While greening and sustainable tourism are buzz words for many hotels, there are some like Anthony Wong from Frangipani Langkawi who have been championing the cause for decades.
While many hotels have joined the green hotel bandwagon, Anthony Wong, Managing Director of Frangipani Langkawi Resort and Spa has been pushing the green cause since the 1970s when he started in the industry guiding international tourists around Malaysia’s Taman Negara National Park. In 2005, he took over Frangipani Langkawi, a 400-m long beachfront property at Pantai Tengah on the island of Langkawi.
“In 2006, we introduced green practices as islands are a special case and waste products have to be specially managed. The main asset for tropical islands is their beaches and if they become polluted, tourists will stop coming,” he asserts.
Now, the resort has implemented over 250 environmental practices, substantially lowered its energy bill, reduced water consumption through rainwater capture, reduced, reused and recycled many products, treated grey water for irrigation purposes and is now working on reducing food wastage among other initiatives.
“Every guest and staff member consume resources and generates wastes and our future is very much linked to how we reduce our environmental footprint. Environmental education and awareness are important, and I now spend considerable time educating students, academia, professional bodies, hoteliers and government officers, to spread the green message. The good thing is that many of these initiatives save money so it’s not just about getting a warm feeling from helping nature; hotels can reduce their costs and save money,” enthuses Anthony Wong.
The resort has been recognised as one of Asia’s greenest resorts, but Anthony Wong wants to make it the world’s greenest resort. He is very generous with his time and is eager for interested resorts and hotels to contact him, so he can share his greening initiatives through two to five days courses. A book on Sustainable Green Hotels will be published this year in conjunction with a Malaysian university.
Live green, at the www.frangipanilangkawi.com
