Train to ecolabel awarded by ADAM as project of the month january 2009
The platform www.traintoecolabel.org offers practice-oriented, structured training for employees and seasonal workers in the tourism branch that want to introduce the EU Ecolabel for tourism accommodation services. The documents are available in GE, E, ES, F, GR, HU, IT, F, LT.
Additional “Train the trainers” – guides were developed with numerous best-practice examples.
For the first time an electronic apply package (GE and E) was codeveloped that helps to apply for the EU Ecolabel unbureaucratically and which is already used and recommended by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management.

 

Leonardo Meeting in Holland, 19.-22.09.2007

International Leonardo-meeting in Nitaures, Lettland, May 2007

EU Leonardo project "Train to Ecolabel"

Tasks: Together with our partner Energon and partners from 8 European countries we are responsible for development of the training program "Train to Ecolabel".
We're developing modules which will help employees and unemployed tourism workers to implement the EU Flower in tourist accommodation. This will help them to increase their job chances and to save resources for the tourist accommodation.

Project details

Client Leonardo da Vinci national agency Austria

Title Training for the implementation of the European Eco-label for tourist accommodations and camp sites

Project number A/05/B/F/PP-158.203

Type of project Pilot project, project with multiplying effect (2000-2006)

Status finalized

Country Austria

Summary

www.traintoecolabel.org is a training-platform to the EU Ecolabel for tourism accommodation services available in several languages. It was co-ordinated with the EU Commission/DG environment, several european ministries of the environment and authorities, whereby the use of these organs is already recommended.

Tourism needs quality - Train to Ecolabel will help to reinforce the European Ecolabel. It helps tourist accommodations and camp sites to optimize the processes like energy, water and waste management — resulting in lower costs AND higher quality.

The European tourism need sustainability - Bringing the European Ecolabel to accommodation and campsites strongly contributes to preserving the resources tourism itself benefits from i.e. clean water and a beautiful environment.

Tourism needs consistent environmental standards allover Europe - These are ensured by the European Ecolabel which will be promoted by Train to Ecolabel.

The European tourism labour needs higher education - Seasonal unemployment rate is quite high, partly due to low education. Train to Ecolabel will help enhance the skills and job profiles of tourism workers and offer totally new chances to both employers and employees.

Europe needs awareness for the environment from the bottom - Train to Ecolabel will considerably raise the awareness for environmental issues among tourism employees and managers.

Target groups The practical guide to the implementation of the EU Ecolabel were developed by experts on basis of the EU directive for accommodation and camping services, who already accompanied a wide range of enterprises to the implementation of the EU criteria. It was written for coworkers and managers from tourism accommodation services who…

• want to read up on the EU Ecolabel
• apply for the EU Ecolabel for tourism accommodation services
• train coworkers on environmental criteria

The contents can be…

• compiled inividually and used to get information on the EU Ecolabel,
• used for trainings – we support the organization.

Background

The project is based upon two EU directives; the direvtive for the EU Ecolabel for accommodation and the directive for camping services. Both directives are hard to understand and for many enterprises they are hardly convertible in this form. For this reason several experts did set themselves the target to transform the difficult guideline texts into a practice-suited form and to make it understandable for the tourism industry. The contents were structured as training and can be directly implemented into the practice by interested people. The specific advantage of this tool is that it was co-ordinated with the EU Commission/DG environment, several european ministries of the environment and authorities, whereby the use of these organs is already recommended.
The knowledge is constantly updated since environmental protection in the tourism industry constantly gains greater importance and new experiences are made that have to be integrated.

Partners

Train to Ecolabel is a European project involving 14 partners in ten countries with the following roles: