This technical report is intended to support environmental improvement efforts of all actors in the tourism sector. It can be used by all organisations and stakeholders of the sector who seek for reliable and proven information to improve their environmental performance. In case they have an environmental management system, such as EMAS, they can also use the document to develop it further, especially with respect to continuous environmental improvement measures and targets.
For this purpose, this document describes best environmental management practices (BEMPs), i.e. those techniques, measures or actions that allow organisations of a given sector to minimise their impact on the environment in all the aspects under their direct control or on which they have a considerable influence.
Following this integrated approach, the scope of this document is broad and covers the most important direct and indirect environmental aspects. Thus, not only the direct construction operations but also the land planning, building design, operation and end-of-life were considered in detail. For the different BEMPs, the document also present appropriate environmental performance indicators which enable organisations to monitor their performance and compare it over time and with benchmarks. Indeed, the document also reports a list of benchmarks of excellence representing the exemplary environmental performance achieved by frontrunner organisations in the sector.