The Culinary Tourism Alliance and Carbonzero partner on Business Travel & Event Sustainability Programming
The Culinary Tourism Alliance (CTA) collaborates with communities to grow food tourism by leveraging the history, heritage, and culture behind the food and drink that makes each destination unique. The CTA supports sustainability through community-driven destination development, industry programming and consumer-focused storytelling that explores local cuisine. The organization has also signed on to a declaration of sustainable tourism under the United Nations as a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism.
Most recently, Carbonzero and the CTA partnered to further support the CTA’s efforts and commitment to sustainability by helping the organization measure its business travel carbon footprint with a custom Carbonzero calculator. As a national tourism organization, the impacts of vehicle and air travel associated with conducting business was of particular concern. As a result of the partnership, the Culinary Tourism Alliance is supporting the Ontario Greenhouse Gas Biomass to Energy Project to mitigate the organization’s greenhouse gas emissions from its travel and events.
THE CULINARY TOURISM ALLIANCE’S CARBON CALCULATOR
Carbonzero has crafted a calculator for the CTA that allows for the ongoing tracking of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the organization’s business travel activities. This user-friendly calculator allows the CTA to plug in business travel trips for each employee and Board member and customize their calculations for their mode of travel. The calculator automatically calculates CTA’s business travel carbon footprint and provides a summary dashboard where users can review results. Easy to use and aesthetically pleasing, the CTA now has a tailored tool to help them better understand the impact of their business travel activities on their overall carbon footprint.
“As businesses and organizations continue the transition to virtual first formats, and with global travel restrictions lifting, we’re seeing increased demand for Scope 3 travel reporting for many of our clients,” says Liam Conway, VP Advisory Services at Carbonzero. “It has been a delight to work with the CTA team and to be able to set them up with a tool that will help them measure the organization’s business travel carbon footprint.”
SUMMER EVENTS WITH THE CULINARY TOURISM ALLIANCE ARE GOING CARBON NEUTRAL
Another initiative the CTA is undertaking to reduce emissions includes measuring the carbon footprint of its Feast On The Farm event series for staff and guests alike. The organization is sourcing carbon offsets for both to mitigate any residual emissions from the events. With help from Carbonzero, the CTA will measure the emissions associated with attendee travel, venue utility usage, and waste generated at five events helf across the province this year. The carbon footprint data will be analyzed to help CTA plan lower carbon events in the future and engage attendees on their own emissions reduction efforts.
INVESTING IN GREEN: THE CULINARY TOURISM ALLIANCE SUPPORTS GREENHOUSE BIOMASS TO ENERGY PROJECT
In addition to measuring the organization’s travel and event related emissions, the CTA will be sourcing carbon offsets from the Greenhouse Biomass to Energy Project in Leamington, Ontario. The project reduces GHG emissions from using waste wood biomass to offset traditional non-renewable thermal energy production via natural gas.
Using biomass to create energy also avoids methane emissions from the decomposition of organic wood waste in landfills. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas with a Global Warming Potential of approximately 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2) and is released during the decomposition of biomass waste in landfills. Diverting biomass away from landfill and using it to create green energy instead both supports a transition to clean energy and mitigates harmful methane emissions.
“The Culinary Tourism Alliance is committed to being part of the change we need to see in the tourism industry to address the UNWTO’s Sustainable Development Goals. We are thrilled to be working with Carbonzero to gather data and share impacts with both consumers and the industry. Our goal is to see others adopt innovative solutions to reduce their own carbon emissions” says Rebecca Mackenzie, President & CEO of the Culinary Tourism Alliance.
ABOUT THE CULINARY TOURISM ALLIANCE
The Culinary Tourism Alliance works with communities around the world to grow food tourism by leveraging the history, heritage, and culture behind the food and drink that makes each destination unique. Our mission is to ensure food tourism is a meaningful and sustainable contributor to local economies in destinations worldwide. Find out more at culinarytourismalliance.com
ABOUT CARBONZERO
Carbonzero was founded in 2006 and has risen to become a leader in the design and implementation of corporate carbon reduction strategies and solutions in the emerging low carbon economy. Carbonzero helps transform organizations by aiding them in assessing, reporting, and reducing their emissions. Our approach, tools and services ensure that our clients can cost-effectively meet their carbon auditing reduction commitments while developing the framework for implementation of reduction activities.