Responsible Hospitality
Our mantra at Panigram Resort is “responsible hospitality”.
For us responsible hospitality means existing in harmony with the local environment – both the natural setting and the local community. Being sustainable is about realizing the connection between all life and working to build a healthier relationship with our planet and the other people that live on it.
Environmental Sustainability
Panigram Resort is committed to protecting the natural heritage of Bangladesh. Instead of trying to tame the beautiful setting of our resort area, we are integrating that natural beauty into our design. We will design around the trees instead of cutting them down.
The buildings will be constructed from mud and bamboo – both readily available local building materials – using modern mud construction techniques that we will teach to the villagers. Properly designed lighting and ventilation will enable the resorts to be passively cooled, significantly reducing its energy footprint. We intend to use alternative energy, such as solar power, as much as possible.
Some other “green” features of our resort will include:
- Powered by alternative energy (solar and wind power)
- Passive heating, cooling, and ventilation (mud architecture naturally does this)
- Composting
- Water collection and gray water recycling
- Green roofs
- Handmade toiletries from ingredients grown at the resort
- Restaurant food prepared with fruits and vegetables that are organically grown on site
- Landscaping with edible plants
- Environmental education program in a local school
Social Responsibility
Sustainability isn’t just about using recycled materials and alternative energy, however. It is also about creating a dialog with the community and building a place that is socially, as well as physically, integrated into the host environment.
We are including the villagers in the creation of the resort in many ways, from hiring them as construction workers and resort staff, to working with local artists and craftsmen to develop products for our resort. Panigram will support women’s cottage industries by purchasing all of the quilts from an NGO in the area that produces nakshi kantha, traditional Bangladeshi embroidery. We will partner with local artisans to produce the pottery, flatware, and glassware for the resort (where they meet our quality requirements) to support the community and give the restaurant a local flavor. Panigram will also sponsor an environmental education program in a nearby school to raise awareness of environmental issues and to promote recycling, composting, and alternative energy in the region. These measures will help maintain the beauty of the area and contribute to providing guests with an authentic cultural experience.
Panigram will also conduct small business seminars for entrepreneurs in the host community to teach them how they can adapt and build businesses that cater to the new, incoming tourist market.
Voluntourism
The resort will also be involved in “voluntourism” efforts. Guests will be able to spend time volunteering in a local school or helping to build homes for villagers. Voluntourism activities will vary from week to week, so please check back to see what opportunities may be available during your stay.
Latest Responsible Hospitality News
Do You Want to Teach English in Bangladesh?
Posted by Kristin Boekhoff on July 20th, 2011Are you an artist who wishes you had more time to hone your craft? Are you sick of the rat race and are looking for a quiet retreat? Have you just finished a career and want to give back? Is the idea of working on a river next to a pottery village appealing to you? Would you like to have mango trees in your office? If so, come to Panigram! We are currently looking for two instructors to teach our villagers English; friends and couples are encouraged to apply. We will host you in our lovely five bedroom house with a private garden, orchard, and pond in Jessore city. A maid will do your laundry, clean your home, make your bed, and cook three meals a day for you. You will be able to enjoy the beautiful countryside each day as your own rickshawala takes you to and from the project site.
While in Bangladesh you can take an excursion to the nearby Sundarban forest, a world heritage site, and local archaeological sites. You will also have ample opportunities to take boat rides on the river, fish, and bicycle. We are looking for native English speakers who will teach classes 4-5 hours a day, five days a week starting in October 2011.
Click here for more information.
This would be your office...
English Lessons Resume in the Local Village
Posted by Bradley Kinsey on July 17th, 2011Through our days documenting the village neighboring Panigram, we have come to know many of the local children quite well. As we walked through the village, they would follow us energetically and inquisitively, watching us sketch, listening to us speak, and examining every little move we made. The children would point to animals, plants, food, or anything else that might (or might not) interest us, and relay its name to us in Bangla, laughing at our poor pronunciation a few times until we said the word correctly. In exchange, we would teach them the word in English, which they were so anxious to discover. These interactions were the first days of our English lessons, which have now officially located to the village school on Friday mornings.
We taught the kids the names of the body parts by singing "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes".
Winter Interns Work on Alternative Energy Project
Posted by Kristin Boekhoff on January 23rd, 2011A couple of months ago a student from Cornell emailed me. She said that she had applied for the summer internship last year at Panigram, but unfortunately was not selected. She said that she really wanted to work for my company and was wondering if she could come do a winter internship with me. I thought that three weeks was too short for an internship, but I was impressed with her initiative, and I always enjoy working with students, so I agreed. Her friend Cat (another Cornell engineering student) decided to join her. Read the rest of this entry »
Social Program Intern Arrives!
Posted by Kristin Boekhoff on September 30th, 2010Josie Vertz, the latest Panigram Resort intern, has arrived in Bangladesh! She will be spending the next 6-9 months developing some of Panigram’s socially responsible initiatives.
Josie Vertz
Josie Vertz
Born and raised in Berkeley, California, I did not stray too far from my roots receiving a BA in music, specifically vocal/opera performance, from the University of California, Berkeley. While pursuing my passion for music I stumbled upon the education abroad program; for me the logical place to study was Italy—the birthplace of opera. This immersion experience sparked an interest in an in-depth exploration of culture and it opened up a new passion.
After graduating in 2008, I accepted a position at Salesforce.com, Inc. located in San Francisco. I was impressed by the company’s philanthropic model. During my two year stint in the corporation, I found a home within the humanitarian sphere of the company. I was an active member of the Foundation’s Time Council, a group organized to allocate the funds earmarked for donation and volunteer events. As a member of the committee, I worked directly with outside non-profit organizations to champion and execute community volunteer events. Through this work I cultivated a strong sense of social awareness and a desire to give back.
As my rekindled passion in culture grew and I explored all the places in the world where I might go, I was drawn to Panigram. The images of a lush natural landscape and a company that was fully committed to social responsibility—the improvement of the people and community within the villages surrounding the resort—called to me. This opportunity seemed to satisfy my urge to experience an entirely foreign culture and my desire to contribute to something greater than myself. During my time here I am working on the implementation and expansion of the social initiatives Panigram has envisioned for the local community. Personally, I also hope to explore the musical culture of Bangladesh.
Surveying Our Villages
Posted by Timothy Chen on July 1st, 2010The past month of work has been an eye-opening experience for me as I explore Panigram’s surrounding towns with my fellow interns. My project for this summer is to collect baseline demographic data on these villages in order to better understand the community’s current condition—and its most pressing needs. Since the Bangladeshi government has no demographic information (and not even any maps of the area), it’s up to us to do what in the United States would include census administration, map-making, and social outreach. What our team is working on right now is the surveying: we visit villagers’ homes and go through a list of basic questions about household size, income, health, work, and education. By obtaining a snapshot of the community’s current state, we hope to gauge Panigram’s impact in future years by comparing today’s data to subsequent years’.
Some of the villagers in our host community.
Generating Power and Excitement at Panigram
Posted by Ranjeev Mahtani on February 13th, 2010I’ve spent the better part of the last few weeks meeting with parties involved in renewable energy system implementation here in Bangladesh. As mentioned before, the front-runners in terms of power sources are solar and biogas power. A good deal of interest is brewing in the power systems of Panigram resort among various energy providers in Dhaka, and work is underway in getting the feasibility of several means assessed.
Energy Alternatives at Panigram Resort
Posted by Ranjeev Mahtani on February 6th, 2010Having been in Dhaka for two weeks now, I’ve had the chance to settle into the job of Energy Engineering Intern for Panigram Resort. Initially, I spent my time continuing work on data that Kristin and the previous intern, Molly, had put together, and used that data to come up with a preliminary estimate of how much power and total energy the resort would consume on a daily basis. Armed with this information, my next task was to set out looking for providers of various means of energy generation here in Dhaka.
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