Centretown businesses that cater to visitors are applauding a new going-green toolkit developed by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
TIAC is encouraging small businesses to embrace environmental values with this month’s release of the resource, which outlines how tourism-related enterprises can cut energy costs and reduce waste.
Green Your Business: A Toolkit for Tourism Operators, released on Nov. 3 and developed in collaboration with the Canadian Tourism Commission and Parks Canada, is just one of the associations' initiatives towards “sustainable tourism.” TIAC is aiming to minimize the industry’s environmental impact.
“The toolkit is designed to give practical examples of how businesses can be environmentally responsible and to help them to do that,” said Randy Williams, president and CEO of the TIAC.
The toolkit focuses on reducing the use of water, cutting energy costs by using up-to-date equipment, and promoting walking, biking, or taking the bus instead of using taxis or rental cars.
It states that the heating and cooling of North American buildings – including bed and breakfasts, hotels, and resorts – account for up to 40 per cent of the continent’s greenhouse-gas emissions. Centretown is Ottawa’s
prime location for tourism operators.
Janis King, owner of the Ottawa Centre Bed and Breakfast, says that she is already doing her part and following the toolkit guidelines to make sure her business is not a major contributor to harmful emissions.
“I just insulated my entire house last year,” said King. “I put on new storm windows and screens on the main floor, and I’m putting [the same] windows and screens upstairs in the spring.”
Phillip Chisholm, manager of Da Sergio’s restaurant on Preston Street, also follows the toolkit’s guidelines by reusing old cooking oil as bio-diesel, and recycling what he can.
“Everything that is glass, all of the bottles, including the wine bottles now, we recycle. As for kitchen, there isn’t that much. Cans are separated but the rest is trash,” said Chisholm.
Though Chisholm agrees with most of the standards in the toolkit, he said that some of guidelines just don’t apply. The suggestion to donate old uniforms, furniture or appliances to local charities is “feasible but just not relevant to this property,” he said.
The toolkit also recommends that restaurants serve smaller portions if meals are consistently returned uneaten, but Chisholm jokes: “Nothing ever comes back on my plates!”
Williams says TIAC hopes businesses will latch on to the document and start adopting some of its principles to move toward a more sustainable tourism industry in Ottawa and Canada at large.
“It’s a living document so it’s one that we anticipate enhancing as time goes on, growing it so that there will be more and more ideas placed into the toolkit in the future,” he said.