Sustainable Certification for the Travel Industry

Sustainable certification is a great way to demonstrate your company’s dedication to sustainability and fighting climate change. Brot Für Die Welt explains that by seeking to become sustainably certified, your company “goes far past what is legally required”. When completing sustainable certification, companies can gain credibility, allowing consumers to verify and understand company goals. This is essential for helping customers find the right brand to match their ideology and as sustainability becomes increasingly more popular, there is a larger target audience. Becoming sustainably certified is a great way to grow your company’s popularity within niche consumer groups. By going sustainable, your company can also further develop its ideology and story.

Finding the right sustainability certification, however, can be a challenging task. With more than 100 certifications out there, it’s not an easy choice. That’s why we decided to bring all of our knowledge, tips, and resources on finding the right sustainable certification for your company.

Our Client’s Choice: Travelife

According to CAS Trips, Travelife’s “low-cost and accessible support” made it easy for their small team to “create processes and further commit to our sustainable goals”.

With so many certification options, we’ve decided to focus on our client CAS Trip’s sustainable certification choice, Travelife. As we are most familiar with this application process, we will take you through the steps, as well as provide you with tips from our clients. Travelife is CAS Trip’s sustainable certification choice because it was “one of the few certification processes that aligned with our need as an SME operating tours internationally.”

According to CAS Trips, Travelife’s “low-cost and accessible support” made it easy for their small team to “create processes and further commit to our sustainable goals”.

The Application Process

The Travelife application process is simple. Sign up through their website, pay a membership fee (€400 to €2,000 depending on company size), and then begin to fill out their criteria by uploading evidence of your sustainable work. There are three stages of the Travelife process:

Travelife Engaged: When you first sign up, this is the stage you will enter where your company will be introduced to sustainable management procedures. You must appoint a sustainability coordinator, who will receive a personal Travelife certificate. After this process, your company can take steps to ensure that green practices are implemented. Your company is not a certified sustainable corporation yet.
Travelife Partner: Once your steps for the first stage are complete, you will become a Travelife Partner. In this stage, you must produce a sustainability report and comply with the basic sustainable requirements provided to you by Travelife. Partnership enables your company to communicate its sustainability commitment and achievements through the use of the Travelife logo. Your company is now qualified to move onto the final stage.
Travelife Certified: Your company will be evaluated by an independent auditor when you are ready to become certified. This audit will be based on an “onsite assessment”. Moreover, the requirements become more difficult to achieve and are in line with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s (GSTC) criteria. After completing this stage, you will receive official Travelife sustainability certification.

Travelife Criteria

We’ve chosen some of what we find to be the most important and interesting criteria your company must meet when applying to become Travelife Certified.

Regular training sessions on sustainability as well as materials and guidance should be given to tour operators to encourage sustainable management.

One of the criteria is Activities. The activities your travel company provides must be environmentally and culturally sensitive while all trips are sustainable. When working with activity providers, preference must be given to companies that are sustainable. Regular training sessions on sustainability as well as materials and guidance should be given to tour operators to encourage sustainable management. Basic sustainability clauses must be included in all contracts with activity providers. These clauses can range from waste management to anti-corruption to protection of biodiversity.

It states that if there is equal qualification, the company must choose to employ local tour leaders as well as in any other necessary jobs.

The next criterion is Tour Leaders, Local Representation, and Guides. This looks at the need to fill locals in the roles of your tour operations. It states that if there is equal qualification, the company must choose to employ local tour leaders as well as in any other necessary jobs. It is the company’s responsibility to make sure that their tour guides are local representatives who are qualified and trained regularly. They must be extremely educated on the destination with a knowledge of sustainable areas.

Accommodation is a third criterion in which it states that the travel company must offer locally produced souvenirs that are based on the destination’s culture and history. Chosen accommodation and restaurants should include local art, architecture, or some form of cultural heritage. If the accommodation is found to be unsustainable, then the contract must be ended. Food should be purchased locally and produced sustainably. The accommodation cannot negatively impact the local or global biodiversity.

Moreover, the “reachability” of the destination must be considered for more sustainable transportation.

Destination is another important criterion. For each destination, a record of sustainable information must be kept. This includes information on waste management, biodiversity, and legal issues. When choosing new destinations, sustainability must be considered. This includes traffic free areas or green city planning. Moreover, the “reachability” of the destination must be considered for more sustainable transportation. The destination must also comply with the UN and EU sanctions regarding tourism destinations. The destination must acknowledge protected areas, biodiversity conservation, and heritage regulation, while supporting these issues financially or politically. Finally, no forbidden souvenirs that threaten biodiversity may be promoted.

Our Client’s Experience

This has allowed them to create a “solid foundation to fulfill the GSTC, UNEP, GRI, anf various ISO standards" which are critical to complete the certification process.

By working together with Travelife, CASTrips has been able to achieve Travelife Partner status “within 6 months.” This has allowed them to create a “solid foundation to fulfill the GSTC, UNEP, GRI, and various ISO standards" which are critical to complete the certification process.

“Through the e-learning coursework and the planning & reporting software, Travelife has enabled us to take further responsibility for our social and environmental impacts via a wide spectrum of efforts - internally and externally.”

While they have only just begun the Travelife certification process, CAS Trips’ program and sustainability manager , Neil Brinckerhoff, has called the program “extremely rewarding”. Beginning the process in Autumn 2021, they have now become a Travelife Partner. Neil says: “Through the e-learning coursework and the planning & reporting software, Travelife has enabled us to take further responsibility for our social and environmental impacts via a wide spectrum of efforts - internally and externally.”

If you are ready to become a certified sustainable corporation then apply here!

The GSTC and its Criteria

In order to be properly certified, you must go through the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). Most certification companies, including Travelife, use the GSTC criteria in order to certify your business. These criteria assure that every business is held to the same standards and they validate the certification.

Certification is conducted by a “third-party assessment” by the certification company that you choose. GSTC does not certify your company.

When applying through a certification company and then verifying with GSTC, it is critical to understand the difference between the terms certification and accreditation and how to use them correctly. Certification is conducted by a “third-party assessment” by the certification company that you choose. GSTC does not certify your company. Accreditation is a “mark of quality” that the GSTC gives certification companies who decide to work with them. This accreditation verifies the third-party’s ability to properly certify your business.

The GSTC ensures that everyone adheres to the same criteria. There’s two sets of criteria, one for destinations and one for industry. The destination criteria are for public policy makers and destination managers while the industry criteria are for hotel and tour operators.

There are four categories of criteria. Section A is sustainable management, Section B are socioeconomic impacts, Section C are cultural impacts, and Section D are environmental impacts. Some of the important criteria include:

Staff Engagement: Your staff must take part in regular sustainable training in regards to your company’s sustainability management system, policies, and plans. You must “involve all staff in implementing sustainability”.
Accurate Promotion: It is extremely important not to over-market or over-promote by keeping it realistic and avoiding any sort of greenwashing. For example, when promoting interaction with wildlife, make sure you are promoting species that are safe and not endangered.

3. Local Employment: Employment is given to local residents who also have equal opportunity for management positions. The number of employed locals must be measured and training is offered to locals to increase their employability.

4. Culture Conservation: Your business must contribute to efforts to support and save cultural heritage sites, traditions, and other forms of said culture. You must also show evidence of your business valuing and incorporating culture in a sensitive and respectful way.

5. Biodiversity Conservation: You should contribute to biodiversity conservation through financial donation and appropriate property management. The impact your product or service has on nature must be reduced accordingly. Any activity that might harm the biodiversity must be stricken off the itinerary.

When comparing these to the Travelife criteria, it is extremely clear how they have woven the GSTC criteria in with theirs.

More Resources

A common factor across all sustainable certifications is the fee which is usually measured by how large your company is, how large your company’s carbon footprint is, and how much revenue your company produces.

As we’ve said before, there are over 100 sustainable certifications available and in order to find the right one, you’ve got to do your research. We’ve found a couple of helpful resources to help you find the right fit for your company. A common factor across all sustainable certifications is the fee which is usually measured by how large your company is, how large your company’s carbon footprint is, and how much revenue your company produces. Check out some more great certification options down below:

B Corporation: The B Corporation is a certification that is non-specific to one industry. Seen as the “gold standard” for sustainable brands, it measures environmental and social actions – the social action often being overlooked by other certification companies. To become certified as a B Corporation, companies must receive a voluntary certification from B Lab. There is an annual fee that is required as well as the company’s duty to produce a sustainability report that examines how their company has benefited society and the environment. The B Corporation fee is based on your company’s size and revenue and can be between $2000 to $50,000. Becoming a B Corporation demonstrates how your company has been verified in outstanding social and environmental performance.
Climate Neutral: Climate Neutral helps brands and companies measure, offset, and reduce their carbon emissions. By paying money to “avoid, reduce, and remove” these emissions, the company can receive sustainable certification while fighting climate change financially. The certification process is simple and takes about two weeks which is a huge benefit compared to many of the other certification companies. According to The Good Trade, it is also more affordable than most options (0.5%-1% of your company’s carbon footprint), especially for smaller businesses. In order to maintain your Climate Neutral certification, companies must reapply every year.
TourCert: TourCert is a sustainable certification and consultant company. These professionals advise companies in the travel and tourism industry on implementing sustainable business procedures. The fee starts at around €300 and then an annual €250 (or more depending on company size). Through consultancy seminars and online training sessions, they give companies important knowledge on sustainable tourism. At the end of these training courses and educational seminars, they award companies with sustainable certification.
Green Globe: Green Globe has five easy steps to sustainable certification. Companies must first register for membership where they must pay a membership fee (per year). This fee can range from €650 to €4,500. Once they have completed these steps, they can login to the platform to access Green Globe Solutions. Here they can then complete a certification training course. Once companies have gone through the certification, they will receive an independent audit and can fully count themselves as Green Globe certified.

We know how complicated getting certified can be, so we hope that this provides you with some guidance on your way to becoming a certified sustainable business!

Understanding Certifications for Sustainable Travel, Tourism & Hospitality