UNWTO invites EU accommodation sector to join Hotel Energy Solutions initiative

LONDON —August 16, 2009— On behalf of the EU Hotel Energy Solutions (HES) project, UNWTO and UNEP, announced the opening of registration to all EU hoteliers interested join HES and register for Green Globe Index. The collaborative program is designed to help hoteliers cut their business operational costs by becoming more energy efficient.

Hotel Energy Solutions is an EU co-funded initiative coordinated with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA), European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), designed to boost the competitiveness of the European Union tourism sector by increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable technologies. The Green Globe Index, a simple common global internet based measurement system for electric, water, waste and social sustainability provides the collaborative tool to facilitate sustainability measurement, monitoring and research under HES.

The objective of the HES and Green Globe Index program is to increase energy efficiency in the accommodation sector by 20% and the use of renewable energy by 10%. The initiative has been developed in line with the UNWTO Davos Declaration Process that Tourism will be at the leading edge of the global response to climate change.

"Green Globe Index is very pleased to collaborate with HES project and help further continued sustainability research and development in energy efficiency for the accommodation sector", said Hugo Kimber, Managing Director of Sustainability Index Limited, the creator and manager the Sustainability Index program licensed to Green Globe International. "The fruits of this project will not only benefit the EU but countries and regions throughout the world where Green Globe Index has been adopted".

EU accommodation proprietors can join the HES programme by registering their business details on the project homepage www.hotelenergysolutions.net and at www.greenglobeindex.net. Registration is open to all hotels located within the European Union and can be completed in English, Spanish, French, German and Greek.

Registered hotels will gain direct access to the Green Globe Index management tools currently available worldwide and Hotel Energy Solutions tools as they are developed over the course of the next year. They will also become part of a best practice sharing network and receive free invitations to conferences and events on how to effectively implement energy efficiency and renewable energy management.

About UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO/OMT) is a specialized agency of the United ‎Nations and the leading international organization in the field of tourism. It serves as a ‎global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how.‎ UNWTO plays a central and decisive role in promoting the development of responsible, ‎sustainable and universally accessible tourism, paying particular attention to the ‎interests of developing countries.‎ Its membership includes 161 countries and territories and more than 390 Affiliate ‎Members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations ‎and local tourism authorities.

The Organization encourages the implementation ‎of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, with a view to ensuring that member ‎countries, tourist destinations and businesses maximize the positive economic, ‎social and cultural effects of tourism and fully reap its benefits, while minimizing its ‎negative social and environmental impacts.

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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