Green Globe Index Announces Partnership in Africa Market

LONDON –(PR NEWSWIRE)—May 19, 2009– Green Globe Index today announced the signing of a partnership with The Heritage Environmental Management Company, South Africa, the region’s leading environmental management company for the travel and tourism industry.

Heritage is the only company in South Africa delivering focused and region-specific environmental management programs providing a competitive advantage to tourism operators in the field of sustainability and responsible tourism. The Heritage Environmental Rating Program has been recognized by Green Globe as compatible for with the Green Globe index and certification programs.

Greg McManus, Managing Director of Heritage, said, "This partnership represents a new commitment to sustainable and responsible travel in Africa and to the future of destinations across the continent. We are pleased to be part of the largest global initiative of its kind and to the development of growing awareness of environmentally responsible travel worldwide."

Hugo Kimber, Managing Director of Sustainability Intelligence Limited, who created and manages the Sustainability Index program licensed to Green Globe International, said, "Our index certification program is rapidly expanding globally through significant partnerships with the best in the business. Our international collaborations, as well as our marketing efforts aimed at tourist source markets in Europe, Americas, and Asia/China are exclusively available to Green Globe Index and certification clients and will bring major benefits to Heritage clients. Signing this agreement at the completion of a hugely successful INDABA has reinforced our plan to be working on the ground with regional experts who have exceptional standing in their communities and real respect for Green Globe’s world renowned brand."

"Green Globe will work closely with Heritage to integrate the Heritage Environmental Rating Program and ensure that the tourism businesses here can be assured that they have achieved the highest level of internationally recognized sustainability indexing and certification.", said Guido Bauer, CEO Green Globe Certifications.

"We are extremely pleased to have Green Globe Index extending our reach into Africa. This partnership approach will pay dividends to Heritage clients and the environments and communities they work in, as well as build returns for Green Globe shareholders.", added Mr. Kimber.

The Green Globe brand and program, which traces its roots back to the United Nations Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, where 182 Heads of State endorsed the Agenda 21 principles of Sustainable Development, has primarily been used in the travel and tourism industry but is now being expanded to include a growing number of environmentally responsible businesses in a variety of market sectors. The Green Globe brand is an ideal symbol for the world’s increasing awareness of environmental responsibility and response to global climate change.

About The Heritage Environmental Management Company
HERITAGE and its various niche programmes form a single philosophy of environmental stewardship, aiming to help businesses across a number of industry sectors achieve financial savings while supporting the environment. Heritage has been formed to provide operators of all types of businesses with an effective environmental management and rating alternative designed to reduce and limit the impact that their operations have on their environment. Heritage incorporates the standards of seven international programs in a three-tiered approach to sustainable and responsible operations. If you would like further information, please visit www.heritagesa.co.za/default.asp

About Green Globe
Green Globe, an affiliate member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, is the leading global provider of sustainability index, benchmarking and certification programs, carbon footprint calculation and reduction programs, and a broad range of consulting services. Green Globe International has been admitted as. Over 5,000 hotels, destinations, attractions, airports, etc globally have been benchmarked or certified since its founding in 1992 by The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the business leaders’ forum for the travel and tourism industry. For more information on the company and its programs, please visit www.greenglobeint.com.

Green Globe services in the Asia Pacific are distributed, managed and sold exclusively by Green Globe Asia Pacific (GGAP) through EC3 Global. If you would like further information on GGAP, please visit www.greenglobe.org.

About Sustainability Intelligence
Sustainability Intelligence, with headquarters in the United Kingdom, is engaged in the business of systems development, support, management, aggregation, publishing and analysis of sustainability related content and data for government, corporate, and consumer markets around the world. Sustainability Intelligence is backed by a team of carbon and sustainability related experts from private sector, NGO and academia, supported by an IT team of skilled engineers and support staff.

The Sustainability Index, along with a full range of other carbon related tools, have been licensed by Sustainability Intelligence to Green Globe and other associations, NGO and private companies around the world to support reduction and management of carbon emissions for all industry sectors.

For the travel and tourism industry, Sustainability Intelligences, in collaboration with The Carbon Consultancy, offers Indexing solutions for Green Meeting Events; Destination Sustainability Indexing; Carbon Responsible – resource for Calculation, Analysis, Management and Reporting for corporate, government, events, and individual travel (air, hotel, auto and rail); Carbon offset guide – what are they and who sells what; and the Green Hotel Finder – 7,000 global green rated hotels; etc. For more information on the company and its programs, please visit www.sustainabilityintelligence.com.

Contacts
Green Globe Index
Sustainability Intelligence
Tel: +44 8456 448 411
[email protected] or [email protected]