SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATIONS
THE ROAD TO CERTIFICATION IS A RIGOROUS ONE THAT CAN HELP US REDEFINE THE WAY WE DO BUSINESS, FOR THE BETTER OF BOTH PEOPLE AND PLANET. IT’S A PROCESS THAT PRESENTS INVALUABLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR TOURISM BUSINESSES TO EMBARK ON A CONSCIOUS JOURNEY OF IMPROVEMENT AND REFLECTION, ENDOWING CREDIBILITY, AND CONNECTING ASPIRING AND ACCOMPLISHED SUSTAINABILITY BUSINESSES WITH KNOWLEDGEABLE COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE GLOBE.
For the March edition of ‘Conscious Conversations’, we were joined by Anne Zschiegner from The Long Run, Catherine Draper from B Corp, and Roi Ariel from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council to help us understand what exactly sustainability certifications are, why they’re important for tourism businesses, and the benefits they can bring.
By Siani Abrahams
What’s the difference between certifications, standards, and accreditations? To demystify the world of certifications today, Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) General Manager Roi Ariel takes us back to the origins. In 2007, a consortium of public and private sector organisations united to establish the GSTC and create a foundational standard across global tourism. Drawing from more than 4,500 criteria within 60 or so existing certification standards, the Council distilled down the essential common themes to create an essential baseline set of criteria. As stated on the GSTC website, “GSTC is involved in Certification of businesses, Accreditation of certification bodies, and Recognition of standards.”
RECOGNITION
Ariel tells us, “there are four pillars of sustainability in tourism and travel. The first is sustainability, sustainable management. The second pillar is social economical issues. Third, cultural aspects. And the fourth is the environment.” The GSTC Recognition is used to recognise around 50 standards that incorporate the GSTC criteria, providing a status to a ‘set of standards that are equivalent to the GSTC Criteria’, which is important to show that the standards are based on the 4 pillars of the GSTC. In turn, this allows for standards to adapt to different regional necessities and contexts instead of a singular standard which doesn’t account for nuances in tourism needs and demands. Some recognised equivalents to the GSTC criteria include Green Globe, the Green Key, and Earth Check - though he clarifies Earth Check is a GSTC Recognised standard and is accredited by the GSTC for destinations, but not for accommodation.
CERTIFICATION VS ACCREDITATION
CERTIFICATION
Ariel explains that a standard is a document a business has used to look into as a guideline or ideal, and may not be used for certification at all. Whereas “certification is defined as voluntary third-party assessments, through an audit, of a tourism enterprise or a destination for conforming to a standard. So a certification helps to verify claims by businesses that say ‘we are this, we are like that’. How do you know it? You’re verified to a standard.” GSTC accredits the Certification Bodies, but does not conduct certification itself.
ACCREDITATION
Before businesses assess whether pursuing a certification is the right fit, assuring the credibility and quality of the certifying body is crucial. “The range is enormous - from rigorous, impartial…and frankly to poor,” Ariel highlights. A professional looking website and good copy can be misleading and businesses need to have trusted methods of verifying a certification body. One way of doing this is through GSTC Accreditation, a “mark of quality that verifies the process of how Certification Bodies certified businesses in a competent and neutral manner”. The process of certification is rigorous, and aided by a partnering accreditation body that ensure certifications are issued based on merit and neutrality.
THE LONG RUN
One such business working within the GSTC framework is The Long Run, whose Technical Assistance Advisor Anne-Kathrin Zschiegner emphasises to us “people can be part of multiple certifications, I think that is the biggest and most important thing people need to understand. They can join The Long Run and they can join B Corp, and they can also be part of The Conscious Travel Foundation.” Every journey to certification can enlighten and improve best practices, encouraging businesses to strive for sustainability in all areas. She tells us, “Each certification may provide every business or every organization with different benefits as to what is possible, what can be provided.”
Zschiegner describes how certifications can help businesses identify what is important, shedding light on different aspects to be considered and explored. The Long Run aims to support nature-based businesses around the world to ‘support, connect and inspire’ on their journey of improvement in the sustainability areas of Conservation, Community, Culture, and Commerce. She explains, “We use our standard, the Global Ecosphere Retreats® standard as the framework for our support.” Recognised by the GSTC, the first opportunity upon joining The Long Run is to reflect where you are on your journey and as a business ask, “What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are things that you haven't considered but you haven't had time for, and then connect that with where ultimately as a business you want to go.”
Connecting this journey of improvement with sustainability, Zschiegner believes it’s about the impact you want to have and what you aspire for the community both within your businesses and surrounding it. She says, “The really important thing is that sustainability shouldn't just take place in your four walls. We need to take it outside. We need to ensure that the area you’re surrounded by is protected, that the people we work with, that we engage with, that we are surrounded by are equally engaged and that we are promoting their wellbeing, their inclusiveness in the operation, and that they are also taken care of.” The process of certifying can help illuminate the necessary steps to embrace this holistic approach to sustainability, and The Long Run helps businesses open their eyes to a wider perspective, a 360 degree view of operations. Zschiegner notes that people often excel in one area, but “it’s important to make sure you’re realising there is lots of different aspects that you need to consider in your sustainability approach.” How can, then, certification help move in this direction?
B CORP
“The B Corp movement is really thinking about harnessing the power of business”, says B Corp UK’s Engagement Manager Catherine Draper. B Corporation is a leading movement focused on shifting “shareholder capitalism toward stakeholder capitalism” and believes in “using business as a force for good” to solve problems of the ‘profit first’ mentality which has wrought havoc on people and planet. B Corp is a shining example of how going through the certification process can have innumerable positive ripple effects and much like The Long Run, encourages aspiring members to embody a “holistic approach to the impact you’re having as a business.” Just going through B Corp’s initial self-completing B Impact Assessment is testament to the rigorous nature of the process, presenting a range of questions covering different stakeholders as Draper examples, “Your workers, the communities, customers, governance, and the environment… so not just focusing on supply chain or products or services, but the way that you're operating across all of your operations.”
B Corp’s certification process is tailored to the size of your business, the location, and the industry. With around 200 questions and a minimum score of 80 points to be considered for certification, “it’s very much a journey of continuous improvement.” Scoring below this minimum is, however, for many companies a motivating beginning to a journey of improving their impact. The next stage is providing evidence and being audited, followed by recertification every 3 years to “make sure you’re really embedding and keeping on holding yourself to those high standards.”
ARE CERTIFICATIONS A VALUABLE TOOL IN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS?
Elaborating on the particular benefits of B Corp, Draper underscores the value in being part of the “knowledge base and really learning from the community across industries”, especially as businesses have access across the 150-plus industries B Corp operates within, in over 70 countries.
Conversely, greenhushing, a term coined by Dr Xavier Font, sees tourism businesses engage in sustainability practices yet, as Ariel says, “they’re not speaking about it. They don’t communicate it. They don’t see it as something.” Just as destinations or accommodations are sustainable because they’ve been “verified to a proper standard and in a proper process,” Ariel points out, “it doesn’t mean that those that are not certified are unsustainable”.
For The Long Run, certification is a select attainment because the journey itself has been the focus thus far, with an emphasis to “reach a certain level within your business - that is really important”, Zschiegner tells us. “However, certification is really valuable because any claim, any work that you do - having anybody externally look at your work to scrutinise what you do, how you do things, and why you’re doing certain things is really important.” She explains it brings a huge amount of credibility to the organisation, and examining your business through an external perspective can mean formalising often undocumented processes or processes that are “not maybe as widespread within the organisation as one may assume, especially at the earlier stages of the journey. So having a certification is really helpful to get your ducks in a row.”
For Draper, the most important thing is shifting the mind from short-term to long-term, reframing the impact you’re having as a business, “measuring and managing your impact rather than certification as the end goal for certifications’ sake.” Also acknowledging that money may be a barrier for some, Zschiegner advises businesses that “the biggest thing is just start. If you find an organization or a certification that you feel strongly aligned to then just look into the standards that they have and just work through it. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to start a certification process” and with The Long Run and other organisations there’s “help along the way to reach those milestones” if you’re not ready. Draper points out that, “The B Impact Assessment on B Corp is completely free and confidential so you can log on and do all the questions and choose not to certify.”
A big thank you to Anne Zschiegner and The Long Run, Catherine Draper and B Corp, and Roi Ariel and the GSTC for joining us in this Conscious Conversation.
