Haste Makes Waste: Learning to Travel

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Green Tourism Labels

If you aspire to to travel green, it can be a daunting task to pick out from the crowd the better programs and certification labels. "Green Globe is currently the only internationally focussed sustainable travel and tourism eco-label," says Brian Mullis, president of Sustainable Travel International. But that doesn't mean there's not plenty of room for improvement. "While their certification programs are of high quality, and their label is credible within the travel and tourism industry, their for-profit focus has limited the uptake of their program in my opinion. Specifically, the financial barriers to entry are significant, and their certification programs seem to be more geared toward large scale businesses."

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification provides third party certification of environmental management systems, ensuring tour groups and hotels create environmental policies, establish goals and train staff, but doesn't state specific performance criteria.

To help simplify your search, look for tours, services and lodgings that are recommended by one of the three large regional networks below, which have earned the respect of Mullis and others.

1. Rainforest Alliance (RA) has built partnerships with tour operators in 25 western hemisphere countries including the U.S., Mexico, and Brazil. Its Sustainable Tourism Certification Network of the Americas sets baseline standards that include environmental impact assessments, staff training, environmental monitoring, biodiversity conservation and benefits to local communities.

2.VISIT (Voluntary Initiative for Sustainability in Ecotourism) is a network of ecolabeling programs that has certified tour operators in many Western European countries.

3. Last year, in the Asia Pacific, The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) began a loose network of tour operators, hoteliers, student travelers, academics and professionals centered around a bimonthly newsletter which emphasizes TIES principles of ecotourism, and discusses issues around certification, national ecotourism associations, training and education, according to Ayako Ezaki, Asia Pacific Coordinator at TIES. Although this does not involve certification, the newsletter provides reliable ecotourism information for the Asia Pacific region.