Sustainable certifications: Value-add or red tape? Part 3

by Niël du Toit, CEO of Go Sustainable Tourism (GST)

Identifying the management objectives

HAVING ESTABLISHED the basic elements of purpose, purposefulness and structure of the GST Management Method, the next phase is my search for the functional elements to be used as management objectives in a questionnaire. These functional elements are gleaned from the tips and ideas found by a process of engagement:

Learning from economists on the relationship between the Economy and the Environment; Prof E P Beukes, Professor in Developmental Economy, King’s University College, Edmonton, Canada: Correspondence and online learning; Studying the relevant works of academics Peter Senge and Stuart Hart; Subscribing to 50+ newsletters and attending webinars.

In addition to the above: Visiting and communicating with tourism stay owners; Travelling over time nearly 100 000 km through the arid and semi-arid western side of South Africa: The West Coast, Namaqualand, the Upper Karoo, Richtersveld, Namibia (Central and Northern areas); Botswana - Lodges in the Okavango Delta as well as Kenia with Nick Ayimba and his Rural Tourism Network (RTN); then from Nairobi down to Kisumu.

I also visited foreign countries where I understand the language eg, UK: Responsible tourism; Germany: Grüne Erde shops; Flemish side of Belgium: Brussels, Gent and Antwerpen; Conference in New Zealand (as a member of Green Globe): Christchurch and Kaikoura.

The Questionnaire as impetus for management objectives

The next phase was the development of a questionnaire under the guidance of prof Eon Smit, former director of University of Stellenbosch Business School. Please see: https://www.gosustainabletourism.co.za/About-us/

Each of the four equitable elements of the 4C Structure contains relevant questions reflecting management objectives. The entrepreneur manages these objectives according to their own standards. The set of management objectives - in questionnaire format - is annually revised for statistical validity. An assessor verifies the management standards attained by the business using an internationally accepted audit format to certify the business for its contribution to sustainability at home. Verification audits are completed every second year.

Management by objectives adds a special value to conservation and sustainability because it represents a proactive approach to detrimental issues like waste: instead of collecting afterwards, rather prevent or diminish waste, therefore preventing degradation instead of restoring the natural habitat.

It is necessary to discuss the question of the value of the verification audit as part of the Management Method.

To verify implies the establishing of facts in relation to proposed criteria or management objectives. Verification answers the question: "How do you know it actually happened?" For example, a manager in a confectionary factory reviews production records to confirm that the cookies were baked at the actual temperature as proposed in the recipe.

In the case of GST the recipe would be the management criteria we refer to in the form of a questionnaire: each question serves as a management objective FOR which the tourism stay business is to be managed. The member answers each question by answering yes, no or not applicable. The assessor verifies the answers as management objectives attained, using an internationally accepted tool to confirm the actual facts around each answer, therefore no greenwashing takes place.

The verification audit therefore answers the question of knowing what actually happened around each objective. Visitors can consequently trust the certificate.

Founders Group of 10 Product Owners

A Founders Group* of 10 product owners was selected to participate in streamlining the Management Method and then agree to be audited. Please see: https://www.gosustainabletourism.co.za/Founders/

The Founder members participated in bringing the total number of management objectives (questions) down from 300 to a manageable 100. Prof Eon Smit agreed that the reduction does not affect the validity of the questionnaire. Validity calculation will improve when the number of participants improve. They then participated to be audited, commenting on the exercise and making recommendations to market GST.

From this exercise it became clear that it takes the product owner about 45 minutes to complete the questionnaire and the auditor about three hours to complete the verification audit. Another three hours are needed to complete the internal and public reports.

A special report on the Founders Group by emeritus professor Johan Hattingh has been published on GSTBlog. In the series of four articles, Hattingh investigates the sustainability thinking of the Founders Group as expressed in a survey, and draws on current thinking in environmental ethics and sustainable development.

In the final part in this series we discuss how the GST certification process relates to value-add and red-tape, and we explore the simultaneous and overlapping effect of the 4C Management Method in adding value for the benefit of the target market.