1. European Commission – Joint Research Centre
Best Environmental Management Practices for the Tourism sector: A toolkit for Resource Efficiency and Competitiveness
Presentation at the
EREK Workshop Resource Efficiency in the Tourism sector
Sofia, 13 September 2018
Pierre Gaudillat
European Commission – Joint Research Centre

2. An introduction to voluntary EU tools: EMAS and the EU Ecolabel
Content
An introduction to voluntary EU tools: EMAS and the EU Ecolabel
Best Practice for the Tourism sector: examples and ways to save
Take a Green Step: towards an online community

3. √ √ √ What is EMAS? An Environmental Management System?
EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme
An Environmental Management System?
An EU Regulation?
An environmental performance reporting tool? √ √ √
an environmental management instrument standing for:
Performance
Systematic improvement of performance against significant environmental aspects.
Credibility
Verification by an independent and accredited third party
Transparency
Transparent reporting based on defined indicators
1) A voluntary management tool, open to companies and all other organisations, to evaluate, report and improve the environmental performance.
2) Set by EU Regulation (1221/2009), which means, among many other things, that EMAS is a registration by public authorities.
3) One of the key features of EMAS is the public reporting of the third-party verified environmental performance of the organisation.

4. EMAS and the tourism sector
EMAS has been implemented by more than 220 frontrunners in the Tourism sector
Leading countries are Cyprus, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Key benefits for tourism operators:
Be attractive, sustain the quality of your destination
Be profitable, save money by using less resources
Be credible, use the most robust environmental management instrument
Be strategic, you can only improve what you can measure
Be responsible, improve your environmental impacts.

5. What is the EU Ecolabel? Established in 1992
A voluntary scheme aiming at promoting products and services with a lower environmental impact
The official European Ecolabel, managed by the European Commission and Member State Competent Bodies
It is the only EU-wide Type-1 Ecolabel - provides businesses the opportunity to use one label for all their pan-European or global marketing
Multi-criteria (pass/fail) and third party verified criteria addressing main environmental impacts over the products' or services' life cycle
Provides consumers an environmental certification they can trust
The EU Ecolabel is the official EU wide ecolabel, established in 1992, managed by the European Commission and EEA Member State Competent Bodies.
It is a voluntary scheme, aiming at promoting products and services with a lower environmental impact and providing business the opportunity to use one label for all their pan-European or global marketing.
This step will contribute to the continued efforts of providing companies and consumers with a credible ecolabel to promote sustainable consumption and production, enhancing circular economy within Europe.
Provides consumers a distinctive symbol of
environmental quality they can trust.
EU Ecolabel criteria are multi-criteria, based on scientific evidence and life-cycle based and are laid down in European Commission Decisions. EU Ecolabel criteria are regularly revised (through regulatory procedure with scrutiny) to follow technical innovation.
EU Ecolabel criteria are developed to ensure that the 10% to 20% most environmentally friendly products currently on the market can meet them.

6. As ive ust mentioned on of the main objectives of the action plan is reliable information to the consumer.
I guess it wont be anything new to you, but according to a Consumer Market study on environmental claims for non-food products, almost 60% of consumers prefer to buy a product with an environmental label. The interest of consumers is grooving and therefore we need to protect and guide them at the scale of the EU.
Half of the consumers also look specifically for environmental information on the packaging when purchasing a product. Using a reputable labelling scheme with clear criteria – such as the EU Ecolabel - will often be one of the most effective ways for businesses to demonstrate to consumers that they are meeting high environmental standards.

7. EU Ecolabel for tourism – What for?
CONTRIBUTES to resource and monetary SAVINGS in water and energy consumption, reduce waste production, to improve the CO2 footprint etc.
HELPS EU citizens to make informed choices and travel more sustainably
CERTIFIES that a hotel is among the most environmentally-friendly
DIFFERENTIATES your product on the global market
HELPS stand out amongst other hotels in terms of environmental excellence and CSR
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF marketing activities

8. EMAS and EU Ecolabel are based on complementary commitments
EMAS = continuously improve and demonstrate environmental performance
High
EMAS SCOPE
EU ECOLABEL SCOPE
Environmental performance
EU Ecolabel= comply with environmental criteria developed for every sector
Both tools are complementary. While EMAS can be applied by any company at any stage of environmental performance and accompany this organisation throughout the continuous improvement of these performance, Ecolabel should be use to demonstrate the respect of specific criterion establishing a threshold of performance.
Synergies have been searched between EMAS SRD and Ecolabel criteria to make sure that applying EMAS can be a good first step before fully complying with all ecolabel criteria.
SRD will be presented in the next slides.
Low
Time

9. Not only for EMAS-registered organisations
Sectoral Reference Documents on Best Environmental Management Practice (BEMP)
Legal basis: EMAS Regulation (EC) No 1221/2009
BEMPs support all businesses and other organisations to improve environmental performance, not only EMAS registered organisations
Not only for EMAS-registered organisations

10. Implementation is voluntary!
What's in it for you?
Proven and reliable information on relevant best practices (including costs and reference organisations)
Set of environmental performance indicators
Possibility to benchmark your performance against frontrunners to identify improvement potentials

11. Sectors addressed Development of BEMPs for 11 priority sectors Retail
Tourism
Construction
Public
Administration
Agriculture
Waste management
Telecommunications
Metal products
manufacturing
Electronic equipment
manufacturing
Car
manufacturing
Food & beverage
manufacturing

12. The Best Environmental Management Practices for the Tourism Sector
EMS implementation
Cross-cutting issues (transversal)
Destination management best environmental practices;
Tour operators and travel agents best environmental practices;
Minimising water consumption in tourist accommodation;
Waste management in tourist accommodation;
Minimising energy use in tourist accommodation;
Restaurant and hotel kitchens best environmental practices;
Campsite best environmental practices.
Biodiversity conversation
Sustainable packages
Efficient water fittings
Waste prevention
Optimised HVAC
Optimised dishwashing
Natural pools

13. Example BEMP: rainwater and grey water recycling
It is BEMP to
install a rainwater collection and distribution system for use inside the building
installation of a grey water collection, treatment and distribution system for use either inside or outside the building.
Applicability:
Water recycling systems may be installed during building construction or major renovation.
Cost-benefit assessment that considers economic and environmental criteria should include the source and scarcity of water supply now and in the future.
Environmental performance indicators:
1) % of annual potable water consumption substituted with recycled rain- or grey- water;
2) Quantity of rainwater and grey water used annually, m3/yr

14. Example BEMP: optimised HVAC systems
It is BEMP to minimise energy consumption from HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) systems by:
installing products with the top energy label classes (when applicable)
setting up zoned temperature control and controlled ventilation with heat recovery (ideally controlled by CO2 sensors) and energy-efficient components (e.g. variable-speed fans)
optimise HVAC in relation to building-envelope and energy source characteristics.
Applicability:
This BEMP is applicable to all type and sizes of accommodation, small enterprises included. Full optimisation can only be made during construction or major renovation, but specific measures can be implemented at any time.
Environmental performance indicators:
Specific energy use (kWh/m2yr)
NB: HVAC = Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning; DHW = Domestic Hot Water
NB . Based on average and best practice electricity, and HVAC and DHW demand (see Figure 7.5). Assumes electricity prices of 0.1 and 0.2 EUR/kWh, a gas price of EUR 0.06/kWh and an oil price of 0.93 EUR/L (Energy.EU, 2011).

15. BEMPs made easy: introducing takeagreenstep.eu
An online repository of tips on how to make a hotel and restaurant more eco-friendly.
Funnelling readers to the relevant information, takeagreenstep.eu includes:
Introductory articles on big and small green steps for their business
To go further… Case studies showing how others have achieved it
To get the full technical details… References to the full Best Practices in an easy-to-read format
As well as practical tools usable immediately such as signs for guests and checklists for staff
…and much more

16. takeagreenstep.eu Towards a greater Green Best Practice community

17. We are developing a new way of working...
Continuous identification of BEMPs
Getting the message out
Broaden stakeholder engagement
Focus on SMEs
Are there new best practices in the sector?
Are some BEMPs outdated?
Let frontrunners and organisations tell us
Meet actual needs of organisations
User friendly format
Partner with relevant multipliers
Stimulate contributions
Engage key sectoral actors
Develop a community

18. In a nutshell www.takeagreenstep.eu
EMAS and the EU Ecolabel are 2 of the EU instruments that can support EREK to make businesses in the tourism sector more resource efficient and competitive
Voluntary instruments
Best practices: Practical guidance with real-life examples and step-by-step information inspired from frontrunners is already available :
For any organisation – NOT just EMAS

19. Thanks! Any questions? Interested to stay in touch?
You can reach us at

20. Environmental performance and benchmarks of excellence
Environmental performance indicators: "specific expression that allows measurement of an organisation's environmental performance" (EMAS Regulation)
Core indicators
Specific indicators
(Alternative indicators)
Benchmarks of excellence: level of environmental performance achieved by the best performers (frontrunners)
(i) Energy efficiency
(ii) Material efficiency
(iii) Water
(iv) Waste
(v) Biodiversity and
(vi) Emissions.

21. EMS/EnMS, BEMPs and RE tools
Advanced Energy and Resource management tools:
EDIT / EE software tools / MFCA ...
EMS (EMAS / ISO 14001)
EnMS (ISO 50001)

26. Italy - absolute leader
177 Hotels & 25 Campsites

27. France - 2nd absolute leader
92 Hotels & 23 Campsites