Online version: PDF - DTIE

UNIT 3: ENVIRONMENT LAW, VOLUNTARY INITIATIVES AND PRINCIPLES FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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Voluntary Initiatives in Tourism and Hospitality
As tourism and hospitality is largely made up of small and medium-sized
businesses, legislative enforcement and compliance verification is difficult.
Therefore, it is not surprising that voluntary initiatives such as eco-labels,
environment awards and environment codes of conduct are proving to be an
effective method of realising environment improvement across a large number of
businesses.
Eco-labels are of particular interest to small and medium-sized tourism and
hospitality businesses as they:
• Provide businesses with environment management information and
expertise, which may not be available in-house;
• Allow tourists – the consumers – to identify directly and select
environmentally responsible operators;
• Enable each business to develop an environment management system
to suit its individual circumstances.
As mentioned earlier, a significant number of international and national tourism
eco-labelling schemes are currently in operation, with many more in the pipeline.
These schemes are analysed and discussed in the 1998 UNEP DTIE publication
Eco-labels in the Tourism Industry.
Example of Good Practice
The Green Globe Americas Programme is a joint venture between Green Globe
and the Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST). This environmental
management and awareness programme promotes the membership and
certification of travel and tourism companies and destinations.
Both organisations work towards the implementation of Agenda 21 Towards
Environmentally Sustainable Tourism, and seek to establish tools and
programmes at local, national and regional levels. Together, they strive to
establish methodology for measuring the environmental performance of hotels.
Four certificates have been issued to date, all to hotels in Jamaica.
Many tourism organisations have also developed environment codes of conduct.
Amongst the first were the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Environment
Guidelines, inspired by the Business and Environment Charter of the International
Chamber of Commerce.