KMITL has direct involvement in national government SDGs policy development. We have collaborated on many research projects with the national government such as Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) to cooperate and show our intention to solve problems for the community, such as food, energy, and water security while driving Thailand’s economic foundation to be stronger and achieve global sustainability goals. One of the prime examples of this collaboration is the Royal Initiative ‘Pakoi Wah’. Pakoi Wah is project designed to educate and promote sustainable agriculture for local communities in accordance with the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) of the Late King Rama 9. The Late King Rama 9 introduced the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) to Thai people for over 40 years. This concept was later recognized by the UN and well-accepted in many countries throughout the world. The Pako Wah project is a prime example of such initiative. The institute has a project to develop and design landscape under the concept of "Khok Nong Na Model (stalls, swamps and farms model)" water management, to store water both on the ground (with Nong (swamps), Khlong Sai Kai (canals) and Khanna (ridge)) and underground (3 kinds forests 4 benefits as according to the royal initiative). This project is located in Ban Huai Krating village, Prathat Sub-district, Mae Ramat District, Tak Province. The institute carried out training and knowledge about area development for the surrounding communities. Also, KMITL worked with the communities to build water storages to improve the scenery and proportion of agricultural areas, to achieve efficient water management and sustainable agriculture. The project also covered downstream activities such as packaging design. The project greatly accomplished in establishing sustainable income foundation for the community. For more details :
We also have collaborated with the Ministry of Transport to design the mathematical model for Thailand’s High-speed train timetable management in the study case: Bangkok-Nong Khai province project, for reducing transportation problems in Thailand. This initiative would greatly contribute to SDG11 in terms of sustainable transportation.
Meanwhile, we introduced and designed the underground detention basin model called “Underground Kaem Ling” to solve the flood crisis in Bangkok by building underground water reservoirs for impounding water up to 350,000 cubic meters. In Thai language, ‘Kaem Ling’ means a monkey’s cheek. This term was originally introduced by the Late King Rama 9 to solve flood systems. Usually a monkey would reserve some food for a while in its cheek before swallowing and digesting; likewise, a small reservoir for temporarily holding water in short period before releasing to drainage area would act like a Kaem Ling, monkey’s cheek, to relieve the flood problem. This measure is deemed contributed to SDG13: Climate Action in relieving natural disaster for the communities. Moreover, we have cooperated with SDG Move which is an NGO aiming to support and transfer knowledge, and monitor SDGs data for Thailand at every level, in addition to working with all sectors to achieve the Goals. A conference was held to educate and raise awareness about SDGs to our students, staff, and the general public.
Thailand’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (MHESI) emphasizes on a larger role of university, particularly, on its contribution to the society and the nation especially in terms of sustainability and SDGs contribution. As an autonomous university, a partial public university under MHESI’s authority, KMITL embraces this expectation and commits to support the society in moving toward sustainable development. Body of knowledge and research works that KMITL has cultivated throughout generations can serve as a basis to support better quality of life benefiting large group of population.
KMITL is expected to support the government to collect applicable SDGs-related data. The government then gather the data from all related agencies and report them to the international organization. For example, the Office of National Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning called for data in supporting development of Sustainable Consumption master plan. KMITL submitted the data according. This is in responding to SDG 12 “Sustainable consumption and production”.
We have consistently collaborated with NGOs to tackle the SDGs. For example, KMITL worked with social representatives of Hua Ta Khe and Ladkrabang communities, local communities nearby KMITL’s campus to develop Ladkrabang Model, which is aimed to tackle climate change problems.
Education for the SDG
King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang has many programs that offers education that are related to sustainable development goals, to cultivate and raise awareness of students and staff about social, economic, and environment. In 2018, our ratio of sustainable courses divided by total courses is 16.71% (606 from 3626 courses). We will keep including lessons about SDGs into programs and researches of the KMITL in the near future. In addition, we also provided sustainability-related research funds of approximately 384,068,124 baht in 2018. KMITL academic staff members and students could learn SDG’s related matters through these research grants.