BOTA Green Market: The Local Purchase of Walailak University for Sustainable Local Economy
The Botanical Park Walailak University has been developed as a learning and tourism center to support being a green university and lifelong learning resource and various greenhouse services such as scientific and technological activities and astronomical activity. There are also the nature trails and Bota Sky Tower that are now open for visiting, as well as the Bota Green Market project in the Botanical Park, which is prioritized over local products, focusing on healthy, affordable, and safe food choices.
Development of Bota Green Market is a place as leisure area for a meeting, talking, relaxing, and shopping, especially consumer products. It also promotes the economy and solves economic problems. Moreover, it helps SMEs and low-income people through BOTA Green MARKET by focusing on customers, students, personnel, and the public at Walailak Botanic Park, where the market will be held weekly, and more than 180 shop owners have joined; there are varieties of food, beverage, and organic vegetable stores from the School of Agricultural Technology and Food Industry and Smart Farm Center, community stores, tree shops, clothing stores, consumer goods stores, beauty salons, and handmade products. Approximately 6,000 people are interested in visiting and buying the products.
The management of this market is based on the concept of supporting entrepreneurs in the community, along with creating an area for learning and tourism to support being a green university and an important lifelong learning center of Walailak University. Bota Green Market focuses on healthy food, local food, organic products, handmade products, and handicraft products to support the products from the community, such as organic products and organic vegetables.
Entrepreneurs must be responsible to society by producing products or food that are not harmful to consumers and the environment. Also, Bota Green Market creates awareness, knowledge, and understanding for entrepreneurs and consumers to be more environmentally conscious, and it supports the selection of products that do not harm the environment by using natural, biodegradable packaging and reducing the use of foam and plastic.
Therefore, Bota Green Market has objectives to focus on as follows:
- To promote, support, and create marketing opportunities for organic products for farmers and entrepreneurs in the green market, and there is the connection of local market to have more distribution channels
- To campaign, creating knowledge, understanding, and awareness of environmental conservation for entrepreneurs and consumers who come to use the service to reduce the use of compostable packaging, which is toxic to the environment such as plastic, foam, etc., and emphasizes the use of packaging from natural materials and understands of waste separation properly for easier to manage the waste, such as recycling waste
The Bota Green Market was established to follow the development guidelines and strategic plans of the University on sustainable food purchases, with priorities purchase of products from local, sustainable sources. There are also areas to raise community income and support organic products, local product development, the development distribution, and upgrading organic products to reach more consumers.
Moreover, consumers have access to food products that are safe for health and environmentally friendly, and it is in accordance with environmental policy which to cause environmental conservation awareness and promoting on organic materials utilization to entrepreneurs and consumers. The policy also focuses on reducing the amount of waste generated by the market and pollution from sustainable waste disposal.
Walailak University emphasizes prioritizing the purchase of products from local by reviewing a related policy: the Announcement of Walailak University 2022 Policy on Food Preparation and Sustainable Consumption. Walailak University (WU) places importance on food quality control and food services for the benefits of her students, personnel and visitors at canteens. Department of Health’s guidelines for food sanitation and service standards are in place for food providers’ practices. WU ensures food quality and safety practices through the following policies governing restaurant service management and maintenance of high food standards.
“………..According to rule 3., the university enforces the following guidelines to encourage utilization of quality, safe and sustainable raw materials for food preparation among all of the food service providers on campus,
(3) Environmentally and socially friendly transportation of uncontaminated meat, including animal and aquatic products, must be ensured. …………..”
For Thai version, please click the link below.
https://cas.wu.ac.th/sdgs/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/11/เรื่อง-นโยบายด้านแนวปฏิบัติเกี่ยวกับการประกอบอาหารและการบริโภคอย่างยั่งยืน.pdf
Relevant Rules and Regulation:
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Contributors:
Walailak University
