The Cairns Convention Centre, Australia’s first environmentally designed major public building has won awards for its energy and resource conservation features, including the first ever EIBTM environmental award. Some of the environmental features of the Centre include rain water storage, reducing water usage by half, a 30% energy saving with solar hot water and shading devices giving a 5% energy saving.

Skyrail Rainforest Cableway, one of the region’s most significant rainforest interpretation attractions, is a world leader in ecotourism and winner of the 2008 Qantas Australian Tourism Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism. With the vision of protecting tropical rainforest, the company has established the Skyrail Rainforest Foundation which raises and distributes funds for rainforest research and education projects.

Quicksilver was one of the first companies to be certified by Ecotourism Australia’s new Climate Action Program as a “Climate Action Innovator”. With Advanced Ecotourism Certification, guests visiting the Great Barrier Reef with Quicksilver can be assured the opportunity to learn about and appreciate this important World Heritage area.

Groups to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures can participate in a major revegetation project to save Hartley’s rare Type 7a rainforest. There are only 356 hectares of this rainforest left in the world. Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures recently received the Wet Tropics Management Authority 2008 Cassowary Award for Nature Based Tourism.

Many environmental management initiatives have been implemented throughout the CaPTA Group of companies; Rainforestation Nature Park has a selfsufficient water supply, organic fruit and vegetable produce, on-site waste water treatment facility and a tree planting program.