Green Globe Index for the Los Angeles Business Certification Program Begins

LOS ANGELES —September 2, 2009—Los Angeles launched its Green Business Certification Program today, spearheaded by the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). Founded on use of the Green Globe Index sustainability tool, the program is aligned with the Los Angeles City’s Green Business Certification Program for office/retail, restaurants/hotels, auto repair shops, etc., in partnership with Green Seal; The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce; and DineLA, which represents the restaurant sector in Los Angeles and is a part of Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau..

The LACCD’s nine-colleges, with its established corporate training divisions and each college’s ability to organize industry-focused training services, will assist businesses in using the Green Globe Index to measure, monitor and learn how to reduce their carbon footprint through efficient delivery of information via workshops, seminars, and training events throughout the City of Los Angeles.

Speaking on behalf of Green Globe Index, Charles Kao, Chairman of Sustainability Index Limited, the creator and manager the Sustainability Index program licensed to Green Globe International, said, "This is a momentous day for Los Angeles, as it joins the many other US and international communities begin their path towards a reduced carbon economy. More and more, have adopted the Green Globe Index as the foundation to their sustainability program, due to its simplicity, low cost and related learning support. The Los Angeles model is being looked at for adoption at many cities across the US."

"The Green Globe Index will be adapted to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR program with 80,000 participating businesses, government and educational entities shortly", said Hugo Kimber, Head of the Green Globe Index program and Managing Director of Sustainability Index Limited. "This will allow the existing 80,000 ENERGY STAR participating organizations to also measure their water, waste and social sustainability, as well as Green Globe Index participants to register in the ENERGY STAR program."

"This complements well with Green Globe Index’s current programs developed in collaboration with European Union, UNEP, UNWTO, PATA, Green Meetings Council, and others.", added Mr. Kimber.
Key mandates of the Los Angeles Green Business Certification Program include:

—Green Business Program Development
• Provide a road map to create and launch the City of Los Angeles Green Business Program, with an emphasis of "beyond compliance"

• Provide a detailed comparison of the cost-effectiveness of other business certification programs in the State, including an analysis of the most cost-effective strategy for the City of Los Angeles program.

• Proposed program needs to coordinate with the Los Angeles Green Lodging Program

• Promote program participation to small to medium sized businesses in targeted business sectors (restaurants, retail/office, auto repair shops) including hotel lodging industry, as well as Los Angeles businesses in general

• Develop and recommend incentives for green business participants, such as, but not limited to, subsidies, rebates, and other recognition

• Work with local business groups, utilities, agencies & service districts to promote green business program to targeted business sectors

• Provide technical assistance to businesses where needed

• Develop and review periodically industry specific checklists and program standards for targeted businesses sectors and additional business sectors as needed

• Provide site verification of checklists provided by green business applicants

• Develop metrics for site assessment and follow-up to show cost savings and greenhouse gas emissions reduction and other environmental impacts to targeted business sectors

• Collect regulatory compliance information (permit #s, business declaration of compliance) to provide to the Environmental Affairs Department, for verification of regulatory compliance

—General Business Outreach
• Develop and update Web site to include newly certified businesses and new industry outreach

• Place ads in local newspapers, Chamber of Commerce newsletters and other business oriented media

• Prepare and distribute quarterly Business Updates

• Promote information sharing among certified green businesses and candidates

• Collaborate on business & public promotions with City government and Chambers of Commerce

• Participate in other business networking activities, including nonprofit, business, industry associations, utility events

—Public Promotions
• Update web site with new green business info and make listings more easily accessible by business type

• Maintain & distribute printed directory of City of Los Angeles Certified Green Businesses

• Work with media on Green Business features

• Participate in regional public promotions & carry out local promotions

• Participate in Earth Week and other public events in the City of Los Angeles

— Secure Partners and Funding Commitments
• Develop partnerships including Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with other City and regulatory agencies and community and non-profit organizations. Prepare, plan, and hold meeting(s) with partners when necessary for verification of compliance and for developing incentives for the program

• Work on greenhouse gas emissions and cost savings metrics and other information gathering in consultation with the Environmental Affairs Department staff and California Green Business Network

• Certify interested government/utility partner operations

• Secure funding or grants from partner agencies and other organizations/agencies

• Coordinate outreach with the Environmental Affairs Department and local partners and support/supplement local efforts

• Send Quarterly Updates to the Environmental Affairs Department and partners

• Partner with local colleges/universities to provide training and/or business courses to students/site verifiers/assessors and current business owners/operators on green business program standards and best management practices

• Outreach to managers/decision makers in partner/potential partner agencies

• Recognize/Promote sponsors’ involvement

• Apply for appropriate local, state & federal grants

• Support City Council & Board resolutions recognizing Green Businesses

—Participate in State Program
• Assist with developing and begin implementing a new data tracking system to be used statewide through the California Green Business Network (CAGBN)

• Share information with established and new Green Business Programs (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Solano, San Mateo, Santa Cruz-Monterey, San Diego, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, and other municipalities interested in participating or launching a Green Business Program)

• Coordinate with other ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ business certification, accreditation or rating programs

• Promote Green Business Program to New Industries

• Identify new industries of common interest to partners in the City of Los Angeles & the region

• Participate in new standards development with other local Green Business Programs in state when possible

About Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD)
LACCD is the largest community college district in the United States educating more than 130,000 students at nine campuses, spread throughout 36 cities in the greater Los Angeles area. Affordable, accessible and practical, the LACCD offers opportunity for a diverse student population eager for skills, knowledge and upward mobility. Serving adults of all ages, meeting the needs of a society where "lifelong learning" is the rule and multiple careers and continual retraining are the norm. More than half of all LACCD students are older than 25 years of age, and more than a quarter are 35 or older. For more information about LACCD, please visit http://laccd.edu/.

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.

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