So, after a weekend spent walking in local parks and natural areas and listening to my heart, as well as to what my friends were saying, I came to the decision to continue to leading tours.
I absolutely love leading educational natural and cultural history tours with people keen to learn about the places we visit. I firmly believe that I’m “called” to do this work. From a very young age, I’ve known that my mission in life is to save and restore wild species and areas. My way of doing this has been and continues to be as a naturalist,interpreter and educator.
As I acknowledged in my previous post, I’m fully aware of the extra greenhouse gases I’m contributing through my personal consumption of goods and services and that of my guests. I’m equally aware that everything that my wife and I do to live generates waste, of which one are greenhouse gases and in particular, carbon.
For years, we’ve been committed to reducing our carbon footprint. We’ve always been good at refusing to buy things we don’t need, buying used goods where possible, and recycling most everything we dispose. We live in a small suite.
According to BC’s Ministry of Environment, each resident of the province produced about 13 metric tonnes of carbon in 2018. Back in 2015, I used an on-line carbon calculator to determine that our joint footprint. Unfortunately I can’t recall nor can I find a record of it, but I believe our combined footprint was considerably less than this, around 6 – 8 metric tonnes. I could be wrong, so don’t quote me on this.
I started leading tours in 2016 which has increased our carbon footprint. By how much I don’t know yet. I haven’t been keeping track but it is something that I intend to do. I then will be offsetting the emissions through a not–for-profit that invests my money in the developing renewable energy sources and making them financially accessible for the masses.
The enemy of the good is the perfect some wise person once said. So true. I’ll never be perfect when it comes to not emitting any greenhouse gases (even for quite awhile after my death!). However, I’ve reminded myself that I am doing good to reduce them.
Meanwhile, as a tour guide, I have the opportunity to encourage others to do the same.
I think to some degree my ethical struggle over whether to continue guiding tours was influenced by a powerful and devious narrative that dominates our times. This narrative places the responsibility of fighting climate change on the shoulders of individuals, like myself. But the narrative as perpetuated by government and corporations is intended to deflect our attention for their responsibility and the lack of them taking it seriously.
It’s a narrative that we need to aware of and not be taken in by it.
For the past two years, a remarkable conference has taken place in Victoria, BC during the cold wet days of late January. It is completely focused on the opportunities for and challenges to sustainable travel and tourism in Canada and around the world. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only conference of its kind in Canada.
This conference turned out to be one of the most stimulating and important ones I’ve ever attended. For one thing, it was the first of its kind in Canada. Up to now, there had been no deep conversation on the topic of sustainability within the industry. The founding partners believed that the time had come to make it happen.
“The tourism industry has the opportunity to impact global change and lead the world in a new age of environmental and social responsibility,” they declared on the conference website. Wow! That statement blew my socks off. It really sets the bar high for the industry. I was keen to hear how they responded to the challenge.
Conference Participants
As if this ideal wasn’t remarkable enough, so were the organizers, volunteers, speakers and participants. Keith Henry, CEO of Indigenous Tourism Canada and Dr. Rachel Dodds, Professor in the Ted Rogers School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Ryerson University served as co-chairs. The Honourable Bardish Chagger, Minister of Small Business and Tourism and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons kicked off the conference. Elizabeth May, the Leader of the Green Party of Canada, provided a candid assessment of efforts by the current federal government to support and promote green tourism. Mayor Lisa Helps gave an overview of how Victoria was striving for sustainable tourism. Plus the organizers did a splendid job of recruiting excellent speakers for plenaries and panel sessions.
About 170 or so people convened for the three day event. Of them, I only knew a few. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know as many of the others as I could. Most of the participants represented small to medium sized tour companies. While the majority operated in BC and Alberta, a few came from Yukon, NWT, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Prince Edward Island. One of the speakers flew in from Costa Rica while another came from Washington, DC. There may have been others that I’ve missed.
What made all these people remarkable was their obvious passion and commitment to advancing sustainability not just within their operations but also within the broader industry. Quite frankly, they were inspiring and fun to be around. Their enthusiasm was contagious. I also admired their willingness to grapple with difficult and complex issues, such as how best to respond to the rising tide of Chinese tourists, or what to do about the overcrowding happening in places like Tofino or Banff National Park.
Conference themes included: indigenous tourism, climate change, certification, waste reduction, low-emissions travel, and labour shortage.
Robert Sandford Speaks on Climate Change at IMPACT Conference
Conference Jottings
The following are a few of the notes I took during the conference.
“Canada leads the world in Indigenous tourism.” Keith Henry, CEO of Indigenous Tourism Canada and IMPACT conference co-chair.
“If this is tourism season, why can’t we hunt them?” Graffiti seen in Barcelona and described by Elizabeth Becker, author and journalist.
“As China goes, so goes the rest of the world.” Elizabeth Becker speaking on the impact of Chinese tourism.
“Tourism is extremely vulnerable to climate change. We’re seeing the destruction of destinations. Extreme weather events are having significant impacts on air travel. In time, we may be forced to give up discretionary travel.” Robert Sandford.
“Students and youth are no longer coming to Dawson for summer jobs in tourism. Many used to camp because of the short supply of housing. But with climate change, we’re having more rain.” Jackie Olsen, CEO of Klondike Visitor Association.
“The only metric that has matter is numbers. Tourism has been the business of more, more, more. The focus should be on better, not more.” Greg Klassen, Principal of Twenty31.
“The problem in Banff is vehicle management. The actual number of visitors is down 18% from the highs of mid-1990s. But what’s way up is the number of private vehicles.” Darren Reeder, Executive Director of the Banff Lake Louise Hospitality Association.
Priorities for Ecotourists in Costa Rica (slide shot with iPhone at distance)
Take-Aways from the Conference
Now for some of the take-away messages/questions:
Unprecedented political engagement in sustainable tourism. Can we hold onto this momentum and is this a pivot point?
Green Hushing? Are we keeping our best secrets too quiet?
We need to ban volume numbers from our vocabulary, or at least put them into context with other objectives.
Its no longer about “sustainable tourism”; its about restorative tourism. How can tourism make things better.
Better to take small steps now and not wait for government to lead the way.
A business must be financially viable to focus on sustainability
Tourism can be a catalyst for societal good.
Sustainable tourism can save the world, one destination at a time.
All in all, an awesome conference with plans to repeat it annually going forward. It will be held roughly the same time in January next year and in Victoria again. I encourage anyone with an interest in supporting the advancement of sustainable tourism in Canada and abroad to attend.
