On November 13, 2020 at the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA)
The Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), the National Metal and Materials Technology Center (MTEC), and Thai Beverage Public Company Limited had organized a press conference to launch products of G Rock to Green Rock, an innovation for sustainable construction materials industries.
Dr. Narong Sirilertworakul, President of NSTDA, Dr. Julathep Kajornchaiyakul, Executive Director of MTEC, and Mr. Prawit Sukhum, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, presided over the event and launched “Green Rock”. This event had shown the determination of private-public cooperation in creating a sustainable environment.
Dr. Narong Sirilertworakul, President of NSTDA, said that according to the government policy in supporting the BCG Economy, NSTDA had established its strategic plan during 2021-2025 by cooperating with science, technology, and innovation experts from all sectors to put the BCG model into practice. The plan was to promote the innovative businesses to drive the BCG and focused on cooperating closely with the private sectors through various support directions, such as the financial support by the investment center: NSTDA Holding, tax privilege, the development of technology business in various projects, such as Startup Voucher project, Research Gap Fund project, and others infrastructure services at Thailand Science Park, Thailand Software Industrial Park, Eastern Economic Corridor of Innovation (EECi), Food Innopolis, as well as a research collaboration with the private sectors. One of the successful operations was the cooperation with the private company that sold eggs. The process was to develop innovative solutions to produce value-added integrated eggs starting from the antimicrobial peptide, eggshell membrane hydrolysate, and eggshells. The project had met the BCG guidelines, especially in the circular economy by reducing wastes from the food industry and recycling wastes.
Furthermore, NSTDA, German International Cooperation (GIZ), and Thailand Environment Institute had cooperated in the “Single-use Plastic Prevention in Southeast Asia (CAP-SEA)” project to promote the development of circular economy and tourism. NSTDA had used the ITAP program to support tourism operators and applied the innovation to promote the BCG economy by operating the Krabi Go Green Model project. The project had focused on the development of the energy and environment, tourists and food safety, and the increment of tourism income. At present, Green Rock is one of the private-public cooperation successful projects to create a sustainable goal under the concept of the new BCG economic model.
Dr. Julathep Kajornchaiyakul, Executive Director of MTEC, said that MTEC had applied the knowledge of materials science and engineering to develop innovative products by using by-products from the industrial and agricultural sectors, which helped save the environment, reduce the use of landfill areas, and create value-added to the materials. A synthetic lightweight material or “G-Rock” was developed by Dr. Pitak Laoratanakul, Research Team Leader of Ceramic Engineering Research Team, who had been interested in construction materials research. His intention was to apply reuse by-products from the industrial and agricultural sectors by replacing them with natural stones from various components and types of concrete. G-Rock had helped reduce the weight structure of the building, maintain its strength according to the construction standards, and increase the efficiency of energy saving of the building because its structure had contained a large quantity of internal air bubbles. Thus, it was a good choice minimizing solar heat transmission into the building. MTEC Research Team had cooperated with Charunbusiness 52 Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of ThaiBev, for more than 3 years starting from the design and development of ingredients formulations in the industrial production process by using by-products from ThaiBev. MTEC had also cooperated with PCM Construction Materials Co., Ltd. in the test of the thermal resistance performance of G-Rock precast concrete wall panels. At present, Charunbusiness 52 Co., Ltd. has successfully completed its commercial production under the trademark named “Green rock.”
Dr. Julathep Kajornchaiyakul also said that the concept of the circular economy can be applied to propel business growth and create new business opportunities. The innovation and materials technology could help improve the operational processes throughout the value chain and create new business opportunities. The cooperation of all stakeholders, therefore, has been necessary for the achievement of sustainable development goals in Thailand and all over the world.
Mr. Prawit Sukhum, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Thai Beverage Public Company Limited, said that ThaiBev had been rated as the DJSI global sustainability leader in the beverage industry for 2 consecutive years. The company had committed to conduct its business with the responsibility towards the environment, community, and society by applying the sufficiency economy philosophy as the basis of its business operation, as well as the circular economy to manage the resources in the value chain to create the most of benefits. The company had created innovation to support sustainable development by developing and inventing new inventions, such as products or other value creations that would be beneficial to people, society, and the economy for further commercial expansion. The company had also established an environmental and sustainable policy to be a guidance for the internal management; therefore, its environmental management had certainly complied with laws, rules, regulations, and international standards to continually create operational excellence. These policies had demonstrated the company’s intention to manage and prevent potential impacts on the environment for the benefit of the current and future generations. The company had recently signed a memorandum of the association on “Driving the development of BCG model to create stability and sustainability” and enhance Thailand to drive its economy under the BCG economy model. The BCG economy model had combined 3 economic patterns, namely, bio-economy, circular economy, and green economy, which were aimed for the sustainable development goals. The company had also applied the knowledge of science, technology, and innovation that could drive the sustainability of food security, public health security, energy security, job security, and nature and environment. Furthermore, the company had placed importance on the innovation, which was an important key factor that led the company to become the leader of sustainable business.
Mr. Prawit Sukhum said that cooperating with NSTDA was a good opportunity for Charunbusiness 52 Co., Ltd. ThaiBev had also promoted by-products research from the production processes, which had been further developed as “Green Rock”, synthetic lightweight materials that could be applied as innovative construction materials. Moreover, Green Rock could practically be used to replace the crushed stone or natural sand to help reduce the deterioration of the resources and environment.