Briefs

Zeavola Resort, on Koh Phi Phi, has been honoured for the second time in three months for its commitment to the environment by winning a Five Star award in the category of Sustainable Hotel Thailand at the International Hotel Awards 2015.

Announced at a ceremony at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, the International Hotel Awards, in association with Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, is noted as an important quality benchmark among the hotel industry worldwide.

Zeavola Resort’s achievement follows it being named the World’s Best Sustainable Hotel at the World Boutique Hotels Awards in London last November.

“It’s gratifying but also humbling to receive these back-to-back awards and they are very much testament to the incredible team we have at Zeavola on Phi Phi island,” said Zeavola Resort general manager Florian Hallermann.

Zeavola Resort Phi Phi operates a deeply sustainable approach to hospitality, working closely with the natural environment and ensures a pristine experience for guests. Located on Laem Ton beach, Zeavola’s sustainability plan includes a water-reserve system featuring four deep wells and a reverse-osmosis plant to minimise unnecessary water consumption at the resort – efforts that earned it membership in international ‘green’ hotels group Green Pearls.

Zeavola’s other environmental initiatives include investing heavily to install common electricity on Laem Tong Beach to get away from generator energy, while introducing a key-tag system. The resort also uses energy-saving light bulbs in its gardens and public places and sensor-controlled public lighting.

Zeavola is part of the Green Fins project, which is coordinated by the UN Environmental Programme.

Asia Cement helps 25 schools get solar power

Asia Cement has initiated the “25 Renewable Energy Schools Project” to reflect the company’s corporate social responsibility, environmental and energy policies over the past 25 years. The project involves the installation of 4kW on-grid solar PV rooftops to be used alongside electricity distributed by the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) in 25 small and medium- sized schools. They are situated around three cement plants in Phra Phutthabat district located in Saraburi province, Takli district in Nakhon Sawan province, and Cha-am district in Phetchaburi province. All the schools are registered under the Office of the Basic Education Commission. The duration of the projects is three years, from 2014 to 2016.

In 2014, the company installed the 4kW on-grid solar PV rooftops in four schools around the Pukrang plant, two schools and one school at nearby Cha-am and Takli plants.

On February 23, Roberto Callieri and Nopadol Ramyarupa, managing directors and the management team visited the Baan Phon Thong School located near the Takli plant in Takli district, Nakorn Sawan province. This primary-level school has 120 students and 14 teachers ranging from kindergarten to grade three and is the first school in the district to install the 4kW on-grid solar PV rooftops and the fourth school in the project. The school’s director reported they reduced their electricity bills by 80-90 per cent, allowing the school to increase its annual operating budget up to 20-25 per cent.

The project is part of a sustainable development policy the company believes will be widely accepted in Thailand in the near future due to the use of clean energy, which has no effect on the environment and helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a major cause for today’s global warming.