Case study: Hospitable Green Programme
CDI Alliance was commissioned by Visit Lincolnshire / Lincolnshire County Council, following a tender process, to design, develop and deliver support tailored to the Hospitality and Tourism Industry, and help them further their understanding of sustainability, and how issues that their businesses face might be solved using a greener approach.
Green tourism toolkit
The Council’s aim was to create a Greater Lincolnshire ‘Green’ Ambassador Programme to build on the creation of their Green Tourism Toolkit, and to encourage local businesses to champion ‘Green’ Tourism within the region, improve employability and support a sustainable community.
CDI Alliance developed a programme, Hospitable Green, that would educate, inform and create peer networks that would last beyond the programme delivery.
green ambassador and IEMA
Partnering with PECT (an environmental charity that aims to make places better for people and the planet and deliverer of innovative projects of local, regional and national significance, enabling change for a smarter future) meant that CDI Alliance could concentrate on recruiting delegates, assessing eligibility and collecting intelligence to ensure that the workshops that would be delivered would be relevant and aimed appropriately for the audience. We also created engaging and enjoyable groups sessions, featuring case studies to stimulate thought and conversation, to start and finish the programme, and ran the full programme ensuring numbers were maintained throughout the 8-week course. Overall we delivered 378 support hours during the 8-week programme.
PECT provided the technical knowledge around subjects such as ‘What is sustainability?’ ‘Environmental Regulations and Legislation’ and ‘Green Marketing’. The first part of the programme led to an IEMA qualification for the participant, and the second part would lead to Green Ambassador status – which 90% of the cohort attained.
Those who achieved the Green Ambassador status received a certificate and a plaque made from off-cuts of stainless steel to display at their business premises.
Feedback from delegates, and the client, was positive
“I thought the programme was brilliant, fantastic…I thought the information that we have been given far exceeded my expectations, so I’ve got more awareness, and ideas for our business. We’ve got an action plan and we’re already implementing some of those things. And I can thoroughly recommend…it’s been really good”. Denise Fowler, Arial Trail
“It’s been a fantastic opportunity to participant in Hospitable Green, it’s made a real difference to how we approach environmental issues in the business and given us a really solid platform to make sure the actions we’re going to take in the future are going to make a difference to our business and to people in the local area”. Paul Dagg, Hemswell Antiques
“After producing a Green Tourism Toolkit, we realised that a programme of support was needed to go with it and Hospitable Green was born. Many businesses want to green their activity but feel very daunted. Hospitable Green has a strong element of peer support and the 1:1’s, 1 to few, 1 to many approach over a number of weeks gives that variety that businesses really appreciate. It also incorporated all the lessons that we’d learnt in developing and running Hospitable Boost, so we knew it was built on a tried and tested model. CDI Alliance worked with us to develop the programme and this discussion and planning turned a good programme into an excellent one, well worth everything we all put into it.” Mary Powell – Tourism Manager, Lincolnshire County Council
More information
If you would like to talk with us about running a Sustainability or Low Carbon Business Support Programme in your area, or for your business then contact us: enquiries@cdialliance.co.uk
