The world's largest sustainable tourism certification program EarthCheck, today announced the public release of a series of a library of free sustainability fact sheets, voluntary carbon offsetting information sheets and case studies.

Filling a gaping void, these documents reveal the operational savings made by some of the world's leading hotels and conferencing venues, which have implemented sustainability measures.

The reference materials were jointly developed by EarthCheck and the University of Queensland; providing a timely resource for business considering offsetting their emissions or looking to improve their triple bottom line. Businesses are being encouraged to provide the information to staff and  make it freely available to suppliers and clients from their web sites. Media are encouraged to retain the information as educational reference materials.

The documents demystify matters such as renewable energy, water consumption, energy efficient air conditioning and green procurement. Each fact sheet includes real industry examples; complete with capital investment costs, operational savings and the overall return on investment.

"We expect these resources to help business managers better understand the benefits of sustainable practices," explained Stewart Moore, CEO of EarthCheck. "Although they've been developed for the travel and tourism industry, they're of benefit to the wider community as well, as they help clarify the benefits of using an environmental management system that provides benchmarking and offers transparency through independent, third party audits".

The PDFs may be downloaded from www.earthcheck.org/en-us/wp/library.aspx