Green Globe Index Announces Partnership with Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) for Central American and Caribbean Markets

LONDON –(PR NEWSWIRE)—June 26, 2009–Green Globe Index has entered into an agreement with Responsible Business Alliance, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) advisory partnership, for specified markets in Central America and the Caribbean.

Under terms of the agreement, Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) will act as a preferred representative of the Green Globe brand and its associated indexing systems and certification program in markets which include Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.

RBA has extensive relationships and contacts with tourism businesses and destinations in the targeted markets and will utilize its partnership with Green Globe to encourage businesses to adopt environmentally sustainable criteria, including participation in the Green Globe Index and the Green Globe Certification programs.

Costas Christ, Senior Advisor to RBA and an internationally recognized expert on sustainable tourism, said, "The next frontier in sustainable tourism is the creation of a recognized globally accredited certification that represents best practices, in the same way a Michelin star means culinary excellence, whether you are in Thailand, South Africa or New York. This will be a major step forward for the global travel and tourism industry, and Green Globe is working hard to lead the way."

Hugo Kimber, Managing Director of Sustainability Intelligence Limited, who created and manages the Sustainability Index program licensed to Green Globe International, said, "To create a universal sustainability index program which verifies tourism businesses’ sustainability credentials, we need partnerships in key locations across the world. RBA has strong credentials as CSR consultants in Central America and the Caribbean and understand the many benefits businesses receive when they can publicize their achievements through Green Globe index and certification."

Bradley Cox, Chief Operating Officer of Green Globe International, added, "At the World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit held in Brazil last week, the call for a universal ‘sustainability label’ was again raised. Green Globe, with its 15 year history in worldwide sustainability indexing and certification, is diligently working to earn this recognition. The global partnerships we have been building, most recently in Africa, Central America, the Caribbean, and the Asia Pacific, demonstrate Green Globe investment in global collaboration."

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 Responsible Business Alliance
Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) is an initiative created in 2008 to promote Corporate Social Responsibility in the tourism sector and other business enterprises in Central America and the Caribbean, based upon best practices in social and environmental responsibility. The RBA philosophy includes 5 fundamental pillars for business action: Community Benefits, Client Satisfaction, Human Resource Development, Environment Sustainability and Building Best Practice Alliances. For more information on RBA, please visit www.rbasite.com.

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
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