ENN: Environmental News Network [[Affiliate News 1290]].

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Leading global corporations, small businesses, NGOs and individuals helping drive the sustainable certification trend are gathering from around the world at an conference and gala in New York City on May 17th, hosted by nonprofit group the Rainforest Alliance. Participants will discuss the burgeoning importance of marketing certified sustainable products, and honor those emerging as leaders in the sustainability movement.

The honorees are companies and people exemplifying the use of sustainable certification to drive positive change, whether by growing and selling sustainable coffee, educating hotel and tour operators on best practices for sustainability, or making it easy for consumers to access certified paper and wood products.

Those receiving awards from the Rainforest Alliance on May 17th include: ECOM / Atlantic (USA), the world’s third-largest coffee roaster; Grupo Roda, a conglomerate of Bolivian forestry companies; Horizontes Nature Tours, pioneering Costa Rica ecotourism company; the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, owners of the Juan Valdez coffee trademark; Pictorial Offset Corporation, a global graphic arts supplier; Ueshima Coffee Company, Ltd, Japan’s leading coffee company; Roberto and Diego Llach of Wild Forest Coffee, a family-owned sustainable coffee farm in El Salvador; and wildlife photographer Art Wolfe.