Greening Melbourne’s hotels
The City of Melbourne introduced an innovative environmental program to help city hotels to cut energy, water and waste management costs. The Savings in the City program aims to provide leadership, support, recognition and advice to hotels in the municipality. It will help hotels to identify economically viable actions they could take to reduce energy consumption and operating costs.

Hotels are the first sector to be targeted in the Savings in the City program, with 11 being among the top 200 water users in the City of Melbourne. And the hospitality sector – including accommodation and food providers – generates up to 18 per cent of all waste in the municipality, so there’s plenty of scope top make meaningful savings.

Intercity Transportation in New Zealand is aiming to be more sustainable. New Zealand’s only national public transport network,  InterCity operates New Zealand’s largest passenger transport network with the combined networks of InterCity, GreatSights and Gray Line. Together InterCity and GreatSights connect to more than 600 destinations nationwide, with over 130 services every day. InterCity Group (NZ) Limited has an active Responsible Tourism programme based on core operating philosophies of Manaakitanga and Kaitiakitanga. In line with these philosophies we have an active programme of engaging in our communities and mitigating the impacts from resource usage. We are proud to be rated as an Enviro Silver rated operator by Qualmark.

Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and lodge,South Africa
A luxury camp two hours north of Cape Town, Grootbos is more than just 5 star accommodation and a nature reserve. The nature reserve was instrumental in setting up the Walker Bay Fynbos Conservancy in 1999 and currently consists of 21 landowners, who manage approximately 12 000 hectares of fynbos. The Reserve has been running the longest running vegetation survey to date, which was started in 1997. Grootbos is not just about conservation as they also operates a private foundation that offers a number of different sustainability initiatives. The ‘Growing the Future’ initiative trains 8 men and women every year in the growing of vegetables and fruit, beekeeping and the principles of successful animal husbandry. Since 2003, they have had over 80 graduates. The ‘Green Future’ project provides annual, practical-based training programs for unemployed local people in the fields of landscaping, horticulture and ecotourism. The project is designed to develop nature-based sustainable livelihoods for people from the local community, and so engender a conservation ethic in surrounding areas. They also run a ‘Spaces for Sport’ initiative that offers a multipurpose facility which is considered a community development project. The site was chosen due to its unique position in the centre of three diverse communities in Gansbaai: Masakhane Township is comprised of about 12 000 black residents, the Blompark community has about 5000 coloured residents, and the Gansbaai white community consists of about 8000 residents. More than 300 kids every year are trained here by our coaches and volunteers. Guests visiting Grootbos can also participate. Grootbos runs a project called ‘Future Trees’. Guests are given the opportunity to plant a tree in a patch which was previously Milkwood Forest that was decimated in a fire in February of 2006. Approximately 1000 trees have been planted to date. Each guest receives a tree planting certificate with the co-ordinates of where the trees have been planted. The GPS co-ordinates are uploaded unto Google Earth and guests have the opportunity to track their tree’s progress.

CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe 
Tourism development has helped many of Zimbabwe’s poorer rural communities as part of the Communal Areas Management Programme For Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). Through CAMPFIRE, foreign visitors buy licences to hunt wildlife within certain quotas. As well as keeping wildlife numbers at sustainable limits, the profits from these licences and the sale of meat and skins of the animals is ploughed back into local communities to build new schools, wells and health clinics. Is tourism under threat in Zimbawe as there have been fuel shortages and many tourism resorts are owned by white landowners and community tourism initiatives feel they cannot attract tourists. For more information, see this case study illustrated by Global Eye at http://www.globaleye.org.uk/secondary_spring2002/focuson/case1.html

The Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative (RSSTI)
One of the first tourism programs in the Middle East to adopt principles of sustainable development, this programme was funded by USAID. The Tourism Development Authority (TDA) in Egypt plans to build approximately 200,000 new hotel rooms in the next 15 years near and around the Red Sea and Sinai Peninsula (source: greenhotelier). The RSSTI has a mandate for sustainable tourism and advocates their mission by working with the TDA and encouraging environment and socially responsible projects which involve local participation in decision making, eco-efficiency, the use of EIA’, Environmental Management Systems, etc. In addition, a set of economic instruments have been developed to encourage developers to be more responsible.

Responsible Tourism in West Africa
A recent opportunity to explore West Africa offered a unique way for cultural interaction to take place. As many westerners wish to visit rural communities for history and cultural interaction, giving money to a village may interrupt the economic balance or status. In the southern Burkinabe village of Kontambougou, tour guide leaders chose to bring chairs for the elders in the community as a gift. Elders in the village of Kontambougou used to stay in their huts as they aged but with the gift of chairs, they sit out in the village and socialise and interact with the other villagers. The villagers welcome the westerners by showing them their hospitality through music and dancing and the chief’s son explains the village structure and formation to the tourists. Another way to bring something back to the village was by bringing photographs of the elders that were taken on the last visit so that the village had a record and photograph of the old chiefs and significant elders.

Chumbe Island Coral Park, Tanzania
Chumbe Island is the first privately established and managed marine park in the world and takes serious note in its sustainability operations. Its income from eco-friendly visitors finances conservation and environmental education programs for local schools and other groups. The 7 palm thatched bungalows, while comfortable and beautifully unique, are also built entirely out of local material and designed with solar lights, rainwater catchment, solar-heating of shower water and composting toilets. Chumbe has won the 2000 UNEP 500 Roll of Honour Award, 2004 TODO socially responsible tourism award and 2004 Responsible Tourism Award in addition to many others. For more information, check out www.chumbeisland.com.

Downtown Vegas – an effort to revitalise downtown Las Vegas with a $350 million injection to revitalise the arts and give back to the community.

Hilton Head – Although touted as a sustainable destination after hosting the Ecotourism and Sustainable tourism conference in September, 2011, their sustainability is questionable. The island is host to a population of 38,000 but has 2.5 million visitors per year and the population swells to 100,000 on a busy weekend. With so many visitors, waste is an issue, however, there is currently no recycling or composting on the island and ground water depletion is over 60%. There is no public transportation and no sustainable tourism master plan or overarching policies in place.

The island, does however, warrant some notable achievements. Zoning restrictions have accomplished set backs for building and maximum building heights and the town enforces the Land Management Ordinance which dictates the style and governance of buildings. They also are responsible for the preservation of many trees as they are one of the major land owners on the island and therefore have protected many roadsides and created green buffer zones. A major golf destination, it has agreed to not use any water on their courses and the island has one of the best beach management programs in North America. A 2% tax is taken as part of the 5% hotel tax and goes directly to beach management. The island has won awards for the best beaches in the United States. For further information, see the island’s beach management plan.

Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve – This three year project is an initiative to assess and develop the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve area (which includes the Rideau Corridor and Thousand Islands regions) as a location and destination for sustainable tourism.

Prince Edward Island National Park of Canada
The Park is undertaking a number of initiatives to protect and preserve the natural and cultural resources found in the area. Along with a beach facility which was developed using a sustainable design concept, it also has a 10kW wind turbine that provides 100% of the electricity requirements to the Cavendish Campground. This year, the park will install a 50kW wind turbine that will provide the necessary power for a “grid-free” new administration building and compound (Parks Canada, 2008)

Tofino Cedar Corner Development
A real example of achieving the triple bottom line. Tofino sits at the entrance to Clayoquot Sound, a globally unique biosphere now designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve, it attracts approximately 1 million visitors per year. With the environmental and social pressures stemming from the tourist population and the fragile environment, this is a good example of multiple sustainable considerations. Built from 100% recycled timber and equipped with the latest water-saving, energy efficient and power alternative features, their philosophy is the following “Ultimately a successful business is a business that: a) makes money; b) exists symbiotically with its community; c) has an absolute minimum negative impact on the environment; and d) becomes a working model of a profitable, socially conscious, ‘green’ business showcased to the world”. For more information on their building, investment and management practices and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program

San Francisco gone green San Francisco has pulled out all the stops – LEED certified buildings, reducing waste, diverting from landfill, acknowledging parks and green space and their contribution to quality of life and tourist enjoyment!

Travel Green Wisconsin Travel Green Wisconsin is a voluntary program that reviews, certifies and recognizes tourism businesses that have made a commitment to continuously improve their operations in order to reduce their environmental and social impact. The program, set up by the Wisconsin Environmental Initiative (WEI) and the sustainable tourism ad-hoc committee made up of local businesses, NGO’s and governement agencies aims to develop a voluntary environmental certification program for the Wisconsin tourism industry.This voluntary program helps businesses evaluate their operations, set goals and take specific actions towards environmental, social and economic sustainability. The project is currently being piloted.

Hawaii Bio – Beetle 100% Recycled Vegetable Oil Powered Cars
Now when you travel to Hawaii, you can hire one of the first environmentally friendly cars – powered by 100% recycled vegetable oil.