EarthCheck

EarthCheck Reveals its Star Performers

In a world first by a global certification body, EarthCheck has taken the unprecedented step of revealing its Star Performers. These travel and tourism operators have come to light as a result of the benchmarking of factual data relating to the environmental impacts of their operations.

To qualify as an EarthCheck Star Performer, organisations must achieve at or above best practice for eight or more EarthCheck benchmark indicators. None of the remaining indicators can fall below baseline; resulting in an overall achievement that exemplifies exceptional performance.

For more than a decade, EarthCheck has been collecting and analysing the travel and tourism industry's operational data. This has enabled them to establish sector performance benchmarks for base line and best practice, against which EarthCheck Members are rated.

Founded on the sustainable tourism principles of the Rio Earth Summit's Agenda 21, EarthCheck is one of just a handful of certification bodies that complies with internationally recognised standards such as the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14064 range of standards for greenhouse gas accounting.

It requires the compliance of EarthCheck Certified Members, and verifies their performance through a process of annual benchmarking and regular on-site or desktop audits that are conducted by an independent third party.

Among those organisations identified as Star Performers, are the InterContinental Singapore, Oamaru's Blue Penguin Colony, the Waterbom aquatic park in Bali, and the Convention centre.

This diverse spread from across the tourism industry provides an excellent indicator or just how seriously sustainable tourism practices are being embraced across the planet.

The EarthCheck Certification Program is trusted by more than 1300 travel and tourism organisations in 84 countries; helping them to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions, achieve regulatory compliance, reduce risk, and increase operational efficiencies.

"Any effort to reduce natural resource consumption has a ripple effect that flows well beyond the host destination", explained EarthCheck CEO Stewart Moore. "Sustainable tourism involves guests, operators and their suppliers and - when adopted by large hospitality brands such as ACCOR - can make a very real difference to the health of the planet."

Benchmark reports for EarthCheck's most recent Star Performers may be viewed on the newly-refreshed EarthCheck web site. This willingness to share what would normally be considered confidential information is yet another industry first to be chalked up by EarthCheck and its global network of Members.