GreenStep, a Kelowna, B.C.-based consultancy, is the first North American organization with a sustainable tourism certification for businesses under guidelines set by a United Nations-backed group, helping industry players strengthen their credibility in the sector.

The management of accommodations, hotels and tour operators can apply for the GreenStep Sustainable Tourism Standard, then be audited and certified by RoyalCert, a U.S.-based international registrar.

GreenStep’s standard falls under the benchmarks set by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), an organization formed by United Nations agencies. The standard is a set of 87 criteria that covers sustainable management and the business’s impacts on socioeconomics, culture and the environment.

“Consumers, more and more, are looking for and seeking out sustainability in their purchasing decisions. The travel industry and tourism industry (are) really no different,” Angela Nagy, president and CEO of GreenStep, said in an interview with Sustainable Biz Canada.

With certifications like GreenStep’s, tourism businesses can improve their bottom line, she said, and comply with regulations aimed at curbing misleading and unproven sustainability claims called greenwashing.

GreenStep’s tourism standard

Founded in 2008 by Nagy, GreenStep develops sustainability strategies for companies and offers software that tracks an organization’s carbon emissions called EcoBase. GreenStep services companies in the tourism, hospitality, energy, manufacturing, retail and dining sectors, with clients such as Tentree, FortisBC, BC Hydro, Sandman Hotel Group and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

In 2018, GreenStep developed its sustainable tourism standard. It drew upon input from the likes of tourism businesses, non-governmental organizations and sustainability experts to meet the needs of the Canadian and North American markets while being aligned with international best practices, Nagy said. 

Two years after it was developed, the GreenStep Sustainable Tourism Standard was the first Canadian standard to be formally recognized by the GSTC.

Now, businesses can be audited by an accredited organization and be certified under GSTC standards by GreenStep, which was not possible when it was first recognized.

With laws such as Bill C-59 in Canada being enacted, governments are cracking down on greenwashing, Nagy said. The sustainable certifications process was so lax that a business could fill out an online questionnaire, pay a fee, and receive a logo indicating certification on the same day, she explained. With no third-party review of a company’s claims, “that really enables greenwashing,” Nagy said.

In response, the GSTC now demands every standard maker to have an accredited certification partner to enhance the credibility, such as GreenStep’s partnership with RoyalCert. Having a third-party organization like RoyalCert to do the certification drives “a much higher level of credibility,” Nagy said.

GreenStep is part of a small club of organizations in the world that has met such a bar, she added. For tour operators, for example, only 12 organizations have certifications recognized by the GSTC, including GreenStep.

Green is good for tourism

Being audited by a GSTC-accredited organization such as RoyalCert is a boon to a tourism business, Nagy said.

If a property is certified by a standard that meets GSTC criteria, it is eligible for the organization’s Market Access Program, granting preferential treatment on notable booking platforms such as Trip.com, she explained.

Corporate travel managers like American Express Global Business Travel have a preference for GSTC-certified properties, GreenStep said. Businesses like Royal Caribbean have a target to require that a certain percentage of shore excursions have GSTC certification, Nagy said. Hotel chains are aligning with such a policy in response.

Since GreenStep announced it hit the milestone, the company has received strong interest from tourism operators in cruises and hotels that are under a brand mandate for preferring GSTC certification, Nagy said.

“The bottom line of those regulations and pieces of legislation,” she said, “is that if you’re going to make a sustainability claim, you have to be able to back it up with data.”

Sustainability in the tourism sector is more than a matter of a beach resort with high energy efficiency or a hotel that has cut its water use. Adhering to the values of being sustainable also means cutting costs, engaging employees and increasing staff retention, Nagy said.

“There’s a really strong business case besides just being the right thing to do.”