Sustainable Tourism Criteria
1. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management and Reduction
Air and ground transportation alone are two of the largest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions effecting global climate change. By decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, you can reduce global warming and promote energy independence from foreign non-renewable sources. Click below to see the practices for your given industry.
2. Solid Waste Management, Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling
By minimizing the amount of solid waste that goes to landfills and incinerators, you can reduce negative environmental impacts. Most importantly, minimizing waste will limit the amount of greenhouse gases that are released throughout a product’s life cycle of extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal.
3. Freshwater Consumption Reduction
It’s often stated that water will become the most sought-after natural resource of the 21st Century. Water scarcity is already a reality throughout the world. Reducing your level of water consumption will help reduce your operating costs while helping conserve this precious resource.
4. Wastewater Management
Conserving water not only means reducing consumption, but also maintaining and monitoring the quality of the water we put back into the environment. The purpose of wastewater management is to protect aquatic ecosystems and increase the availability of potable water for human consumption and use.
5. Energy Efficiency, Conservation, and Management
By investing in renewable energy technologies such as solar, wind, hydro, and thermal power and integrating energy efficiency practices into your operations, you can reduce greenhouse gases. Integrating energy efficiency practices into your operations will help conserve natural resources and reduce operational costs by 10-20%, providing a quick return for taking simple actions.
6. Ecosystem and Biodiversity Conservation
Business activities undoubtedly affect our ecosystems and biodiversity. Biodiversity provides us with life-sustaining systems such as clean air, productive ecosystems, fresh water, and fertile soil. We also depend on healthy, diverse gene pools for our understanding of medicine and science and for our own survival. Ecosystem and biodiversity conservation helps to maintain the delicate ecological balance of the planet.
7. Land Use Planning and Management
Establishing land use planning strategies and management plans in conjunction with stakeholders will help to reshape and guide community land use decisions toward sustainability and quality of life, benefiting everyone. Exercising your influence to protect the environment and enhance the well-being of local communities through land use planning and management will help to ensure your business positively impacts both.
8. Air Quality Protection and Noise Reduction
We’re all exposed to environmental pollutants and related health risks almost every day of our lives. Though some risks are almost unavoidable, by ensuring that your air is clean and that your noise levels do not adversely affect others, you can take action to address the less visible impacts your business may have on its surroundings.
9. Preserving the Social Norms and Cultures of Local and Indigenous Communities
Socio-cultural sustainability is achieved when businesses make a concerted effort to work with local people to maintain and protect the social structures as well as the cultures of the local communities where they operate. The best way to find out what impacts you are having on the local community where your business operates is to create opportunities for them to provide you with feedback.
10. Providing Economic Benefits to Local and Indigenous Communities
Economic sustainability is achieved in part when businesses actively contribute to the economic well-being of the local communities where they operate without adversely affecting other aspects of local people’s lives. Tourism has the potential to support community development by providing jobs, educational and professional training opportunities, health care, and environmental stewardship.
11. Responsible Purchasing
One of the most powerful ways you and your business can help make the world a better place is to vote with your dollars through responsible purchasing. Responsible purchasing, also known as green purchasing and environmentally preferable purchasing, includes buying locally produced products and services from locally owned businesses as well as purchasing products that have a reduced environmental impact.
12. Training and Education for Employees and Clients
Educating your customers and training your employees is a critical component to achieving your goals and objectives. By educating customers and training employees on the current sustainability policies and the related goals and objectives, you are improving your chances for a successful sustainability management system. Both the employees and the clients need to understand what your actions are, why they are important, and how they can positively contribute to your overall sustainability effort.
