Ecotourism comes to Cambodia

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Mountain bikers can reclaim wilderness that once belonged to illegal loggers and poachers. Hidden in the foothills of Cambodia‘s Cardamom Mountains, the village of Chi Pat is now home to a mountain biking experience that is unparalleled in trail and impact.

This new program is the result of cooperation among Wildlife Alliance (formerly known as Wild Aid), Asia Adventures (a Cambodia-based adventure travel company) and the villagers of Chi Pat. Off-road cycling tourists are expected to bring a sustainable source of income to the villagers while exposing guests to some of the world’s last remaining virgin wilderness.

Chi Pat is two hours from Phnom Penh by boat and is portal to old logging routes, undulating trails and streams and shallow rivers. Ride through bamboo thicket, rain forest and hills while gazing upon waterfalls, bat caves and waterfalls. A lucky few will see rare wildlife, such as elephants.

Simply by mountain biking in Chi Pat, you can help the villagers reclaim their home from years of abuse by illicit tree-choppers and hunters. Merely enjoying yourself has never been so powerful.

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[Photos thanks to Asia Adventures]

King bed comes with wheels at some hotels

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Hotels naturally have trouble going green. Think about the really granular details of how they operate; there’s a lot that you might miss. How often do you see a bar of soap you used once replaced with a new one? Rolls of toilet paper are swapped when only a fraction is used. You have the option to use sheets or towels more than once, but the choice is yours … and how often to you choose to shower green? Nonetheless, some properties are making progress.

Several hotels are now offering two wheels instead of four. The Bowery Hotel in New York, Gansevoort South in Miami, James Chicago and Element in Lexington, MA have picked up stylish bicycles to entice guests to pedal rather than drive. Bikes from Jamis and Trek are included in this fusion of social responsibility and conspicuous luxury. Gansevoort, committed to matching the bikes’ aesthetic with that of its Miami backdrop, has opted for bikes from Puma-that glow in the dark.

Of course, the biggest problem that environmentally-friendly programs face is behavior. Hotels are loathe to force guests to change their behavior. And, who can blame them? No company wants to roll the dice on customers’ willingness to adapt. So far, the results seem positive. Element has had to order another nine Trek hybrids.

The jury’s still out, but let’s all cast a vote for pushing pedals.

Boeing and Air New Zealand to Test 2nd Generation Biofuel

by Josh Lew on

Boeing has announced that it will carry out tests of a new “2nd generation” biofuel using one of its 747s. The plane,owned by Air New Zealand will take off on December 13th. Because it is the first live test, only one of the plane’s 4 engines will use the fuel, made from the nuts of jatropha plants (pictured).

Jatropha is an inedible plant that is indigenous to Central America and the Caribbean, but grows in most of the warm weather regions of the world. Unlike earlier biofuel sources, which were grown on arable farmland, jatropha grows well in areas that cannot be used for agriculture. Its use, therefore, will not affect food prices or food supply.

The fuel is made by extracting the oil from the nuts of the plant. UOP, whose parent company is Honeywell, is responsible for producing the jatropha-fuel. According to Boeing, UOP’s production was “the world’s first large-scale production run of a commercially viable and sustainable biofuel for aviation use.” The biofuel will be mixed with regular jet fuel for the December 13th test.

[Via The Register]

Top 10 Green hotels, according to Travel + Leisure

by Martha Edwards on

Everyone seems to be making the effort to go green lately, and if you’re not, you should be. The tourism industry is no exception — hotels are trying to clean up their impact on the environment, and many are doing more than just leaving a sign in the bathroom asking you to keep your used towels.

And with this focus on everything green, a number of hotels are popping up that are environmentally friendly without compromising luxury. Travel + Leisure recently put together a list of the top 10 green hotels in the world. Here’s what made the list:

  1. Spice Island Beach Resort, Grenada
  2. Sonveva Fushi Resort & Six Senses Spa, Maldives
  3. Tiamo, Bahamas
  4. Whitepod, Switzerland
  5. Devil’s Thumb Ranch, Colorado
  6. Chumbe Island Coral Park, Zanzibar, Tanzania
  7. Adrere Amellal, Egypt
  8. Campi Ya Kanzi, Kenya
  9. Hotel Mocking Bird Hill, Jamaica
  10. Tenuta Di Spannocchia, Siena, Italy

So I say, next time you’re taking a trip, do something good for the environment and stay at one of these luxury hotels. It’s money well spent, don’t you think? To find out why each made the list, check out this article.