From the information provided it sounds like it is all words, no action. What does going 'green' actually mean in this case?

70,000 factories converted to green manufacturing over the next 2 years? Sounds like a case of if the factory puts up a banner and logo saying 'we are green' then they are green.

There does not seem to be any compulsory legislation or requirements, just requests to be more green in the 5 step process . There is step 3, the ISO 14000, but who will be providing certification and checks here?

Green to me means environmentally conscious, reducing pollution and waste, developing clean methods of production. Perhaps there is legislation and rules being applied that are not reported here?

The ISO endorsing companies must be rubbing their hands together already........................

Enforcing these types of laws is a logistical nightmare and requires huge amounts of investment. It also requires honest unbribeable people working in the environmental-law enforcement agencies. If the person is an environmentalist with convictions and strong beliefs about cleaning up Thailand then they will not 'bend in the wind' but in other cases a nice big bribe will make them overlook companies that dump poisons everywhere. In many cases the pollution is not visible it is going into the groundwater and the soil. This makes it easy to ignore if the envelope is fat enough. I would say that currently this nation lacks the resources to fund an agency with the kind of integrity and backbone required for this huge task.

As has been mentioned by previous posters, will there be 70,000 businesses left to go "Green"? The article states that the government will help the small to medium businesses to achieve this goal. How?

With the implimentation of the 300 Baht minimum wage ongoing, for businesses to be hit with this as well, you will be looking at even more closures if it is ever made law.

Half thought out ideas, IMO, are worse than no action at all.

the should start with the noise pollution.

beginning with the Public address systems of Temples and Village Leaders than follow by control exhaust noise of Vehicles etc . This will cost nothing and save money in the long run since the PA systems are not needed anymore.

Any advance on removing the slow moving loudspeaker vans that plague Pattaya? They constitute a real traffic hazard, contribute towards traffic jams and are a source of noise pollution. They are currently fully employed in assisting the local Mafia to be re-elected.

Should they not be converting factories to above flood level?