Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming quite a buzzword in Thai business circles these days - doing what you can to minimise your company's effect on the environment and maximising its contributions to society. But to Paninart Tiyaphorn, managing director of Pimalai Resort and Spa, that has always been kind of second nature.

The term did not even exist two decades ago, when Paninart's family began its painstaking resort development in remote Ba Kan Tiang Bay on Koh Lanta, off the Andaman Coast of Krabi province.

Even to this day, you would be hard-pressed to find a resort in the region that works as hard to ensure that not only is its balance sheet in the black, but also the community and environment in and around the resort are healthy and happy.

"What other choice do we have?" asks Paninart. "This is the last piece of pristine natural beauty Thailand has, so we must protect it."

Paninart is rather candid about the unfortunate effects the tourism industry has brought to Thailand's once-enchanted shorelines. Even 20 years ago, she found it difficult to find an untrammelled beach. But once she did, she and her family decided they did not want to keep it themselves. So despite having no experience in resort management or the tourism industry, they resolved to do their best to both protect their discovery and share it.

"We wanted to do this for Thailand, to give us all something we could be proud of, something that could be a model and set an example," Paninart says.

She and her architects travelled the region surveying other luxury resorts before setting Pimalai's designs to paper. They wanted to see the top-tier accommodation and guest services being offered by others before finalising their own ideas on how to mould such a product to meet their criteria for environmental management.

Paninart recalls it was extremely difficult but increasingly rewarding, hiding the 100-rai resort among the tropical forests rising up from the Andaman shore. Most challenging was their independent water-management system. They chose not to draw water from the island's limited groundwater supplies, but rather devise an intricate rainwater-capture system. All effluent is treated on site, and the water is recycled for the resort's landscaping needs.

There are no permanent docks at Ba Kan Tiang Bay, only a floating jetty to minimise the environmental effects on the bay. And delicate site planning ensured that no trees were cut down. The resort's secluded feeling is enhanced by a very low density of only 120 guestrooms and villas dotting the site. Even something as innocuous as low-wattage, energy-saving compact fluorescent lights, largely shunned in the guestrooms of most five-star resorts, are ubiquitous at Pimalai.

"Something like this is not going to make you money in the short run. It's a long-term investment, and we're very pleased with how it's paying off," Paninart says.

While the public is only beginning to recognise the beauty and splendour of Koh Lanta as a tropical-paradise getaway, it's clear the world is paying attention to Pimalai.

In the past year, Pimalai has received three awards for its commitment to excellent service and environmental protection. It was named Thailand's leading resort for 2007 in the World Travel Awards, hailed by The Wall Street Journal as the "travel industry's equivalent of the Oscars".

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry selected Pimalai for its Green Resort Gold Class of 2007.

And last month, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors awarded Pimalai it's Gold Palm Resort membership, in recognition of its "commitment to excellence and professionalism in the areas of recreational scuba-diving, diver education, dive travel and accommodation, safety and environmental awareness".

Paninart says none of this could have happened without commitment to good people.

"If the back of the house is in order, we know the front of the house is good."

From the beginning, Pimalai invested in top-quality employee housing and meal services. It also set out to train and fill the vast majority of the hundreds of positions needed to operate the resort with local labour. Initially, this proved difficult, because the Koh Lanta workforce was not sufficiently skilled to be much more than maids and gardeners. Now that Pimalai is in its seventh year, locals occupy the ranks of the Food and Beverage Department and other roles with more direct access to the guests. Local sea gypsies captain Pimalai's fleet of speedboats that transport visitors from the Krabi mainland to the resort's front door.

Pimalai's commitment to Koh Lanta extends beyond the resort, as well. Local schools receive contributions of supplies and textbooks, while regular beach clean-ups around the island are organised and support provided for scientists helping to preserve the aquatic habitat.

It is clear that to Paninart, such a holistic business model is as natural as the ebb and flow of the tide. It's almost as if any financial rewards are secondary when you hear her recount one of her many stories of Thai guests approaching her when she chips in to help around the resort.

"Hearing them thanking us for building this, for [strengthening] Thailand's national pride, is one the best rewards we can have."

Nantiya Tangwisutijit

The Nation