How is this related to being green?  Because these new more fuel efficient Boeings are, as I write, replacing our stalwart 737-400s.  Brand spanking new Boeing Sky Interiors, new more frugal engines and new winglets that reduce drag.  A case of have your cake and eat it too.  Yummy…

the blended winglets shown to good effect

If you are one of these travelers, looking for a different experience, look no further because Wild Asia (WA) has chosen some of the best destinations in Asia for the annual Responsible Tourism (RT) Awards. After months of short-listing the finalists and making site visits to the final six properties and tour operators, Wild Asia has finally selected its 2010 RT Awards winners.

Now in their fifth year, the Awards are part of Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Initiative to promote sustainable practices through tourism. With one billion tourists expected to hit the road by 2010, the tourism industry’s impact on environment and communities throughout the world is immense. This is where the RT Awards come in. The Awards showcase exemplary resorts, hotels and tour operator ventures that are committed to sustainable practices.

“The purpose of the Awards is not to give out ‘gold stars’ to candidates each year. Our intent is to share the best practices of responsible operators to a broader audience and seek out new operators engaging in innovative programmes,” says Dr Reza Azmi, Wild Asia founder and director.

This year’s awards attracted a larger and more diverse number of participants spanning all across the Asian region, from India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and all the way to China, Philippines, and even Irian Jaya in Indonesia.

“We received a selection of high quality checklists and this proves to show that the network and awareness of Responsible Tourism is building up. Travel operators from around the region are truly striving to make a difference for a better and greener future,” says Deborah Chan, Wild Asia’s Programme Manager.

Every year the WA judging panel reviews submitted checklists (based on the UNWTO Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria) from operators throughout Asia. Two finalists for each category are shortlisted based on some of the following criteria:

• Sense of place – whether tourists understand their destinations in terms of the cultural and ecological context better through the operators’ efforts.
• Sustainability – whether these RT efforts are long-term.
• Involvement of guests – how much does the operators involve their guests in their RT practices?
• Internalisation – how much is sustainability part of the day-to-day operations?
• Reach – how far are these ideas and practices shared across the destination or even the industry?
• Continual Improvement – how do the operators strive to improve their RT efforts?

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

Heritance Kandalama, Dambulla, Sri Lanka

Heritance Kandalama has a unique architectural design which blends the hotel into the natural surroundings and maximizes natural light in order to reduce energy use. The entire hotel is built on a raised platform allowing water to flow under the hotel. It also allows the free flow of wildlife under the hotel, leaving minimum impact on the eco system.

Situated in Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle’s heartland, Heritance Kandalama is flanked by two UNESCO world heritage sites – the 1st Century BC Dambulla Cave Temple and the 5th Century AD Sigiriya Rock Fortress. The hotel is surrounded by rocky outcrops, lush forests, and overlooks the glistening Kandalama Tank. This sanctuary is teeming with biodiversity and wildlife.

For avid bird lovers and take morning walks for bird watching or visit an ancient village, Puranagama to have lunch with the locals and experience authentic village life. For more exquisite taste to your palettes, try traditional Sri Lankan dining in a cave or at an organic farm.

Sarinbuana Ecolodge, Bali, Indonesia

Nestled in the rainforest of Mount Batukaru, in the northwest region of Bali, Sarinbuana Ecolodge offers a welcomed escape from the hustle and bustle of the tourist track, and a refreshing experience that most people do not feel when visiting this island. Sarinbuana Ecolodge, which was started ten years ago, is run by Linda and Norm vant Hoff and their extended Balinese family. The eco lodge demonstrates a clear and committed practice of responsible tourism in every aspect of its operation.
Although a small lodge, with only 4 villas, Sarinbuana Ecolodge has had an enormous positive impact on the local village. Since the arrival to the Sarinbuana village, the vant Hoff family has dedicated themselves to improving local livelihoods, establishing a good relationship with the community, and learning the local language and culture in order to truly integrate with the local community.

At Sarinbuana Ecolodge, one can embrace the cool mountain breezes, lush tropical rainforests, rich Balinese culture, and appreciate life at its purest. The eco lodge operates in a truly holistic manner, exemplifies sustainability environmentally, economically and socially, and provides comfortable and pristine surroundings for true peace of mind.

Andaman Discoveries, Phang Nga, Thailand

Andaman Discoveries (AD) previously known as North Andaman Tsunami Relief (NATR) stemmed from tsunami relief pioneered by Bodhi Garrett to serve communities he had lived with and respected. After the initial rebuilding of homes through community-driven tsunami relief, it soon progressed into long-term post-tsunami development programs. Participatory workshops and community meetings sparked the idea of potential tourism as a means of economic renewal. Villagers wanted to welcome tourists in a way that will not bring negative and harmful impacts like that of mass tourism.

The idea was to maximize and utilize local knowledge and local people as a means of tourism. Villagers return empowered to set up home-stays and design a holiday experience for guests.

Now, guests can choose from six villages to stay in – mostly fishermen communities. Accommodation is simple and clean often with a fan, mattress and mosquito net for a good night rest. Guests are assigned to different host families whom they will spend their time with. Often times, guests leave with great memories of relationships being made. Some even stay to volunteer.

For more information and to watch videos of these amazing places, got to Wild Asia or WARTA NEWS

Some of the measures and practises that lay people may find interesting to learn include:

• As a safety precaution, understandably pilots carry some extra fuel as buffer against unexpected weather, etc, that may require more than usual fuel for a flight;
• Some pilots prefer to “top up” the amount of fuel as a further safety buffer, even though calculations already made prior on the ground indicates the plane really only need less than that;
• Some regional airlines publish anonymously the amount of fuel each pilots use over a month, not to encourage competition (of who is most efficient) but to at least know where you rank among your fellow pilots (they can log in to find out their position among other pilots still anonymously);
• It is never a good idea to use pilot fuel efficiency as a Key Performance Indicator, for salary or performance bonuses. This is simply because it will start compromising safety standards;
• Airplanes are equipped with an Auxiliary Power Unit usually located in the tail of the plane, which acts as a power generator for the plane’s air conditioning, lighting, etc. One of the discussions revolved around whether the plane’s main engines (on the wings) ought to be cut off after landing and while taxiing to the airport, relying solely on the APU’s power;
• Other discussions also revolved around whether the APU should be used as a generator when the plane is parked at the airport gate, or should it rely on ground vehicles’ power generator;
• Finally, when the air conditioner should be justifiably switched on, ie 30 minutes before passengers board for their comfort, on hot days on the tarmac.

These are but some of the few things, among hundreds, that airlines and industry bodies such as IATA look into to save fuel use, which ultimately save costs and burn less fossil fuel over time, across an airline’s (whole) fleet.

This is a “real-time” tracking of global flights over a period of a few days.

Enjoy!

What are your observations in terms of frequencies, schedules, concentrations of flights?

As the topic was skewed towards aviation (and the environment), one of the agenda of the program was the environmental aspects of airports and its management.

So, since we were already in town ….

One of the buildings near Dulles Airport in Washington DC

Danielle on hand to assist with the visits around the airport and meeting the officials

Massport, the officials who brought us around Boston's Logan Airport

Delegates being shown around the Logan Airport

As a non-pilot and not in the airports business, one of the things I learned during the Q&A during the privileged tour of the airport and runways, is- “What do you do with your de-icing fluids?”

De-icing: the process of removing frozen contaminant, snow, ice, slush, from a surface.

An American Airlines MD-80 aircraft being de-iced at Syracuse Hancock International Airport.

Definition and photo source from Wikipedia.org

As you know, Malaysia is a tropical country, and naturally residents like me, wouldn’t have thought to ask about this function, let alone what happens to the run-offs of such liquid wastes. But since among us there was a Malaysia Airlines pilot and an airport official, they were keenly asking questions related to this, and all I could do was try and learn about this operation as much as I could.

As we were told by the respective airport officials- Washington DC’s Dulles Airport does not collect the fluid run-offs, but Boston’s Logan Airport does.

In fact, from my personal observation Logan Airport seems to be more active in adopting green activities and efforts in their part in being green. One of the initiatives that they had trialled was wind energy. There was a joke about the array producing only enough electricity to power a few desktop PC’s only! But if that were true, their “solar trees” would have easily overcome this- they have a huge array of solar panels on the top floor of their open-aired car parking building.

* More about de-icing from wikipedia.org.

Other interesting points regarding this aspect of flying I had overheard was that even if a runway was de-iced ready for a take-off, if for whatever reason the plane was delayed for up to 45 minutes, that runway would have to undergo another de-icing exercise.

More highlights to come, especially the wind and solar energy use at Logan Airport..

They have designed a range of new engines called PurePower, which saves fuel by being lighter, more fuel efficient, quieter, and cleaner emissions.

More details to follow; just wanted to share some of the photos from our visit to Pratt and Whitney the engine manufacturer; as one of the people and places on the program’s agenda.

The team briefed on the engines

Photo by Leong Siok Hui

In an era where everyone brazenly hitches a ride on the green bandwagon, the folks behind Nikoi Island are an aberration. When I asked Andrew Dixon, one of Nikoi’s founders, about the resort’s eco-friendly approaches, he says, “We take sustainable tourism seriously but avoid labelling or marketing ourselves as such.” Dixon thinks, and rightly so, that these green labels have been bandied about by too many hoteliers who don’t do much beyond asking guests to reuse towels or changing light bulbs.

To find out for myself, I took a ferry to Bintan Island, Indonesia, from Singapore’s Tanah Merah terminal. From the fishing village of Kawal, I boarded a boat to “Eden”, and in less than three hours I was on the island, a world away from bustling Singapore. A white sandy beach fringed by sparkling azure waters and a row of rustic thatched bungalows peeking out from a lush green forest greeted us in Nikoi. Wide grins on their faces, the resort staff scampered out to the arriving guests – yours truly and an American couple, Lara and Nick, who were on the same boat. Read more of this article…

Wild Asia

Photo by Christmas Island Tourism Association

In the deep blue of the Indian Ocean, Christmas Island emerges as an oceanic oasis set amid a liquid, not desert, landscape. Located 200 km south of Java and over 2000 km from Perth, this remote dot in the sea sits on the geographical fringes of Asia and Australia. The island remained unsettled until the late 1800s, its rugged coastline fortressed by steep limestone cliffs serving as natural barriers against occupation.

This isolation gives Christmas Island its distinct character. Only a limited number of plants and animals managed to overcome the distance between the island and other landmasses. And only a few visitors – less than 1000 – find their way each year to this unique haven to discover its restricted but amazing natural diversity. Read more of this article…

Wild Asia

High above us, two Orang Utan are perched on the tree branches, munching happily on figs. A monitor lizard darts off as our boat approaches while an Oriental Darter swooshes across the water.

Through our binoculars, we spot a pair of Black-and-red Broadbills with their crimson and black plumage and turquoise beaks. Hoot, hoot, hoot…the Bornean gibbons cry out in the distance. The mist lifts up slowly, unveiling a theatrical wildlife “stage” as our boat glides across the Menanggul tributary of the Kinabatangan River. Read more of this article…

Wild Asia