GREEN Initiatives
Geelong Otway Tourism was the first regional tourism body in Australia to be accredited by Green Globe 21. For three years GOT has had a bronze ranking with Green Globe 21 and is now being assessed for Silver certification.
Partnering with EC3 GLOBAL Geelong Otway Tourism has delivered sustainable pathway initiatives for the whole of the Geelong Otway region and is currently in partnership with Victoria University for a world’s first look at tourism initiatives for dealing with adaptive strategies for climate change.
As part of Geelong Otway Tourism’s business plan, we set to “ensure the effective allocation of resources in a strategic, accountable and sustainable manner”. Geelong Otway Tourism aims to develop and implement nature-based initiatives and maintain and enhance a sustainable tourism framework as supported by the AT DP grant “Creating a Sustainable Tourism Environment on the Great Ocean Road”.
As a destination, the City of Greater Geelong has set further environmental goals, each with strategies in place to reach these targets:
- Reduce greenhouse emissions by 30% by 2010
- Reduce potable water use by 25% by 2015
Green Globe Accreditation/Benchmarking (Bronze)
Benchmarking our organisation with Earthcheck assists to implement better management practices while improving the quality of the environment in which we operate. The Earthcheck program helps us to reduce costs in areas like energy consumption, waste production and resource conservation by
monitoring and reporting our annual outputs. It also demonstrates to consumers that we are serious about the environmental, social and economic performance of our organisation.
Waste Wise (Bronze)
Waste Wise Accreditation demonstrates that we have committed to reducing our waste to landfill but setting targets for reduction of waste and an associated action plan to achieve those reductions. Waste Wise is an initiative from Sustainability Victoria.
Geelong ecoChallenge
The Geelong ecoChallenge was a corporate sustainability program which Geelong Otway Tourism was involved in throughout 2009, its aims included reducing the organisation’s own consumption of energy, water and resources and ensuring the continued care for our unique natural environment. It challenged our conventional thinking, pushing our environmental performance and looked at raising our standards of awareness and knowledge. A successful program working towards achieving our vision of an ‘exceptional environment’ Accolades Received Meetings & Events Australia commendation for contribution to the Environment (2008)
