Banpu Public Company Limited, a leading international versatile energy provider, together with the Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University organized the Power Green Camp 16 under the theme “ECO Living & Learning – Transforming into a Green Lifestyle in Response to the New Normal Era”. 40 students out of 217 students from 40 high schools of any major in 31 provinces were selected to experience the first online camp in response to the New Normal way of learning from October 16 to November 21, 2021.
In the Power Green Camp 16 this year, all 40 students took online courses and intensively learned both theoretical and practical knowledge on the weekends for two months. Activities included ‘Transformative Learning’ session which encouraged soft skills of the participating students such as creativity, analytic thinking, and problem solving, effective communication and teamwork. For the practical sessions, the camp delivered 3 standardized sets of experiments, that can be used in real households worth a total of THB 10,000 per person, to the students’ houses with free of charge. The experiments included “Just Block, We Won’t Wait” which concerned the invention of grease traps for household use, “Food Waste Transformation” which revolved around the conversion of food waste into organic fertilizer, and “Is It Really There…?” which was a survey of the composition and properties of soil in the house.
Mr. Rattapon Sukhunthee, Head of Corporate Communications at Banpu Public Company Limited, said “This year, our focus is on environmental issues related to the New Normal. For this, we put our focus on designing activities where students will gain both knowledge and experiences through integrated learning activities: to think, act and be rational, to know how to analyse using scientific processes, and to see the importance of and cherish environment and natural resources. We hope that the youths will play a role as leaders and intermediaries in connecting the knowledge gained and further develop it, and that they will pass on their knowledge to families, close friends, schools, communities, and society so that these group of the youths also become aware of the importance of natural conservation and adapt to live harmoniously with the environment in a sustainable way.
For this year’s special event, all 40 students also attended the “Eco-living Talk” activity, where Ms. Rannaphan Yungyuenpoonchai or Pat, a lead singer of Klear who has a hobby as an organic gardener, shared with them how to live and act in an environmentally friendly way. Another speaker was Mr. Somphot Ruamsin, a Smart City expert from Banpu Next Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Banpu, who shared with participants how to blend in technology with their environmentally friendly lifestyles. The aim of this special activity was to increase knowledge and encourage students to live harmoniously in a green lifestyle in response to the New Normal, both at an individual and community level.
After having undergone both theoretical and practical sessions, all students brainstormed and crystalized what they had learned and participated in an environmental science group project. The project was presented to the camp committee and the public through online channels. Each group was given a natural ingredient as an initial mystery ingredient to be solved and conceptualized. First prize winner who received a scholarship worth THB 50,000 was given to the project “Can’t wait” by Team EVIF who innovated cosmetic products from “bagasse” such as hair dye, facial mask, and lip balm. This project not only upgraded agricultural products, reduced the burning of sugarcane leaves that affected the environment, but also created added value for products with natural ingredients that are safe for consumers.
Pingping-Wachiraya Kongprad, 11th grader (Mathayom 5) at Satree Thung Song School, a representative from the winning team, upon winning the grand prize from the environmental science group project and attending the Power Green Camp, stated that “I’m very happy to have won the award. This project isn’t easy at all as it was group work in an online format. However, we all dedicated and worked very hard to make the best for this project. Having participated in the Power Green Camp, my friends and I have learned a lot, especially about the environment which is a topic close to us all. It makes us realize how the current environment situations around us are and how we can be of good help for environmental conservation. We have started from ourselves, and now we can spread the knowledge gained from the camp to those around us. We can be the voice and inform the others how important the environment is on our daily basis. I can fully say that I’m impressed with everything the Power Green Camp had offered”.
The 1st runner-up prize, receiving a scholarship worth THB 30,000, was awarded to Team Miracle Rhizome under the project “Rhizome HPL” which substituted cassava rhizomes for wood to reduce deforestation. The 2nd runner-up prize, with a scholarship valued at THB 20,000, was awarded to Team BEVA under the project “Adiós plástico – Bye Bye Plastic” which produced boxes for transporting trees using cassava rhizomes, aiming to reduce the use of plastic that takes a long time to decompose. In addition, the “Popular Vote” with an award of THB 10,000 went to Team SETZERO under the project “SETZERO-33” that used silica from rice husk to improve water quality. Lastly, there were also 7 consolation prizes, with an award of THB 6,000 each.
“Banpu believes that “Learning is the power of change and development”. We therefore focus on supporting youth who will be the main force for the country’s future development by having them learn from a variety of experiences that cannot be taught in classroom and cultivating the idea of environmental conservation in order that they will take care of our planet for a sustainable future. All of which has led to an environmental science project for youths in response to the New Normal and is in line with the ESG principles to which the Company has always given importance and adhered”, stated Mr. Rattapon.
Follow the news and information of the “Power Green Camp” at
Facebook: www.facebook.com/powergreencamp
Website: www.powergreencamp.com
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About Power Green Camp
The “Power Green Camp” has initiated in 2006 and operated continuously since then under collaboration between Banpu Public Company Limited and the Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University. Through the concept of “Environmental Science – Learning through Actions”, which initially focuses on allowing students to learn about environment and natural resources, The camp aims to encourage them to love and cherish nature as well as applying scientific knowledge they have from the camp to systematically solve environmental problems, while becoming leaders and building a strong network of protecting the environment in the future.
About Banpu
Banpu Public Company Limited is a leading integrated energy solutions company with 3 core groups of businesses: energy resource, energy generation and energy technology in 10 countries — Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Singapore, Japan, the United States of America and Vietnam.
