By Shawn Kelly and AIT Campus Sustainability Committee
The campus of the Asian Institute of Technology north of Bangkok is one of the most naturally charming academic settings in Thailand. Its trademark is its lush, tropical greenery enriched by exotic flora and fauna that coexist harmoniously with the day-to-day intellectual pursuits of students, academicians and researchers from all around the world.
Now, AIT aims to take the lead in practicing and promoting sustainability – by establishing an all-encompassing Botanical Garden on its campus. This initiative builds on previous campus development plans, and it represents a significant leap forward to make the entire 130-hectare campus a fully-fledged botanical garden with a target to be ‘Net Zero’ by 2030.
Twin Threats of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss
Climate change is arguably the greatest threat facing our planet and its people. Warmer temperatures are disrupting the usual balance of nature, posing myriad risks to human beings and all other forms of life on earth.
The Paris Agreement of 2015, Glasgow COP26, and the recent COP27 in Egypt are the world’s collective response to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fueling global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released its AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023 which summarized the state of global temperature rises, fossil fuel emissions, and climate impact. Sounding the alarm, the IPCC warned that the viability of humans living within planetary boundaries rests on steps taken in the next seven years.
Equally important, biodiversity and ecosystem resilience underpin the cultural, economic, and social wellbeing of people across the planet. Today, there is a broad consensus among experts that rising temperatures directly contribute to biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
Target 2030 for Sustainability
The 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity held in Canada in December 2022 saw the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework which aims to halt and reverse nature loss by achieving global targets by 2030.
According to the United Nations, more than 3,000 businesses are working to reduce their emissions in line with Net Zero, and 1000 educational institutions have joined the Race to Zero, pledging to take rigorous, immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030.
Bio-Circular-Green Economy, which describes the full integration of bioeconomy, circular economy and green economy, has been adopted by Thailand to underpin its Thailand 4.0 policy as a strategy to drive economic and social development. This was underscored last year when Thailand inspired the 22 member countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation to embrace the BCG Economy model. The “Bangkok Goals” endorsed at APEC Summit 2022 are designed to accelerate the regional economic forum’s effort to achieve sustainability under the BCG Economy concept.
By leveraging its abundant natural biodiversity and capitalizing on its historical role as an international gateway to showcase technology and sustainability in higher education, Botanical Garden Campus Towards Net Zero will be AIT’s response to address the climate and biodiversity challenges of our time by 2030.
‘Botanical Garden Campus Towards Net Zero’
Simply put, ‘Net Zero’ refers to reducing GHGs as much as possible. The institute will organize its numerous natural assets into an integrated and harmonized campus plan to achieve net zero emissions and the bio-circular green economy.
The AIT goal to become a carbon-neutral campus in the center of one of Asia’s most urbanized settings will be in-line with the sustainability direction of Thailand and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. To do so, AIT will involve its student body and wide array of stakeholders. It will maximize the use of all its natural resources on campus through research and development and offer incentives to like-minded partners to set-up sustainable operations.
The campus will include three distinct zones of specialized activities that will mutually reinforce each other to create a synergy of sustainable activities. Resource efficiencies will be gained through biorefinery, restoration of forest ecosystems, and enhancement of the existing forests to offset emissions from energy consumption. A solar farm will be introduced to reduce any remaining carbon emissions so that net zero emissions can be achieved on time.
“AIT is positioning its campus in Pathumthani province to become a magnet to attract academicians, public and private sector partnerships, social enterprises, startups, responsible investment, carbon credits, and top-class prospective students and researchers,” AIT President Kazuo Yamamoto said. AIT aims to be an academic institution in Thailand where people study, work, and live carbon-free in the 21st century, officials said.
