There are lots of organisations already fully committed or on their Responsible Tourism journey. Here is a selection and some other up and coming companies:
- SCOTO, Scotland’s community tourism network – SCOTO was set up to be a forum for networking, collaboration and learning about the work of others, and to represent and provide leadership specifically for Community Tourism organisations and enterprises across Scotland.
- ‘Our Stories, Your City’ by Mercat Tours – a new, unique collaboration of visitor attractions in Edinburgh, which offers visitors an award-winning, five-star walking tour at the same time as supporting some of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable people by paying forward entry tickets for vulnerable people.
- Wilderness Group – Carbon Emissions Framework Methodology
The Wilderness Group, which encompasses Wilderness Scotland, have shared their carbon emissions methodology on an “open source” basis to support other tourism businesses in reducing carbon emissions and making commitments to Net Zero. - Eden Locke Aparthotel – Fluffy towels, crisp linen, perfect pillows, friendly uniformed staff, the smell of fresh roasted coffee, lashings of delicious cakes and pastries – all in intelligent design-led style. But perhaps surprisingly, Eden Locke is enormously committed to recycling to protect the environment as far as possible. This hospitality organisation, part of edyn, are now going beyond that and embracing Edinburgh’s growing circular economy, working with Circular Edinburgh.
- Best Western Kings Manor Hotel – Interesting (short) video about the – GTBS gold since 2000. The hotel explains their resource efficiency measures across all aspects of their business. Apart from the cost saving benefits of resource efficiency, being part of an environmentally conscious business boosts staff morale.
- Kingsmills Hotel in Inverness – shows great commitment to sustainability and publishes a really positive message about its journey to improve environmental credentials and actions on its website. Great example of striving for competitive advantage.
- Ardlui Hotel – used ZWS for advice on energy efficiency and reduced their Carbon emissions by more than 30% in a £100k project, which received a Scottish Government interest free loan.
- Dundonald Links, Ayrshire – winner of a prestigious VIBES award
- The Edinburgh Remakery – This social enterprise encourages and empowers residents and businesses to repair, remake and re-use their existing possessions – from furniture to computers.
The Edinburgh Remakery creates jobs, reduces landfill and helps cut the city’s carbon footprint, whilst teaching key repair skills and providing resources for some of the capital’s most vulnerable citizens.
- Edinburgh Festivals are responding collectively to the climate emergency.
Some info to inspire!
- Karshare (the Airbnb of cars)
- Top up taps. Encouraging the reuse of water bottles through 5 new taps in Edinburgh: Leith, Portobello, Royal Mile, West End and Grassmarket. (Oct 2020)
- Travalyst – Led by The Duke of Sussex in partnership with Booking.com, Google, Skyscanner, Trip.com Group, TripAdvisor, and Visa, Travalyst is a NPF organisation working to help bring about the systemic changes needed in order for sustainable travel to be taken out of the niche, and into the mainstream.