On board with The Green Tourism Business Scheme

Last week was Green Awareness Week, which is designed to encourage companies to promote the awareness of a sustainable business and it’s benefits. I spent the week working with many organisations, and one in particular is The Green Tourism Business Scheme.
This is a fast growing organisation which is beggining to attract a lot of publicity. Their patron is Tony Juniper, who is the campaigner, writer, sustainability adviser and a well-known British environmentalist. They are attracting many businesses, who now wish to be graded by GTBS in order to promote their business as being green.
I started the week accompanied by Steve Mitchell, the Ecover UK Sales Manager, on the Norfolk Broads with the company Broads Tours, who on the day achieved their silver award status at the first time of trying. Well done to Barbara and her team! One of the boxes ‘ticked’ was the use of Ecover chemicals to clean the premises with. Both the B2B range for the housekeeping staff to use, and the retail products for the customers to use on board. This includes the popular Ecover Washing Up Liquid on board very boat, which is refilled from the economical 15ltr Bag-in-box system. Which not only reduces the amount of phosphates that are discharged in the water of the broads, but also cuts down on packaging.
The next event was the Green Tourism Business Scheme awards, which Smith & Coburn and Ecover were proud to sponsor. Held at the Royal Thames Yacht Club, we jointly sponsored the Carbon Footprint reduction award, which was awarded to Signal Rock B&B. Congratulations to them! Again, after speaking to many of the winners and finalists, they all said that they were fully booked this summer and large part of this was down to the fact they were graded by Green Tourism and marketed this. Again, a great day out and well done to all the winners!
Finally, Steve and I finished the week at the Observer Ethical Awards 2011, which Ecover sponsor. A nice way to finish the green week, rubbing shoulders with a few famous eco campaigners and some very successful solid companies too.
All in all this clearly showed me that companies can be very successful by developing green initiatives. They can measure increased sales and recognised bottom line savings, which is what all companies are continually striving for. A great week.
http://www.youtube.com/user/GreenTourismGTBS