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How did the participants earn their Travel Green Wisconsin certification? How did the participants earn their Travel Green Wisconsin certification?Travel Green Wisconsin is a voluntary self-certifying sustainable tourism program. To earn certification, applicants must first supply the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative with a Baseline Environmental Performance Assessment. The baseline collects information about the amount of energy, fuel, water, and solid waste that the business consumed during the last calendar year. Next, the applicants must commit to enough sustainable business practices found within the TGW checklist to accumulate 30 or more points. These practices are categorized as follows:
Finally, applicants must submit an annual fee to participate in the program. Are there any required practices to earn certification?To create a program comprehensive enough to be relevant across the very diverse tourism industry, we decided to allow participants to be “ecopreneurial” and adopt the practices that make the most sense for their operation. The only requirement, with regard to the TGW checklist, is that participants earn five or more points in the “Communication and Education” section. This ensures that participants will build upon the success of the program by communicating to their guests, employees, and the general public about the sustainable practices and efforts that their operation has made a commitment to. How can consumptive-heavy businesses like waterparks possibly get certified?Travel in Wisconsin encompasses an amazing array of activities and destinations, literally everything from art museums to zoos. As such, Travel Green Wisconsin is intended to be as broad in scope as possible. We are looking not only at where a business or organization is – in terms of its carbon footprint and other environmental factors – but also where it is going. In other words, are they putting systems in place to ensure continued improvement? Are they educating their customers and vendors? We also look at how they compare to other organizations in their competitive set. For example, we’re not going to compare a water park to a bed and breakfast; we’re going to look at a waterpark compared to another waterpark. A Travel Green Wisconsin-certified business that I patronized did not implement some of the practices they had committed to on their checklist. Who can I report this to?It is very important to the Wisconsin Department of Tourism that Travel Green Wisconsin participants follow through on their commitments to sustainable operations. Although The Wisconsin Department of Tourism has yet to hear a complaint regarding Travel Green participants, consumers are encouraged to inform Will Christianson (wchristianson@travelwisconsin.com, 608.267.3686) if they witness practices contrary to those stated on a participant’s checklist. Since Travel Green Wisconsin is a self-certification program, we hope that consumers can serve as its “eyes and ears” to help ensure member compliance. The Department of Tourism will follow up on any complaints that are lodged, and see to it that the Travel Green Wisconsin participant in question does indeed follow through on all their commitments. If they do not, the Department of Tourism will pull that participant’s certification. |