Our Mission and Vision
As a non-profit foundation dedicated to empowering individuals and public and private organizations, our mission is to leverage our coaching experience in wellbeing from over two decades in global corporate business to drive positive change for sustainability in Chiang Mai. Our mission is to guide individuals and groups towards success, happiness, and purpose through personnel development and participatory learning.
The vision of Chiang Mai Nayu Foundation is to support Chiang Mai in its journey to become a healthy and sustainable city in Southeast Asia by informing, connecting, and inspiring the public and organizations regarding the city’s progress. To facilitate the process, Chiang Mai Nayu seeks to make consolidated data and information about its situation available in one spot. We want to provide a knowledge and information platform where to monitor the city’s progress.
Inspired by Chiang Mai’s Potential and a Vision for the Future
Chiang Mai Nayu was born from our love for this city and a deep concern for its future. We are drawn to Chiang Mai’s idyllic ambient of the tropics and the mountains. It’s year-round beauty with international airport connection attracts visitors from all around the world. The Chiang Mai province has established itself as a producer for high-quality produce like coffee, avocados, and cacao.
However, we also saw opportunities for improvement. We observed shortcomings in areas like food quality, recreational space, air and water cleanliness, and sustainable business practices, in particular in relation with tourism. We envision a city that embraces minimizing waste, maximizing resourcefulness, and striving for health and wellbeing. Chiang Mai has the potential of being a regional hub for sustainability and wellbeing.
The idea of Chiang Mai Nayu was born – ‘Nayu’ meaning ‘flourishing and sustainable’
At the core of our motivations are the values of Health, Education, and Nature. We believe in promoting holistic wellbeing through sustainability by empowering people to make informed choices that optimize their daily life in harmony with society and nature.
We want to assist people in implementing sustainable practices and models for environmentally sustainable stewardship and responsible community cohesion. By sharing our expertise and developing learning resources, we aim to enable individuals and organizations, including businesses, to make mindful and sustainability-driven decisions for practices that benefit themselves, their community, and the environment at large.
Through a range of modalities such as coaching, concept advisory, and mindfulness training, we want to equip people with the ability to lead healthier, sustainable and ultimately more fulfilling lives.
Our Aspirations
- Educational Resources and Materials: We seek to develop and distribute learning materials focused on sustainability and healthy living. Whether for the school classroom, a company setting, or individual leadership, we aspire to inspire teaching and practicing lifelong learning for personal wellbeing and living sustainably.
- Sustainability and Wellbeing Initiatives: We seek to partner with individuals, organizations, businesses, schools and universities to implement, trial and experiment environmental sustainability and personal wellbeing initiatives. We are always interested in eco-friendly practices, creating community gardens, or organizing mindfulness activities, and helping integrate what has been learned into everyday practices.
- Community Building and Networking: We facilitate networking opportunities and community-building events to connect with like minded individuals and those who curious; to share ideas, and support each other personally and professionally.
- Professional Development Workshops: We can provide workshops and training sessions to teach the skills, knowledge and values on sustainable living from a local and global perspective, showing how our existence as society and nature are tied together.
- Mental Health and Wellness Support: We wish to offer resources and techniques aimed at promoting well-being. For example, coaching sessions, mindfulness training, stress management workshops, and other group support as needed.
- Research and Evaluation: We can assist research and evaluation studies which assess the impact of environmental or health practices. We are particularly interested in providing a space for the monitoring of environmental, social, economic and personal wellbeing in Chiang Mai.
Our Programmes
Education for Sustainability
The Chiang Mai Nayu Foundation is committed to helping schools and other education providers integrate sustainability principles into their teaching approaches and facility operations. We are aware that school teachers and other educators tend to be willing to nurture their students’ knowledge and values for sustainability and wellbeing, but often lack the needed base knowledge and resources themselves. Similarly, incorporating a sustainability plan into facility management is often perceived as too overwhelming, leading to a sense of not knowing where to start or what actions are considered sustainable.
For example, to support education institutions, their staff, and ultimately students themselves, we provide currently seminars on ‘Waste Management and Recycling’ at school premises. This seminars aims to engage students, teachers, administrators, and school leadership, to foster a comprehensive understanding of these vital topics and encourage meaningful actions.
Data Mapping for Information Sharing
We work on identifying available data sources from research institutions, governmental offices, and other private but publicly accessible data. Through data mapping, we aspire to create an integrated and publicly available monitoring tool that tracks Chiang Mai’s sustainability situation. We are looking for historical and concurrently available data from which to identify trends. For this effort, we depend on local support for outreach purposes and access support from data stakeholders.
Our goal is to identify existing data that align with the topics identified as important by the local community. We want to design a public dashboard where to provide a singular overview that displays past and current trends. The dashboard is envisioned to help community stakeholders take actions in the dimensions of Nature, Economy, Society, and Wellbeing. With this effort we seek to connect businesses, organizations, public offices, and residents to actively collaborate on the city’s and province’s transformation.