Briefs

A gathering late last month saw 20 schools and 40 municipalities become partners of the green campaign of Toyota Motor Thailand and the Thailand Environment Institute.

In its seventh year, the campaign aims to create concrete measures to reduce greenhouse gases. Participants attend a training session and win financial support, designed as an example for their communities. This year's new participants will increase the campaign's network in 77 provinces to 342, including 152 municipalities and 190 schools.

The Lod lok ron duay mue rao (Our help in reducing global warming) campaign focuses on four main areas: saving energy, reducing waste, sustainable travelling and more green areas. Participants launch their own programmes with financial support from Toyota. Experts then evaluate their progress and those showing excellent results are invited to visit Toyota's environment institution at Shirakawago in Japan.

"The campaign has been extended to cover the entire nation, as we believe in united power," said Toyota Motor Thailand's vice president Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont. "We are trying to integrate this concept into the administrative and teaching process at schools, to raise awareness in young generations."

Calculations show that over the past six years, the campaign has successfully reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 7,000 tonnes.

Erawan's playground

Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production has celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Erawan Field, the first commercial gas field in the Gulf of Thailand, by renovating a children's outdoor playground.

The company later handed the playground, at Songkhla's Samila beach, over to the Songkhla municipality.

With a budget of Bt1.06 million, Chevron's Erawan offshore personnel living in Songkhla volunteered to renovate the playground and install new equipment.

The project aimed to promote the quality of life for children in the area by allowing them to play and learn in a safe environment, and to give something back to society on the occasion of Erawan's anniversary.