We in the tourism sector have a responsibility to lead the way on nature restoration. Beautiful places surrounded by glorious forests, beaches, flowers, birdlife, and mountain views understandably draw visitors, yet the consumption of fossil fuels and wasteful use of food and resources by hospitality adds to pollution and depletion of those same natural assets.
Extreme weather events are not abstract, faraway issues. They are in the here and now, with devastating effects on health, wellbeing, and the economy. Although a global trend, in many ways Australia is bearing the brunt. We’re the canary in the coal mine. We all experienced the devastation of bushfires last year (not for the first time) and according to the Climate Council extreme weather could soon be costing the country’s economy $100 billion a year.
There is a great deal of expectation that data can help deliver more sustainable hospitality, but is it relevant, is it fully used? Firms can be awash with data as they monitor food waste, reservations, energy, revenue and comfort levels, to name a few, but do managers and staff have time to study its implications?
Guest Participation offers you exciting opportunities to design innovative new more sustainable hospitality experiences which are low or zero carbon. I hope you…
Recessionary times doesn’t have to mean shelving your sustainability programme; to the contrary, we believe this is the right time to re design your hospitality experience, to help you thrive and to deliver sustainable goals. In this short video (in the time it takes to make a cup of tea), we outline ways to achieve […]
Dr Christopher Warren, founder of My Green Butler Tourism in crisis A crisis or recession should not automatically lead to a company’s fight for survival, it can be the spring board to a thriving business. While many hospitality firms take swift action to cut costs and, in many cases, offer discounting as defensive strategies to […]
7 Steps to communicate your sustainability practices without greenwashing Dr Christopher Warren We are, I am sure, all familiar with the term greenwashing (first coined by Jay Westerveld of Greenpeace in 1986 in frustration to hotel towel re-use initiatives), and its reporting by many journalists, including at length by Tom Robbins (2008)1. But has its […]
Implementing conserving resource strategies is proving to be a sound approach to reducing carbon emissions and costs. The International Centre for Responsible Tourism – Australia has submitted its 2019 activity report to the One Planet initiative run by United Nations Environment Programme. The following summarises the report for 2019 highlighting several key successes and learnings. […]
Tourism Declares Climate Emergency is a global campaign encouraging responsible action to cut emissions. The following is my commitment to support this initiative as I think we all need to be more transparent and collaborative. Since 2007 I have measured our carbon footprint (Scope 1 & 2) (business & family), that has guided me to […]
Thursday night in Melbourne saw My Green Butler win the prestigious Banksia Foundation Award for Small Business. This was a significant moment in the start-up’s progress for two reasons. Firstly, because the Banksia Award is widely regarded as the leading global environmental sustainability award having run for 30 years; and secondly it signifies the judge’s […]