Next Steps for Your Business
Looking forward and making your business more sustainable can seem like a daunting task, here are some ideas on how to get started on your sustainability journey! These actions cover the three pillars of sustainable tourism; economic, social and environmental sustainability.
If you have any questions or need further support, please contact promoting.fife@fife.gov.uk
Complete a climate risk assessment
Do a climate risk assessment to see how your business might be affected. Look at what measures you can put in place to adapt to and mitigate the effect of these changes. You can find a great tool on how to do this at Climate Action Plan for Scottish Businesses | VisitScotland.org
Identify your carbon emissions and how to reduce them
Look at areas which you may have high emissions, perhaps your heating is on high, or office lights are left on? How much petrol are you using, or food wasted? A good understanding of your carbon footprint now will put you ahead of any future emissions reporting requirements. This can help you to measure and monitor your energy usage to start reducing your bills and save money. You can find resources on how to measure your business’s carbon footprint at Measure and monitor energy use · Business Energy Scotland.
Buy local
Carbon emissions and waste from imported food are massive. You can reduce your impact by buying from local providers that both supports the local economy and creates community between businesses and suppliers. Fife is abundant with food and drink suppliers with high quality products that buying will not only reduce your carbon emissions but increase the quality of your visitor experience. Visitors are looking for authenticity and new experiences. Adding locally sourced products to your menu adds quality to both the product and experience.
Food4Fife Strategy consultation | Food for Fife
You can find more information about local products around Fife from Food from Fife Home - Food from Fife or from InvestFife Food & Drink (investfife.co.uk).
Join the Green Tourism Scheme
The Green Tourism awards and are a great way of progressing on a green journey as well as acting as a hallmark of ‘green quality’, attracting custom from increasing numbers of eco-minded visitors. There is a membership discount if you have a KY11 postcode. Read more on our dedicated page.
Supporting Nature
We are interconnected with nature, and it is important to reduce our impact on the environment through actions to promote biodiversity. This can be done through planting a range of native flowers, shrubs, and trees. This not only looks nice but can help bees pollinate. Flowers to plant include bluebells, foxgloves, clovers and honeysuckle. Or even Fife’s official county plant, the Coralroot Orchid! You can also leave areas of your land to grow wild and provide features to support biodiversity, for example bird boxes, bug hotels, log piles and ponds.
Accessible Tourism
How accessible is your tourism business? It is vital to welcome visitors with a range of access needs, not only can this boost your revenue as disabled and senior travellers spend significantly more when they go on holiday than other market groups, but it also boosts customer loyalty as inclusive businesses have higher occupancy rates and a more loyal customer base who is keen to recommend them to their family and friends. Read more on our dedicated page - Accessible Tourism
You can find even more suggestions at Climate Change in Scotland - Tourism Advice | VisitScotland.org
Don’t forget to shout about what you are doing – 71% of visitors say that sustainable travel is important to them!
Check out this document made by Expedia and The Travel Foundation on reduction strategies on some of the biggest sources of emissions: