Blue Community Climate Emergency Declaration
Please join us in our quest to overcome the #Climergency we share, as humans.
Blue Community Climate Emergency Declaration
We, the Blue Community Consortium, Declare a Climate Emergency
We’ve signed up to Tourism Declares, an initiative that supports tourism businesses,
organizations, and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and taking purposeful action to
reduce their carbon emissions as per the advice from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030.
Like all signatories, we have committed to the following five actions:
1.Develop a ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ - We have had a carbon reduction plan in place for three years now and we have also included climate criteria in our new sustainability assessment app. Specifically we ask in our assessment for all communities and destinations, and what we are tracking in our climate emergency plan, includes but are not limited to the following:
What is the total energy consumption in kilowatt hours (KWh from all sources?
How much energy in KWH is generated from renewable resources in the community?
What is the total amount of GHG emissions generated per year?
What is the total number of people who use mass transit per year?
How many kilometers of dedicated bike trails are their in the destination?
How many kilometers of pedestrian trails are there in the community?
What is the number of vehicles owned and operated in the community?
What is the number of hybrid, electric, or energy efficient vehicles owned and operated in the community?
Are there energy efficiency standards for new construction and redevelopment?
What percent of the community land is set aside for biodiversity conservation?
Does the community participate in programs to source food locally?
Do any polices and/or programs exist at your community to become a net zero carbon community?
Does your community offer any carbon offsets for all travel of guests once they reach the community?
Does your community offer any carbon offsets for guest activities that require the use of non-resort transportation?
2. Our destination sustainability assessment app includes real time charts and graphs which show changes to recorded and measured data over time. Communities and stakeholders can then monitor the progress being made in all the areas listed above. In addition our app shows each community or destination how their results compare to the average and how they compare to the best practices.
3. We Accept current IPCC advice stating the need to cut global carbon emissions to 55% below 2017 levels by 2030 in order to keep the planet within 1.5 degrees of warming. We’ll ensure our ‘Climate Emergency Plan’ represents actions designed to achieve this as a minimum, through delivering transparent, measurable and increasing reductions in the total carbon emissions per customer arising from our operations and the travel services sold by us. One of our best practice destinations has already demonstrated the ability to cut net carbon emissions 50% in five years and now is working to cut an additional 50% in the next five years.
4. We are encouraging each of our 35 Blue Community Consortium members our suppliers to make the same declaration; sharing best practice amongst peers; and actively participate in the Tourism Declares community.
5. We are continually advocating for change as evidence by our sending a delegation of 7 people to COP 26 and through our promotion of new carbon reducing technologies which we practice ourselves whenever practical. A good example is our purchasing of the Aptera Solar Electric Vehicle, the first solar powered electric vehicle to replace our current hybrid automobile.
