About six months ago, Rosemarie Christofolo noticed something unusual going on with clients at Altour, the New York-based travel agency group at which she is executive vice president. Clients were asking a lot of questions that had nothing to do with their travel arrangements.
Does Altour have an internal green policy, and if so, what is it? Does the office have recycling bins? Is Altour cutting back on electricity usage? Are employees using recycled paper?
Green travel is just as
confusing for travelers
as it is for agents, but it’s becoming more mainstream
than you might expect.
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At the time, Altour was fresh off a green office makeover, so Christofolo was able to provide satisfactory answers to the interrogators. But the grilling was telling of what’s going on in the travel business. There’s a big green wave rolling through the industry, and travel agents can ride it or be left behind.
While there’s no hard evidence that going green is a make or break deal for a travel agency, the signs point in one direction: Clients are increasingly troubled by the carbon footprint they’ll be leaving on that next beach holiday or business trip, and their angst is only expected to intensify.
Recently, TravelAge West conducted an exclusive green travel survey of 500 agents nationwide. In the survey, we found that nearly 78 percent of those surveyed believe that green travel will become more important to clients in the next three to five years. Furthermore, the 2008 Leisure Travel Monitor, a consumer survey conducted by YPartnership, found that more than eight in 10 leisure travelers state they are environmentally conscious. The point? Green travel isn’t going away anytime soon, and now is the best time to learn more about it.
So, how does a travel agent join the green revolution? What should travel agents do both in terms of going green in their own operations and selling green travel to clients? Is it even worthwhile to do so? We asked the experts to help us make sense of it all.
The consensus among green gurus is that the process begins in the office.
“If you don’t walk the walk, you lose all legitimacy,” said Melissa Teates, director of research for the American Society of Travel Agents’ (ASTA) new Green Member Program, a tool for travel professionals who want to green-up their offices, use green vendors and market themselves as a green business.
It’s not difficult to find instructions on green office makeovers. A guide that is part of ASTA’s Green Member Program includes a section on “best green business practices,” with tips ranging from non-toxic cleaning products to office carpools and telecommuting.
At the California-based TravelStore, agents are practicing the three Rs: reduce, reuse and recycle. Invoices are paperless unless a client requests otherwise; ditto for brochures. File folders bulging with paper are mostly a thing of the past; all client info gets dumped into a gigantic digital database.
“At first, it was difficult not to write things on a piece of paper. But it’s just a matter of changing your mindset,” said Mindy Crenshaw of TravelStore’s Sacramento, Calif., office.
Crenshaw isn’t alone. In our survey, 79 percent of agents found green initiatives important to them personally, especially when it comes to air quality and lowering of harmful emissions.
A guestroom from Element,
Starwood’s new, LEED-certified, extended-stay brand
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When we asked agents what steps they take to go green in their daily lives, a large majority cited recycling (89.6 percent), reducing energy usage (86.8 percent) and reducing water usage (77.4 percent) as ways they go green both at home and at work. A number of agents also wrote in to say that they prefer biking or walking to work and are making a concerted effort to drive less.
TravelStore offices have blue recycling bins and they are not for decoration.
“When I see people throwing paper in the trash, I take it out and say, ‘Why did you put this in the trash instead of the recycling bin?’” said TravelStore marketing director Dan Ilves, who works in the West Los Angeles office.
Trickier and more time consuming than greening up the office is figuring out how to choose green travel companies to work with. The most labor-intensive method is to query each supplier individually about green initiatives. If you’re not sure what to ask, the ASTA Green Guide has easy-to-follow checklists for hotels, cruise lines, tour operators and car rental agencies. Sustainable Travel International has a good list of questions on its Web site.
For many travel agents, it’s impractical to investigate each supplier’s green initiatives. An alternative is to select tour operators with a verifiable commitment to sustainable travel. Chances are these tour operators will already have done the legwork.
Kent Redding, president of Africa Adventure Consultants in Denver, recently started requiring that his ground operators and suppliers answer a detailed questionnaire about their green initiatives. Redding found that some were doing more than others and he now favors those who put out the greater effort. At his company’s own expense, Redding purchases carbon offsets that make up for 50 percent of CO2 emissions for each client’s safari.
Another way of finding green suppliers is to use a certification system that employs an online database. There are dozens, if not hundreds, some more credible than others.
A plethora of certification systems seems to only add to the confusion over what’s really green and what’s not, however. In our survey, 85.6 percent of agents said they do not feel there are clear enough standards for what constitutes a green travel company; 54 percent said they have frustrations about green travel. Among the biggest frustrations were “too much information/information overload” (30.9 percent) and that information is “too complicated/technical” (27.9 percent).
There are, however, a few certification systems that have earned themselves a stellar reputation.
Among the best known is Costa Rica’s Certification for Sustainable Tourism, which rates hotels on a scale of one to five based on the degree to which the property approaches a sustainability model. Guatemala’s Green Deal certification is also helpful, albeit it is only available in Spanish online. The Rainforest Alliance has good things to say about Ecuador’s Smart Voyager certification. Travel agents booking in the U.K. can use the Green Tourism Business Scheme. Down Under, there is Ecotourism Australia and close to home is Travel Green Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, certification systems are flawed. No two use the same criteria, so a hotel that earns a gold rating under one system might rate a bronze under another.
Clarity may soon replace confusion. A consortium of international power players, among them the U.N. World Tourism Organization, the U.N. Environment Program, the U.N. Foundation and the Rainforest Alliance, have put together the first-ever set of internationally agreed-upon baseline criteria for sustainable tourism certification systems.
This Sustainable Tourism Criteria Initiative is being readied for launch in the coming months. But it could be some time before individual certification systems incorporate the new criteria. Until then, Christina Cavaliere, director of training and education for The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, advises travel agents to use existing certification systems, which she believes are mostly reliable if imperfect.
One certification system considered beyond reproach is the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. LEED-certified hotels are found here and there: Northern California has the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel & Spa and the Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide recently launched an all LEED-certified, extended-stay brand called Element, one of which will open in December in Las Vegas.
Sin City, curiously, is a hotbed for LEED-certified hotels. The Palazzo Las Vegas on the Strip is LEED-rated. Echelon Las Vegas, expected to open in 2010, is going for LEED certification. The mother of all Las Vegas LEED-certified projects, MGM Mirage’s CityCenter, is slated to open next summer.
Certification systems are not to be confused with lists of so-called green travel suppliers on the Internet. There may be nothing terribly wrong with using one of these lists, but doing so isn’t necessarily right either. At Environmentally
FriendlyHotels.com, for instance, hotels are free to post anything at all about themselves.
Web site owner Kit Cassingham said she tries to weed out postings that sound overly laudatory, but for the most part, she said, “We want to trust the hotels so we take them at their word.”
Greenwashing, a practice in which a supplier makes bogus claims of greenness, is a growing concern in the travel industry. Any hotel with a linen-reuse policy can claim to have a comprehensive energy conservation
strategy and, as there are no green police writing citations, it’s mostly a crime without penalty.
Cavaliere of TIES said travel agents can help combat greenwashing by calling out suppliers when they notice that all is not as advertised. Small- and medium-sized suppliers, in particular, rely heavily on word-of-mouth, Cavaliere said, and a bad reputation in this area will not be good for business.
M.J. Kietzke of The Travel Specialists in Somerville, Mass., is not afraid to take a hotel to task for greenwashing. Recently she and a small group of clients were staying at a guesthouse near Denali, Alaska. The management posted signs asking guests to conserve water. When the maid ignored the group’s request to leave bedsheets unchanged during their short stay, Kietzke had words with the owner.
“A lot of people say, ‘What does my little bit accomplish?’ Well, it adds up. As I say, there is no vacation from responsibility,” Kietzke said.
Carbon calculators, if controversial, are increasingly popping up on travel agency Web sites for use by clients who want to compensate for the CO2 emissions generated by their travel. There are a number of environmental organizations that build carbon calculators especially for travel agencies. Sustainable Travel International charges $499 for a basic calculator, said Ted Martens, director of outreach and development for the organization. Conservation International, an Arlington, Va.-based environmental organization, also builds carbon calculators for travel agencies.
Carbon calculators, like this one
from the TravelStore’s Web site, determine how much carbon dioxide
is generated for a specific activity.
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Carbon calculators may be good marketing tools for agencies but they are not necessarily moneymakers. One provider of carbon offsets, however, is trying to change that. Burlington, Vt.-based NativeEnergy offers agent commission on offsets sold through its carbon calculator. To qualify for commission, a travel agent must first calculate and offset his or her own carbon footprint in the office.
TravelStore recently added a carbon calculator to its home page. Ilves, the marketing director at TravelStore, has no good sense of the extent to which his clients are using it. (The transaction goes through the server of Conservation International, which built the calculator.) If few clients are doing so, however, Ilves is philosophical.
“Hopefully, over time, there will be more and more people saying, ‘This is a good thing,’ and hopefully do it,” he said.
Redding, the Africa tour operator who purchases 50 percent of carbon offsets for his clients without passing along the cost, said he is not aware if clients appreciate his financial sacrifice.
In the six months he has been purchasing offsets, few clients if any have brought it up or even asked what it’s all about, even though “it’s on every single thing that we send out — itineraries, our Web site, my e-mail signature.”
Still, Redding thinks he’s doing the right thing, in terms of his conscience and his pocketbook.
“One, we want to do something good for the environment. And two, although there’s a lot of debate about this, we are betting this will give us a competitive advantage.”
Redding’s remark about the debate over competitive advantage is an important one.
While there are any number of surveys indicating that the traveling public cares about responsible travel, the inconvenient truth for travel agents is that it’s not at all clear whether this concern will translate into increased profits. Environmental organizations, whose business it is to promote the benefits of green travel, understandably come out on the side of profitability.
“Consumers are aligning their purchasing decisions with their values,” said Brian T. Mullis, president of Sustainable Travel International. “The company that differentiates itself by engaging in green practices is going to win.”
Foot soldiers in the travel business aren’t so sure.
Ilves said TravelStore is going green “because we think it’s the right thing to do … There’s no presumption on our part that this will increase sales in any considerable or marked way.”
Likewise, Christofolo said money was not the motivation behind Altour’s decision to go green. What was it then?
Christofolo all but shouted the answer: “We’re trying to save the world!”
That’s as good a reason as any.
EDUCATE YOURSELF
Many organizations offer training programs to travel agents in the area of green travel.
In April, ASTA launched its Green Member Program, an education and self-assessment tool for agents looking to green up their offices, use green vendors and market themselves as green agents. Agents who complete the program are entitled to use the ASTA Green logo in marketing materials and are listed as a green agent in ASTA’s consumer-oriented Web site, TravelSense.org, as well as its B2B search engine.
The Travel Institute is preparing to launch a series of distance-learning modules for travel agents interested in greening up; Sustainable Travel International is creating the content.
The International Ecotourism Society provides training to travel agencies, as does the tour operator G.A.P. Adventures.
RESOURCES
Agent-Specific Resources
ASTA Green Member Program
www.asta.org
The Green Office
www.thegreenoffice.com
Certification Programs
Certification for Sustainable Tourism, Costa Rica
www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr
Ecotourism Australia
www.ecotourism.org.au
Green Deal (Guatemala)
www.greendeal.org
Green Tourism Business Scheme
www.green-business.co.uk
Smart Voyager (Ecuador)
www.ccd.org.ec
Sustainable Tourism Criteria Initiative
www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org
Travel Green Wisconsin
www.travelgreenwisconsin.com
U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Program
www.usgbc.org/leed
Non-Governmental Organizations and Non-Profits
The International Ecotourism Society (TIES)
www.ecotourism.org
Rainforest Alliance
www.rainforest-alliance.org Sustainable Travel International
www.sustainabletravelinternational.org
United Nations Agencies
United Nations Environment Program
www.unep.org
United Nations Foundation
www.unfoundation.org
United Nations World Tourism Organization
www.unwto.org
Other Resources Conservation International
www.conservation.org
EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com
www.environmentallyfriendlyhotels.com
NativeEnergy
www.nativeenergy.com
MEET GREEN
Meetings and conventions have been at the forefront of going green, with a number of conventions and visitors bureaus branching off green micro sites, including, most recently, the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau and Hawaii’s Big Island Visitors Bureau.
Not only that, a number of major trade show meetings and conferences are taking steps to reduce waste, recycle and operate with increased energy efficiency, the upcoming THETRADESHOW included.
Looking to green up your meetings? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Green Meetings Initiative is a one-stop shop for meeting planners and service providers looking to go green. Also good is BlueGreen Meetings, which offers 10 easy-to-follow tips. When looking for a host hotel, BlueGreen Meetings suggests planners ask candidate hotels to fill out a checklist and give preference to those with high scores.
BlueGreen Meetings
www.bluegreenmeetings.org
U.S. EPA Green Meetings Initiative
www.epa.gov/oppt/greenmeetings/pubs/current_init.htm
LEARN THE LINGO
Green travel terms can be confusing. Here are a few definitions of the more common ones.
Sustainable tourism: Tourism that is economically viable but doesn’t destroy the physical and social resources on which its future depends. (Courtesy Sustainable Tourism Criteria Initiative)
Responsible travel: Travel and tourism that employ leave-no-trace principles. (Courtesy American Society of Travel Agents)
Ecotourism: Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well being of local people. (The International Ecotourism Society)
WEB EXCLUSIVE
Click here to read TravelAge West’s exclusive Green Travel Survey
Scroll down to find more Green resources and Web sites
