Jetty Dive is Advanced Ecotourism Certified!
Jetty Dive is Advanced Ecotourism Certified! – Table of Contents:
Introduction
Woohoo, Jetty Dive is Advanced Ecotourism Certified!
After 9 long months of work being put into developing plans, procedures, and documents, Jetty Dive can officially say we are Certified in Advanced Ecotourism with Ecotourism Australia!
Check out our listing on Ecotourism Australia’s Green Travel Guide!
A year on…
It’s been one year since we were certfied in Advanced Eco Tourism! Since our certification we’ve had a few big changes! Number one: we got solar panels! Our biggest usage of resources was electricity, running compressors every day, so getting solar panels has reduced our carbon footprint bigtime! We haven’t had them for a whole year as of yet so I cannot update on the carbon emissions saved, but I’m excited for when I can!
Otherwise, we constantly make small changes to try and improve our sustainability. You can keep track of these month to month with the “Jetty Dive Debrief” series, which I have a section dedicated to Sustainability. The whole point of the certification is to always strive to do better, and we are doing just that!
What is Ecotourism Australia’s Certification program?
The ECO Certification program is for nature-based tourism products. It certifies that they are backed by a strong, well managed commitment to sustainable practices, along with the providing of nature-based tourism experiences.
You can find out more specific information on the Ecotourism Australia website.
What are the levels of Eco Tourism Certifications?
The Certification has three levels:
Nature Tourism
Tourism in natural areas that leaves minimal impact on the environment.
Ecotourism
Tourism in a natural area that focuses on optimal resources use, leaves minimal impact on the environment and offers interesting ways to learn about the environment with operators that use resources wisely, contribute to conserving the environment and help local communities.
Advanced Ecotourism
Australia’s leading and most innovative ecotourism products that operate with minimal impact on the environment and provide opportunities to learn about the environment with operators who are committed to achieving best practice, using resources wisely, contributing to conserving the environment and helping local communities.
What does Advanced Ecotourism Certification mean to Jetty Dive?
So… What does this mean for us and for you? For us – it proves that we are the real deal when it comes to being environmentally friendly, and conservation focused. This is a big green tick that is recognized internationally, which dictates that we follow Ecotourism Australia’s standards in all facets of our business.
Ecotourism Australia defintes Ecotourism as “ecologically sustainable tourism with a primary focus on experiencing natural areas that fosters environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation. Ecotourism aims to preserve the integrity of the destination. Its focus is on conserving the local environment and historical heritage, while supporting the culture and encouraging people to look after the natural resources that attracts them to the region.”
As an organisation certified in Advanced Ecotourism, we take that step further. We are a part of Australia’s leading and most innovative ecotourism operators. Our perations have minimal impact on the environment and provide opportunities to learn about the environment. We commit to achieving the best practice in operations. This means following best practice to the tee. We use resources wisely – reusing everything we can. We contribute to conserving the environment with our actions as well as our teachings, and we strive to help the local communities with our efforts in citizen science and underwater reserach groups.
What does this mean for our customers?
What this means for you is – You have an internationally recognized organization agreeing that we are sticking to these regulations. It’s all good-and-well for us to say that we are focused on the enviroment. However, But Ecotourism Australia requires proof of this, and with regular audits ensuring we maintain this standard, you can have faith that we are doing our part.
What is the process to get Eco Certified?
It was an extensive process getting this certification. It invovled developing lots of documentation, spreadsheets, editing and creating webpages and more to ensure we had complete transparency with everything we implement.
The process was quite streamline for us. This is because we have been slowly implementing more procedures to improve our sustainability throughout our years of operation. So mainly – it was only a matter of documenting the practices and providing proof.
The Coffs Coast is NSW’s First Eco Certified Destination!
Jetty Dive was lucky to get Certified in Advanced Ecotourism alongside Coffs Harbour being certified as NSW’s First Eco Destination!
Click here to head to the Coffs Coast website and find out more about Coffs’ Destination Eco Certification!
About the Author
Tara is Jetty Dive’s Office Manager and IT Lady, Social Media Queen, Crazy-Fish-Lady, and as she likes to say – “Self-Appointed CEO”. You’ll find her sitting at her desk surrounded in pink, but happiest either on or under the water.
