carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

INKATERRA www.inkaterra.com, Peru’s leading eco and adventure travel company, invites guests on a remarkable trip to learn about the marvels of the Peruvian rainforest from the moment they step off the plane when staying at Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica. This jungle lodge, situated on the shores of the Madre de Dios River in Peru’s southern Amazon rainforest basin, has recently enhanced their facilities and services affording guests an exceptional experience, permitting them to come into even closer contact with the natural splendours of the rainforest.

Check in at the Butterfly House
Peru is home to over 3,700 species of butterflies, boasting the greatest number of worldwide. The Butterfly House provides a relaxing and pleasant check-in/out service for guests travelling between the nearby town Puerto Maldonado and downstream to the Inkaterra Reserva Amazonica Lodge. However, it is primarily both a butterfly garden and information centre offering guests an interactive experience with these fascinating colourful creatures. Here guests can learn all about these creatures, watch larvae being grown in the laboratory and observe the butterflies in their natural habitat whilst sipping a drink in the centre’s large garden.

Anaconda Walk
A 200 metre long wooden bridge has been built over the wetlands, known as Aguajales, close to the lodge to allow guests to journey through the marshlands to experience firsthand the biodiversity and wildlife in this fascinating ecosystem. The bridge consists of four sections and three platforms offering guests the opportunity to see a wide variety of flora and fauna species found in this area, such as the low foliage heliconia plants, renaco trees, two-toned Elachistochleis toads and Gonatodes lizards. For more information click here (opens as a pdf file).

Tambopata Suites
The ultimate rainforest retreat, with private plunge pool and terrace plus a hidden outdoor shower, where the mystique of the jungle can be embraced in elegant seclusion. A tall roof of fishtail palm tops four integrated rooms in these comfortable local Ese’ Eja-style wooden cabañas. The spacious bedroom has one king or two twin beds and the open plan bathroom comprises a complete set of homemade ecologically friendly toiletries. For guests looking for a long siesta, there is a screened lounge furnished with two hammocks as well as two comfortable chairs. Each suite is also equipped with umbrellas, flashlights, kerosene lamps and a central ceiling ventilator.

The decision by Hidden Valley Cabins to go green has paid dividends with the operator reporting record occupancy levels and a massive reduction in energy expenses. Now the team behind the move wants to help other operators make the switch to sustainable power.

The $75,000 investment into solar panels is set to pay for itself in two years. Diesel prices are skyrocketing and the McLennan family has not turned on their generator since making the switch to green power six months ago.

The maintenance free solar panels aren’t just a head turner - with diesel costing $1.80 per litre delivered to the property outside Paluma, and the operation of the generator using upwards of 26,000 litres a year – they’re saving the family business $46,800 a year on fuel costs alone.

Operations Manager Ross McLennan said other remote operators face annual bills of between $100,000 and $150,000 for their diesel generators – and the cost is increasing annually.

“We made the switch to solar power in December – since then we’ve had huge publicity and our numbers have swelled dramatically. We’re really surprised that we haven’t had to turn on the generator as a back up power supply. Not only have we increased our bookings – but we’ve significantly decreased our operational costs.”

“We’re looking to run some workshops at our property to encourage other operators to make the switch to solar. It’s a real sustainable solution – it stacks up economically and environmentally,” Mr McLennan said.

Townsville Enterprise Destination Marketing and Development Manager Brent Randall applauded the initiative and encouraged other operators to consider their impact on the environment and the savings to be made.

“Hidden Valley Cabins have been recognised as pioneers, leading the country in green initiatives. Their willingness to share their new knowledge with others shows this is more than a marketing ploy – it’s about making a difference.”

“With rising fuel costs costing regional operators both in bookings and in operational costs any steps to cut back on spending and encourage environmentally conscious visitors are steps we should be making cooperatively as a region.”

“In this age of environmental awareness and threats such as global warming – visitors are looking for tourism operators who are committed to sustainable tourism development and an environmentally friendly approach.”

The BBC reports that Scotland’s first carbon neutral bus route operated by Stagecoach, has been developed with 140,000 trees to be planted to offset CO2 emissions generated by journeys from Fife to Edinburgh.

NESTA has announced the 100 competitors in their Big Green Challenge programme.  The Big Green Challenge focuses on developing new ideas to tackle climate change. To find out more about NESTA click here.

A modern arts centre is to open in Aberdeen in 2010, costing £13 million. The new centre received £4 million in capital funding from the Scottish Arts Council and will be the first of its kind in Northern Scotland.  The development is a partnership between Aberdeen City Council and Peacock Visual Arts, and they hope to attract 200,000 visitors a year. The centre will exhibit contemporary arts, host exhibitions by world-class artists and run community outreach and education projects. Facilities will include galleries, printmaking, television/dance studios, workshops and space for film screenings and talks. The building will primarily be built underground and heated using geo-thermal and solar energy.

17th – 20th July 2008

Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk

Working towards and greener festival.

The ground breaking Latitude Festival returns to the sunrise coast in Suffolk for its incredible third year. Nestled in the historic and beautiful surroundings of Henham Park Estate, Southwold, and taking place on 17th – 20th July, organisers Festival Republic are promising another truly spectacular event.

Teaming up with London’s Arcola Theatre, Latitude are working towards a greener festival. With environmental issues at its core, Latitude are pleased to announce that this year’s Theatre Arena will be a completely fuel cell powered stage. Arcola will be providing state of the art low energy lighting including LED and a Hydrogen Fuel Cell to power the stage. The fuel cell operates almost silently and will produce nothing but electricity and clean water.

This ground-breaking advancement in technology will bring down the carbon footprint of the festival and lessen the event’s impact on its immediate surroundings and the world’s climate as a whole.

The Arcola Theatre is a converted factory in East London and one of the UK’s leading independent venues. This partnership with Latitude is part of Arcola’s extensive sustainability programme – Arcola Energy – which along with partners in the Mayor of London’s Greening London Theatres initiative is driving the eco-culture frontier.

Over the weekend Theatre Arena at Latitude is a buzzing hotbed of creativity and inspiration, hosting a wealth of bespoke productions and performances exclusive to the festival. Some of the biggest names in contemporary, physical, classical, performance and local theatre, including The Royal Court, the Bush Theatre, nabokov, and Paines Plough, are coming to the Theatre Arena. It really has something for everyone; provoking thought, emotions, laughs and entertainment all weekend long. As well as powering the arena The Arcola Theatre will present a series of short but perfectly formed writer-led plays The Miniaturists. Each piece is no longer than 15 minutes, and the dizzying mix makes every event as various and unpredictable as life itself.

Latitude and Arcola will be supported by the London Hydrogen Partnership, Thomas Engineering & ETC.

Tesco the UK market leader in terms of ‘grocery stores’ is starting to introduce ‘carbon scores’ on some of their products to highlight how many grams of CO2 were produced during their production, packaging and disposal (source: Daily Telegraph).

Hello Scotland Is First UK Destination Management Company to Win Accreditation for its CarbonNeutral® operations

A Scottish destination management company has become the first in the UK to be given CarbonNeutral® operations accreditation.

Hello Scotland, which offers handcrafted, luxurious packages to corporate groups visiting Scotland, is working hard to tackle offsetting its carbon footprint in a number of ways, and has been now been awarded CarbonNeutral® operations status by The CarbonNeutral Company.

Although business travellers have come particularly under fire for their carbon footprint, Hello Scotland believes it has found a way of addressing the balance of continuing to offer unique elite and exclusive incentive packages to the corporate sector, while tackling the concerns of impact upon the environment.

Ambassador for Hello Scotland, Bill Thomson, explains: “Being a destination management company, we have no alternative but to use coaches to transport clients, and it’s out with our control as to how clients get to Scotland, but we now record every mile that our trips cover across the country and we then offset this through a number of selected initiatives to promote sustainable energy through The CarbonNeutral Company.”

Bill reveals Hello Scotland was awarded this status after submitting company data to The CarbonNeutral Company, including all of Hello Scotland’s commuting figures, mileage, number of clients, where they were all staying and so on. The company’s annual operations carbon footprint was calculated - and they’ve now managed to offset this for two years running.

A key part of offsetting their carbon footprint was mitigating changes within the company, such as reducing paper wastage by more than 40% over the past year and introducing a rigorous double-sided printing policy, as well as allocating ‘Green Champions’ on a monthly basis to take responsibility for waste disposal each week.

Further targets for this year are to not only invest in more recycled stationery, but to also reduce paper usage by a further 30% by creating greener client facing concepts, and Bill says a priority is to communicate with suppliers to look at ways they can work together to promote greener options.

By bringing their efforts to the attention of suppliers – and clients - Hello Scotland hopes to at least make them more aware of reducing their carbon footprint, with the aim this will encourage more people to do their bit to preserve the environment and make Scotland a sustainable destination in ecological terms.

“We certainly don’t want to push what we’re doing into people’s faces and we know there’s a lot of scepticism over CarbonNeutral® operations status, but small changes make a big difference - it’s simply not about paying a nominal figure to offload the guilt.

“On our trips, our clients get to see in practice what sustainability is all about – for example, the whisky distilleries that use natural resources but re-use and recycle wherever they can.”

For those clients that are keen to do their bit and get involved with Hello Scotland’s efforts, they’ll soon be given the choice of a ‘Green Upgrade’.

Bill explains: “We’re going to be offering options that are more ecologically friendly, such as using hotels that are more ecologically aware, and we’ll be able to let clients know the difference they’ll be making by upgrading to this level.”

In receiving carbon neutral status, this has also had a knock-on effect in Hello Scotland becoming much more involved in a national awareness campaign, highlighting not only the benefits to the environment, but the cost-savings that businesses can make.

Another big step for the company this year, as well as finding new ways to reduce their own carbon footprint and offset those made by their clients, is a grading from Green Tourism Business Scheme.

“This is really important for us and we’ll be working to meet the criteria of the scheme and the assessment it entails.”

So what set Hello Scotland on this challenge in the first place? “Through one of our team (Project Manager, Claire Scott), we have close links with an environmental board in Canada,” says Bill, “where they’re well ahead in terms of being ecologically aware – and that was one of the stimuli that gave us the idea of going doing this route.

Bill concludes: “We recognise that we have an integral responsibility in tackling the ever-present threats of climate change - and we’re very proud of the fact that we’re now recognised as being a CarbonNeutral® operation.”

National tourism agency, VisitBritain, launches a new programme – Green Start – to help accommodation providers and visitor attractions in England take the first steps towards becoming sustainable businesses.

VisitBritain aims to encourage a rapid, widespread and significant increase in the adoption of sustainable tourism principles, while avoiding the burden of too much bureaucracy and, as part of a three-month pilot, is waiving the usual £25 cost for the first 500 businesses to register to the programme. Participation in Green Start provides tourism managers and operators with a stepping stone towards accreditation by a validated sustainable accreditation scheme.

Jason Freezer, VisitBritain’s sustainable tourism project manager, says: “VisitBritain is committed to encouraging sustainable businesses. However nearly two-thirds tell us they need more guidance on developing their business in that way. Green Start is an initial step in helping more of our tourism businesses improve their existing practices and signal to visitors that they recognise the increasing importance and value of sustainable good practice.”

Using a simple online self-assessment tool, participants must meet a code of conduct, commit to four fundamental sustainability requirements and, over a period of two years, meet or work towards at least 23 relevant ‘good practices’ from a total menu of 50. These could include insulating buildings and water tanks, using low-energy lighting, collecting rainwater, using locally-sourced produce or promoting eco-friendly travel such as cycling.

In return, participants will gain a basic identification on  and, signalling to consumers that they recognise the importance and value of sustainable good practice. VisitBritain will provide them with additional best practice guidance, drawing on advice from national experts and signposting businesses to regional resources. The agency aims to have 2,500 businesses signed up to Green Start in the first year.

By introducing the entry-level programme, VisitBritain aims to prepare businesses for more formal accreditation under an existing and well-established sustainable certification scheme, such as the Green Tourism Business Scheme (www.green-business.co.uk). VisitBritain will add its endorsement to businesses in these schemes and give their quality assessed participants full marketing benefits, both online and offline.

To mark the launch, consumers in the UK and abroad – who are increasingly exploring sustainable practices when planning their trips – can now search for around 750 of these ‘green’ accommodation providers and attractions on visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com.

VisitBritain has also identified the few conflicts in its current national quality assessments standards and is addressing the process of integrating sustainable principles into them. Its activities in the sustainable arena are part of VisitBritain’s current strategy to promote sustainable businesses and encourage responsible visitors through marketing, industry engagement, leading by example and supporting Government’s sustainable agenda.

Cascade Green is an Australian beer with high ‘eco-credentials’, which include using bio-degradable vegetable inks on the packaging and the cartons are made out of materials which are 100% recyclable. Over the past six years the brewery have also reduced their energy usage by 16% and water usage by 30% per unit of production. They have also won a number of environmental awards.