BANGKOK, July 11, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SCG held a global forum on Sustainability Development in Thailand the "SD Symposium 2018". It was held under the concept "Circular Economy: The future we create," with attendees include leading global companies as well as the government sector, civil society, SMEs, startups, as well as local communities, to exchange perspectives and share success stories to collaboratively drive circular economy by promoting an efficient use of natural resources throughout the value chain, which includes manufacturing, consumptions, and recovery processes. This concept will lead to business sustainability, while also uplifting the quality of life, and resulting in global sustainability.
"SD Symposium 2018" was an academic forum on sustainable development. For the past five years, the forum's objective is to develop broader awareness about sustainable development goals. This year, the forum focused on a circular economy and will feature a keynote speech by Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. He shared the government's vision to drive a circular economy in order to promote sustainable growth for Thailand. The President and CEO of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) also gave a presentation on a circular economy in the global context. Several seminars were also being held to decode success stories about a circular economy from all sectors, inviting participants to adopt the shared knowledge effectively.
Dr. Somkid Jatusripitak, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, said: "The circular economy concept is very much in line with the Thai government's strategy to drive the Thai economy, especially by focusing on value-driven products and services. The Thai government has followed the roadmap to promote sustainable economic growth amidst global challenges on natural resources. Hence, the 20-year National Strategy also focuses on environmentally-friendly developments as well as a balance between natural resources conservation and usage. This has been supported by other measures including the promotion of innovation and digital economy to encourage sharing and efficient utilization of resources, appropriate and efficient waste management through reusing and recycling, as well as ethically, socially and environmentally responsible business practices.
However, successful implementation of the circular economy concept would not be possible with the government's support alone, the private and people sector must also participate. Organizations have urged to adopt the circular economy concept in their operations to build long-term business sustainability, while the public must realize the importance of responsible consumption and change their behaviors to facilitate the process of using wastes and byproduct from their consumptions as raw materials. Only through such collaboration can our nation truly achieve stable and sustainable prosperity."
Mr. Roongrote Rangsiyopash, President and CEO, SCG, expressed: "The circular economy concept could help solve the problems of dwindling natural resources we had faced with, as it worked differently from the traditional linear economy's model (Take-Make-Dispose) by preserving natural resources and using them in the most efficient way. By creating systems in which waste could re-enter the supply chain, a circular economy could lead to environmental and social sustainability,"
"SCG, as part of the business sector, vowed to be one of a key driving force to initiate collaboration with other parties. The SD Symposium 2018 gathered thought leaders and representatives from leading organizations to showcase their stories of successful implementation of the circular economy concept. The goal was for participants to get new perspectives that could solve global problems and would be inspired to adopt the circular economy concept to make it happen."
SCG drives the circular economy concept through key three strategies:
One: Reduced material use / Durability. By reducing the amount of resources used in manufacturing, such as the corrugated Green Carton, which requires 25% less raw materials but remains durability, that helps customers save their transportation cost; reducing manufacturing and sales of single-use plastics from 46% to 23% within 10 years. The efforts including help customers save electricity cost for air-condition by Active AIRflow™ System, a cool and comfort home ventilation system; and strengthen durability of product, such as marine cement that 2 times last longer compared with conventional Portland cement.
Two: Upgrade and Replacement. By creating innovations to replace existing products and raw materials with new ones that offer higher efficiency but use less resources or make them recycle-friendly. For example, polyethylene (PE) which an enhanced innovation of SCG that can enable 2 times recycled plastic materials use as well as SCG Hybrid Cement that can replace traditional structural cement but use lower raw materials in production process.
Three: Reuse and Recycle. By recycling used products instead of using new resources, promoting all recovery processes, such as setting up Paper Bailing Station to collect paper waste to be recycled; recycling glass bottles to use in place of sand to produce insulation materials; developing "CIERRATM" functional material which improves plastic's property that allows single material has versatile packaging application instead of multi materials which hard to be recycled; and recycling plastic waste to make fish home helping to preserve the marine eco-system.
"In addition, SCG promotes building collaborative networks with parties in Thailand and beyond in order to build full circular economies. Most recently, we have technology partnership with DOW (Thailand) to use recycled plastics as an ingredient in asphalt, helping to reduce ocean and community waste while also enhancing its efficiency as well as reducing carbon emissions from building roads.
SCG genuinely hope that the "SD symposium 2018" will be a good initiation to develop collaboration between the government, private and people sectors. The event will also help driving innovations as well as promote the environment-friendly process to develop a concrete sustainable foundation as it will be one of the most important key strategies for Thailand 4.0." concluded Mr. Roongrote.
Mr. Peter Bakker, President and CEO of World Business Council for Sustainable Development, added: "The circular economy concept is an innovative and revolutionizing concept that defies traditional manufacturing and consumption behaviors. It allows the global economic system to be the most efficient use of natural resources. In order to make this concept be widespread in the business community, we must start with instilling a conscience within the management and employees to head towards the same goal. At the same time, all sectors must also concern the problems and come together to make a change to our world."
ASEAN is a relatively challenging region, as it is still in the process of driving developments, uplifting the quality of living, and acting as a key manufacturing hub catering to the world's continuously increasing demands. This results in shortages of resources. Successful implementation of the circular economy concept can help to promote the manufacturing of products and services using innovation that helps to maximize the efficiency of resources use. This effectively helps to reduce corporations' operation costs from use of resources, thereby increasing their competitive edge, which could bring about growth opportunities on the global level, worth USD 4.5 trillion by 2030 (source: CEO Guide to the Circular Economy, WBCSD). In addition, circular economy can also help to reduce carbon emissions, leading to improved living conditions around the world and realizing the Paris Agreement as well as the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals."
SCG has ensured that the SD Symposium 2018 was also a green event, by utilizing resources efficiently environmentally-friendly and recycling where possible. Air conditioning temperature was set at 25 degrees Celsius. Participants were also encouraged to use public transportation to travel to the event and refrain from wearing jackets. SCG will also reforest together with offset a carbon credit from waste heat power generator in cement production to make the symposium carbon neutral.
For further information, please contact:
Chotihathai Chokpiboonkarn
Tel. +6625863781
Email: chotihan@scg.com
