2021 Sustainable Project of The Year Award Winner - Monte Creek Winery

Monte Creek Winery was selected as the 2021 Sustainable Project of the Year Award Winner!

This summer, Monte Creek Winery ran a fundraising and awareness campaign around BC badgers. The species is red listed endangered in BC and the winery learned that the leading cause of their death is highway kills on HWY 1 between Kamloops and Prtichard, the stretch of highway the borders part of the winery's property. With fewer than 350 badgers left in BC, Monte Creek Winery took action with realizing their responsibility to advocate for BC badgers. The winery sold post cards, badges, and accepted donations to support the BC Badger Society and the BC Wildlife Park. They also posted content on social media and their website to bring awareness to the need for conservation.

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Endangered Badger Conservation Fundraiser Highlights

• Two commissioned abstract paintings created by BC Wildlife Park’s resident BC badger Bloom, were auctioned off

• All proceeds raised from the postcard and button sales were donated to Badgers in BC, a badger conservation group

• Additional donations and partial proceeds were donated to Bloom’s upkeep

• Fundraiser Number Breakdown

  • The total fundraised amount was $905.50

  • The two paintings were sold for a total of $730.00

  • 25 donations were made

  • 75 buttons were sold

  • 15 postcards were sold

“Sustainability is one of the core values at Monte Creek Winery. The team believes in and practices regenerative agriculture, a practice that includes the rehabilitation and conservation of the ecosystem. BC badger conservation is important to us at Monte Creek Winery as the stretch of Highway 1 outside of our winery between Lafarge and Pritchard is reportedly the worst in the province for badger mortality. Since we found out, we have been actively working towards reducing badger mortality rates. Our team was pleasantly surprised with the response and the support for the campaign. We know there is a long way to go to stabilize the badger population, but we are looking forward to continuing campaigns in the future and also working closely with the BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure as well as the Manager of the Wildlife Program to make badger travel safer.”

-Ashley Demedeiros

Photo: Whiskey & Wine

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Differentiate Your Hotel with Google’s Eco-labels

When being a tourist it is important to ensure that your actions are as respectful as possible, not only to the environment, but also the local population of the destination and its cultural and heritages resources.

At Biosphere they are aware that through their Biosphere Sustainable Lifestyle methodology, they manage to involve all stakeholders with a sustainable lifestyle; called the Biosphere circle, where the commitment of destinations to sustainability is also assumed by their companies and clients, tourists, and citizens.

Google Ecolabels

Google’s new functionality ‘eco-labels’ is a tool that many are already talking about, hotels can share information about their good practices, including the option to publicize the environmental and ecological seals they hold. Such as Green Key or ISO 14001, sustainability labels such as Earth Check, as well as certifications that accredit business alignment with the sustainability of the United Nations (Agenda 2030). With Biosphere being the only sustainability certification tool capable of addressing the 17 SDGs in a comprehensive manner.

This is a great opportunity to add to your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), the “Google Travel” section. The Google ecolabels are currently only available to hotels. Those that have been recognized for their environmental and sustainable efforts will include the green label "Eco-certified" in their profile, accompanied by a leaf icon. Thus, by clicking on this label visitors will access all the information about the environmental and sustainable efforts that the hotel has included in its profile.

Steps to activate your eco-label on your Google profile:

In order to activate this icon on your profile, you must have a badge / certification that is recognised by Google. If you already have an accreditation from one of these certifiers, log in to Google and start reporting all the information about your sustainability efforts.

1. Go to your Google Business Profile

2. Select the "Information" tab and go to the "Hotel Attributes" field

3. Inside you will find the "Sustainability and Eco-certifications" section where you can communicate all your good practices.

2021 Pioneer Award Winner - Best Western Plus Kamloops Hotel

Best Western Plus Kamloops’s Tim Rodgers was selected as the 2021 Pioneer Award Winner!

Best Western Plus Kamloops Hotel has always operated with sustainability in mind. They are a leader in the Best Western Brand Green Program, and Tim Rodgers, General Manager, has been instrumental in making changes throughout the brand. For example Best Western up until a few years ago did not have a green towel option, but with Tim's initiative, Best Western now has a green towel program to choose a more environmentally friendly option for towels.

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Pioneer Recognition

• Tim Rodgers was the first General Manager in Kamloops to have a Green Key rating, which he has continued with every property since then.

• Caring about the local water systems is another area of focus, therefore instead of using dishes that need to be washed in an industrial dishwasher with many chemicals, Best Western Plus Kamloops opts to use biodegradable products in their breakfast room.

• Cleaning guest rooms and public areas they use Lotus Pro, which uses ozonated water to clean and sanitize rooms, they are the first Best Western in BC to do so.

  • The Lotus Pro ensure that any guests who may have perfume allergies will be able to stay without worry

• Tim continues to inspire and search for more areas to improve through sustainability and ensures that each project implemented has sustainability as a focus.

“Being a Biosphere Committed Entity has been really great for us, we get to connect with like minded individuals and hear new ideas that will benefit us all for years to come.”

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2021 Eco Efficiency Excellence Award Winner - Kelowna Yacht Club

Kelowna Yacht Club selected as the 2021 Eco Efficiency Excellence Award Winner!

The Kelowna Yacht Club actively participated in most of the TOTA programs and workshops throughout 2021 that were centered around sustainability. By participating in the Eco Efficiency Program the recommendations provided to the Kelowna Yacht Club were implementing an internal recycling program, the data collected assisted in measuring their organizational level carbon footprint, and created three in-house sustainability programs; Save Energy, Save Water, and Waste Reduction Program.

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Eco Efficiency Highlights

Key Impacts Kelowna Yacht Club Has Implemented:

• Internal recycling program

• Participated in the Eco Efficiency Program

• Created their “Save Energy” program

• Created an environment team and a sustainability policy

• 70% of lights at the Kelowna Yacht Club are LED

• Created an Energy Conservation Campaign

• Developing waste program

• Developing and continuing to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030

“We wish to collaborate and partner with other businesses to promote the transition into more environmental-sustainable actions to generate a bigger impact and push towards a positive change in our city.”

— Brenda Cortes

Brenda Cortes, Environmental Manager

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GreenStep Sustainable Tourism Destination Standard Achieves GSTC-Recognition

Congratulations are in order for GreenStep and the recent announcement of their achievement of the “Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)-Recognized Standard status.” GreenStep is the only North-American based provider of GSTC-recognized standards for Destinations. The status offers the market a proof that these standards adhere to international norms.

GreenStep Sustainable Tourism Standards are used by GreenStep Solutions in their assessment and verification programs which provide tools, resources, and consultative support to destinations and businesses across the tourism industry. The Sustainable Tourism standards enable tourism businesses and destinations to measure their sustainability performance in several key categories: management, social, economic, natural, cultural, and environmental.

The GSTC-Recognized status refers to the standard itself and means that a sustainable tourism standard or system has been reviewed by GSTC technical experts and the GSTC Assurance Panel and deemed the standard or system equivalent to the GSTC Criteria for sustainable tourism. It shows that the set of standards are based on the 4 pillars of the GSTC Criteria: Environment, Social, Cultural, and Management principles.

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