Company Standard Overview
Green Globe- Six Steps to Sustainable Tourism Development
Green Globe is the worldwide Benchmarking, Certification and Performance Improvement programme for the travel and tourism industry. Green Globe assists organisations improve their economic, social and environmental sustainability all while being rewarded and recognised for it. These achievements are underpinned by the Green Globe Company Standard, which sets out the guidelines, procedures and Self-Assessment Checklists the organisation must follow to achieve sustainability.
The Green Globe Company Standard allows participants to commence their sustainability journey at bronze level, which begins with benchmarking and ends with certification. However, organisations are not bound to this and are free to fast track their journey and enter the programme at silver level certification.
The Process - Six Steps to Sustainable Tourism Practice
The Green Globe Company Standard consists of six key steps that establish the foundation for the journey to sustainable tourism practices. This process has two distinct stages:
- Benchmarking, and
- Certification
Each of the following six steps in the Company Standard has a set of key criteria which must be met by an organisation in order to become Benchmarked Bronze and/or Certified Silver.
Policy- The organisation must have a written Environmental and Social Sustainability Policy that addresses the scope and extent of the organisation's operations and he existing and potential environmental and social impacts relative to its location, the sensitivity of the local environment and the nature and scale of the services provided.
Benchmarking- The organisation must regularly record the level of impact of their activities, and keep records for at least three years. Organisations benchmark their environmental and social performance annually against the Green Globe Sector Benchmarking Indicators and achieve Green Globe Benchmarking above baseline performance for all indicators. This data is then submitted to Green Globe for assessment using the online Benchmarking software.
Compliance- The Organisation must know and understand the environmental, public and occupational health and safety, hygiene and employment legislation and other requirements, like cultural/ heritage/archaeological significance to which the organisation is obliged to adhere.
Approach- Approach is the way in which an organisation commits to and manages their environmental and social sustainability performance. The approach must enable an organisation to meet the objectives of the sustainability policy and address actual and potential risks identified by a risk assessment.
Performance- This monitors the organisation's environmental and social performance. It provides a framework to assist operators improve sustainability and achieve best practice in the 10 Green Globe Key Performance Areas (see diagram below.)
Communication- This details the requirements for the organisation to communicate their environmental and social commitment, goals and objectives to all interested parties.
- Greenhouse gas emissions
- Energy efficiency, conservation and management
- Management of freshwater resources
- Ecosystem conservation and management
- Management of social and cultural issues
- Land use planning and management
- Air quality protection and noise control
- Waste water management
- Solid waste management
- Storage of environmentally harmful substance
- Storage of environmentally harmful substances
The Certification process varies depending on the size and environmental impact of the organisation. Smaller companies with minimal impact are required to complete a simple risk assessment and Self Assessment checklist, while larger companies with potentially high impacts are required to complete more detailed versions of the same documents. In some cases, large organisations may have to implement an Environmental Management System.
The certification assessment requires organisations to submit the Online Self Assessment Checklist. When this information has been provided to Green Globe, it is reviewed by a qualified auditor who undertakes an off-site assessment of the organisation's performance against the criteria in the Company Standard.
Once the certification assessment has been completed, companies are provided with a Certification Assessment Report which provides feedback of the organisation's performance. The report outlines improvement areas, corrective actions and future audit requirements.