.47 percentage in 2021.
In 2022, Thammasat University was still a place for a neutral platform and safe space for discussion and dialogue. Different political stakeholders can come together and discuss challenges. Moreover, the university hosts a platform where sensitive issues in Thai society can be discussed.
Among all faculties, the Faculty of Political Science and the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology were organizing seminars on political and other sensitive issues with diverse panellists.
The next election, what is next for Thailand?: November 17, 2022
This seminar, The next election, what is Next for Thailand?, organized on November 17, was about the prospect of the next election and the future of Thailand. The panellists consist of politicians from liberal and conservative parties. For the liberal parties, the panellists were Nattawut Saikua from the Pheu Thai Party and Parit Watcharasintu from the Move Forward Party. From the conservative parties, the panellists were Suchatchavee Suwansawas from the Democrat Party and Atthawit Suwannaphakdee from the Chart Pattana Kla Party party.
Is violence the answer to Thailand’s political conflict?: October 31, 2022
This seminar, Is violence the answer to Thailand’s political conflict?, organized on October 31, concerns the incidences of violence in Thai politics, for instance, how the government deals with protestors, cyber-bullying towards the supporters of Lese Majeste Law amendment, and the violence towards those filing lawsuits against the liberal parties. The panellists discussed if this is just an individual’s behaviour or a structural and cultural problem in Thai politics and what is the proper way of dealing with and responding to such violence.
The panellists include political science scholars from Thammasat University and political activists.
Pannika Wanich, Former Future Forward MP, and a key member of the Progressive Movement.
Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, a Thai student political activist and university student leader who is also the spokesperson of the Student Union of Thailand.
Ngamsuk Rattanasatian, Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University
Chayanit Poonyarat, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University
Boonlert Visetpricha, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University
In 2022, professors and researchers from Thammasat University participated in many government research projects. As publicized by the Thammasat University Research and Consultancy Institute (TURAC), the topics of research cover the issues of disaster management, reducing road traffic injuries, discount rates for calculating climate mitigation capacity, and telecommunication policy.
Beneficiaries of these research projects include the Department of Mineral Resources, the Department of Highways, the Thailand Greenhouse Gas Management Organization, and the Office of National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.
Research title
Author & Affiliation
Government Department
Link
The 5-Year Geological Hazards Management Action Plan of the Department of Mineral Resources (2023-2027)
Thammasat University has provided outreach, general education, upskilling, and capacity-building to policy and lawmakers on several topics that will contribute to implementing and achieving sustainable development goals and the Paris Accord.
The general education, upskilling, and capacity-building activities organised in 2022 were mainly focused on law for local administration, local administration and smart city, environmental economic research, and Strategic Foresight and Scenario Planning in policy formulation.
These trainings are provided by Faculty of Law, Economics, Social Administration and Architecture and Urban Planning.
On August 30, 2022, the Director-General of the Department of Local Administration and Dean of the Faculty of Social Administration and delegation attended a ceremony to award certificates to the attendants of a training program for local administrative executives. The training program aims to develop the local administrators’ ability to drive their local areas into smart city development in accordance with government policy
The training was organized between August 15-17, 2022 by the cooperation between the National Research Commission of Thailand and Thailand Environmental Institute. The Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, provided a team of instructors for this training. Target group
In 2022, more Thammasat professors were appointed to be in a position or join as committee members in several government entities covering diverse issues, ranging from constitutional law, space policy, gender equality, area-based development policy, forestry, labour affairs, the impact of research, and telecommunication and broadcasting regulation.
At the same time, the professors who were appointed in 2021 (see here) were still in their positions in 2022.
An expert of a working group for outcome and impact evaluation of platforms/programs/projects to which the budget from the Science Research and Innovation fund was allocated.
The Special Affairs Unit (SAU) was officially established in 2021 under the Rangsit Center Administration Division. Its purpose is to be an intermediary between the university and external stakeholders, especially local communities, private sectors, government agencies, and international organizations. It is the university’s mechanism to facilitate and promote collaboration between the university and the stakeholders.
In 2022, SAU main task is to collaborate with stakeholders in Rangsit and Pathum Thani province area and organize outreach activities to promote students’ and people’s well-being. The stakeholders include Rangsit Municipality, Tha Klong Municipality, Pathmthani Provincial Administrative Organization, and the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA).
The Special Affairs Unit is highlighted.
Activities include the following:
See the list of activities taken care of by the SAU, click here.
Sustainable Development Report 2022 was the first edition of the report that includes the assessment of the government’s SDG effort. To create the assessment, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network asked all of its national chapter’s host to collaborate in gathering data on the government SDG’s effort. The output of the collaboration is published in the Sustainable Development Report 2022. Thammasat University, by the SDG Move under the Faculty of Economics, is the national host of SDSN Thailand and was collaborating in the data collection process to produce this result.
National Government Efforts to implement the SDGs Source: Sustainable Development Report 2022, page 38. https://s3.amazonaws.com/sustainabledevelopment.report/2022/2022-sustainable-development-report.pdf
Thailand was classified as a country with moderate SDG commitment. While Thailand has its SDG strategy, the Prime Minister provides statements supporting the SDGs, and an organization (NESDC) is assigned to lead the implementation, it still missed SDGs in the national budget and also lacked the number of national SDG indicators. These issues have improved in the 2023 survey.
Source: Sustainable Development Report 2022, page 48. https://s3.amazonaws.com/sustainabledevelopment.report/2022/2022-sustainable-development-report.pdf
In 2022, Thammasat University initiated and participated in at least two cross-sectoral dialogues specifically on the SDGs.
Thailand Sustainable Development Forum: July 26, 2022
The first event was in Thailand Sustainable Development Forum 2022. SDG Move, Thammasat University was one of the organizers of the event, along with International Health Policy Foundation and SDSN Thailand. The event was held on July 26, 2022 at Pullman King Power Hotel, Bangkok. This event was co-organized, co-hosted and partnered by several academic institutions and international organizations, such as UNDP, World Bank and WHO. It focused on reframing SDGs into more integrated transformation themes, and creating multi-stakeholder platform to explore the underlying driving factors for SDG implementations, using a conceptual framework developed by SDG Move and IHPP, called “System Diagnostic Framework for SDG Implementation”.
The forum consists of several parts. The keynote speeches were given by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, and the President of the National Social and Economic Development Council. The following session was a public forum where public, political, and civil society stakeholders participated. The panellists include the director of the National Institute for Child and Family Department, Mahidol University; the director of Think Forward Center under the Move Forward Party; the deputy director of PMU-B, a research granting agency; the president of the sub-committee on Baan Munkong project and land management, a representative from CSO sector; and secretariate of Bio-Thai Foundation, an NGO.
You can see the quotes and photos from the event in the links below.
2. SDG Move’s Public Seminar on “From SDG washing to SDG enabling”: September 22, 2022
This public seminar was hosted by SDG Move, Thammasat University, and joined by panellists from academic institutions, a social enterprise and a civil society organization, on September 24, 2022, to discuss one of the major concerns on SDGs, the “SDG Washing”. The panellists include the following organizations.
The Managing Director of Sal Forest co,ltd.;
The director of the Northen Development Foundation, an NGO;
The founder of Hand Social Enterprise, a social enterprise tackling the corruption problem.
The panel addressed several examples of SDG washing and tried to identify the causes of such actions. The SDG washing is not only prevalent in the private sector but also in the public sector. A few of them, however, tried to SDG wash. The others are rather unaware of how to implement the SDGs properly. The panel proposed that to avoid the allegation, an organization needs to prioritize an act to reduce harmful consequences from their actions before any other CSR activities.
Thammasat has several initiatives toward promoting and implementing a more sustainable commuting, hence, has set the targets and measures for our achievements throughout the years.
Our commitments and initiatives include:
Manage the public transport system (public bus and motorcycle taxi) to cover the whole area of campus and near by locations.
Provide free EV shuttle bus services connecting from dormitory areas to all university’s faculty and buildings.
Provide EV car rental service stations in Rangsit and Tha Prachan Campus.
Increase EV charging stations around campus area, both in Rangsit and Tha Prachan Campus.
Continue to promote the use of bicycles as non-motorized transport by adding bicycle lanes and increase bike service stations to facilitate commuting around Rangsit Campus.
Promote “Walkable City” campaign to encourage walking in the pedestrians provided when commuting in a short distance.
Reconstruct and improve the pedestrians walk way, especially for the people with disabilities and bicycle lanes to separate and safe from cars and buses.
Implement TU Around application to search and access information on the shuttle bus routes and stations around Thammasat University Rangsit Campus Life @Thammasat Rangsit – Facebook
100% conversion of all free shuttle bus to EV shuttle bus by the end of 2022.
100% of public buses and vans entering the campus as electric vehicles by the end of 2025.
Increase the number of EV charging stations to 10 stations around campus area, both in Rangsit and Tha Prachan Campus by the end of 2025.
Reconstruct and improve ALL of the pedestrians walk way in Rangsit Campus, especially for the people with disabilities and bicycle lanes to separate and safe from cars and buses by the end of 2025.
Track the carbon emissions reduction from implementing these “Smart Energy” projects on a yearly basis.
Reduce carbon emissions through “Smart Energy” projects up to 35,000 tones by the end of 2030.
Bringing clean energy such as solar energy to use inside the building through “Solar Rooftop”, the usage of electricity instead of fossil fuels for “EV Shuttle Bus” and “AnyWheel” bicycle covering all areas of campus can tremendously reduced the amount of carbon emissions at Thammasat University – Rangsit Campus. Starting from 4,238 tons in 2020, with these “Smart Energy” projects, Thammasat University can reduce the amount of carbon emissions up to 21,000 tons per year in 2021. ช่วยการใช้พลังงานไฟฟ้าแทนการใช้เชื้อเพลิงฟอสซิลในการขับเคลื่อนรถ “EV Shuttle Bus”, Solar Rooftop ช่วยโลกลดปริมาณ CO₂ ได้แล้วกว่า 21,000 ตันต่อปี
Free EV Shuttle Bus Services – 100% Conversion by 2022 As one of the services provided for students and staffs who live on-campus and around campus area, Thammasat University provides FREE shuttle bus connecting from dormitory areas to the University’s buildings, food courts, and Thammasat Hospital since 2005. The 10 buses were still using diesel fuel. In 2010, the University has increased the number of buses to 20 buses and converted them into NGV to comply with the “green university” policy as the first steps toward reducing the carbon emissions.
Our commitment and initiatives: Thammasat University had a plan to change all 20 shuttle buses serviced in Rangsit Campus from Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) to be Electric Bus in 2021. At the end of the year 2022, 100% of these shuttle buses were completely migrated to electric buses. The University will also provide electric vehicle charging station where the electricity will come from both solar cell and electricity grid.
Target and measure: The goal was to convert 100% of shuttle buses to service students and staffs on and off-campus to electric buses by the end of 2022. Currently, Thammasat has 25 EV shuttle buses servicing around campus and 10 EV buses to service staffs and students who lived outside campus. By using EV buses, the carbon emission could be reduced up to 617 tons per year.
For more information on EV shuttle bus and electric motorcycle, please visit these websites and facebook.
Bike Sharing for Green Campus – Reduction of Carbon Emission Since 2012, Thammasat has launched the program to reduce the number of cars and motorcycle used in university and increased the number of sharing bicycles, bicycle routes, and length of bicycle lane.
Our commitment and initiatives: Thammasat University signed an agreement of cooperation with “Anywheel” to promote the use of shared bicycles to allow the students, staff, and visitors in actively contributing to reduce the use of fossil fuel powered vehicles within the campus. In 2021, there were more than 1,000 AnyWheel rental bicycles and 73 service stations all over Thammasat University Rangsit Campus. Each service station offers 10-25 public bicycles that can be rented through their mobile application.
Target and measure: From January to December 2022, transportation-based carbon emissions with in the University decreased from 16,150 kg. to the average of 2,367 kg. per month. The total travel distance of all the shared bicycles were 230,834.5 km. which helped the University residents to burn as many as 5.57 million kilo calories.
Each year, it is estimated that the total distance used by AnyWheel users on campus was around 344,000 km. Each kilometer of bicycle ride can reduce CO2 emission by up to 110 grams, so the use of AnyWheel in Thammasat University Rangsit Campus could reduce the CO2 emissions by up to 37.84 tons in a year.
The target in 2022 is to increase the number of rental bicycles by 50% and to start providing rental electric scooter service in order to encourage everyone on campus to choose modes of transportation that do not create air pollution.
The goal for the total distance used by AnyWheel bicycle and electric scooter users in 2022 is 600,000 km. which is equivalent to CO2 emission reduction of approximate 66 tons.
For more information on bike sharing, please visit these websites and facebook.
Thammasat University regularly inspected and repaired the bicycle lanes throughout the campus, especially in front of the faculties and public buildings.
Thammasat University cooperates with Haup Car, an electric car rental company, to provide rental electric car service at Rangsit Campus. In the beginning, there were 2 rental stations on campus which also offer charging service for other electric cars in order to encourage those who travel to Thammasat University to adopt the use of electric cars.
Our commitment and initiatives: The University provides 4 electric vehicle charging locations in Rangsit Campus and one station at Dome building, Tha-Prachan Campus. In 2021, three more rental and charging stations were installed.
Target and measure: By the end of 2022, the University plans to install 3 additional rental and charging stations at Rangsit Campus. The University will publicize the use of Haup electric cars to travel to and from other areas near Thammasat University such as shopping malls and flea markets in order to increase the total distance to more than 50,000 kilometers.
For more information on EV cars, please visit these websites and facebook.
100% of Public Buses Entering Campus as Electric Vehicles
Thammasat University Rangsit Campus has a 3000-square-meter public van station which can handle up to 40 vans at once. Each van covers as far as a 40-kilometer distance per trip. The number of public van users is as many as 3,500 people per day.
Target and measure: A daily trip of 80 kilometers is equivalent to 4.38 tons CO2 emissions per year (1-km car ride releases about 150 grams of CO2); therefore, if all these 3,500 people used private cars for travelling, it would cause CO2 emission of 15,330 tons per year.
The public van service can transport up to 13 people at a time, so the use of public van to and from Rangsit Campus can reduce CO2 emission by 13 folds, equivalent to a reduction of 14,150 CO2 tons per year.
Free sanitary napkin project, initiated since the academic year 2021, aims to support and facilitate women in campus for that emergency day of the month. Sanitary napkin is not a luxury item, but a necessity of a woman’s life. The Faculty of Political Science’s Student Committee, Thammasat University, started the project by setting up a service point, offering both the normal type and the hypoallergenic sanitary napkins around 15 pads per day to help female students and staffs on the emergency day. The committee proposed this project to Thammasat University’s administrative team to get an adequate funding from the university to continue to support this project every year.
Finally, the Faculty of Political Science’s Student Committee received the approval of a budget to provide approximately 1,600 pads during the academic year 2022 for all students in the faculty. The roll out of this project extended to other faculties and administrative departments in Thammasat and will become one of the welfare for female students and staffs next year. For women, menstruation is not a choice. It is an inevitable part of life.
