Give Back, Get Back: Resources and an Industry Update

Businesses are increasingly incorporating social responsibility as part of their strategy. It can be a challenge knowing where to start or what to do to when it comes to sustainability and CSR. There are some excellent online publications specializing in sustainable business that might prove helpful in reshaping your everyday operations as well as your travel profile.

1. GreenBiz, http://www.greenbiz.com, is my favorite site for researching anything to do with business and sustainability. The site offers solid business reporting and provides valuable resources such as the free download of GreenBiz’s State of Green Business 2010 report.

2. Environmental Leader, http://www.environmentalleader.com, is a publication that offers some great data and articles. For instance, if you have a client looking for a property with a strong commitment to sustainability, here is a brilliant resource: Environmental Mission Statements: A List of Hotel Sustainability Policies. By being aware of sustainable business trends, our industry can help businesses looking for ways to improve their level of sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

3. Lohas.com, http://www.lohas.com, which stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, focuses on educating and providing resources for business on the market of healthy and sustainable lifestyles. According to the Web site, many business don’t know how to market to the “LOHAS” consumer, nor do consumers know which companies are authentic to LOHAS values.

4. Smart Planet, http://www.smartplanet.com, is sponsored by IBM. One example of what it offers can be seen in this short video that gives some simple ideas to help you green your hotel stay.

A simple step to help combat global warming and also help the environment comes with knowing your carbon footprint. Carbonfund.org, http://www.carbonfund.org, can help, in addition to providing information on how carbon offsets work. The Carbon Calculator, http://www.pra.com/carbon-calculator.aspx, courtesy of PRA Destination Management Inc., allows you to make calculations and optionally donate to Carbonfund.org to offset your carbon footprint.

Carbonfund.org is the nation’s leading 501(c)(3) nonprofit provider of carbon offsets. It makes it easy and affordable for everyone to calculate and negate their carbon footprint with carbon offsets that are verified to third-party carbon-offset standards.

Impact 4 Good is doing well by doing good

With so much interest in CSR these days, I caught up with Ira Almeas, president of Impact 4 Good, to get his views on how it is translating into on-the-ground business. Impact4Good was started in 2005 by Almeas and Alan Ranzer, managing partner, and has been successful in delivering effective CSR events worldwide.

Incentive: Are you finding the same amount of interest in CSR events from incentive houses, DMCs, and corporate planners? 

Almeas: We are finding a greater interest from corporate planners. There are more mandates from the corporate world to include CSR events in meetings and incentive travel programs. Forward-thinking DMCs and incentive houses are including CSR suggestions to clients as part of their proposal process.

Incentive: We can safely assume that CSR interest has increased over the last few years. Would you say that budgets have also risen? 

Almeas: The budgets are typically the same; we find that we are working with a similar budget that we would see for an off-property activity.

Incentive:  What do you hear are the biggest obstacles that incentive professionals face when proposing CSR events?

Almeas: As the incentive trip is a reward and recognition experience, it is important not to take too much away from the attendees [with responsibility]. The focus still needs to be on their accomplishments. 

Incentive: Are end-user clients including CSR because they think it is the right thing to do, because of employee demand, or because they want to satisfy their stakeholders?

Almeas: It really depends on the organization. At the end of the day it’s a win-win-win [situation]. The employer is a good corporate citizen, the employees feel good about their company and themselves, and the local community gains a generous donation.

Incentive: Are clients looking for more long-term commitments as part of a philanthropic strategy, or are they doing one-off events?

Almeas: There are some corporations that are now considering a two-tier incentive travel experience.  You can either go on a traditional four-night incentive trip or opt for a meaningful hands-on experience to a community in need.  The project can be ongoing, and progress can be benchmarked each year. An incentive trip is defined as an extraordinary travel experience, and a CSR type of program is priceless and life-changing.

Incentive:  Are the types of events changing--more hands on, less hands on, for example?

Almeas:  Again, this depends on many factors. Some companies can carve out a half-day for their employees to get hands-on involvement, but this is costly due to transportation, insurance, and time constraints. Impact 4 Good has created a variety of two-hour events that can be held in a ballroom--and we bring the community to the hotel. This format fits most corporate budgets and time constraints. Everyone benefits, and the end-result is the same.

Incentive: What do you see is the most significant change in CSR events?

Almeas:  The audience is hungry for giving back to the community. It’s important that the event is meaningful and engaging to all participants. When it comes to coordination and execution, a professional organization is needed so that the experience is guaranteed to be of high quality. You want the participants to walk away knowing that they gave back to the community which they visited, and it is important that they connect with the locals and that it is a highlight of their trip--an experience that they could not have had on their own.

Quote of the month

One of the great movements in my lifetime among educated people is the need to commit themselves to action. Most people are not satisfied with giving money; we also feel we need to work.  --Peter Drucker

Geraldine Gatehouse is an independent planner with a passionate belief in the value and potential global impact of CSR. She is based in southern California, has just completed a sustainable business certificate program from the University of Maine, and is a 2009-10 board member of Site Southern California. She can be reached at geraldine-g@cox.net, via her Web site http://www.geraldine-gatehouse.com, and at LinkedIn, http://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldinegatehouse.