There are a host of ways to get your business involved in your local community. This blog will touch on just ten of them but hopefully inspire you to see just what a difference a dynamic community support programme can make to your business, your team and the people that live around you. It will also impact your Green Tourism Award level so it important to record what you do on our portal to inform your award level.
Your community activities can have an immediate impact on the first two UN Sustainable Development goals which are to: end poverty in all its forms everywhere and to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Your community support can also have a direct impact on goal number 4 which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. And, of course, everything you do to support the health and wellbeing of the community will impact goal number 8 – promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Before deciding what you are going to do, scope out what resources you can spare. These could be time, skills, money, excess resources or even communications support for another organisation. You can research what sorts of organisations there are out there, what kind of support they would welcome and whether they mirror your own values. Working with organisations that deliver against environmental goals could help boost your impact on wider sustainability goals such as carbon reduction, biodiversity and water quality.
1- Create volunteering opportunities for your employees
Giving time for volunteering is a great way to connect you directly with your local community and give your business a sense of belonging. Whether you are volunteering yourself or giving employees the chance to volunteer, it is well documented that the experience benefits both the volunteer and the community they are supporting. Talking on the BBC, Bank of England Chief Economist, Andy Haldane has identified that volunteering is worth at least £50 billion to the UK economy.
Volunteering can take many forms from helping in a hospice, serving in a food bank, cooking or teaching in a community kitchen, working in a community garden, getting involved in a local clean-up or litter pick. The list is almost endless, but it is worth making sure that the volunteering is putting your and your colleagues skills to the best use possible.
As well as being an enriching experience for you and your colleagues it’s also a great marketing tool. So, remember to take plenty of photos to share across your social media and website. Publicising your activities will engage socially and environmentally aware customers and assist the community by drawing attention to the organisations you are supporting and potentially attract more volunteers to join them.
2- Donate to food banks and community kitchens
Food poverty is a problem for communities across the world and, with the best will in the world to reduce food waste, hospitality and tourism businesses will often find themselves with food they cannot use. Developing a partnership with a local food bank or community kitchen is a great way to positively impact the lives of people living in neighbouring communities and reduce your food waste. Even if you are so efficient that you have very little food to donate, giving volunteering time could be a valuable addition whether you are supporting them by serving on the frontline or teaching cooking skills.
3- Donate unwanted furniture and equipment
Many of our members find themselves with excess furniture and other items such as kitchen equipment, towels and bedding that can be readily reused. These can be donated to charities who can sell them on to raise funds or to organisations providing starter packs for people setting up home for the first time on a limited budget.
4- Offer education opportunities for local youngsters
Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all is 4th on the UN’s list of Sustainable Development Goals and you can play a valuable role in supporting it. Providing opportunities for local schools to learn in a business context is a great way to engage with your local community. This could take the form of guided visits, work experience or mentoring.
Forming partnerships with local schools, colleges and youth groups will reveal opportunities to interest young people in coming into the tourism sector. This will help inspire young people to consider careers in the industry, help them realise their economic potential and secure a sustainable stream of local talent to work with you in the future. Educational activities don’t have to be limited to your premises – you or members of your team can go out to give talks and demonstrations in education establishments.
5- Create volunteering opportunities for guests
Environmentally and socially aware tourists are demonstrating an increasing appetite to support, and engage with, the communities they visit. Offering voluntourism opportunities to visitors clearly demonstrates your commitment to the local community and environment whether or not they take advantage of the volunteering on offer. Those that do, often find it makes for a more authentic and grounded experience and find the chance to “give back” particularly rewarding for themselves as well as the communities they help.
6- Give guests the opportunity to donate to local projects
While tourists will not always want or have to volunteer, many still want to support local social and environmentally focused organisations. Sharing information on your website about local community projects and giving your guests the opportunity to support them demonstrates your own commitment to support them. These can be accompanied by various fundraising activities such as an opt-out surcharge providing financial support to local or international causes with compelling sustainability ventures. And, while there is not so much hard cash in circulation these days, strategically placed collecting boxes can capture loose change or cash international visitors don’t want to take home and start conversations about your community support activities.
7- Offer giveaways for raffles supporting local charities
As a tourism business, you have a lot to give. A delicious meal, a stay in the luxury of a hotel or at a picturesque B&B or a life-enhancing experiential adventure are all hugely desirable and make great additions to fund-raising raffles or competitions. They also communicate what you have on offer and provide great publicity. Engaging with local organisations delivering environmental or social benefits to the community helps reinforce community bonds with your business and provides an opportunity to engage and network with local community leaders.
8- Support a local social care organisation
There are many ways you can support local social care organisations – by providing volunteers, food, equipment, a venue space or simply by fundraising. They will let you know what works best for them and you can ensure you are a good match or able to give them the precise support they need. But the match should go deeper than that. It is important that you are passionate about what they are doing and they align with your values and those of your customers and employees. You will find there are typically plenty to choose from including food banks, hospices, community centres, youth groups, homeless shelters and healthcare groups, such as Parkinsons support groups.
9- Support a local environmental organisation
Backing a local environmental initiative has the potential to deliver against many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Supporting peat or wetland restoration for example, could reduce carbon emissions, add to carbon sequestration, increase biodiversity, improve water quality and reduce flood risks for local communities as well as creating local jobs, strengthening the local economy and providing an education resource. These kinds of initiative provide fantastic content for your sustainability story. The choice of options will depend greatly on where you are located but could include planting initiatives such as reforestation of afforestation projects, wildlife conservation and biological recording of species’ prevalence in a specific area. Even city-based businesses can find great green opportunities locally such as community gardens and green education spaces. And, of course, clean-ups can have a positive community impact wherever they are. Whether you are removing litter or invasive species, they will add to the overall attractiveness of your environment which is a win for the local community, your visitors and, ultimately, your business.
10 – Go International
You don’t need to limit yourself to supporting your local community. If the climate crisis has taught us anything, it is that we are actually a global community and that every action taken to protect our environment and our people has the potential to protect us all.
There are also many people across the world more adversely affected by climate change than others and many areas of the world that can deliver greater environmental and social benefits than local activities where you are.
While volunteering and physical donations may present logistical challenges for your tourism business, fundraising can have a huge positive effect. Involving your team in fundraising activities such as Christmas Jumper Days and Cycle-to-work Days, can be highly effective, you can also use relevant days of action to inspire activities that will raise awareness and funds.
In Conclusion
We hope we have demonstrated a little of the scope of what you can do to fulfil the Community aspects of sustainability that we are looking for in our certification processes. This can be a particularly rewarding part of your pathway to greater sustainability and one that will engage your staff, enhance their loyalty to your business and attract the growing number of environmentally and socially aware tourists in the world. You don’t have to pin your flag to one particular mast – feel free to support multiple organisations? But it is important to formulate a single plan with clear limits, goals and outcomes that you can measure and report against. Perhaps the most crucial thing is to tell people about what you are doing. Not as virtue signalling but to encourage others to do the same by presenting a positive story that similar, sustainably-driven, businesses can follow.
