by Joe Mortimer

From banning plastic straws at Anantara and Avani resorts to using recycled water for irrigation, Minor International is at the forefront of sustainable tourism. Destinations of the World News interviews John Roberts, Group Director of Sustainability & Conservation for Minor Hotels.

Green Growth 2050 Certified Hotels across the globe are looking to reduce or eliminate single use plastics.

Recently Knai Bang Chatt in Kep, Cambodia stopped using environmentally harmful plastic drinking straws and replaced them with paper alternatives.

Green Growth 2050 has recently certified all four Minor Hotels in Vietnam to its Global Standard.  These represent the first properties to be Certified in Vietnam and the first AVANI Hotel to be Certified worldwide; AVANI Hai Phong. Each Hotel achieved greater than 80% compliance reaching GOLD Certification status.

Congratulations to:

• Anantara Mui Ne Resort;
• AVANI Hai Phong Harbour View;
• AVANI Quy Nhon Resort & Spa; and,
• Anantara Hoi An Resort.

An outstanding effort from the Minor Hotel Group and the local teams.

The first quarter of 2017, the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, has seen a number of Minor Hotels re-certify to the Green Growth 2050 Global Standard with all improving on their previous audit scores.
AVANI Hotels also joined the program and are working on achieving compliance during 2017.

Re-certified Hotels include:

Anantara Baan Rajprasong Bangkok Serviced Suites

Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort

Anantara Chiang Mai Resort

Anantara Hua Hin Resort and Spa

Anantara Lawana Resort & Spa

On Thai Elephant Day, WildAid united 15 prominent Thai business leaders with a pledge to never use elephant ivory or other wildlife products. In a show of solidarity, the nation’s top business leaders joined our call and urged stronger enforcement and more effective wildlife conservation action.

Thailand is a major destination market and trans-shipment hub to China and other markets for ivory products primarily from some of the roughly 33,000 elephants poached annually in Africa. To help raise awareness on this issue WildAid enlisted the help of Mr. William Ellwood Heinecke, Chairman and CEO, Minor International Public Company Limited, to spearhead the effort by asking fellow business leaders to join the pledge and stand united against the illegal ivory trade.