Where did Green Stem come from?
Tourism Saskatoon recognizes environmental sustainability to be a fundamental driver of long-term growth in the tourism industry. They also believe they have a unique role to play in developing and expanding environmental stewardship amongst the membership. So to ensure that they understood and were responsive to their members' current realities, Tourism Saskatoon began by asking what their members thought about sustainability, where they were on the sustainability path and how they - Tourism Saskatoon - could best provide support.
The answers, along with a series of recommended actions, are captured in a report entitled Gauging the Green.
In this report, members directed Tourism Saskatoon to focus on three core activities:
- to educate and inform,
- to promote, and
- to influence other decision makers to think green.
Acting on these recommendations, Tourism Saskatoon created the Green Stem initiative - an online resource for sharing information, resources, and best practices pertaining to sustainability in the workplace. This site features local champions and highlights the successes of businesses in our community; elements that are intended to kick start a local dialogue about sustainability and make real and relevant the implications and opportunities for sustainability in Saskatoon. It also extends a call to action for members of the tourism sector with the Green Stem Sustainability Pledge. This simple yet powerful step represents a voluntary commitment to incorporating environmental sustainability into all workplace decision-making and activity.
We hope you like what we've done! We welcome comments and suggestions on how we might grow this initiative to best serve our members. Email us with your thoughts!
