Anurak Lodge in Thailand wins PATA Grand Award for sustainability

Anurak Com­munity Lodge’s green cre­den­tials secure the ‘best of the best’ award for oper­at­or YAANA Ven­tures.

YAANA Ven­tures, the oper­at­or of Anurak Com­munity Lodge at Khao Sok Nation­al Park in south­ern Thai­l­and, has been awar­ded the 2020 Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA) Grand Award in the Sus­tain­ab­il­ity category.

The win­ners were announced dur­ing the online PATA Gold Awards present­a­tion as part of Vir­tu­al PATA Travel Mart 2020, tak­ing place Septem­ber 23 – 27.

Twenty-three PATA Gold Awards were announced 24 Septem­ber at the vir­tu­al awards cere­mony. Three ‘best of the best’ Grand awards were giv­en: one each for mar­ket­ing, human cap­it­al devel­op­ment, and sustainability.

The cli­mate change/sustainability cat­egory was judged on meas­ures that cre­ate a low-car­bon, sus­tain­able future for the travel industry and engage loc­al com­munit­ies. Since open­ing in 2016, Anurak’s oper­a­tion has been guided by an eth­os of reduce, reuse and recycle. Anurak Com­munity Lodge achieved Trav­elife Gold cer­ti­fic­a­tion in 2019. 

Guests and staff today are encour­aged to save energy and water. Single-use plastic, Styro­foam and card­board plates are banned. Plastic straws have been replaced with bam­boo and met­al ones. An onsite recyc­ling sta­tion has been set up, along with a com­post­ing area. A grey water treat­ment fil­ter sys­tem for laun­dry wastewa­ter is in place. Water from that sys­tem is being used on the Rain­forest Rising pro­ject, Anurak’s pro­ject to  return two rai (3,226 sqm; 0.8 acres) of former palm oil plant­a­tion beside the lodge to indi­gen­ous low­land ever­green forest by 2023.

Com­ment­ing on the PATA award, Willem Niemeijer, the CEO and founder of YAANA Ven­tures said he and his staff were “immensely proud to have received the Grand award…it shows that a com­mit­ment to people, plan­et and profit is the way for­ward in tour­ism business.” 

Anurak Lodge man­ager George Newl­ing-Ward added: “Here at Anurak we see the forest, the sur­round­ing envir­on­ment and nat­ur­al hab­it­ats as the lifeblood of our com­munity, hence all our efforts to pre­serve the loc­al way of life and the abund­ant nature that sur­rounds us.”

About Anurak Community Lodge

Loc­ated a 75-minute drive from Sur­at Thani air­port, 2 hrs 30 mins from Phuket air­port and 2 hrs from Krabi air­port, Anurak Com­munity Lodge is an award win­ning eco-retreat for act­ive life­style vis­it­ors who respect nature and loc­al com­munity tra­di­tions. The 20-key lodge offers Deluxe Green, Eco Double, Eco Twin, and Deluxe Jungle Tent options. Sur­roun­ded by spec­tac­u­lar lime­stone karst scenery, the lodge is an ideal base to explore adja­cent Khao Sok Nation­al Park and majest­ic Chiew Larn Lake. Anurak Com­munity Lodge is Trav­elife Gold Cer­ti­fied. Full inform­a­tion and book­ing at AnurakLodge.com.

Anurak Com­munity Lodge
Address: 14/1 Moo 4, Klong Sok,
Phanom Dis­trict,
Sur­at Thani 84250
Phone: (+66) [0] 81 898 9271
Email: info@anuraklodge.com