Rooted beyond 40: More than 4 decades of El Nido’s Sustainable Tourism Story and the challenge of rising to the global commitments towards 2030

Five years later, post-pandemic at that, El Nido Resorts and Lio Estate continue to rise to the challenge of standing true to its sustainability promise. In March of 2023, Pangulasian Island, El Nido Resorts’ eco-luxury property hosted the weeklong inaugural ACTAI Asia Pacific summit. ACTAI stands for Athletes, Conservationists, Technologists, Artists, and Innovators. The highlight of the summit was ACTAI’s commitment to support marine conservation in Palawan..

El Nido Resorts and Lio Estate have always believed that Tourism can be a tool for nature conservation and community-building through a quadruple-bottom-line approach of financial growth, community engagement, organizational development, and environmental sustainability.

While providing leisurely guest experiences remains to be the top priority, all such is done without compromising the needs of the local community and the environment. Ten Knots can continue doing this: it is the first resort company in the country that has an in-house Sustainability Team that integrates resort operations with collaboration for community engagement and conservation. For example, in 2023, Ten Knots and the Earth Observatory (EO) of Singapore, an institute of Nanyang Technological University, came together for an ecological survey of specific reefs in Bacuit Bay, El Nido.

The project with EOS' Coral Reef Geomorphology Group is centred on acquiring a standardised data set and digitised reef models. This aims to estimate coral community composition, coral cover, and associated environmental data using diverse methodologies. Each surveyed site will undergo annual reassessment to analyze changes over time.

Ten Knots has also taken on the stewardship of a rare coral Pectinia maxima(Pmax). Temperature, light, and pH sensors around the coral colonies were deployed to monitor Pmax’s environmental growth conditions. Data from the sensors are regularly retrieved by Sustainability Officers and shared to scientists for analysis. Focus on Pmax does not distract Ten Knots from its stewardship of El Nido’s over 230 coral species, the highest in the area.

Just as committed to corals is Ten Knots to its neighboring coastal communities. With GivePower and Aptos Solar Technology International, we undertook a solar build at Sitio Kiminawit.

Located a few nautical kilometers from our island resorts, an old and abandoned building at Sitio Kiminawit was energized with solar power and converted into a livelihood center. It is hoped that this would empower women in the community to better utilize sewing machines previously donated to them to create masks during the pandemic. No longer constrained by the need to journey to the mainland, they can craft and market their wares locally.

Moreover, Ten Knots is committed to the Ayala Group's goals to showcase initiatives in Circular Economy. From running its own Materials Recovery Facilities to integrating composted food waste into its vegetable farm, Ten Knots is able to maintain very low percentages of landfill-directed residual waste. With the island resorts still fully dependent on gensets, the struggle of Scope 1 reduction remains very real. But with more than 40 years of experience and leadership in sustainable tourism, Ten Knots is confident that with the help of other SBUs, we will find that elusive solution to our carbon dilemma.

Support the Ten Knots journey and download the 2023 Sustainability Report by completing the Expression of Interest form.