Best practice in sustainability

Best practice in sustainability is certainly dependant on the size of your organisation. The important thing to remember is, no matter what the size of your operation – whether you are a B&B or an international Hotel chain – your efforts will make a difference.

Case studies

There are many organisations within our industry that are achieving great things in the sustainability area. Below are a couple of examples, and we’d love to hear about your organisation and what you have achieved.

Please email us at sustainability@tourism.australia.com

City of Melbourne

The City of Melbourne’s ‘Savings in the City- Green Hotels’ programme was developed as a sustainability initiative which would build a foundation for emissions reduction awareness in the city. The Council wished to benchmark the environmental performance of 20-30 hotels as part of the programme. This was done in an effort to obtain a quantitative overview of the environmental performance of hotel operations and to be able to identify and highlight areas where operations could be improved.

EC3 Global’s Earthcheck benchmarking software provided the City with an easy-to-navigate interface for the hotels to be able to measure their energy, water and waste output each year.

The benchmarking activity the hotels underwent annually provided the City of Melbourne with the ability to identify best practice for addressing climate change issues such as greenhouse gas emissions. The City found that hotels benchmarking against similar companies provided Melbourne’s’ major hotels with a market advantage, as they were able to identify and create early environmentally-responsible targets and develop emissions objectives based on the figures they received.

The measurement of energy, water and waste also assisted the City by providing a solid data reference from which they can base future building development and planning decisions.

The City of Melbourne’s Sustainable Business Coordinator, Sheridan Blunt, said, “The annual benchmarking activity undertaken by hotels provided the City of Melbourne with the ability to identify best practice for addressing climate change issues such as greenhouse gas emissions.”

In its pilot year, the Savings in the City benchmarking programme assisted participating hotels to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by over 11,000 tonnes – equivalent to the average greenhouse gas emissions produced by 933 Victorian households. In addition, one individual hotel reported to have achieved operational cost savings of over $AUD50,000 annually by benchmarking against the three key indicators.

Attractions

Skyrail is the only environmental attraction in Australia to be benchmarked and certified under the international Green Globe 21 program. To view Skyrail's best practice case study, click here.

Accommodation

Binna Burra Mountain Lodge was one of the first nature-based resorts in Australia. Binna Burra was committed to environmentally sustainable practices prior to the evolution of 'ecotourism'. To view Binna Burra Mountain Lodge's best practice case study, click here.