Green Key is a leading standard of excellence in the field of sustainable tourism, guiding tourism establishments in doing their part in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN. In our new feature series we will present each of the 17 SDGs and explain their connection to Green Key.
In 2015, the UN member states adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals to guide governments, the private sector and civil society in transforming our world into safer, fairer and more livable place.
On this page, you will learn more about Goal 11: "Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable".
What is Goal 11 about?
Goal 11 addresses the rapid growth of urban settlements that leads to unsustainable developments. Many fast-growing cities face environmental challenges such as water and air pollution and need to rethink their resource and waste management.
In many cities, over-tourism puts additional pressure on the urban environment. Tourism establishments use resources like water and energy, occupy urban space and strain on urban infrastructure. Furthermore, tourists put pressure on the natural and cultural heritage of urban spaces if their presence is not sustainably.
How does Green Key help to achieve goal 11?
In many destinations, tourism establishments are important urban assets, as they represent hubs of service, resources, tourism, and culture. As active players in the transition towards sustainability, Green Key certified establishments are required to take a stand in favor of promoting sustainable transportation (SDG target 11.2), of protecting and promoting local natural and cultural heritage (SDG target 11.4) and of reducing harmful flows of air-, water- and waste-driven pollution (SDG target 11.6), Here is what Green Key 2022-2025 criteria ask of the certified establishments:
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION – Daily transportation of staff, resources and guests represent an important share of overall emissions the establishments are responsible for, even more so when activities revolve around a travel intensive sector such as the hospitality industry. Green Key asks its certified establishments to promote the use of sustainable transportation and provide it for staff (criteria 13.10, 13.12) and guests (criteria 12.2, 12.3), e.g. in the form of bike rentals and eco-friendly motorised vehicles used for daily operations. Charging stations should also be installed to support the transition to less polluting electric vehicles (criterion 7.26);
WASTE AND POLLUTION REDUCTION – Economic activity necessarily entails consumption of resources and production of negative externalities, such as air-, water- and soil pollution. Harmful by-products can put a serious strain on the environment and generate losses in aesthetic value, tourism-attraction potential, as well as biodiversity. Green Key certified establishments reduce the use of resources such as water (criteria section 4) and energy (criteria section 7) to consequently lower GHG emissions and wastewater effluent volume that would inevitably impact on the environment. At the same time, 2022-2025 criteria increasingly stress the importance of waste management, and make it compulsory for establishments to register monthly data on waste production (criterion 6.10), but also recommend them to draft a waste reduction action plan (criterion 6.15), so that establishments take resource cycles into account and make their best to cut on any unnecessary resource consumption and recover everything they can before it ends up harming the environment as well as human health (criteria section 6);
RENOVATION MATERIALS – Renovation, upgrades and refurbishments of infrastructure represent relevant opportunities for establishments to improve their environmental performance, but they also generate construction waste and pollution. Green Key endorses its certified establishments to pick materials responsibly to make sure that renovations have the lowest negative impacts for the environment, for example by choosing eco-friendly (criterion 9.5) and locally sourced materials (criterion 9.6), so that transportation, cleaning, waste handling and maintenance costs are taken into account and always kept low.
A document describing Green Key’s overall contribution to all 17 Sustainable Development Goals can be downloaded here.
