One of the biggest things I have learned since we started our sustainability journey in earnest is the importance of sharing and transparency. While there might be awards and accolades out there to acknowledge sustainability best practice, overall, sustainability is not a competition but a collective goal. I’ve met a lot of people and organisations who are full of knowledge in how to make positive environmental and social impacts (and how to reduce the negative ones) and they’ve all been very willing to share their knowledge with me and with others working in the North East and wider visitor economy. That’s been incredibly useful in helping us set and begin to tackle our sustainability commitments within NGI.
We’re using the Green Tourism and GDS Index frameworks to guide us but a significant amount of the actions we’ve taken have been inspired by talking to our new network of sustainability experts and enthusiasts – with a special mention to GDS Movement, the North East England regenerative tourism taskforce, Net Zero North East England, the English Core Cities tourism group, Newcastle City Council, Beaconhouse Events and their supply chain sustainability group, and Newcastle-based sustainability accreditation supplier Marka.
With this sharing ethos in mind, here are my five tips for getting started with sustainability.
1. Even in small organisations, one person can’t achieve a company’s sustainability objectives. You’ll need everyone to make at least some changes and to do that you will at least need a few people who can support everyone else in understanding and remembering what their role is and approaching things in new ways. I’m one of a group of five sustainability champions in NGI.
2. Certification processes and other structured improvement frameworks are helpful because they give you something to aim towards, ensuring you prioritise an area of work which you know is important but potentially nobody is asking you to do – not yet anyway. Once you have the certification, you’ll be able to demonstrate the commitment you and your organisation is putting into sustainability. It becomes a really simple way of reassuring an increasing number of customers, funders and investors who may not buy from you / work with you if you can’t demonstrate that commitment.
A 2024 Booking.com report found that 75% of global travellers wanted to travel more sustainably and 43% would feel guilty when they make less sustainable travel choices.
Amex’s 2023 Global Meeting and Events Forecast reported that 80% of meetings and events bookers say their organisation takes sustainability into account when planning meetings and events.
3. Messaging and tone are very important. Whether you’re thinking about influencing your customers’ behaviour, your suppliers’ or your colleagues’, none of them are likely to enjoy being told what to do. Why would they? They might be settled in their current behaviour, they almost certainly won’t have time to add new steps into their procurement process, that plastic bottle of Coke they’re drinking might be the highlight of their day. They might just not like you!
We start with selling the benefits of a new behaviour – ideally for them but also for the local community or society generally. If you can say “most people / organisations do this and the benefits are…” that can work well. It’s usually how hotels convince you that you don’t need a fresh towel every day.
4. Attend some sustainability events. The speakers will hopefully get you thinking but meeting other people who have or once had similar challenges will likely give you just as much practical advice. And if you hold events in your organisation, attending an event with the topic of sustainability should hopefully be a live example of what you can do to improve sustainability with those.
Some of the first tips I was given on sustainable events included going plant based, meat free or even just moving the meat items to the end of the buffet so people don’t take so many / you don’t have to order as many. Locally sourced food and drink, including tea, coffee and biscuits, is something we now request for our events. When I attended the Net Zero North East England Summit last November, I liked how they asked where I was coming from and how I would be travelling in advance. It felt like a polite suggestion to at least consider public transport options.
Within our convention bureau, sustainable events are particularly important to us. On behalf of Destination North East England, we are currently developing a sustainable events toolkit offering anyone holding an event in the North East, region-specific advice on planning a sustainable event as well as suggestions for delivering social impact and legacy in our communities.
5. Publish the progress you’ve made. I mentioned before that a third party sustainability certification is a good way of demonstrating your organisation’s sustainability commitment. Another way to do that is publishing your sustainability KPIs and reporting on progress annually. That part can seem daunting at first. If you’ve never set any before, how do you know what they should look like?
Thankfully, with so many organisations already doing this, there are lots of examples to look at as a starting point. Your KPIs will be unique to the sustainability challenges you want to tackle first but I found it reassuring seeing that most organisations are focused in their KPIs, meaning they’re not trying to do everything all at once and you don’t have to track and report on dozens of metrics annually.
I remember seeing a video Domino’s released with their sustainability report last year and being struck by the simplicity and clarity of what they were aiming to do and what they had achieved so far. It’s one of many examples I’ve collected as we work towards publishing our sustainability KPIs for the first time. With recent legislation like the Green Claims Code and the EU Green Claims Directive, it’s easy to see a future where we will all have to formally measure and report on sustainability factors. For those of us yet to do so, we may as well start now to build credibility and improve our skills in this area to prepare for what’s coming.
Shelley Johnson, Head of Market Insights
If you represent a visitor economy business looking to put more focus on sustainability or demonstrate your sustainability commitments to customers, clients and stakeholders, you can sign up for free Green Tourism membership subsidised by Destination North East England. Be quick though – the free memberships offer ends on 31st March.