There are many laws and principles governing the environment but
collectively they do not provide any guarantee that a tourism business
will be sustainable.
While there are some national and
international laws that impact tourism, such as the climate change
convention, biodiversity convention, endangered species act, clean water
act, clean air act, and protected areas legislation, they are only a
small part of the overall sustainability issues that tourism faces.
International laws are often hard to enforce, and national laws don't
usually address the day to day operations of a tourism business that
makes it sustainable.
One way to address this issue is through
voluntary initiatives such as sustainable certification programs. In
this way a tourism business can set itself apart from other tourism
businesses who do not feel a need to act in an environmentally friendly
or ethical way.
Not all certification programs however are equal.
In fact, some are little more than "green washing" and fail to even
provide third party certification.
For certification to be meaningful it has to be verified by a third party.
Dr.
John Izzo recently made the case for third party certification where he
states that 80 percent of consumers want to buy goods or services from
someone who is "either socially responsible or sustainable". Dr. Izzo
goes on to say, that only 16 percent of consumers believe advertising
that a business makes about its claims to be socially responsible or
sustainable. His suggested solution is third party certification where
someone else is saying the business is socially responsible or
sustainable.
View
Dr. John Izzo's comments below:
The
gold standard for certification in the tourism industry are the
certification programs recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism
Council (GSTC) that meet the
GSTC Criteria.
This
GSTC criteria has been carefully developed drawing on the best criteria
that has global applicability from over 10,000 criteria that were
examined. It includes sections on sustainable management, socioeconomic
impacts, cultural impacts, and environmental impacts.
The GSTC
criteria was built on decades of prior work and experience around the
world, and they take into account the numerous guidelines and standards
for sustainable tourism from every continent. During the process of
development, tourism businesses were widely consulted throughout the
globe, in both developed and developing countries, in several languages.
The result is a global consensus on sustainable tourism.
In
Florida we have been working with the Florida Green Lodging program to
assist in their third party certification, to explore new criteria that
would address the unique needs for coastal habitat and marine
environments, that are the Florida environment, and to encourage them to
upgrade their program to meet the GSTC criteria.
The Florida
Green Lodging program includes about 700 hotels in the state that make
up 25 percent of all accommodations and 45 percent of all beds. The
program has made major contributions by reducing waste, improving water
conservation, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and communication
and education of sustainability issues.
Some Green Lodging
programs, like the Tradewinds Resorts ,and Disney's Vero Beach Resort,
go much further than the required Green Lodging criteria. For example:
The
Tradewinds Grand Island Resort and Guy Harvey Outpost are actively
supportive of Tampa Bay Watch with their employees given time off to
help build oyster domes, plant sea grass, protect sea turtles, and other
environmental projects. The Guy Harvey Outpost has a program to
support sustainable fishing. When you order fish, it comes with a tag
that can be scanned with a mobile phone revealing where the fish was
caught, when it was caught, how it was caught, and who caught it.
TradeWinds Island Resorts, St. Pete Beach
The
Disney Vero Beach Resort has become a leader in sea turtle conservation
where they were one of the first to install turtle safe lighting.
Their conservation team monitors the beach marking turtle nests,
participates in research efforts with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Serivce, provides an extensive education program for guests to assist in
protecting turtles, and they host the
Tour de Turtles
event each July. Disney has also contributed $1.26 million in recent
years to sea turtle conservation. Disney Vero Beach Resort specifically
puts a high
emphasis on nature and conservation.
Disney's Vero Beach Resort, Vero Beach, FL
To learn more, view the video with my interview with JoAnn Shearer of the Florida Green Lodging program.
Tourism
certification programs that meet the GSTC criteria are now available
for tour operators, accommodations, and destinations.
There is
still need for many other areas of tourism certification that meet GSTC
standards, such as cruise ships, restaurants, zoos and aquariums, and
other attractions.
Tourism business can further sustainable practices by becoming certified through a program that meets the GSTC criteria.
Consumers
can play an important role in choosing those businesses that meet the
GSTC criteria, or in the alternative if GSTC business are not available,
choosing those businesses that have other third party certification.
Dr. David W. Randle - Director USF Patel College of Global Sustainability Sustainable Tourism, Managing Director International Ocean Institute Waves of Change Blue Community Initiative, and President & CEO WHALE Center
Earth Dr Reese Halter is a broadcaster, biologist, educator and author of
The Incomparable Honeybee and the Economics of Pollination.
