HotelChatter

Green Hotels

Stay Green in Asia, Save the Elephants Too

January 29, 2008 at 9:20 AM | 0 Comments

Update:
We heard from Banyan Tree Phuket:

Banyan Tree Phuket does not have an attached wildlife sanctuary. However, Banyan Tree Phuket, like our other resorts has embarked on numerous CSR initiatives including:

*Gibbon Conservation – Supported the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project to help retrieve captured gibbons and retrain them to live in the world again

*Laguna Phuket Sea Turtle Conservation Ceremony – Organizing an annual carnival to raise awareness for marine conservation

Asian hotel blog Agoda recently put out its list of the top ten eco-friendly hotels in the Asian region, and it makes for interesting reading. The Banyan Tree Phuket in Thailand, for example, made it into the number one position both because of its attached wildlife sanctuary and the fact that this hotel was built by transforming an abandoned tin mine. And each of the remaining nine hotels has a similar kind of story.

Interesting for us is the Anantara Resort & Spa Golden Triangle, also in Thailand, because it includes an elephant conservation center and guests can experience elephant trekking and forest living skills courses, all with a green bent. In Myanmar, the Popa Mountain Resort (home to this amazing view) gets on the good green list because it's been carefully designed to fit in with the surroundings, and uses biodegradable products and its own specially adapted recycling processes too.

And down at number ten on the list, but still worth an eco-visit, the Alia Ubud in Indonesia is a champion in waste recycling. It's proud to say it recycles 80% of its water consumption, which isn't bad at all for a hotel with one of our favorite infinity pools.

[Photo: Greg George]