Why Eco-labels in Tourism?

By Lorraine Dixon, Green Key Kenya National Coordinator

Recognising the natural environment as a vital tourism resource, public and private sectors of the tourism industry are increasingly adopting and implementing environmentally compatible development measures in order to curtail the negative environmental impacts associated with tourism development.

According to Agenda 21 for the Travel & Tourism Industry, “Sustainable tourism products are products which operate in harmony with local environment, community, and cultures, so that these become the permanent beneficiaries (WTO, 1997).” 

A large, conventional city hotel can be environmentally and socially responsible, and so can a small eco-lodge near a national park. On the other hand, a small lodge can be just as irresponsible and unsustainable as a large hotel, or even more so in some cases. This is one reason why many people see a growing need for internationally recognized, but locally adapted standards for sustainability. 

One way of rewarding the establishments that are truly complying with these goals is by giving them credible outside recognition in the form of Certifications or Eco-labels. Eco-labels are increasingly being adopted by various stakeholders in the tourism sector. Eco-labelling is a voluntary method of environmental performance certification and labelling that is practised around the world. An eco-label identifies products or services proven environmentally preferable overall, within a specific product or service category.

The forward thrust towards Eco-labels for tourism enterprises emerged as a result of Agenda 21, approved by 182 countries during the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit (or Rio Summit), which emphasized the need for businesses to comply with environmental regulations and policies to mitigate global environmental problems.  A range of eco-labels exists, targeting different aspects of the tourism industry: beaches, hotels, camping sites, marinas, and events.  

There are over 200 labels for sustainable tourism globally. An important question for the travellers looking for trustworthy eco-labels is whether the label has been recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). It is the largest independent international interest group for sustainable tourism. Currently, 31 eco labels in tourism have been recognized by GSTC.

Certification sets standards and helps distinguish genuine ecotourism and sustainable tourism businesses from others that make empty claims. This helps to protect the integrity of these concepts.  Certification is not an end in itself. It is one of a number of tools for motivating businesses and others to improve their environmental, social, and economic performance, while rewarding them for doing so (CESD). These rewards are sometimes tangible and sometimes not.  

Benefits of Eco-labels include:

• Improvement of business operations through learning about the elements of sustainability in operations and focusing on changes needed to increase efficiency
• Reduction of operating costs, particularly the costs of water, electricity, and fossil fuels, without reducing the quality of service
• Potential marketing advantages to certified businesses, as consumers learn to recognize credible certification brands. This has happened in other industries, such as organic foods, wood products, clothing, wine, etc.  
• Increasing public awareness of responsible business practices. 
• Alerting tourists to the environmental and social issues in an area, allowing them to act more respectfully or contribute to solutions, as well as providing tourists with environmentally and socially responsible choices
• Governments are able to protect their market niches as ecotourism or sustainable tourism destinations 
• Raising industry standards in health, safety, environment, and social stability, and subsequently lowering the regulatory costs of environmental protection
• Increased consideration and respect of local culture, as well as provision of real economic and social benefits for it

The potential of eco-labels to maintain and even enhance the physical environment by educating potential tourists regarding the environmental attributes of tourism enterprises and fostering environmentally sensitive business operations among such enterprises make the concept particularly appealing to developing countries. However there is need to ensure the quality of these eco-labels themselves to prevent them from becoming a new tool for greenwashing.