Certified Paradisus

Paradisus Resorts – Melia Hotels International’s luxury all-inclusive brand – has been awarded Silver Certified status by EarthCheck, an environmental management program for the travel and tourism industry. To earn this recognition, Paradisus Resorts had to report its environmental footprint to independent auditors and adhere to internationally recognized standards of best practice.

Commenting on the certification, Alvaro Tejeda, senior vice-president of The Americas at Meliá Hotels International, said: “We feel proud to receive this distinguished honour recognizing our environmental conservation efforts.” Paradisus Resorts values the importance of implementing these sustainability practices and has worked diligently to ensure that we adhere to the high standards of EarthCheck.”

During the process, Paradisus Resorts was also required to submit a year’s worth of operational data which was benchmarked against industry best practice. The data was then measured against a number of key indicators such as energy and water consumption, total waste production, and community commitment.

EarthCheck CEO, Stewart Moore said that: “By taking a scientific approach to measuring the effectiveness of their sustainability practices, Paradisus Resorts was able to identify where they were out-performing others and where room for improvement remained.”

Moore continued: “Achieving certification is not an easy task and many organizations do not make it past the benchmarking stage. Securing a highly-ranked benchmarking result requires a strong commitment across all levels of an organization and the imbedding of sustainability principles into all policies and procedures.”

For economies reliant on travel and tourism, EarthCheck’s benchmarking data provides the only historical record of the global environmental impacts of the industry over the past 12 years. More importantly, it rates the effectiveness of industry efforts to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHG) and conserve natural resources at a project-by-project level.

For travellers the world over, it’s good to know there’s a credible body keeping track of sustainability claims. The EarthCheck logo represents the travel and tourism’s efforts to come together and take meaningful steps to address the serious challenges faced by the planet.

For more, go to http://www.paradisus.com or visit http://www.paradisus.com .