Which sustainability accreditation program should I choose?
How can a tourism business owner in Australia easily figure out which sustainability accreditation program is best for their needs?
Here’s a quick overview of the Australian options for all types of tourism businesses to get you started!
A ‘lite’ option to start the journey
Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard by Ecotourism Australia
The Scorecard is not a certification or accreditation, but a benchmark you can use to improve your business’ sustainability. Its report will help you identify what you are doing well as well as gaps to work on in the environmental, socio-cultural, and business management aspects of your business’ sustainability with tailored feedback on where you can improve.
The Scorecard uses 1/3 of the same criteria from Ecotourism Australia’s globally recognised Sustainable Tourism Certification.
Cost: $275
Time: Approximately one day to complete
Certifications
Sustainable Tourism Accreditation by Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC)
Cost: $319 for a micro business, $594 for a small business.
EcoStar Accreditation by ATIC
For tourism businesses that demonstrate a higher level of environmental management than required by ATIC’s Sustainable Tourism Accreditation.
Cost: $100/year for businesses with Quality Tourism Accreditation (which has a fee), and state Tourism Industry Council membership (which has an annual fee).
Sustainable Tourism Certification by Ecotourism Australia
Cost: From $1,045/year for a microbusiness, $1,375/year for a small business.
Time: Typically 3-6 months
ECO Certification by Ecotourism Australia
This accreditation is for nature-based tourism businesses.
There are three levels:
Nature Tourism – Tourism in natural areas that leaves minimal impact on the environment.
Ecotourism – Tourism in a natural area that focuses on optimal resources use, leaves minimal impact on the environment, and offers ways to learn about the environment with operators that use resources wisely, contribute to conserving the environment and help local communities.
Advanced Ecotourism – Australia’s leading and most innovative ecotourism businesses that operate with minimal impact on the environment and provide opportunities to learn about the environment with operators who are committed to achieving best practice, using resources wisely, contributing to conserving the environment and helping local communities.
Cost: From $1,045/year for a microbusiness, $1,375/year for a small business.
There are other non-Australian certifiers, such as Green Globe and Green Key.
Our own journey
We undertook Ecotourism Australia’s Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard. It was quick (about six hours) and not difficult, and it was great to get a report back from a sustainability expert with personalised advice, and be able to share our scorecard with clients.
We decided to undertake B Corp certification.
To support our application, we measured our emissions using the free ecoBiz carbon calculator (available to Queensland businesses). Tilma Group has no Scope 1 or 2 emissions (e.g. no business-owned vehicles or offices), so we offset our Scope 3 emissions of staff travel and goods and services we purchase such as business travel, and our rented co-working space (which does not use renewable energy!)