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
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.
New Panigram Intern!
Posted by Kristin Boekhoff on September 5th, 2009Panigram Intern Molly Johnson Tackles Waste Management
The phones were ringing off the hook on August 18th. My summer interns were due to go back to the United States that day and everyone from the village in Jessore called to say goodbye. It was a tearful departure; I think that most of the interns would have stayed in Bangladesh if they didn’t have to go back to school. Chi Chi’s boy group, Jonathon’s gang, and even our construction manager called multiple times - always asking when the interns were coming back to Bangladesh. As we said our watery farewells, the interns promised to come back for a reunion after the resort is open.
Fortunately, I didn’t have much time to mourn their departure as I had another Cornell intern scheduled to arrive early the next morning. Like my other interns, Molly had seen the summer internship advertisement. She decided that a summer was not enough for her, however, so she worked with the Engineering School to set up a co-operative semester at Panigram Resort. Read the rest of this entry »
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