October 14, 2008: Green Globe Lite, a new online programme, promises tourism operators a user-friendly, affordable tool to measure their business’ carbon footprint and environmental performance – and ways to cut operating costs. The programme targets small to medium-size businesses (SMEs) which make up a large percentage of the tourism industry. Green Globe Lite’s operational ‘health check’ involves a quantitative assessment of performance in the areas of energy consumption, CO2 emissions, water consumption, and waste production. It also provides guidelines for developing and implementing a sustainability policy. It meets international standards for carbon footprint calculation and is backed by the STCRC (Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre), the world’s leading tourism research body, which is backed by 17 of Australia’s leading universities and industry bodies. And it costs AU$2.30 per day.

August 13, 2008: Qantas will be hosting a series of free Sustainable Tourism seminars for tourism operators around Australia in October 2008.

July 30, 2008: Australian Minister for Tourism, Martin Ferguson AM MP, has announced that Tourism Australia will undertake a major national audit of the business events sector as part of its commitment to promoting Australia as a sustainable business events destination. Minister Ferguson said that with the opening of the first 6-Star Green Star environmental rated Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in 2009, there was a tremendous opportunity to market Australia’s strength in this area. “The corporate social responsibility (CSR) audit will demonstrate Australia takes the issue of sustainable tourism seriously and provide proof of the milestones being reached across the sector.”