Award-winning Phuket resort Indigo Pearl has extended its ‘green’ commitment, teaming up with the international Sustainable Smiles movement promoting environmental, social and economic sustainability among local communities.

The initiative is being launched with environmental education for over 150 students at two local schools near the 5-star resort, Wat Mongkol and Technical Thalang College.

It will also be implementing programmes with the students, resort staff and the local community to help improve the environment at nearby Nai Yang Beach and the surrounding area.

Already six members of Indigo Pearl staff clean the beach and beach road daily, along with at least two volunteers from Dewa Phuket and Nai Yang Beach Resort.

In addition, monthly beach cleaning is being organised, starting from July 23 at 4pm, with the local community, guests, schools and local businesses encouraged to become involved in these activities.

A Student Action Program (S.A.P.) will guide, train and supervise two small groups of students to design and implement their own community-based environmental project in Nai Yang.

They will receive funding from Indigo Pearl and Seedlings of Change “Bread for the Soul” Mini-Grant Program to implement a project of their choice.

The students will have to survey the surrounding community, interview locals and develop a project plan based on time, budget and need – encouraging local community members, businesses, the local government and other stakeholders to be involved.

An educational programme for local villagers and shopkeepers on Nai Yang Beach Road is also being established.

Indigo Pearl Resort has established a ‘Green Pearl’ environmental committee to execute the green mission.

“Nai Yang is one of the most beautiful beaches in Phuket. It brings a lot of revenue to local businesses so it is important to protect the environment and life there,” said General Manager of Indigo Pearl, Arnaud Girodon.

“We share many of the same goals as Sustainable Smiles with strong team of passionate and dedicated employees who really care about the environment and want to make a difference in the local community.”

Creating good environmental awareness among local children at a young age is the key, he added.

“They are the future generation. If we can teach them to pay attention to how their actions impact the environment and provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to solve environmental problems then they can lead the way to a greener environment and more sustainable future.”

Sustainable Smiles launched the partnership with an environmental workshop for 50 Indigo Pearl staff, engaging in group exercises, presentations and discussions about environmental issues and solutions on how they can improve the environment in their community and at the resort.

Kelly Franklin, who founded the movement, said:  “We will be continuing these workshops weekly to build environmental awareness and a strong team to help our efforts to bring environmentally sustainable change to the local community.”

She founded Sustainable Smiles (www.sustainablesmiles.org) as a nonprofit organisation based out of the United States in 2009 to promote environmental, social, and economic sustainability and appreciation for nature in communities around the world.

The movement has initiated environmental education and beach cleanups elsewhere in Thailand at Thai Muang Beach in Phang-Nga Province.

Indigo Pearl has a unique environmental heritage complementing its luxurious style. The resort evokes Phuket’s tin mining industry, incorporating unique furnishings and art pieces from recycled industrial relics.

The concept of ‘’found industrial art” was implemented by renowned international architect and interior designer Bill Bensley, in collaboration with Australian John Underwood, a resident Phuket artist.

Students at Technical Thalang College are now about to finish our two month environmental education course which in addition to improving their knowledge about a wide variety of environmental topics, has also improved their teamwork, presentation, and communication skills.    We feel these students are now ready to take on their own Student Action Program to promote environmental awareness and bring their community together to help solve an environmental issue.

This week our first year students at Technique Talang College have voted and selected 2 team leaders from their class to lead them in researching, designing, and implementing two different Student Action Programs in their local community.  Beginning of August the two groups of students will come up with a research goal and then design questionnaires and survey sheets accordingly for when they conduct their interviews and surveys in their local community.  We are also greatful to have specialized staff from Indigo Pearl join us in the classroom next month to help train the students about the duties and responsibilities of the different management positions our students will be assigned, such as public relations and media, secretary, purchasing and finance, and safety and risk analysis team.

S.A.P. Program Ready to Begin

We have selected 2 groups of students from Technical Thalang College to participate in our S.A.P program.  These students are 15 and 16 years in the field of Hotel Management.  We will start the program beginning of August.  For the first month students will have to design questionaires to interview local community members and survey the environmental problems in their community.  After students return from their break in October they will have to finalize their environmental community-based project and implement it in November.

Below are pictures of the students that will participate in S.A.P.  Here they are presenting their groups poster explaining why biodiversity is important to them in their lives. 

S.A.P Students

This week our students discovered how life, work, business, and learning is all connected to the environment.

Sustainable Smiles would like to thank Seedlings of Change for selecting us as their next "Bread for the Soul" Mini Grant recepient.  This grant will go towards our Student Action Program (S.A.P.) which empowers students to design and implement their own environmental project within their local community.  Right now we are working with students at two different schools in Thailand, once a week (an 8 week program), teaching them about local and global environmental issues, biodiversity,  and solutions on how to solve environmental problems.  After our 8 week course is over, we will select two groups of students to engage in our S.A.P. program, funded by Seedlings of Change.  Here students will have to go out and interview local community members, businesses, and experts in their local area to find out what the environmental needs and concerns are.  Then they will have to come up with their own action plan on how to solve an environmental issue based on the pressing needs and concerns in the community based on time, feasibility, and budget.  Students are encouraged to involve community members, parents, and teachers in helping them implement their project. 

We will be starting this program in August 2010, and we are very grateful for Seedling of Change hard work in helping fund this program and we hope that with the success of this program we will be able to implement further S.A.P programs in the future.

Below are some pictures of our students this week in the classroom presenting 5 ways they can prevent the amount of trash being left on their local beach in Nai Yang, Phuket, Thailand

For more information about our program please visit our website at www.sustainablesmiles.org or blog at http://sustainablesmiles.blogspot.com/

 

A new, free service is coming to town June 30th with the power to enable increasingly creative projects in Missoula. Called the Creative Gig Service, it is a project of the Zootown Arts Community Center.

With the purpose of connecting artists to job opportunities, and businesses to the best services available, the Creative Gig Service – or CGS for short – breathes new life into Missoula's self-employment scene.


While similar in format to Craigslist, the CGS focuses on all that is creative, including: photography, exhibition opportunities, graphic design, writing and editing, web design, music gigs, general art gigs, artist to artist help, education and teaching opportunities, calls to artists, residencies, and items and services wanted.

The Zootown Arts Community Center fields calls from businesses looking for creative individuals to design logos, paint faces, create costumes, or photograph events. Now, with the click of a button, anyone in the community can connect to an artist for whatever project they can imagine.

Artists can browse the opportunities and connect to one another in one central website, allowing the free dissemination of ideas and resources. To submit a posting, send an e-mail to erin@zootownarts.org. On June 30th, look for the Creative Gig Service to go live at www.zootownarts.org.

The Creative Gig Service is made possible by a grant by Seedlings of Change. Check them out at www.seedlingsofchange.org.