Blue Community Program for Destinations, Hotels & Resorts

The Blue Community is pleased to announce a new Sustainable Tourism Management program that is being developed with an interntional team and partnership with the University of Central Florida Rosen College of Hospitality Management and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)

The Blue Community destination program has an emphasis on coastal habitat protection, enhancement and restoration. Some of its features include:

Administered by the Blue Community Consortium, a UNWTO Affiliate, and accredited member of the UNEP Major Stakeholders Group, and has been in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2019.


The assessment process is at 4 levels: Coral Reef, Sea Turtle, Dolphin, & Whale

There are several programs for communities and destinations. What makes the Blue Community program unique is its emphasis on protection, enhancement, and restoration of coastal habitat, and marine environments that are so vital for much of the tourism industry. Some key features of the program:

  • Option to have staff certified as One Planet Living Integrators

  • Option to have staff certified in Project Management for Sustainable Development (PM4SD) to effectively implement Sustainable Management Systems

  • Opportunity to learn from and share best practices through international organizaitons such as the GSTC, UNWTO Affiliate Program, Bioregional, and PM4SD.

  • Global approach that increases opportunity for increased international travel market share

    For more information contact:

Dr. David Randle

Email

Office 727-388-6675

Blue Community Assessment App

Once the Blue Community assessment is completed, the organization or community has the necessary data to set baseline goals and objectives to develop their own sustainability management plan, determine one level recognition they have with the Blue Community system, and identify what GSTC Criteria they are still lacking should they decide to seek GSTC Certification.

Shared Visioning Process

Utlizing techniques from the NASA futuring team process, the delphi prediciton process, and other futuring methodologies, the Blue Community Shared Visioning process guides an organization or destination to create a shared vision for their unique situation and circumstances.

This program comes in the standard one day workshop to create a shared vision and has the option to add on the Imagineer Your Future Workshop led by Blue Community team member, and former Walt Disney Imagineer, Joe TankersleyImagineer Your Future Workshops deliver the tools and insights to help you create a transformative future for your business, organization, and community. We focus on a deeper understanding of trends in technology and culture to help participants distinguish between fads and potential drivers of real change. The workshop also includes exercises in creativity designed to help the group expand their vision beyond self-imposed limits.


Workshop participants learn how to use:

Values-based foresight,

Critical imagination, and

Strategic narratives

to identify opportunities, anticipate challenges, and create positive solutions.

The fundamental skills taught during the workshop apply to a wide range of enterprises and organizations. Each workshop is further refined to meet the specific needs of the participants.

Links to Resources:

Links to Articles:

The purpose of the workshop is to:

  • Introduce the One Planet Living Principles and 12 Blue Community strategies for Coastal Resiliency.

  • Develop a high level long-term vision for the project.

  • Identify key desired outcomes and goals.

  • Use the futuring process to develop relevant strategies to achieve set goals.

  • Identify the key point person from each group to serve as the One Planet Integrator, responsible for developing and then implementing the Sustainability Plan.

  • Development of an online Blue Community One Planet Living Sustainability Management Plan.

  • Develop plan to achieve Blue Community recognition and / or GSTC certification.


The Blue Community and One Planet Living training spans one to two days. Participants include employees, other key management, and stakeholders the organization or destination planning team wishes to invite. In some projects several organizations hold this workshop together with each developing their own individual sustainability plans.

One advantage of having several groups in the community developing their own plans together is that each organization may bring unique gifts so that all can benefit from the strengths of others.


The Villages Nature Paris, France

The Villages Nature Paris, France resort utilized both the One Planet Living Framework and the Blue Community assessment as part of its process to be recognized as one of if not the most sustainable tourism resort in the world. From this model a new process has been developed to replicate the success found at Villages Nature. Read more in the article Villages Nature: Reinventing Sustainable Tourism found in the Blue Community Tool Kit.

One Planet Living Principles

The One Planet Living Integrator training includes the development of knowledge and skills to develop a sustainability plan using the framework of the ten One Planet Living principles.

Participants will learn how to use the software to develop a community sustainability plan with outcomes, actions, and indicators.

Participants will also learn how to customize their plans to meet their own specific needs.

The software will also allow the United Nations SDG's to be used as a substitute and/or complimentary part of the sustainability management planning.