Local Action for Global Change Page 1

Environment-friendly hotel operation
  • future trend
  • increasing governmental regulation
  • greater proportion of “green” demanding guests
  • ensure sustainable profit: Good business in the long term. $ and cents!
  • Ignorance and indifference.
  • Lack of information and awareness on environmental issue.
  • Lack of motivation.
  • Not much incentive from government to assist in going green.
  • Most environmental-friendly products are imported, thus high cost and more effort needed in sourcing.
  • Many new green technology not yet introduced in Malaysia, thus one need to be innovative and creative.
  • Effort not well appreciated by certain guests.
  • Achieve international recognition.
  • Hotel is not designed right from the beginning.
  • Architect & engineers not knowledgeable in green/eco planning and design.
  • Raising awareness among management, staffs, local community and guests.
  • Educating & training staffs on environmental practice.
  • Involve everyone in greening efforts.
  • Information sharing.
  • Having rewarding system for going green.
  • Think out of the box. Be creative and innovative.
  • Do things effectively and efficiently.
  • Redesign hotel – involves reconstruction and $.
  • Discarding old plans and use new technology.
  • Educating all levels of people, i.e. schools, government, food industry, hotel industry, travel industry, villagers and community leaders, to be PARTNERS in making Langkawi Green.
  • Reduce – Minimising the amount of the Earth's resources that we use.
  • Reuse - Don't just bin it, could someone else make use of it?
  • Recycle - Can the materials be made into something new?
  • Rethink – paradigm shift
Turning rubbish into gold.

Reduce plastic bottles.
  • Provide water using jug and glass instead of giving bottled drinking water.
Use smaller meeting room.
  • We are now using the Meeting Room which is less spacious compared to Desa Ballroom used previously for our daily briefing and small meetings. This is one of our effort in saving energy. .
Old but usable furniture are reused at staff quarters.

Old roof tiles which are still in good condition are reused for new building.

Old pipes from construction area are reused for channeling rain water to our wetland.

Ice cream container is reused to store food item.
Recycle wood and trunk as signage and landmark

Recycle plywood as “DND” and “Please Clean My Room” signs

Recycle broken or leftover slates to make decorative walkway

Recycle Assam tree trunk as key chain

Recycle plywood to make mail box and guest comment box
Rearing guppy fish at ponds to control mosquitoes

Biological control using coconut trunk as termite trap

Reuse used cooking oil for candle lighting

Using precast concrete railing baluster instead of wood

Homemade organic mosquito repellant using lemongrass juice.

Leftover soaps from guest rooms are recycled to be used as cleaning detergent for toilets.
 

Page 2

  • Building’s design is important in Sustainable construction.
  • Roof, balcony floor and all railing are with slope for better flow of water to prevent water from ponding on roof, floor or drainage.
  • Antioxidant formula
    • technology from Japan
    • industrial fermentation
  • Was sprayed at rooms
  • Prevent fungal growth and reduce bacteria, making room cleaner


We practise waste sorting in our resort. We sort rubbish according to category of paper, plastics, aluminium can, glass and metal. In kitchen & cafeteria, we also sort kitchen waste from rubbish. As glass has no value in Langkawi Island, we recycle it into decorative item.
Cetegory   Weight (kg)
Paper   5189.0
PET plastic   746.6
HD plastic   183.5
Mix plastic   70.0
Aluminium Tin   377.0
Grade A Iron   1348.0
Grade B Iron   360.0
Steel   8.0
Battery   148.0
Total   8430.1
 
Revenue of RM 3792.50 earned from recycling 8430.1 kg of trash.
  • Compost: biodegraded organic waste that turns into organic fertilizer
  • 4 main components of composting:
    1. Organic matter
      • Brown materials (i.e. dead leaves, twigs) supply carbon
      • Green materials (i.e. fruit rinds, peels) supply nitrogen
    2. Moisture
    3. Oxygen
    4. Bacteria
  • Turning - done weekly
    • supply oxygen to the compost pile (for decomposing activity)
    • maintain moisture (microorganisms thrive in moist condition)
    • control odour.
  • Compost will be ready in about 3-5 months.
  • Fertiliser costs RM 2/kg. As there is no expenses in composting, we are able to save RM 2 for every 1 kilogramme of compost prepared.
We have a nursery in our resort where gardeners will propagate plants we need. We propagate approximately 200 plants each month. Each of these plant costs RM 5 if being purchased. Therefore, we manage to save RM 1,000 each month.


Approximately 100 kg of kitchen waste is used in composting each month. We are able to produce 20 kg of compost each month for our vegetable garden and plant propagation.
  • Objective: To achieve water neutral or use only 10% of government supplied water compared to the past.
  • “Save water, save the planet”
    • Make every drop count
Watering at suitable time – early morning and late evening to prevent water wastage from evaporation.

Sprinkle watering system to save water.

Water tanks for harvesting rain water.

Our Koi pond also assist in harvesting rain water. Excessive rain water will flow into storage compartment in front of the pond.

Underground water from well for watering the organic garden as treated water is not required for this purpose.
Rain water is harvested for watering purpose. We had installed 22 water tanks by 2007, amounting 12,730 gallons (48,188 Liters or 48.188 cubic meters) of recycled water saved. As JBA water is being charged at RM1.20 per cubic water, we are able to save RM57.83 for every 12,730 gallons of rain water harvested. We have successfully cut down our water bill by 50%. We are installing 20 of 880 gallons new water tanks in our resort. We will have 30,330 gallons of recycled water storage soon.
  • 19 units of new 880 gallons water tanks are installed. This accounts for 16,720 gallons of rain water collection.
  • Rain water collected will be used for watering purpose.
  • Future plan:
    • To construct a filtration system to treat rain water.
    • To channel the 16,720 gallons of rain water collected to our main water tank with proper filtration system.
  • To reduce dependant on government supplied water.
We have set aside a natural wetland at our resort and created a garden setting. Our wetland serves for two purposes:
  1. Attracting wildlife such as cattle egret, water hen and water monitor lizard. Other animals found in wetland are tortoise, terrapin and giant catfish.
  2. Wetland sewage system: After sewage water is being treated at septic tanks, the gray water is being channeled to the wetland where the aquatic plants such as water hyacinth and water spinach will further treating the gray water by absorbing phosphate, ammonia and urea from the gray water.
 

Page 3

  • Current project: Sand Filter System with UV light to enhance current sewage system.
  • Sewage water septic tanks sand filter system wetland
    1. Netting - filter solid waste
    2. Layers of sand, stone and charcoal - filter particles
    3. UV light - kill the bacteria
  • Grey water channeled to wetland will be cleaner for wildlife living there.
 
All electrical appliance in room including fridge are switched off when room is vacant.

Solar panel for water heating. Boiler no longer being used.

Switch off unnecessary electrical appliance in office and resort compound.

Using energy-saving bulbs.

We have a policy on energy conservation. We train and educate our staffs on methods to save energy. For example, security staffs assist in switching off compound lighting at dawn and housekeeping staffs assist in switching off unnecessary switch and electrical appliance after room cleaning.

  • Green cover
    • help preventing soil erosion
    • help reducing heat generated from sunlight reflection at beach area.

  • Trees
    • We have 283 big trees at our resort. These trees provide shade, helping cooling the room and reducing use of air-conditioning.
As the bathroom door is exposed to humidity and wetness, the bottom part will easily crack or the surface area will peel off. We do not change and replace them with a new door. Instead, we repair, refurbish and reuse them.
DecisionCost/unit (RM)
Change to new door
380.00
Repair broken part
90.00
Difference in cost
290.00
(76% saving)
For cooking
After dried, we get the Luffa sponge to be used for cleaning glass.
Look at source of old material that can be recycled as lamp cover.
 
With some creativity and imagination, we are able to transform old materials into new products. A great way to recycle our waste!
 

Page 4


  • Green Champion Award (GCA) is an environmental competition to acknowledge the department with the most effort in green practice.
  • Competition period: (1) May 16th – Nov 15th ; (2) Nov 16th – May 15th
  • Work with District Agriculture Office & MARDI, invite their officer as judges.
  • GCA 2008 evaluation focuses on good environmental practice in offsetting carbon footprint, in conjunction with World Environment Day 2008.
  • Vegetable Farm
    • Equal size of land allocated to each department to grow vegetables, herbs & fruits.
    • Evaluation: (A) Weight of yield produced - Yield to be weighed & recorded with presence of Sustainable representative. 1 kg yield = 1 Point. Yields to be sent to kitchen for cooking. (B) Farm – Cleanliness, condition of the plants, landscaping of farm, and team work.
  • Organic Garden
    • Utilise spare land around resort compound to create departmental garden.
    • Utilise recycled items for design of landscape; ornamental plants; ponds.
    • Evaluation: cleanliness, creativity, 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle), landscaping of garden, and team work.
  • Creation of Handicraft
    • To create a handicraft piece using recycled items & present masterpiece during presentation, explaining their idea of creation, materials used & purpose of creation.
    • Evaluation: Practical function, material used, design & creativity, team work & presentation of the creation.
  • Presentation
    • To present efforts in GCA 2008. Free to choose presentation form.
    • To include their commitment (in departmental organic garden, creation of handicraft & presentation) and their feedback on GCA 2008.
    • Evaluation: Presentation content, speech, creativity, team work & grooming.


  • Duck rearing
    • Rearing ducks in-situ at the resort organically.
    • To serve duck meat at resort’s restaurant and to sell duck eggs to salted egg producer.
    • To reduce food cost, to reduce carbon footprint of food supply transportation & to be self-sustained.
    • Ducks are fed with kitchen waste such as leftover rice and wild water spinach grown at wetland.
  • Chicken rearing
    • To rear “kampung” chicken in-situ at the resort.
    • To supply chicken eggs and meat to the kitchen.
    • To reduce food cost, to reduce carbon footprint of food supply transportation & to be self-sustained.
From Organic Garden. Cucumber, water spinach, pucuk betik, pucuk ubi, Asiatic pennywort, okra, Neem leaves, cashew nut leaves

Experience scenic sunset at our Sunset Bar which we refurbished from a discarded fishing boat from Kuala Teriang.

In 2008, we adopted 10 schools for School Organic Farm Project. Collaboration partners: CIMB (funding), Agriculture Langkawi (technical support), MARDI Langkawi and Langkawi District Education Office. Hope the children will get the chance to learn about organic farming which is more eco-friendly. Will provide the schools with fertigation system for organic farming. Each schools will plant a vegetable type on rotation basis. Frangipani will purchase their yields so that they are able to sustain their farm and award the children.
  • Objective: To foster good relationship with local community, educating them on importance of environmental conservation and working together on protecting Langkawi’s environment.
  • Scope: environmental cleanliness, green village competition, sports activities especially local games, organic farming, recycling, handicraft making, social skills, job opportunity, help the needy, and financial management & opportunity.
“Everything that we do must meet the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations.”





AddThis