Just in time for Memorial Day and the start of the summer vacation season, the Center for Sustainable Tourism has unveiled its U.S. Visitor Care Code, a 10-step guide for how to travel more sustainably and with less impact on the environment.

For those willing to take the Pledge to Travel Green, the 10 “ways to care” are:

1. Learn about your destination
2. Don’t leave your good habits at home
3. Be a fuel-efficient traveler
4. Make informed decisions
5. Be a good guest
6. Support locals
7. Dispose of your waste properly
8. Protect your natural surroundings
9. Make your travel zero emissions
10. Bring your experiences home

Annually, more than 1.5 billion leisure “person trips” are made in the United States, according to the Center, and even small changes in behavior can make a big difference in tourism’s impact on communities.

Running along the side of the Care Code page are nifty green suggestions related to reusable grocery bags, saving energy, sustainable seafood and recycling.

The U.S. Visitor Care Code has been developed and is managed by the Center for Sustainable Tourism, located at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.

Sounds like a great way to live overall, not just when traveling.

Image: Center for Sustainable Tourism

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The California Travel & Tourism Commission (CTTC) has put out a Sustainable Tourism Marketing Handbook that was put together in partnership with Cal Poly’s Recreation, Parks, & Tourism Administration (RPTA) Department.

The handbook provides examples of best practices for sustainable tourism marketing from 30 California based organizations, from LEED certified hotels to the California Academy of Sciences and many CVB’s.

Sustainable Tourism marketing handbook

Each of the 30 organizations was asked to name the marketing tools it used to turn its sustainability into dollars. The tools that were named the most were social media, business partnerships/networking, specific web pages and online PR efforts.

Social Media – 16
PR Articles – 11
Press Release – 11
Word of Mouth – 10
Branding sustainable efforts – 8
Newsletter – 1
Partnerships/ Networking – 17
Facility Design – 7
Signage – 6
Specific Web Pages – 11
Certifications – 7
Directories/ Maps – 8
Events – 9
Discounts/ Sweepstakes – 5

One of the best examples provided in the handbook is the case of BART, which was sitting on a pile of green tourism gold and didn’t know it. 

The Bay Area Rapid Transit was always a model of sustainable transportation service, since it started out as a green company with all-electric vehicles that produce electricity when they move. But it was for local transport, and had very little to do with tourism. BART began targeting tourism in 2005, and since then ridership from SFO to downtown San Francisco has increased by 400%.

They got into distribution through online travel sellers to expand their business nationally and internationally. They implemented a voucher system and partnered with the CTTC and the San Francisco Travel Association (formerly SFCVB).

BART has also taken advantage of social media marketing through Facebook and Twitter, and markets through the Internet by holding viral sweepstakes on their web site.

The CalPoly handbook has adapted the 37 standards of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) and it will be used to introduce sustainable tourism within the California tourism industry, with TourBench (www.tourbench.info) as a benchmarking resource.

If you need more help with integrating sustainability into the business, the UNEP has a step-by-step business management guide for integration of responsible environmental, social and socio-economic practices and principles into the day-to-day operations of a tourism company.

CalPoly-CTTC Sustainable Tourism Marketing Handbook – Download (pdf)

The General Services Administration (GSA) has come up with a web-based tool that is helping federal agencies calculate their greenhouse gas emissions from business travel and commutes, along with advanced features that identify areas where reduction is possible, and the impact of replacing travel with green alternatives.

GSA Emission Reduction Software

The GSA is working on pre-populating the tool with agency-specific data. This includes fuel usage data from GSA’s Fleet Program and air business travel data for agencies that use the GSA Travel Management Information Service.

The Carbon Footprint and Green Procurement Tool has an enterprise dashboard where a federal agency can use charts and sliders to find out the exact amount of greenhouse gas reductions and the ROI if they replace specific parts of their travel programs with video teleconferencing, mass transit, telecommuting, and other ‘green’ solutions.

By running ‘what if’ scenarios, an agency can see the reduction in real-time from an increase in telecommuters by 10%, 20%, 30%, etc.

The tool was originally designed by the GSA for their own use. But the GSA has now made it available to all agencies to help comply with an executive order issued by the President that requires all federal agencies to compile their current emissions and submit a detailed proposal with reduction targets by January 2011.

Agencies that have already signed up to use the tool include the DHS, Treasury, Commerce, and HHS. Last month, President Obama had called for federal employees to curb driving and business travel in order to achieve a 13% greenhouse emissions reduction target by 2020.

The U.S. Travel Association labeled the Obama Administration’s call for business travel reduction as ‘short-sighted and counterproductive.’

More info: https://www.carbonfootprint.gsa.gov/