PATA maintains leadership in sustainability practices
BANGKOK, July 4, 2017 – PATA’s Bangkok headquarters has retained its EarthCheck Silver-level Sustainability Certification for a second consecutive year.
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) head office team worked with guidance from EarthCheck, a leading scientific benchmarking, certification and advisory group for the travel and tourism industry, in the collection and collation of relevant operational data on daily practices in order to be benchmarked against EarthCheck’s global sustainability standard.
The PATA head office received Bronze Benchmarked Sustainability Certification in 2015 and the Silver Certification was first awarded during the Association’s Annual Summit in Guam in May 2016. The EarthCheck benchmarking data embraces water and energy consumption, waste management, community contributions/activities and risk management as well as the use of paper and cleaning products.
PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy said, “Our head office in Bangkok has demonstrated impressive teamwork and applied a number of thoughtful initiatives in order to maintain Silver-level status. Year by year we are becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly when we carry out our daily duties. I hope that our actions and achievements may continue to inspire our members to pursue sustainable and responsible business practices.”
Stewart Moore, CEO and founder of EarthCheck, stated that the Pacific Asia Travel Association continues to provide important leadership. “PATA was the first administration office in Thailand to achieve this hard-earned and coveted recognition and is also the first to maintain this status. In doing so, PATA is encouraging its neighbours and peers to consider their social and environmental impacts that may, inevitably, provide economic and social benefits.”
EarthCheck Certified is built upon the belief that effective scientific benchmarking puts rigour and transparency into business processes, benefitting all stakeholders in the long term. According to the programme’s protocols, members must achieve Silver for five (5) consecutive years before seeking Gold Status.
“PATA is committed to treading lightly on the planet and has, for many years, taken steps to reduce its environmental impact. The Association aims to inspire its members to act in the interests of society at large, protecting the very reason that we all love to travel. PATA encourages its stakeholders to promote its commitment to sustainability and social responsibility in the travel and tourism sector and in their daily lives,” added Dr. Hardy. “We must stretch our sustainability horizons in order to protect our planet for future generations.”
Introduced on Canada Day and for world tourism: The Maurice Strong Legacy Scholarships
Today is Canada Day. It’s also a day to remember the late Maurice Strong a Canadian Hero, a Travel & Tourism Veteran, who led many historical sustainable development initiatives, including the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and its Agenda 21 implementation framework.
Professor Geoffrey Lipman, a tourism personality on its own, co founder and president of the Hawaii, Brussels, Seychelles and Bali based International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP ) =link to http://ictp.travel= and head of SUN x program introduced SUN x – the Strong Universal Network as being inspired by his friend and mentor, the late Maurice Strong, who led many historical sustainable development initiatives, including the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and its Agenda 21 implementation framework. Maurice collaborated with us for 20 years on Green Growth & Travelism issues. He knew climate change was eXistential for humanity, without a massive global response.
To continue his vision, we have created The Maurice Strong Legacy Scholarship Program. Each year, with our University partners, we will invite students – undergraduate and post graduate – to submit a 2,000-word essay on Impact-Travel -measured, green and 2050 climate resilient.
We will publish the top ten – each of which will receive a scholarship of $3000
For each published essay, we will enroll 20 “best efforts” as lifetime SUNx Members with access to our curated information on climate resilience and Impact-Travel, with an open invitation to our annual RefleXions event.
Sun Co-Founder, and President of ICTP, Professor Geoffrey Lipman said “We believe this growing network of smart young people, committed to advancing the case for climate resilience through Impact-Travel, will do much to keep Maurice Strong’s vision alive – and more importantly to build a responsive leadership cadre within the sector. It will link to the evolving Paris Accord implementation program and related SDGs. Maurice would have liked that.”
We are announcing the MSL Scholarship Program on Canada Day 2017 in honor of a great Canadian Internationalist.
We will provide 10 sponsored Scholarships this year and have a goal of 150, to celebrate Canada’s birthday. And looking for partners – public, private, and civil society – who share our vision of creating a movement within the travel and tourism sector, committed to developing climate resilience from the ground up.