Sustainable Consumption and Production , or Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDGs 12: Responsible Consumption & Production), is a very clear and tangible issue close to home. Mom Luang Dispanadda Diskul, Chief Executive Officer, Mae Fah Luang Foundation; Dr. Chaiyos Boonyakij, Vice Chairman of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Promotion Network of Thailand (Thai SCP Network); and Ms. Natthakarn Klawuthianan, Managing Director of Oaklin (Thailand) Co., Ltd., three people from three organizations shared interesting perspectives and experiences in driving sustainable production and consumption. Each of them unanimously confirmed that this is not difficult and anyone can do it.
Why should we care about sustainable production and consumption?
Dr. Chaiyos opened the conversation by providing statistics from 1950, 1972, 1997 and 2050, which found that as the number of people increases and cities grow, consumption and pollution increase. This is consistent with data from Japanese engineers who calculated that the world is changing very rapidly in one second, such as the number of people increasing by about 2.4 people per second, consuming 6.9 tons of meat per second, releasing about 400,000 cubic meters of carbon dioxide per second, and the loss of 2,300 square meters of cultivated land per second. These statistics have caused many parties to rethink how to produce and consume to meet basic human needs, while taking into account the available resources under the same single world.
Mom Luang Dispanadda added information from Earth Overshoot Day, which assumes that our world has one hundred units of resources that can be used in one year. The last time we used them exactly in one year was 1970, but in 2020 we used them all up in August. This means that for the remaining four months, we are borrowing the resources of our future generations. Scientists have roughly calculated that in 2080 the results will start to be quite severe. We therefore need to be aware of how we can solve today’s problems better, which is a matter of responsible consumption that must not leave a burden for future generations.
The COVID-19 crisis is testing our production and consumption systems.
Dr. Chaiyos invites us to think further that the COVID-19 crisis is testing the production and consumption systems of Thailand, which is one of the 10 countries in the world that are food surplus countries. This is a strength that we must utilize and create more value for. This is the reason why many parties have turned to driving the circular economy or BCG (Bio-Circular-Green Economy). But how can we make the COVID crisis an opportunity for us to learn more about this, especially since our society is entering an aging society, which will affect production and consumption in the future?
Mom Luang Dispanadda said about this issue that this issue is directly related to the production sector because people who work in agriculture and farming are all aging societies. When the number of elderly people increases, the impact that will follow is that productivity will decrease and it will affect the world’s food sustainability.
Talk less, Do more with management and technology
When this happens, “management and technology” are important. ML Dispanadda emphasized that all parties must do more. These two things must help increase production efficiency to use less space but produce more. And we must reduce costs or reduce waste in the production process. At the same time, consumers, especially those at the top of the pyramid, must be more responsible for production and consumption than before.
Ms. Nattakan shared her perspective that today we have technology and innovation to respond to the changing context. She invited us to look at waste as the main issue because more waste means more consumption. She cited data that out of three pigs, one pig will be discarded without eating, or out of three heads of cabbage, one head will be discarded, while there is another group of people in the world who have nothing to eat. This shows an imbalance. Oaklin’s idea is to deal with one pig or one head of cabbage that is discarded in a simple way for urban communities, which is to use technology to help reduce the transportation of waste. This makes the pig or cabbage that is discarded become fertilizer for the lawn, which helps create new oxygen for the city. In addition, this cycle is a circular economy by providing a system for receiving fertilizer directly to green areas, farmers, or communities that need fertilizer.
Mae Fah Luang moves towards a sustainable organization
Achieving sustainable production and consumption goals is a big issue that requires cooperation from all sectors. Mom Luang Dispanadda said that the Mae Fah Luang Foundation started looking into this issue 5-6 years ago. They saw that there was quite a lot of waste in the production process, so they looked for ways to make businesses create a footprint or create less negative impact by reducing resource use and using resources more efficiently, such as reducing the use of LPG in the production process and switching to using macadamia husks, which are very dense and contain oil, or transforming leftover fabric from the handicraft production process into small products. In addition, they have selected more plastic products into the production line.
For example, marine conservation carpets made from plastic fibers or fabrics woven from plastic bags. Currently, 39% of Mae Fah Luang products are circular economy products and have set a goal of zero waste to land field by separating 39 types of waste, resulting in Doi Tung having no landfill waste since 3 years ago. They are expanding this issue to the Bangkok office and will register for carbon credits to make it a carbon neutral organization in the future. They also emphasized that if Mae Fah Luang, which is a small foundation, can do this, large companies must be able to do it too.
Network collaboration for sustainable production and consumption
Dr. Chaiyos stated that sustainable production and consumption are essential elements of Thailand’s new SDGs Roadmap and are part of the country’s 20-year strategic plan (2017-2037), which both producers and consumers must follow. The Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and various educational institutions have jointly established the SCP (Sustainable Consumption and Production) network to collect, exchange, and disseminate information on this issue. Last year, the focus was on food in the tourism industry. Currently, this network has 11 related groups, including the manufacturing sector, the agricultural sector, the industrial sector, the tourism sector, trade, the Stock Exchange of Thailand, universities, associations, and the public sector.
Business sector is driven by things close to home.
In the business sector, Ms. Nattakan shared her experience that she can start with something close to home. For example, a small office with no more than a hundred employees will have about 5-10 kilograms of waste. If you want to manage it to be zero waste, it won’t be easy to dig a hole to make compost. But Oaklin’s technology can answer the problem. And when starting from one place, you can expand to other places.
For example, SCG has about half a ton of food waste per day, which is used as fertilizer in the green areas of Bang Sue. In addition to reducing fertilizer costs, it also provides organic fertilizer, which helps reduce the use of chemicals in the area. Or at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, True Digital Park, Khao Thai Baan Company, DD Marche Market, which has excess fertilizer that is not needed, they have expanded their cooperation to Wat Tha Manao School, Suphan Buri, which has a relatively small budget for children’s lunches. They have used this fertilizer to help produce more lunches and have also built an organic vegetable plot to reduce the use of pesticides and serve as a learning center for children. This model helps transfer excess from the city to moderation for the community, which Oaklin aims to expand to another 10 areas this year.
Sustainable adjustment, changing business model
When asked about achieving sustainable production and consumption goals, ML Dispanadda gave her view that in the future, it is impossible for businesses not to adapt. They must change their business models and adjust their supply chains by involving more grassroots producers in the production process, creating an inclusive economy, as well as managing regional sourcing or purchasing from the region to reduce transportation problems. Finally, consumers should have more bargaining power and seriously question the origin and quality of the products they want. In the future, it will be very easy to find answers because there is blockchain technology to track agricultural products. Whoever can answer this question will be able to transform the production process of the country or the world to go further than before.
Dr. Chaiyos added that sustainable production and consumption has both a demand site and a supply site, according to the country’s 20-year roadmap, which includes environmentally friendly procurement, which is driven by the government sector and expanded to the private sector by promoting the purchase of environmentally friendly products and services. At the same time, the supply side must meet the needs. Sustainable solutions require considering the product’s life cycle (life cycle thinking) to see how it will affect the environment and reduce it before it has an impact.
Conclusion
Ms. Nattakan concluded by inviting that today it is clear that the environmental conditions are getting worse in our generation, not to mention our children and grandchildren. We must fix it today in our generation. She also expressed her confidence that Oaklin will continue to work on this issue. Last year, more than 3,000 thousand tons of waste were eliminated, and it is expected that the growth rate will increase in the future.
Like Mom Luang Dispanadda who invites us to look back at our own lifestyles and reduce our carbon footprints, and not create waste by eating just the right amount, and to start asking questions about where the things we buy come from and whether the producers are responsible, which is the starting point of creating a movement that creates overall change.
Finally, Dr. Chaiyos concluded that the heart of sustainable consumption is consumption that does not harm others, which is the most important thing in living together in this world. If we love the world, we should not harm it. Then we can live together happily.
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