Destinations, tourism and hospitality developers make decisions that often entail complex engineering and elaborate construction projects, ultimately requiring operational management. For the destination the governance of standards and implementation of policy has consequences, while for the operator legal compliance to safety, environmental and technical standards are paramount....

We understand that the compliance regime, and adoption of sustainability standards alongside operating and design standards by authorities, plays a key role in the longer-term success of the destination or individual development. These sustainable criteria should not be ‘pushed back’ by operators or developers in an effort to reduce their costs, but maintained for the benefits they provide.

In setting standards that enhance environmental performance, increase transparency and provide improved metrics, developers should be focused on the lifecycle costs of enhanced operational performance.Read more

The single greatest global challenge is climate change, with direct impact on more than 1 billion people. Business as “usual” is a great risk, with the certainty of increased catastrophic events, (as has been experienced over the past year of COVID, fires across the world and increased flooding and droughts). occurring more frequently across the globe and with global consequences... The “we save it for our children” mantra is now invalid, as everyone now is “saving it for themselves” since global climate patterns have altered at an escalating pace.

Currently renewable energy sources are replacing carbon energy demand through technological advances. Some industrial ‘pockets’ resist change, however trends globally show that governments continually increase the penalties on polluters, and this will increasingly be through tax schemes on emissions. Tourism must protect itself from the future of penalties on historic carbon-based energy and power solutions.Read more

Little needs to be said on the importance of water management and recycling that has not been reiterated for over 3 decades. A vital resource for all local communities, water is a source of great contention when they see it diverted into tourism and hospitality facilities.

Plastic, in particular “single-use plastic” (SUP)... is pervasive worldwide threat to every tourism and human health activity dependent on pristine, unpolluted environments. With the exception of medical products SUP should be actively eradicated.

The most effective actions seen globally are in destinations with the necessary tax and deposit systems which alter consumer behavior to ensure 80-90% recycle rates. Many destinations now prohibit water sales in plastic bottles, with their hotels and tourist facilities immediately benefiting from their own high-quality water sales in re-useable bottles. All it takes is commitment to change, as the planning and tools are available.Read more

The best recycling programs are those with nothing to recycle. The avoidance of waste begins with management of resources, suppliers and the consumption value-chain, and finally efficient recycling management. The cradle-to-cradle circular economy at work...

While recycling is vital, of equal importance is eradication of certain types of waste and halting their production. The level of environmental damage caused from human single-use plastic is at a global scale, the consequences are global and near catastrophic.

Ideally governments should lead solutions, but even national solutions begin at the local level. Where this is lacking tourism should take the lead, since tourism and the good it brings is also the first industry that is chronically impacted when pollution and environmental degradation impacts destinations.Read more