Green Globe 21 is an international Environmental and Social Management Certification Programme designed specifically for the travel and tourism industry. It is based on Agenda 21 of the United Nations Earth Summit 1992 and the Principles of Sustainable Development.
The Green Globe Standards are the foundation of the Green Globe 21 programme, allowing participants to benchmark their current environmental and social performance in order to measure, monitor and their performance in key areas. The key performance areas addressed encompass important environmental issues facing our planet.
The Standards are the basis for achieving Certification as they outline key requirements and which properties should meet to demonstrate that they are working towards mitigating their environmental impacts.
The standards under the Green Globe 21 Programme include:
- The Green Globe 21 Company Standard – for any company in the travel and tourism industry (E.g. hotels, restaurants, tour operators, visitor attractions, visitor centres).
- The Green Globe 21 Community Standard – for communities who have a community tourism product.
- The Green Globe 21 International Ecotourism Standard – to determine genuine ecotourism products (not companies), which includes tours, accommodations and attractions.
- The Green Globe 21 Design and Construct Standard – for the design and construction of tourism infrastructure with an environmentally responsible approach.
There are three stages within the Green Globe 21 programme:
 The Affiliate stage is the introductory stage where companies/communities express an interest in learning more about the programme.
 The Benchmarking stage involves measuring a company/community’s environmental and social performance in key performance areas including solid waste management, energy efficiency and management of freshwater resources.
 At this stage, companies/communities would have been successfully benchmarked and will now implement an environmental management system and meet the requirements of the standard. Certification involves undergoing an independent third party assessment. Benefits of Green Globe 21 Certification include improved overall environmental performance (from reducing, reusing and recycling), marketing and promotion benefits from the use of an internationally recognized logo, improved operational efficiency and improved corporate image and community relations.
TDC’s initiatives:
The TDC recognizes that tourism and the environment goes hand in hand. The success of the industry lies in the preservation of our natural resources which our international visitors travel to our shores to see and experience. As such we believe that sustainable tourism development is the key to ensuring that our natural endowments which draw visitors to our beautiful region remains for future generations to enjoy.
Green Globe 21 can be used as a tool in achieving sustainable development in the tourism industry. Green Globe 21 initiatives have been successfully implemented in other Caribbean territories and we believe that we can also achieve this success in our twin island republic. Hence, we are partnering with the Trinidad Hotels Restaurants and Tourism Association in identifying interested properties (about 10) to embark upon a pilot project which seeks to have a pioneer group of Green Globe certified establishments.
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