A research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Research Studies Project Report (M. Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2001

In the beginning of the 21st century the environmental problems are still a pervasive challenge in Thailand. Solutions could come up in many ways, however, the first and most sustainable way should be to raise awareness and build understanding on the impo1tance of the environment amongst people in the country. In this context, schoolchildren are a main target for awareness raising since they will be exposed to environmental impacts longer than other age group of population. Furthermore, by building environmental understanding among young schoolchildren, young environmentalists would be created, preparing them for dealing with environmental problems in the future. Raising awareness and building a better understanding of the environment among schoolchildren should be considered an urgent need for every school. To do so, joining the Environmental Management System (EMS) processes would offer the chance to students to learn the environment by action and adjusting the lessons through their daily life which may the best way to face the environmental problems in the long term. Implementing ISO 14001 in schools is a new topic in Thailand. Recently, the Ministry of Education has piloted an ISO 14001 implementation project in some schools aiming to learning lessons, understanding challenges and what should do to adapt ISO 14001 to typical Thai schools. Given this fact, it is necessary to study the implementation ofISO 14001 in ISO 14001 school and environmental projects in non-ISO 14001 school in order to identify the differences and make comparison. The study has focused on comparative study in two schools, Pakkred School (ISO 14001 school) and Chinat Pittiyakom School (non-ISO 14001 school), on awareness and management by looking at the ISO 14001 implementation, awareness raising activity and student's environmental awareness. The results of comparison would be analyzed in order to see the difference and similarity of environmental management and awareness in two schools. The result of questionnaire survey show that the level of environmental awareness has a little different among students of two schools. The students of ISO School are better in water and energy saving while students of non-ISO school acquired larger experience dealing with nature through their work in the Botanical Garden Project. In addition, these workings would make the comparison more correct, as well as offer some understanding and lessons of how to manage the project in schools.