USA trip was an eye opener from many prospective...Sushant

The thinking hat session at Stanford University with Tina Seeling, was very creative and allowed me to analyze my decision making process more closely.  This activity taught me that everyone have their own ways of seeing things. And many times people get their frame so close to their face that they cant see others ideas/prospective without being biased or prejudiced.

The session with Dr Richar Dasher gave more insight about how the ventures go through different stages and the entrepreneur should keep their mind open to new creative ideas and not get stuck with old ones and thus stopping their creativity.   

During the week at Stanford we had a chance to tour the School of Design. It was great to see how ideas can be generated and feedbacks and discussion can be positive and constructive.  The building itself was creative and one can change the room layout as they wanted so that they can stimulate their brain every day without getting stuck with old ideas and layouts.

The founder of DripTech showed us how even small innovative ideas can create value and you can start small and grow big as you build on the idea and keep re-inventing yourself.

Session with Randy was another eye opener. It just lifted our way of thinking from just being a mediocre to as being a part of the process and entrepreneur world. It was an assurance that even big company have started from a small idea and with first step.

 The session with Bryan Weller to learn how people’s brain function and to make use of this knowledge to train our brain was really a great one. His teaching to draw mind map is so helpful and enhances the reading and understanding skill.

 Green-MBA was all about sustainability. We are a part of the world we live in and so is the business we do. So our cost and profits should take all the factors in account, including the natural and environmental factors. During the session, many guest speakers came and talk about their perception about sustainability and how they do business. There were speakers from the permaculter primer, golden nectar farm, Sanoma Village, Potter’s creek.

Bay model was very educational as well. It shows how if we think simple and extend the idea, it works. Some adjustments are needed based on the other factors impacting it environment.

The business competition at ‘Dominican University’ was another learning experience. The business ideas were so similar to ours and so promising.

The USA trip was over all a great experience which broadened our mindset and the way we think. It also gave assurance that we are on the right track and we just need to think big and take one step at a time towards our goal.

Mee USA Trip Stanford&Dominican Green MBA

First of all the purpose of this travel is to open the world of entrepreneur in USA where totally different from Thailand.  I can see the energy and possibilities that normal person with great idea can become entrepreneur and it could happen in Thailand too.  The more important is the core idea of opportunity is everywhere and entrepreneur is the one who can siege that opportunity and turn it to what we call “innovation” 

Starting with Silicon Valley Stanford University, the facilities were great.  I have a chance to meet Tina who teaches us about 6 hats, 6 habits.  The activities made me realize the character of who I am and people in the team.  We perceive thing on how we think not how we see it.  The design rooms where student can gather together discuss and brainstorm idea till present idea to the class was the greatest place in campus.  This place is where idea came out and it has very dynamic design for study.  Many prototypes from student can be found in here. 

Moving from Stanford to Green MBA, I met Mr. Brian who teach us mind map and speed reading.  Those two skills can be trained within 3 days.  It is very useful for academic and daily life.  Mind map is how you use the schematic way of thinking conclude what you have learn in to one map where the ideas link together.  This method helps me recall the content of what I have learned shortly when back to see it again. Brian is a very talented teacher.  It was the great opportunity to learn from him. 

In Green MBA, Dominican University, we started the first day with graduate ceremony of Green IMBA student.  If you never join this event you would have no idea how great it is to be a part of it.  It was the business Plan presentation, where all students stood up on stage in front of teachers, students, family and community.  It was full of courage and energy during the presentation.  It should become our IMBA model somehow.  Key point is community also attended and has contributed on the student business Plan.  You would never able to see any situation like this in Thai.  The idea can spread out to general public, to community they live and create the mutual benefit to the society not just only show off to the teacher in the class.

In the class and the entire trip we had visited, they were talking around the word “sustainability”  Professor john’s house was a great sample of how sustainable life look like.  We went to red wood and some preserve area for salmon breeding.  It was so hard and costly to bring back what you have lost than preserve what you have. 

Beside from study, the flexible schedule of arrival and travel by car are extremely convenient and made the trip become incredibly interesting.  I could sometime make a trip to visit some outlet mall and restaurants you prefer.  Overall the trip was great, definitely worth join it.

US trip by Oak

Before I went on the trip to USA, I felt very exciting and thought that it would be like vacation trip. But, in fact, IMBA gave me a lot than I ever expected.

Since the first day I arrived at Stanford University, I felt this university is fully equipped with all learning material needed. All the environment and structures are well planned. During that time, Tina Seeling, one of the faculties over there took us to campus tour. I have a chance to visit School of Design, which is my most favorite place. From the outside, it looks like ordinary building. But inside, I could feel lots of learning environment and energetic people. Moreover, I very interesting in the change able room, which could re-design to match with the group need. In my opinion, the change able room idea is very incredible. We should adopt this idea in Thai university.

Improve reading skill class with Bryan Weller was my most favorite class during the trip. He is very unique and talented. From his class, my reading speed is increase about 2-3 times faster than before. He also made me understand more about the way our brains work then try to maximize its capacity. Moreover, the mind map method is very good idea to remember anything in our life. I will use this method more often in the future.

After we finished class at Stanford University, we went to the Green MBA in Dominican University. On the way to Green MBA, we stop by at one of the guess speaker house near by the ocean. I can’t remember his name, but I can remember his house. It is a very beautiful house that I want to have one in the future. I could tell that his house is the most inspiration for success during the trip.

In the Green MBA, during the Business plan presentation, I could learn lots of ideas. The Idea I like most is the environment friendly lubricant. In my opinion, this idea is most likely possible and could generate lots of profit in the future. However, I already forgot the detail of his product, but if I have chance, I would like to talk with him again. His idea and product may workable in Thailand.

Finally, I have to thank you to John, his wife and Roberto to give us a very warm welcome in this farm and a great dinner in his house. His farm is like an eco-tourism place. The living roof idea is a very great idea. In the future, I would like to have my own living roof too.

The trip to USA with IMBA was one of my great experiences in life. It has opened my vision wider and expands my thinking a lot. And I was very surprise that the heart of Green MBA teaching was focus on sustainability which the same as our King teaching. Therefore, Now I believe that it is the essential concept for doing businesses. I will thing very carefully and concern a lot about the consequence effect in the future.

Thoranit Sukhumanant (OAK)

US trip by Jint

Being a part of the US trip can lighten me up inspirations. The session at Standford University with Tina Seeling, what I like most is Six-Thinking Hat.  This activity can teach me that each people have their own aspects in seeing things for example by emotion or by creativity. This can be used in the meeting where normally people always think the way they used to. By this activity Tina try to make everyone think through every aspect(6 colors) to show us that the thinking way that each of us not used to  it’s kind of difficult but we can improve such skills.    During the week at Standford I have a chance to visit the School of Design leading the tour by Tina, such place is really out of the box.  Inside the building you can change the room as you like to suit your group work.  Tina mentioned that every time we get into this place, the room is different.  A session with Bryan Weller to learn how people’s brain function and to make use of that I learn to draw mind map which is brain-like also with the reading skill the can help us a lot both in studying and in working. Being in Silicon Valley atmosphere together with meeting with Randy the author of “Getting to Plan B” can change my way of thinking that opportunities lies in everywhere you just need to start, start thinking and don’t hesitate to do it. From listening the guest speaker of DripTech show me that to be innovative, you can start from small thing, things that you’re used to.

Moving to GreenMBA where we talk a lot about sustainability.  To do the business sustainably we need to have the sustainable world.  So the environment comes to the essential part of this session.   During the session, many guest speakers come to talk about their sustainable business for example the permaculter primer, golden nectar farm. This also shows that to do a business we cannot concern only profit in term of financial profit which is money.  It shows that we also need to concern more about other stakeholders outside the company.

To be respect every person’s opinions, we have a chance to learn systematic thinking which every can express their own thoughts freely by writing in one piece of paper

The lesson learned from the US trip the thing that I can suddenly use is mindmapping and reading skill.  I also have loads of ideas back to Thailand.  Some ideas for example the design of School of Design and Six-Thinking Hat that I want to use in my family business. And also to do business sustainably, to implement this concept somehow I need to spend sometimes on my family business. But in the future, sustainability will be the key concept to run the business.

US Trip By Save

Bay area, this name sounds very familiar to me since I have been there for a year. I started to think about what I expect to see there before boarding time. The first thing in my thought was a well management of area municipal or a great innovation at Stanford.  However, I didn’t know any timetable or agenda. So, I just hoped that IMBA will surprise me with great stuffs.

Let’s start with the first venue, Stanford; this was not the first time to Palo Alto for me but it was the first time for me to Stanford campus. I found that I have fallen in love with the place already. I thought it would have been a serious place that gathers all geeks from this planet together, but it’s not. It was turned out that the place is very cool. They are doing things innovatively. The atmosphere there is support and encourages people to think creatively. Not only regular classrooms, there are adjustable to any shape they want. There is a prototype room that students can model there prototype to get on their own.

People there are inspiring as well. We have met a lot of interesting people there. But the one I want to mention is Tina Seelig. She is an executive director of Stanford Technology Ventures Program. This was the first time that I get to know academic people by going bowling together. I like her style which is energetic and systemic. She began our day with a fun activity but it’s very meaningful such as 6 thinking hats. After that, she showed us how Silicon Valley is going in the present and past time. We had chanced to meet many entrepreneurs.

Next venue is a very peaceful town, San Rafael; this town is a small one but people live their life sustainably. We were took care by GreenMBA. Two of them are professors that have been teaching in our class before, John and Roberto. We started here with a three days course to boost up our studying potential with mind mapping and speed reading. The guest speaker, Brian, was very talented. He showed us how to do mind mapping which is very useful for our daily life with IMBA or even our work. It was similar to our meditation but it was not hard to understand.

In San Rafael, it was totally different from Palo Alto. Places that we visited here were more on natural preservation. Moreover, almost of them can be related with our water project. We can use them as our huge inspiration. For example, Marin County Watershed Program, we have learned a lot about upstream water and how it flow and support the entire western county.

In conclusion, when I come back, I can use lots of things I have found there. I can use what I learned from Brian in IMBA class and to organize my messy meeting plan in my department.  I can also use six-thinking hat to work with people in group and understand the way they work. Actually, I am also planning to do the party for students who are graduating from IMBA. It is going to be like the party in GreenMBA where local people come together and celebrate for their students. The best of all, I have learned that the sustainability is not only how to sustain natural resource but it is about how to be friend and live with natural though.

 Nopparuj Ungeprapakorn

3D underground water GIS

GIS is any system that captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that are linked to location(s). In the simplest terms, GIS is the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and database technology. GIS may be used in archaeology, geography, cartography, remote sensing, land surveying, public utility management, natural resource management, precision agriculture, photogrammetry, urban planning, emergency management, landscape architecture, navigation, aerial video, and localized search engines.

Now a day we also could see the level of underground water by using the GIS. For more information, please visit website of Department of Groundwater Resources http://www.dgr.go.th/

Technological Analysis

We have been talking about controlling the use of underground water in Bangkok and how to sustain the water level on in problem definition. There are available technologies to measure and monitor the underground water level in Bangkok. The system was created by department of groundwater resources. The system also allows us to check how many well in particular area and where are they. The 3D map and database of underground water usage is available on http://map3d.dgr.go.th/. 

In contrast, there is no water replenishment technology in Thailand. Thailand is still relying on natural replenishment method. This could be the opportunity for entrepreneur to solve this problem. According to the research, there is similar problem on over use of underground water in San Francisco, USA 

Interesting case about desalination

Desalination/Distillation is one of mankind's earliest forms of water treatment, and it is still a popular treatment solution throughout the world today. In ancient times, many civilizations used this process on their ships to convert sea water into drinking water. Today, desalination plants are used to convert sea water to drinking water on ships and in many arid regions of the world, and to treat water in other areas that is fouled by natural and unnatural contaminants. Distillation is perhaps the one water treatment technology that most completely reduces the widest range of drinking water contaminants.In nature, this basic process is responsible for the hydrologic cycle. The sun causes water to evaporate from surface sources such as lakes, oceans, and streams. The water vapor eventually comes in contact with cooler air, where it re-condenses to form dew or rain. This process can be imitated artificially, and more rapidly than in nature, using alternative sources of heating and cooling.

Brackish Water Desalination

Brackish water, containing minerals and salts typically less than 5,000 ppm total dissolved solids (TDS), can be economically treated with today's reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodialysis reversal (EDR) systems. Effective mineral and salt removal converts previously unusable waters to high-purity resources for drinking, irrigation or industrial process uses. The traditional process used in these operations is vacuum distillation—essentially the boiling of water at less than atmospheric pressure and thus a much lower temperature than normal. This is because the boiling of a liquid occurs when the vapor pressure equals the ambient pressure and vapor pressure increases with temperature. Thus, because of the reduced temperature, energy is saved. A leading distillation method is multi-stage flash distillation accounting for 85% of production worldwide in 2004

Natural Capitalism

              This is the Natural Capital model for our groundwater project. By following this system loop the firm should obtain an imitated ecosystem services  that allows the groundwater to be replenished after its extraction. The reason the firm should follow the model is to increase the sustainability of groundwater usage.

Definition of Natural Capital

          

              "Natural capital refers to the natural resources and ecosystem services that make possible all economic activity, indeed all life. These services are of immense economic value; some are literally priceless, since they have no known substitutes. Yet current business practices typically fail to take into account the value of these assets-which is rising with their scarcity.

The first of natural capitalism's four interlinked principles, therefore, is radically increased resource productivity. Implementing just this first principle can significantly improve a firm's bottom line, and can also help finance the other three. They are: redesigning industry on biological models with closed loops and zero waste; shifting from the sale of goods (for example, light bulbs) to the provision of services (illumination); and reinvesting in the natural capital that is the basis of future prosperity.

Natural Capitalism shows how these four changes will enable businesses to act as if natural capital were being properly valued, without waiting for consensus on what that value should be."

Reference : "A Road Map for Natural Capitalism"

Opportunities into address

Opportunity lies in

• The management of underground aquifers
• Consultation to factories and township planning
• Planning aquifers for areas with decreasing water level
• Consultation to municipal corporations
• Development of technologies and equipment which will filter surface water and inject it in aquifers and replenish it
• Development of technologies to purify contaminated aquifers and preserving it

Organization’s core activities will include work like

• Studying entire system and making a aquifer maps
• Calculate sustainable level of water for use
• Find out all the recharge sources and quantities
• Even responsible for creating new recharge mediums to meet growing demands

Legal and Environmental Analysis

Legal Analysis


Bangkok government issued an underground water usage act in 1977.  The act was mean to control the activities that relate to underground extracting and releasing.  The government has realized this problem could become more serious and lead to land subsidizes which would result in flooding and infrastructure damages.   One of the most effective ways to control the use of water is by charge the money to user. 

The government has started to install the water meter and collect fee from the use of underground water since 1985-2000

Exhibit 1 Price of underground water per cubic meter

Form the graph, the subsidize rate and price of underground water is divert related.  When the price go up the subsidize rate go down significantly.

Beside from let industry pay for water usage, the government also enforces the law on underground water related businesses.  The person who wants to use underground water will need to get approval from local government and department of ground water resources. 

Key focus on Legal enforcement over underground water usage (www.dgr.go.th)

1.Department of ground water resources would allow to extract water at maximum 1.25 millions cu.m cover 7 provinces; Bangkok, Samutprakarn, Patumthani, Nonthaburi, Samutsakorn, Ayudtaya and Nakornpathom. 

2. In case drilling the ground more than 400 meter, the person must follow Natural Packed Well standard where the pipe must follow ASTM A-120 Standard Pipe or API 5L standard weight line pipe.

3. There will be fine and penalty applied, in case there is an unreported use of ground water. 

The detail of law on make use of underground water can be found in www.drg.go.th   and act of underground water issue 1977.

The policy has proved to be successful.  However in reality the land subsidize rate is still high and would lead Bangkok to stay 1 meter under sea level in 2017.  There is also a doubtful on how strong government enforces the law on underground water usage which also an opportunity for us to do something. 

Environmental analysis

Bangkok was declared as crisis area for overuse of underground water since 1983 where land subsidizes rate is more than 10 cm. /year.  The over use of underground water can create a big impact on agricultural sector and lead to flooding in several areas of Bangkok.  As the ground level become lower than the sea level when rain season come the water would unable to release in time.

According to geography of Bangkok, the city is located nearby the sea therefore the overuse of underground water would lead to sea water intrusion.  The sea water intrusion could create huge lost to entire agricultural area nearby and also eco-system of Bangkok.  The source of water would also be contaminated and unable to use for a long time.

Now there are several parties involved in analyze the use of underground water.  There is underground water mapping which created by Department of groundwater resource, Asia Institution of Technology and Military map department under the supervision of office of National environment board.   

PESTLE Analysis

PESTLE stands for Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environment. PESTEL analysis is a tool that can aid organization making STRATEGIES understand the EXTERNAL environment in which they operate now and will operate in the future.

Political
The ministry of natural resources and environment has set the committee to issue the resolved plan of the over-usage of underground water  which is to decrease usage of underground water even stop using it. The Department of Groundwater Resources(DPR) under the ministry of natural resources and environment  have complied with the underground water usage control plan,  in the  short-run by canceling the use of underground water in the area in which can access to the tap water, and also raised the price of underground water . In the long-run, by launching  a campaign  for Thai people to use tap water instead of underground water.

Economic
The more products produced, the more water used. Thailand’s economic grows and expands. This can cause increasing in the usage of underground water. From the DPR’s statistic, the majority of using underground water is industrial sector. The over-usage of underground water can cause land subsidence leading to building and road collapse. This can lead the huge loss for the economy.

Social

Due to increased demand of water and limited water supply through sources like tap, people keep extracting more of underground water.There is a general behavior that water is the necessity of humans and it is for free. As a result, people owning the plots in Bangkok feels its their right to extract water from their premises. So does the industries.As the civilians and industries have high social influence, it is hard for the authorities to restrict them without supportive law.

Technological
We have been talking about controlling the use of underground water in Bangkok and how to sustain the water level on in problem definition. There are available technologies to measure and monitor the underground water level in Bangkok. The system was created by department of groundwater resources. The system also allows us to check how many well in particular area and where are they.

Legal

Bangkok government issued an underground water usage act in 1977.  The act was mean to control the activities that relate to underground extracting and releasing.  The government has realized this problem could become more serious and lead to land subsidizes which would result in flooding and infrastructure damages

Environment
Bangkok was declared as crisis area for overuse of underground water since 1983 where land subsidizes rate is more than 10 cm. /year.  The over use of underground water can create a big impact on agricultural sector and lead to flooding in several areas of Bangkok.  As the ground level become lower than the sea level when rain season come the water would unable to release in time.

Let VDOs show you how serious it is

Land Subsidence

Groundwater

Groundwater Cycle

How does groundwater over-extraction affect us?

Please note that images are drawn for an easier understanding and the actual ground layers are a lot more complex than this simplified drawing.

Firstly, a city or an industrial estate is built above a source of aquifer.

When demand for water increases, groundwater becomes an easy source of water to extract. Water extractors are usually built above the aquifer to extract water for household and industrial usage.

When the rate of extraction surpasses the rate of groundwater natural replenishment, water level decreases. Since level of water is lower than the previous level, original supporting pressure to the above layers of earth is also reduced.

Finally when the Aquifer layer can no longer support the weight of layers above it, ground subsides. The buildings above collapse as the ground subside, causing damages to properties.

After the subsidence of land, the subsided area also becomes a pan-like shape and traps water as rain falls. This unintentional water welling can be a potential health problem as mosquitoes and other insects breed in the ponds.

Another issue with groundwater extraction is Salt Water Intrusion.

Originally, aquifer filled with groundwater provides pressure to push the salt water away from intruding into land.

As groundwater is being extracted for use, Salt Water from sea is able to infiltrate the land and contaminate the water source and soil. Problem with salt water intrusion may include water contamination, soil degradation and erosion.

What is underground water?

Groundwater is water that comes from the ground. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Amazingly, many people use groundwater but don't even know it. Groundwater is even used to irrigate crops which grow food for tonight's dinner.

Where does groundwater come from? Groundwater comes from rain, snow, sleet, and hail that soaks into the ground. The water moves down into the ground because of gravity, passing between particles of soil, sand, gravel, or rock until it reaches a depth where the ground is filled, or saturated, with water. The area that is filled with water is called the saturated zone and the top of this zone is called the water table. Makes sense, doesn't it? The top of the water is a table! The water table may be very near the ground's surface or it may be hundreds of feet below.

Think about this: have you ever dug a hole in sand next to an ocean or lake? What happens? As you're digging, you eventually reach water, right? That water is groundwater. The water in lakes, rivers, or oceans is called surface water...it's on the surface. Groundwater and surface water sometimes trade places. Groundwater can move through the ground and into a lake or stream. Water in a lake can soak down into the ground and become groundwater.

Groundwater is stored in the ground in materials like gravel or sand. It's kind of like the earth is a big sponge holding all that water. Water can also move through rock formations like sandstone or through cracks in rocks.

An area that holds a lot of water, which can be pumped up with a well, is called an aquifer. Wells pump groundwater from the aquifer and then pipes deliver the water to cities, houses in the country, or to crops.

     The above diagram is the input, output, waste and recycling model. This shows the material and energy input humans have to make to extract groundwater. Then output from those input are water for household and industries. Following output there are also waste such as contaminated water. Finally the recycling block is how waste can be re-input as material and energy.

Credit : IGRAC Groundwater, the Hidden Source of life

Most groundwater is clean, but groundwater can become polluted, or contaminated. It can become polluted from leaky underground tanks that store gasoline, leaky landfills, or when people apply too much fertilizer or pesticides on their fields or lawns. When pollutants leak, spill, or are carelessly dumped on the ground they can move through the soil.

Because it is deep in the ground, groundwater pollution is generally difficult and expensive to clean up. Sometimes people have to find new places to dig a well because their own became contaminated.

Credit : The Ground Water Foundation



Underground water Extraction - It's impact on Bangkok

An underground water system is a complex system. It can be disastrous, if we start manipulating a system without understanding it in totality.

Like every other system, underground water is sustainable if it is used in a certain way and for certain yield. Underground water is stored in aquifers. Water from surface percolates and naturally replenishes it. Extracting underground water without replenishing it can lead to a point when this entire system will break down. And what everyone must understand is that some of these changes are irreversible.

       The problem with groundwater usage is that it is a reinforcing system loop. That means as extraction goes on, more and more extraction will follow. We can see from the diagram above that groundwater extraction will lead to expansion of factories and cities. Then the growth of economy will follow resulting in bigger factories and cities. Finally the increasing population and production will require more groundwater extraction and hence reinforcing the system.

It is such an irony that many parts of the world are hit by flood and drought in the same year. But if we study the underground water system, we will notice the fact that these are inter-related. Everyone knows that flood is the opposite of drought, but what we fail to reason is that if we can put aside a part of flood water, it will lead to less flooding and if we can use this water in dry seasons, there will be no drought.

So what we basically need is to manage the water given to us in a better and sustainable way, rather than just thinking for short term gains.

The problem area we are focusing to start with is in Bangkok in Thailand.

The underground water source under Bangkok is one of the largest reservoirs of underground water in Thailand. A survey from BGCR (Bureau of Groundwater Conservation and Restoration, www.dgr.go.th ) also stated that quality of groundwater under Bangkok is at an acceptable level for household and industrial usage.

Following the growth of the economy, massive expansion of factories around Bangkok area brought about massive demand for water. Without an efficient city layout, it became impossible to supply an adequate amount of water required by several industries. Huge extraction of underground water then followed.

Increasing extraction of underground water affects balance of nature directly and indirectly causing soil to subside. When the soil level goes down, the rain water gets accumulated and stagnates. Near the shore areas, the sea water seeps in leading to flooding and water stagnation.

The absence/decrease of underground water also leads to the contamination of underground water by saline water from the ocean.

These issues can be addressed, if we use the underground water in a sustainable way. For this we must know the underground water system of the aquifers in Bangkok region and keeping a track of the health of the aquifers. We can provide the consultancy services and do the water planning for companies and other land development projects. We can also do water planning for different corporation by putting system in place which can replenish the groundwater in a sustainable way. Apart from that, we can educate stakeholders in all levels about the aquifers and give guidance on proper usage.

Above diagram is the stakeholders of groundwater extraction. The diagram is divided into two parts: Direct Stakeholders (who will be affected from extraction directly) and Indirect Stakeholders. We can see clearly that by extracting water, many parties in Thailand and even world wide will be affected.