[ad_1]
The Global Sustainability Tourism Council (GSTC) has begun developing sustainability certification for corporate travel programmes.
The non-profit organisation manages a set of global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, and international accreditation for sustainable tourism certification bodies. It already offers certification for hotels and tour operators, and a draft version for meetings and events is in the consultation phase.
GSTC Business Travel Working Group co-chair Marijke Poppink, a travel management consultant, said the group hopes to create a guideline document for company managed travel programmes within six to nine months.
Travel managers will be able to begin working from the guidelines before they are finalised as a certification document.
“We are now having conversations with different associations and organisations to get their support and input on how to achieve alignment at industry level and move forward,” said Poppink, who added that the group would welcome volunteers interested in developing the managed travel certification.
Peter Skieller, the working group’s other co-chair and also a consultant, said: “We want to create the possibility for companies to get their travel programme certified so they can show they are working systematically with sustainability. It can help internally. For a lot of travel managers it is difficult to get buy-in [for developing a sustainability strategy for business travel]. With certification you can show this is a way to get there.”
The criteria for certification are based on the same standards as for all GSTC certification, covering social, economic and cultural aspects of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, as well as environmental.
[ad_2]
Source link