Community and Social Care
CHALLENGES
OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES
CKPower has established a comprehensive community engagement and development policy, as well as social and environmental guidelines, to provide guidance for its business operations and social and community engagement efforts. The Sustainability Working Group is responsible for utilizing these policies and guidelines to develop key performance indicators, guidelines, and action plans that align with CKPower’s sustainability objectives and strategic goals in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The group is also responsible for tracking, assessing, and reviewing performance to ensure continuous improvement and sustainable coexistence with communities.
RESETTLEMENT AND RELOCATION
The Company prioritizes its accountability to communities affected by operations of its power plants, such as the Xayaburi Power Plant in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The Company has undertaken support and assistance efforts for over 663 affected households originally located on either side of the Mekong riverbanks through resettlement, relocation, and quality of life improvement programs in accordance with the National Economic and Social Development Policy of Lao PDR. In addition, the Company has engaged in efforts to support and develop small communities scattered in remote areas by encouraging the formation of larger communities and facilitating exponential development in basic infrastructure and utilities, such as electricity, running water, and transport routes, in order to elevate quality of life in a sustainable way in accordance with the Urban and Economic Development Strategy of Lao PDR. These efforts are intended to complement the nation’s industrial development and promote sustainable economic growth, with the goal of increasing income and quality of life in 2022, as measured by a target annual household income of no less than 1,800 USD, or 15 million kip.
Community Engagement
CKPower places high importance on community engagement to foster confidence and demonstrate its transparency in every community across 100% of its areas of operation before and during power plant construction and during commercial operation. The Company conducts site surveys to understand the traditional way of life and the quality of life in communities around the power plants across economic environmental, social, and human rights dimensions as well as carries out surveys on their problems, needs, and satisfaction and works with local residents to identify impacts and initiate CSR activities/projects to address their expectations and concerns that can be integrated in accordance with CKPower’s clean energy engineering capabilities in order to create social value.
According to the community surveys conducted thus far, no community is affected by the Company’s operations. CKPower had also been carrying out at least one community engagement annually, in which it holds an opinion panel with local residents to monitor potential negative impacts of its operations on the communities, survey their opinions on their problems, needs, and satisfaction, as well as jointly identify impacts with the locals, in line with ISO 26000 and CSR-DIW standards. All complaints received through this process are recorded, examined, and addressed promptly in line with ISO 14001.
Remark: *indicates significant impact on communities.
More Details : Enviromental Impact Assessment Report
CSR Strategies
In 2022, CKPower formulated its community and social care strategies that would enable it to meet the needs of local communities and fully utilize the Company’s clean energy engineering capabilities for their benefits in accordance with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) in order to produce quantifiable benefits. The strategies also encompass the development of innovation that can bring to communities economic, social, and environmental benefits. The Company has also outlined the direction of its social and community care efforts for a five-year period from 2022 to 2026. One of the key objectives of its CSR strategies for community and social care is to establish a framework for its social value creation initiatives based on three key principles.
- Quality of Life: Improving access to renewable energy for a better quality of life.
- Natural Resources and Environment: Conserving, protecting, and restoring natural resources and the environment sustainably
- Job Security: Further enhancing innovations and creating opportunities COOPERATION of occupation development for communities
CKPower’s Framework for Social Value Creation
CKPower carries out community engagement projects compatible with the local way of life through the “Competency– Co-creation – Cooperation – Connection” strategies. In essence, CKPower uses its capabilities to empower communities, society, And stakeholders (Competency), advances ideas, innovations, and processes towards sustainability (Co-creation), fosters employee and stakeholder participation (Cooperation), and collaborates with its network partners for sustainable development (Connection).
Targets and Performance Indicators
EXECUTION
CSR Projects/Activities in 2022
2022 Performance
| Type of contribution | 2022 |
|---|---|
| Cash Contribution | 15.67 million baht |
| Employee volunteering during paid working hours | 5,800 Hours |
| In-kind giving: product or services donations, projects/partnerships or similar | 9.79 million baht |
| Management overheads | 1.59 million baht |
Hinghoi Project
CKPower is committed to utilizing the capacity, knowledge, and expertise of its personnel on clean energy-based electricity generation engineering to create value for communities and society through the Hinghoi Project. Launched in 2015, the project aims to promote the quality of life and provide access to clean energy and essential utilities for children and communities, with a focus on addressing a lack of access to electricity through solar power systems and solar-powered water turbines for power generation. The Company has also built school buildings, libraries, and canteens, and provided education on energy saving and the proper use of electrical appliances that use renewable energy in neighborhoods around its power plants and remote areas in Thailand and Lao PDR.
By leveraging CKPower’s engineering innovations, the Hinghoi Project has been able to address the issue of scarcity, which attests to the Company’s capabilities in the power production business and helps to foster a sense of social responsibility among employees.
2022 Hinghoi Project 7
In 2022, the seventh year of the Hinghoi Project, CKPower conducteda project at Lion Mahajak 9 Border Patrol Police School and Ban PaKhao Lam Community in Mae Taeng District, Chiang Mai. The project be gan with surveys of the sites and the opinions, concerns, and needs of the communities, eventually resulting in a collaboration between the company, employees, communities, schools, and network partners to address the lack of street lights in Ban PaKhao Lam Village for safe travels at night, which could lead to road accidents and hazards. The initiatives taken include the following:
Construction:
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Street lights were installed at six locations on the bridge spanning Mae Taeng River, covering a distance of 90 meters and benefiting one village and one school. The street lights were powered by 900 watts of clean energy, equivalent to 1,971 kgCO2e/ year of greenhouse gases reduced per year. |
Education:
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Teachers and students at Lion Mahajak 9 Border Patrol Police School were educated on energy saving, which is key to energy consumption reduction and proper use of electrical appliances powered by renewable energy. |
Knowledge sharing:
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Knowledge on renewable energy was shared in school to prepare for a transition from electrical power to solar energy. |
Change:
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CKPower studied and analyzed the power usage behavior in school and adjusted it to suit solar power systems, as well as formulated plans to prepare the school personnel for the use of renewable energy. CKPower also collaborated with the school and community to monitor the project’s effectiveness, took care of the functionality of the solar-powered street lights for a year, and formulated plans for instructing the communities on the maintenance of the street lights to ensure they reap the full benefit as intended by the company. |
As part of the project, CKPower monitor the effectiveness of the initiative in collaboration with the school and the community as well as maintain the solar-power street lights and report on their usage for a period of one year. The Company has also planned to educate the community on the maintenance of the street lights in cooperation with the school to ensure that the community fully benefits from them as intended by the Company.
For over seven years, Hing Hoi Project has successfully addressed the problem of scarcity in communities and society through its engineering innovations, which demonstrate its capabilities in the clean energy business, in a manner that respects the local way of life and contributed a total of 41 structures and facilities for public use. This project has given as many as 1,753 children access to basic utilities in their daily lives cumulatively and created engagement with 885 employees, 9 communities, and partner organizations and has been carried on from generation to generation. This initiative has also led to the construction of seven learning centers and stations for communities and society on renewable energy, such as hydropower turbines, solar-powered 20 school buildings, solar-powered water reservoirs, and solar-powered street lights. Through this project, CKPower has also developed 928 engineering personnel equipped with knowledge of innovation development for society and saved as much as THB 4 million on external training expenses. Thanks to Hing Hoi Project, CKPower has successfully inspired new generations of youths to carry on and take part in the initiative to create value, develop clean energy for communities and society for the future of posterity.
