Sustainability is an important consideration for the region’s industry with increasing awareness of environmental concerns and a growing demand for low-impact travel options. MRBTA is committed to supporting members to assess and improve their sustainable practices and we are delighted to announce that we have a new initiative available to help businesses undertake Ecotourism Australia’s Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard.
Launched by Ecotourism Australia in 2022 with founding partners, Tourism Australia, the Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard is a pathway program for tourism businesses to start their sustainability journey. The simple scorecard provides a framework for any business in the tourism supply chain to assess what they are doing well and how they can strive to improve within globally recognised criteria in the following four pillars of sustainability:
- Environmental impacts
- Socio-economic impacts
- Cultural impacts
- Sustainable management
Benefits for businesses:
- Tailored feedback recognising what you are doing well and identifying where you could improve, specific to your business.
- Your assessment helps to de-mystify what sustainable and responsible tourism is, both for you and your customers.
- No matter how high or low your score is, identifying areas you do well in and areas for improvement is an important step in your business’ sustainability journey.
- Gives you an industry-recognised rating that you may choose to share in your communications to suppliers, providers and tourists choosing to align their sustainability values with yours.
Scorecard Details:
- The scorecard costs $275 ($250 + GST) for one year of completion and includes a comprehensive assessment report and a public-facing scorecard (optional for operators who achieve 50% or more and who choose to communicate this externally).
- Completing the scorecards’ 50 criteria and uploading evidence should only take between four and eight hours.
- Your scorecard responses will be assessed by a trained sustainability assessor within the Ecotourism Australia team before a personalised score is provided to you.
- Your scorecard is valid for 12 months from completion of your criteria. You may decide to keep striving for sustainability and to aim for a higher score in your next scorecard assessment.
- Your scorecard can be displayed publicly, or you may choose to keep it internal for education of your staff, supply chain and stakeholders.
MRBTA Support
MRBTA is pleased to provide a $275 discount on the annual MRBTA Membership fee for up to 30 members that complete the Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard. Members that are interested in taking up this offer are asked to register via this form.
Terms:
- This offer aims to support more businesses to assess their sustainability credentials. The discount can only be provided for your first scorecard. Future reassessments are encouraged but cannot be subsidised.
- The offer is available for Primary members only.
- The $275 discount can also be applied against the cost of operators undertaking another Ecotourism Australia Certification Program for the first time.
- Proof of scorecard completion will need to be provided to MRBTA and the $275 will be discounted off your next membership renewal invoice.
- Reimbursements will be allocated in order of requests being received until funds are exhausted.
MRBTA and Ecotourism Australia hosted a webinar for members to learn more about the Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard on Tuesday, 8 August. You can watch the recording online via MRBTA Youtube.