Move to clean up thousands of factories

The Industry Ministry recently found over 20,000 factories across the country are generating pollution and environmental problems.
To promote a “green” economy and sustainable development, the ministry wants to help convert over 70,000 factories nationwide to “green” manufacturing over the next two years.
The ministry’s industrial campaign is a part of a sustainable consumption and production policy, urging manufacturers to improve their factories so they are more environmentally friendly.
Permanent secretary Witoon Simachokedee said the Industry Ministry would start its green industrial campaign first with small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. And they expect about 3,000 SMEs to join the campaign.
Witoon was speaking yesterday, on World Environment Day, which is marked every year by the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry. It seeks to lift awareness of environmental issues and encourage political action.
The Industry Ministry campaign promotes “green” production and consumption. It urges firms to improve their production processes so they are less harmful to the environment, and for consumers to buy products from firms that make environmentally responsible products.
There are five steps for manufacturers to improve their processes to become “green”, under the sustainable consumption and production policy.
The first step is a “green commitment”, which urges all factories to give a vow to reduce greenhouse gases emissions from their production process.
Second is “green activity”, which asks manufacturers to reduce environmental impacts that affect communities surrounding industrial areas.
The third step is a “green system” to give certification to manufacturers who improve their production and management systems under the environmental management standard ISO 14000. Fourth is a “green culture” to try to create environmentally friendly behaviour by factory staff. And the last step is a “green network” to build eco-supply chains to lead society towards sustainability.
However, to improve firms that cause pollution and environmental problems in communities, Witoon said he had instructed industrial officials to examine all factories across the country and ask them to improve their production process, to eliminate problems such as pollution.
At the same time, the European Union (EU) has joined with the Industry and Natural Resources and Environment ministries to launch a project called “Switch Asia Programme” to boost sustainable consumption and production in Asia. The project works on the ground with producers and consumers, and at the policy-making level by supporting the formulation and implementation of sustainable consumption and production.
The EU will help to develop regulatory frameworks, undertake information campaigns or help reform environmental taxes to make it easier for consumers and manufacturers to contribute to sustainable development, Veronique Lorenzo, head of the EU’s operation section in Thailand, said.