Flying the 'green' flag

	THAI president and CEO, Piyasvasti Amranand: his ‘green’ credentials not confined to the garden

He is chairman of the country’s Energy for Environment Foundation and a member of several other ‘green’ foundations.

And his interest hasn’t taken long to surface at THAI. Piyasvasti said the airline was ready to comply with new European regulations on aircraft emissions. The new emissions trading scheme will see carriers pay for carbon from 2012.

“We will be able to alleviate emission of greenhouse gases for Europe flights through better management and new aircraft, but the number of flights will increase so we will eventually have to probably buy 700,000 tonnes of credits,” said Piyasvasti.

“If we have to buy the credits we would prefer to buy them from projects within Thailand. That is what we are looking at.”

THAI is also in the process of implementing two new environmental programmes. One will allow passengers to select “environmentally friendly” meals. The airline has begun providing information on the carbon footprint of the six signature Thai dishes it serves.

“Passengers will be able to see how much carbon is being emitted from a meal of chicken curry or whatever ... from the raising of chickens to the growing of rice, up to the point where the meal is served,” said the president.

THAI will also introduce a carbon offset programme, probably during the second quarter of this year, allowing passengers to offset carbon emissions from their flights. But unlike most other programmes introduced by many airlines, flyers will be able to select the projects their money should support.

“We are preparing a portfolio of projects and we prefer those to be in Thailand. Our problem at the moment is that there are only two projects in Thailand which have received permission to sell carbon credits, but there are many more projects in the pipeline which, hopefully, will be able to sell carbon credits soon,” said the president.

While energy minister from October 2006 to February 2008 Piyasvasti implemented an aggressive policy to promote renewable energy, including biofuels, led the adoption of a number of standards and incentive programmes for energy efficiency and established a nuclear power programme with a target for 4,000mw of nuclear capacity for Thailand by 2020-21.

He also served on the boards of, amongst others, Bangkok Aviation Fuel Services, Thai Petroleum Pipeline, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, the Metropolitan Rapid Transit Authority and the Monetary Policy Board.

Piyasvasti joined government in 1994 as secretary general of the National Energy Policy Council in the Office of the Prime Minister.

Married with two children, he holds a first class honours degree in mathematics from Brasenose College, Oxford University, as well as degrees in economics and econometrics and mathematical economics from the London School of Economics.