Managing green tourism via the charter process

The Charter process

Charter Process:

1. High Level Analysis

Each business carried out a High Level Analysis (HLA – a pre-assessment sustainability analysis). The HLA helped create an awareness of what sustainable tourism might involve for the business, and provided an overview of the business for the Sustainable Tourism Assessor. The HLA comprised:

• Sustainable Business Practices Checklist
• Rate current performance against the charter
• Identify main sustainability issues for business

2. Sustainability Assessment

The next step was a site visit by the Assessor, resulting in the delivery of a Sustainability Report. The site visit, involved the Assessor and business owner/operator reviewing operations and business practices to identify opportunities for improvement, and current sustainable business practices

3. Sustainability Report

The report will focused on:

• Energy efficiency opportunities
• Reducing waste, increasing recycling and managing the supply chain
• Managing hazardous substances and using alternative low environmental impact chemicals, sprays, fertilisers and cleaning products
• Improving water quality and conservation
• Improving staff capability - through motivation, retention and training of staff on environmental sustainability issues
• Recognising the importance of engagement with the local community and the support this can bring
• Promoting genuine and authentic cultural participation and content

4. Action and Monitoring Plans

The business owner/operator and Assessor then worked together to create site specific Action and Monitoring Plans outlining steps towards improved environmental performance. Timeframes and resources required for these actions ranged from:

• Immediate implementation with little to no cost
• Medium term implementation with possible need for cost-benefit analysis
• Long term implementation with need for cost-benefit analysis

5. Implementation

The business owner/operator then worked towards implementing and achieving action plans and monitoring of progress.

6. Review and Update

Annual reviews and progress updates further refined and improved the process. The review process also offered the opportunity to explore any barriers to progress that arose. A benefit of the Sustainable Tourism Charters and recently launched Sustainable Tourism Advisors in Regions (STAR) programme is the nationwide network of businesses undergoing similar experiences. This provides a growing knowledge base of sustainable business practices and solutions to common problems.