International Climate Initiative – Transforming Tourism Value Chains

The project aims to reduce carbon emissions and improve resource efficiency from tourism, by transforming activities and services along the whole supply chain.

Why? Without introducing greener practices, by 2050 tourism’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are set to double, with even greater increases in water use and waste disposal. Tourism is vitally important to small island developing states, yet these destinations are among the first to suffer when it comes to tourism’s environmental impacts. The four countries involved in the project have been selected primarily because tourism is an essential part of their economies.

The approach: This ambitious project, led by UN Environment, is finding ways to reduce carbon emissions, as well as water-use and waste from tourism across four island states: Mauritius, Saint Lucia, the Philippines and the Dominican Republic.  The Travel Foundation is lead implementing partner in Mauritius and Saint Lucia, while other agencies lead in the Philippines and the Dominican Republic.  The four-year project will look at the entire supply chain for three areas of tourism: accommodation, food/beverages, and events.  If a dish is served, for instance, we will be examining how the food was produced, how it travelled to the restaurant and the waste created.

The project is supported by €5 million from the International Climate Initiative on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

Latest activities

• We identified and engaged stakeholders in Mauritius and Saint Lucia. These include government ministries as well as private businesses.
• We organized and delivered two high profile events to launch the project in 2017, one each in Mauritius and Saint Lucia.
• Within the events, we ran workshops to explain the methodology used to identify the ‘hotspots’ or key areas to reduce carbon emissions and improve resource efficiency within tourism business.
• We worked with our project delivery partner, WRAP to identify such ‘hot spots’ for Saint Lucia and Mauritius.  Read the country reports.
• We organised two conferences for stakeholders in 2018, one each in Saint Lucia and Mauritius, to enable government representatives and tourism companies to agree solutions to be included in action plans.
• We trained public officials and private sector staff in sustainable procurement in both Saint Lucia and Mauritius.
• We are developing national action plans in consultation with key stakeholders in each country to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resource efficiency, by providing recommendations based on the identified hot spots.
• We will also deliver workshops in 2019 for the public sector and tourism businesses to enable them to implement and monitor such recommendations.

Benefits

Sustainable supply chains will help tourism businesses tap into new and expanding markets of sustainability-oriented travellers, strengthen resilience, attract investment, stay ahead of standards and regulations, increase technical capabilities and improve community relations.