We get a lot of questions about whether or not sustainability certification is right for a tourism business, so here are some insights for those of you who are exploring certification or really just want to become a more sustainable and responsible company.
What is sustainability certification?
What is sustainability certification and why does it matter? Tourists are looking for ways to be more sustainable in their travel, and to find businesses engaging in sustainable actions. Research shows that businesses who are actively trying to address social and environmental issues in their business retain employees better, and have a more loyal customer base. All of this works to generate higher returns for tourism businesses engaging in actions that are good for people, the planet, and profit.
Sustainable Tourism Certification shows customers, employees, and fellow business owners that you are doing good things for the world, and have the credibility to prove it.
What are my options?
As a tourism business considering sustainability certification, you have options:
- You can simply use the free Sustainability Score tool. It’s totally free to walk through all 83 of the questions that we would ask you if you were going to get certified. Simply submit your responses, set up a time to chat with us, and we’ll let you know how you did, plus give you a few key actions to work on.
- If you are really interested in certification, we say: go for it! Use the full assessment and report that our team will provide you as a sustainability lens. It’ll show you exactly how you’ve scored on every item and give you guidance on where you need to improve. You can use that as a framework from which to build a full sustainability action plan for your tourism business, or for your green team to implement at your tourism business.
What if I don’t want to get certified?
We do talk to some businesses that may never be interested in certification, but really want to do the right things! You might be one such business and that is OK. If you still want to do the right thing, then our suggestion is simple: get a Green Team going and build a Sustainable Action Plan for your business. We offer a ton of free resources on our blog to help you get started.
FastTrack to Sustainability
Thinking about taking a deeper dive? Join our FastTrack to Sustainability training program that walks your company through establishing baselines for your sustainability actions and helps you to set some big goals and targets of where you want to be in the future. Through this program, we help you develop that action plan and are available to help support implementation.
We hope this has helped you to understand whether sustainability certification is right for your business and some of the alternative steps that you can take along your path to sustainability!