Governance & Standards

About Green Tourism

Since 1997, the Green Tourism Standard has stood for one simple idea: that sustainability in tourism should be practical, achievable and open to every business, not just the largest or most idealistic. It has guided thousands of hospitality, attraction and travel businesses across the UK and beyond, built on independent, third-party verified assessment rather than self-declaration — a principle that has never moved, even as the Standard itself has grown to meet a changing industry.

Rooted from the outset in the emerging ISO 14001 environmental management framework, the Standard now spans Environmental, Social and Governance criteria, recognising that credible sustainability touches every part of how a business runs: its people, its places, and its impact on the planet. Thirty years on, the ethos remains the same as it was at the start — sustainability that is proven, not promised, and accessible to everyone from a single-room bed and breakfast to an international hotel group.

Scheme Owner: Green Tourism Certified

Green Tourism Certified is the scheme owner and standards agency behind the Green Tourism Standard, founded by Andrea Nicholas and operating as a company separate from Green Business UK Ltd. Drawing on close to three decades of sector experience, it develops and maintains the certification criteria, sets the requirements for certification, operations and delivery, and defines the standards that auditors and the auditing process must meet. The criteria are reviewed and updated roughly every five years to keep pace with the industry, with the next version, V8, about to launch.

Certification Body: Green Business UK Ltd

Green Business UK Ltd is the independent company responsible for auditing, operations and delivery of Green Tourism certification, established in 2002 to keep assessment separate from the standards agency that sets the criteria. Its auditing team is trained to IEMA (Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment) standards, with processes aligned with ISO 17065, the international standard for certification bodies.

Green Business UK Ltd also manages GreenCheck, the online auditing platform that guides businesses through certification with a modular, step-by-step approach, before a hard-lock stage passes their completed submission through to the auditing team for formal assessment. Alongside the audit team, a dedicated customer service team supports businesses at every stage of their certification journey — from a first enquiry, through gathering evidence and preparing for assessment, to achieving and renewing their award — making the path to certification as clear and straightforward as the Standard itself.