Education for Sustainability

The nation has gone through a coronavirus pandemic, resulting in increased employment, an expansion of the labor market for services, and increased demand for caregivers. As a consequence, there is a high demand for childcare workers among families today.

Our early childhood development centre focuses on promoting experiences and learning to prepare and promote the potential of early childhood in physical, emotional, social, mental and cognitive processes.

ASEAN Institute for Health Development (AIHD), Mahidol University has collaborated with the Preventive Medicine Association of Thailand to offer the Mini Master of Management in Health: Mini MM Training Program.

Promoting physical activity in schools seems like an easy task. However, from the situational data on the physical activity of Thai children and youth, it has been pointed out that various obstacles and threats are preventing them from being able to do physical activities that are suitable for them. In order to see “all students are given the opportunity and are able to perform quality and sufficient physical activity opportunities,” there must be systematic tools to promote, design, and play relevant policies and activities. Therefore, a system management tool is needed to support the design and planning of policies and activities that will allow schools to seamlessly integrate physical activity promotion activities into policy and learning activities that do not increase the workload for the school and teachers on duty.

The concept of city and community is developed along with the transportation infrastructure. We focus on the development of areas around public transport stations that are the center of travel connections. The model of city has been determined for maximum benefit to create a quality community that is pleasant to live, attractive for business investment, and encourage to travel by public transport. The concept of TOD city management is to change the expansion of a scattered city to a compact city by using guidelines that will reduce the burden of city growth. Transport infrastructure is the backbone of urban development and expansion. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) urban development The concept of city and community is developed along with the transportation infrastructure. We focus on the development of areas around public transport stations that are the center of travel connections. The model of city has been determined for maximum benefit to create a quality community that is pleasant to live, attractive for business investment, and encourage to travel by public transport. The concept of TOD city management is to change the expansion of a scattered city to a compact city by using guidelines that will reduce the burden of city growth. Transit Oriented Development (TOD) will solve urban problems and benefit communities. The government will have clear and concrete guidelines for managing the city, changing travel behavior from private cars to public transport will help reduce pollution, and providing facilities for walking or cycling will reduce travel by private cars. In addition, the local economy will develop to fit every lifestyle, including residential areas, commercial areas, business areas, and public areas. Utilities are available and accessible to everyone, saving travel costs, reducing energy consumption, and fostering a good environment in the community.

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5 or fine particulate matter with a diameter up to 2.5 microns) is one of the most important causes of premature deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that outdoor air pollution caused 4.2 million premature deaths globally in 2016 due to PM2.5 exposure. The PM2.5 exposure could lead to cardiovascular and respiratory disease, and cancers (WHO, 2021). In Thailand, overall PM2.5 concentrations have been reduced continuously. Nonetheless, the annual average PM2.5 concentrations in Thailand have still exceeded the World Health Organization standards throughout the past 10 years. Transport sector is one of the major sources of PM2.5 emissions. Understanding the potential health impacts and costs of PM2.5 formation from different modes of transport will help raising the awareness of the public due to the realisation on the PM2.5 footprint of their actions. PM2.5 footprint is considered as the health impacts from PM2.5 formation throughout life cycle of products and organisations. PM2.5 footprint is quantified by multiplying emissions with characterisation factors. Afterwards, the health costs could be obtained by economic evaluation of the health impacts. The PM2.5 Footprint Calculator v1.01 was developed as a tool for enhancing environmentally sustainable passenger transport in Thailand. The PM2.5 Footprint Calculator v1.01 can determine primary and secondary PM2.5 emissions (PM2.5, NOx, NH3, and SO2) and assess health impacts and costs of passenger transport by road, water and rail in Thailand. The calculator consists of primary and secondary PM2.5 emission inventory (for passenger transport), city-specific characterisation factors, and health cost conversion factor. The details of emission inventory, impact characterisation and economic valuation can be seen the background report of PM2.5 Footprint Calculator v1.01 (Prapaspongsa et al., 2021). Features of the current version and future updates of the PM2.5 footprint calculator are also documented in the report. The PM2.5 Footprint Calculator v1.01 is provided in two versions including Web-Based PM2.5 Footprint Calculator and PM2.5 Footprint Calculator (Microsoft Excel Program). Users can directly apply the Web-Based PM2.5 Footprint Calculator via this PM2.5 footprint website or download the PM2.5 Footprint Calculator (Microsoft Excel Program) from this website for own calculations. The Web-Based PM2.5 Footprint Calculator computes the health impacts and costs from "well-to-wheel" including emissions from upstream fuel and electricity production; and exhaust emissions from fuel combustion. The PM2.5 Footprint Calculator (Microsoft Excel Program) can assess health impacts and costs both from "well-to-wheel" and "tank-to-wheel”. In the tank-to-wheel scope, the exhaust emissions from fuel combustion (indicated as "vehicle use" in this excel) are considered.