What a world we live in…where the planet is in a climate crisis, or as I saw expressed recently, a “climate crunch” (akin to a credit crunch). Technology is advancing at the speed of the train I am traveling on to Vienna, Austria; millions of Chinese students will graduate this year without a job to go to; McKinsey and Co have released a new report called Pathway to a Low Carbon Economy. To help with the discussion and debate about the technical and economic feasibility of different carbon emission reduction levels, McKinsey & Co and ten leading companies and organizations from across the world have developed a global greenhouse gas abatement data base. The report is not an assessment of policies or regulatory choices; rather, its purpose is to provide an objective and uniform set of data that serves as a starting point for corporate leaders, academics, and policy makers when discussion how best to achieve emission reductions.
The World Travel & Tourism Council has just released its report Leading the Challenge on Climate Change (through tourism). The Tourism Industry Association of Canada just announced its new Canadian sustainable tourism advisory committee.
I will be attending, along with hundreds of other Canadian and American climate change presenters (including my good friend and fellow Climate Change presenter Todd Lucier), the North American Climate Change Summit with Al Gore in May in Nashville, Tennessee. This time, though, its not just about gaining more knowledge about climate change. Now, it’s time for launching a world-wide campaign to aggressively advocate and facilitate government-led policies and legislative changes that will chart new directions for businesses and communities.
My awareness is that there is a convergence of intention and more important, commitment from businesses all over the world to do what is necessary to save our planet through changing the way we live and do things. My friend and colleague Stan Cook, a Newfoundland kayak operator, and now chair of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada has a great commitment to sustainability. I think, in his new capacity of chair of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada, that he will be bringing a razor-sharp focus to how we, as tourism industry folks, need to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our tourism operations.
I have realized that the next few years of my life will be dedicated to communicating and educating to the tourism industry and to community leaders in Canada about the effects of climate change. I will do what I can to engage them thoughtfully, respectfully, and actively in facilitating them to take the necessary steps to change strategies and tactics to reduce carbon emissions in their businesses, communities, farms, and personal life-styles. Triple bottom line accounting (Profitability, economic accountability and social responsibility) will be the norm, not the exception.
My children are concerned about what the planet will look like in 10 years, 20 years, 40 years – and, what they will be left with as a legacy to live their lives. As I look out at the river beside the train east of Innsbruck (near Kufstein), and realize that this evening I will be south of the Danube in Vienna, I am aware that European countries have been cleaning up their industries, their rivers, their city air (Linz in Austria is a great example), and they are doing this because they know it needs to be done. And yet, in Canada and in my home province of Manitoba, we continue to drive in large vehicles that emit extensive greenhouse gases and are very fuel-inefficient; we consume water at prodigious rates; and we pollute our waters (lakes, rivers, groundwater) with little commitment to changing our actions to avoid long-term consequences at the local level, or on the planet.
As a tourism industry leader and award-winning Manitoba learning adventure company, I am aware of the tender balance between travellers’ values and motivations and the need to operate a company that puts food on the table for our family. Meaning that our tourism business must demonstrate leadership in sustainability in practice because reduced carbon emissions are critical, and because travellers are becoming educated about the need to travel in a more responsible way. They expect us to be leaders in providing travel in a sustainable manner.
In my post on the Tourism Cafe some days ago, I shared some insights and thoughts from a young Canadian Pentathlon athlete who I believe has some good advice for all of us. Take a few moments to read her thoughts.
I have come to a point of realizing that we need to integrate Experiential Tourism, Sustainable Tourism, and smart online marketing to help educate our guests, and to share the stories of success that we are having in Canada with “greening our tourism businesses”. These are not separate tasks…they are integrated, and I believe that tourism operators, DMO’s, PMO’s, and TIAC all have responsibilities here to connect and integrate these core aspects of travel that exemplifies the best of “the Canadian experience”.
