Sustainably Wed S2 Ep 04

foreign welcome to this episode of sustainably wed's head table Series in this season we are talking with experts about how to make the wedding industry more sustainable and today we're going to be talking about sustainable wedding travel if you are planning a wedding you're hosting a wedding sometime soon chances are someone is traveling for that wedding maybe it's family from across the country maybe it's friends or maybe you're traveling and it's a destination wedding chances are somebody is getting on a plane or they're getting on a bus there's some travel associated with it and that's what we're here to talk about today because tourism and travel really contribute a lot to the actual footprint the carbon footprint of your wedding so how do we do that in a sustainable and ethical way so to talk about that today I have two incredible experts here on my left here we have Trina who is the general manager of the Parkside hotel and I'm very happy that we are in the Parkside hotel right now it is an incredible venue um which is biosphere certified it's part of the Vancouver Island Green Business Association it has many more designations that I cannot remember because there are so many um Trina thank you so much for being here yeah absolutely excited to be here and to have this conversation awesome and to my right here we have Natasha Natasha is not only uh the owner of Clearwater events uh wedding planning company based in Vancouver but it's also the co-founder of the good green which is an incredible resource um for wedding vendors and event professionals to help them make more sustainable choices in their business um if you haven't checked it out already definitely check it out really recommend it there's a blog post on the sustainably web series definitely check that one out Natasha thank you for being here thanks for having me before we get started I do want to acknowledge that we are on the traditional and unseated territory of the LA congan speaking peakables the uh Esquimalt and the song He's First Nations and we are just so happy to be here at the Parkside talking about sustainable travel now there's an intro in that place probably [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay well let's let's dive right ahead so before we talk about weddings in general I I want to talk about tourism and travel and I've heard the word or the phrase regenerative tourism come up a lot um and I want to ask you Trina to start with what is regenerative tourism and how is it different than how we might have traveled in the past well regenerative tourism it's it's it's not a new idea but um it's new to like kind of Tourism and business models to be applying and that is the idea that you're going to a place and leaving it better than the way you found it right so if you think of kind of like a flat you know a flat line vertical and horizontal with with a center you know the center is where you're sustainable right it means that you're having no impact uh both negatively or positively so you're sustainable but we we don't operate our world in a sustainable manner we just don't and we have to compensate for years of what we have consumed um and so that's the idea of regenerative tourism is is you're going further down that line we're actually giving back and giving back can be different for businesses in the tourism sector how that looks like versus what a tourist or visitor or wedding guest might do to give back in a regenerative way right awesome well and here at the park side you describe yourself as climate positive so is that what you what you mean when you're saying climate positive rather than say like carbon neutral so um yeah we we are Beyond carbon neutral so those are kind of like two kind of Concepts I keep separate okay so um when you think about climate positive and uh carbon neutrality so we were carbon neutrality in 2018 and we decided this past uh no 2022 we decided it's now 23. uh we decided in 2022 to go above and beyond so we actually are investing more into carbon offsets than what our business generates in greenhouse gas emissions okay so that's where climate positive there's [Music] um different kind of terms people are using uh you know carbon carbon positive right instead of climate positive so there's kind of different terms that you can use we went with because the offsetting company we use they use the term climate positive so we wanted to keep consistent to me as a business model regenerative tourism is not just um being climate positive there's more to it from a business perspective so uh looking at running a circular economy um looking at really educating uh our our guests in a meaningful way right and um so we're working towards what I think is more regenerative tourism as a business model but it's definitely more Progressive and uh and then from a tourist perspective you know people can offset their flights and they can be sustainable yeah yeah they can offset more and be you know a bit more down that regenerative or they could do that and you know do more when they get to that community and there's some really fun things going on that tourists can do that um you know permanently changes their behavior and how they travel right which is so cool and I I I want to get into all those individual actions that we can do not just as as tourists but as as people you know visiting a new place for the first time for a wedding um and and and I think that's such a cool opportunity for that um before we do um you are also on the sustainability committee for Destination uh Greater Victoria um so is this a shift that you're seeing in the industry more broadly and not just at the park side yeah I mean we've been at it here at the Parkside since 2009 so um you know this is kind of how we've rolled since the beginning since we opened and uh when I started talking to my peers about just sustainable tourism um you know in 2016 2017 I was kind of looked at who brought her to the table [Laughter] um but now we're really seeing this real dramatic shift this this you know the postcovid which I'm tired of saying but it is it is this Awakening that the industry's had and it's really great yeah absolutely as as much uh negative came out of covet there there have been some shifts um and particularly in this industry um which is maybe a good place to bring weddings into the conversation speaking of shifts due to covert um let's let's talk about this from a wedding perspective maybe you know before covid um from your experience as a wedding planner how many guests would typically be traveling for a wedding let's say at an average wedding how many would be coming in from out of town and and how would they get there hmm it's a really tricky question I think on average let's say a hundred guests at a wedding is easy numbers I've done weddings where 90 are traveling in from out of town that can be within the province that can be within Canada that can be internationally I've seen weddings where nobody is flying and everyone's local and that's just because all of their family and their Community is local I think here in British Columbia as like Premier destinations we see a lot more travel incoming with flights um but that's just because we live in this beautiful location absolutely yeah I mean this the the the island here is definitely known as a wedding destination and that's where like when you're in the wedding industry you don't often think of yourself as being in the tourism industry right um but uh certainly throughout covert it became very clear that that not only are we part of that word like tied to it um because people have to travel to get to these weddings here um even if it's just from Vancouver um and so there's there's travel happening because people want to be in this place they want to share this experience with people right um I will say in terms of Trends I think what we're seeing in the shift post covet is now people really want to gather so that sort of like itch that people were seeing in 2021 2022 as restrictions started to lift we're still seeing the sort of after effects of that and so folks that may have been I don't know if our family can invest in that trip for once a year we're now going to do it because we really want to see our people um and so I think travel has seen a big uptick as a result right so if you're a wedding couple say who knows that a bunch of their guests will be traveling for their wedding how do you start having the conversation about traveling sustainably where do where does that happen and at what point do you like is it on the invitations where you just say make sure you choose a sustainable um vendor for this or something like that or how do you how do you Broach that with your guests and uh and anybody who's invited um I'll start with you I think as a wedding planner I always recommend that my couples have a wedding website regardless of if they're sending out paper invitations or not a it makes RSVP so much easier because it's gathered online but it also acts as a source of Truth and a really good place to direct guests for anything information related about your wedding and always a big chunk of that are accommodations and travel um and we can get into this but around what they do once they're in town so how to make the community better than when they came here um and so part of that responsibility would really be on the couple maybe a planner to come in and say here are some like more sustainable properties that you could West instead but typically they're a little bit pricier so I always recommend also having a couple different budget options and I imagine at the park side you see that at a different point kind of in that wedding planning Journey um but you mentioned that you know the Parkside has an opportunity to educate people not only before they stay but also when they're here so are you able to connect guests with more regenerative experiences when they're here yeah so um you know we we do a number of weddings a year and also have a number of weddings we call it room blocks so they might be having their venue somewhere else but they need that accommodation and so we have lots of tools that we use in our hand kind of bag one of them is we have a series called The Trails series that we provide to people when they arrive and they're all very thoughtfully and carefully um uh sourced each Trail so a trail might be a walking tour of indigenous owned businesses downtown Victoria right or an artisan trail of local artists and their businesses a Farm to Plate restaurant Trail uh and then you got your your Craft brewery trails and your wine Trails which are all local businesses and so you know that's one tool that we use a lot that people come to the the desk and say oh you know I'm looking for uh you know our wedding's still a day or two away and we're looking for some things to do well here's some fun uh things to go do and so they're all very very carefully thought out uh each business and we've approached each business to make sure that it's authentic when we're promoting it sure yeah you can kind of act as a curator yeah in that and that's such a good resource for couples to really lean on um but I think it touches on something else there as well is that people are not just traveling for that that one day that one event that might be the focus of their travel but typically speaking they're also going to be doing other things while they're in a place um including visiting local businesses and you know going on local tours um and that speaks to another end of of regenerative travel and tourism I mean we've been talking about it from like a footprint standpoint but there are also social and economic impacts and I wonder if you can kind of speak to how travel and and certainly you know regenerative or ethically minded travel can impact the local community well when you look at the tourism industry as a whole I mean it's really made up to Small to medium-sized Enterprises we employ the most women worldwide we have the most small uh businesses out of any industry and so when you come into a destination I mean you're supporting the community at the local roots right you're supporting uh restaurants that are owned by families right who are buying supplies and they're a local community right you are supporting you know the Robert Bateman Center which is you know an artist Gallery here in town you're so and these are all locally owned businesses and all on that small to medium-sized uh scale right so you're really investing from a social and economic standpoint back in these businesses which again makes these communities more resilient resilience to changes in the economy makes it more resilient for supply chain because if more things are so sourced locally there's less greenhouse gas emissions because less is being transported in so it has a huge positive effect that really does benefit the community absolutely well resiliency is an interesting word there and kind of concept I know um you know we were speaking about covet earlier I I think a sustainable wedding Community is also a resilient wedding community and and have you found that um you know when you're working with say businesses through the good green have you found that the ones that are more connected to their local community fared better through covid and I also think covet did wonders because I think it brought in that extra sense of community have brought in that sense of connection because we were all sort of trying to survive and so that brought in a natural sense of support which I think has carried forward right absolutely so we I mean we've talked about this a lot from a couple's standpoint like what can a couple do to help kind of direct their their guests towards making these good choices um where do businesses come into that conversation like what can we do as vendors to help encourage wedding guests sweating couples to make good travel and tourism choices do you have any ideas on that it's it's hard the consumer isn't yet 100 of the point where they're looking first for sustainable or regenerative um there they are still price sensitive they are still um looking at maybe the dream of what they have in mind right um and so I'm I'm a big kind of believer of What I Call Choice editing you know Behavioral Science and that is as a business is trying to shift their behaviors without them knowing it right right and hopefully they'll they'll take away that like oh all right that hotel had compost and right and why don't other hotels have compost and maybe next time they travel they're they're looking for a place that you know has similar things right that they're like oh that can be done right um so you know that's kind of the way I look at that is yeah that's awesome yeah how about I mean you work with a lot of like smaller businesses you know entrepreneurs and and wedding vendors who maybe exist part-time in this industry but but not full-time and maybe don't have a lot of resources behind them what's some of the low-hanging fruit that that vendors might be able to to grab onto to to help direct couples towards sustainable travel choices I mean that's a million dollar question I think a lot of it is around education so um I think it's a theme and a thread that we've been seeing throughout this series is the small actions still making an impact so what you're doing even though you think it might be pretty minimal in a grand scheme of things are for all making those small changes just think about that on a much grander scale so for me as a and encouraging other vendors you might not have a ton of time to invest you might not have the resources to do that but what you can do is these two things um and then again we can build upon that later that's excellent yeah what about from a policy standpoint is there any room for provincial or local governments to play a role within this and and what might that look like kind of in partnership with venues like this uh I mean yes there is there is room um absolutely uh to date there hasn't been a lot of conversation and I think it's because honestly I see business now moving a bit faster than government is and making change and so what we kind of saw through covet was a lot of like destination management organizations uh really pivoting and making big changes within their membership base and pushing out to their members so biosphere is one of the big ones that we've seen a huge change uh before covet I think there was maybe 30 cities around the world or biosphere and now it's just exploding right and uh you know here in BC uh I believe almost all of the regional destination management organizations have signed up now to biosphere uh so that will mean that in the coming years like the whole BC Province will be certified from a DMO standpoint so you know businesses are now kind of moving faster uh than than governments moving yeah uh so do we want to see government though come and have that conversation absolutely right I think like you said with the wedding industry is that we learned a lot through covid and that was that the tourism industry as part of the Conference Centers as part of uh you know it brings millions and millions of dollars into destinations and and but because we're so fragmented and you mentioned like weddings don't see themselves as part of Tourism I see weddings parts of Tourism because it's my market share of course yeah um but you know restaurants might not see themselves as part as tourism and and so we're a very fragmented industry so it's harder for us to come together to Lobby government to say what we really need absolutely right um so you know as we get better at that and I think with this Collective voice that we're starting to develop with programs like biosphere it's going to be easier to go to government and have those conversations for anybody who doesn't know which includes me um what is biosphere certification so biosphere certification is a destination certification model and uh it can also be a business certification model it's based on the 17 sustainable goals and it's a result of the responsible tourism Institute uh initiative that was taken many years ago and so it's a criteria that is it in civil terms funnels all back up to uh the world tourism uh Organization for United Nations um and so it's it's like a declaration with the 17 goals uh and it's it's got 400 indicators within it that you have to work towards and Achieve so it's not an easy accomplishment to get uh and uh but it's it's a great framework for businesses and for a destination management organizations to work within to really bring all the stakeholders to the table amazing that's so cool um it doesn't surprise me that you also teach this at Royal Roads University in their Hospitality uh Management program um yes that makes a lot of sense yeah in case anybody did not know yeah so one of the many hats yeah um so when we're thinking about travel in the coming years say five ten years how do you think that travel and tourism in general might change well I mean tourism and travel has been growing at double digits since pre-covet uh we can't keep up this pace I mean one or labor we just don't have the labor but the market is growing and you're not seeing any other sectors growing in the digits that tourism is and that is because we have this huge emerging new markets countries opening up that never used to travel middle class developing in countries that never had middle class more people more bursts you know just a higher population base right and so we're growing in double digits right so when you say to an owner group oh we expect 13 increase in Revenue that could be truly true whereas most sectors and most businesses and industries would never think about double digits um but we also have eight percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions were higher than some of the industries like Construction wow so when you start to think about that you think like wow that's a big footprint right we employ we're one of the largest employers in the world right and so how is it going to change well we have to change because we can't keep up the way we are doing it uh so we do have to move towards a a new model A regenerative model um and you know that that has to be the future because you know tourism and weddings we sell destinations we sell Beauty Landscapes sense of place um and if we don't have that well we don't have an industry yeah absolutely does 13 growth uh sound a little scary coming from a wedding planner as a small business owner that's both frightening and wonderful yes yeah yeah it's it's it's it's good in both ways and I I agree that we cannot keep up doing things the way that we have been doing them um for all of those reasons uh and including the fact that in the wedding industry at the very least we don't have the staff as as you mentioned nobody's got staff no no and so that kind of growth is is um it's exciting uh but it's also a little bit alarming um but a sense of place is something I wanted to touch on because that came up when I was reading about regenerative tourism the protection of sense of place really came up um quite a bit when I I was reading and that's as you mentioned you know it is a key selling Factor when we are considering weddings when we're considering events when we want to bring people here to Victoria say since a place is huge um but one of the things that I've seen in the wedding industry is venues that will open up here on the island and then they'll close down um a year or two later partly because the local community doesn't see that venue as an asset in their Community they see they see pollution they see litter they see increased traffic and they don't see a lot of economic benefit they don't see a lot of social benefit so if we as a wedding industry try and shift towards a regenerative approach that benefits our community do you think that that will help us make those connections so that that weddings are seen as as an asset and something that communities want to have rather than what we might be seen as now which is an occasional pest I think that you know it boils down to educating the community right and and many times we see community members who are maybe a little bit steadfast in their ways it's because they've lived that way maybe in that community in that home for 20 30 years right and they've got Roots there and they've got memories of how it is or how it should be and so starting to change that landscape sense of place for them is very different right and so you know yeah you see that conversation happening a lot right and um and you know I think it boils on education uh open dialogue that stakeholder engagement and uh because it is hard on the community sometimes with events and you know whether it be concerts or Weddings But you know a large number of influx for a weekend and then a deflex right um so it can be hard but I think through proper dialogue and and the the business model really trying to Showcase itself in the right light and taking that extra time I think you know slowly people's minds will change yeah well and that speaks to doing business differently than what we've done before because in some cases weddings have been very transactional events where you go in it's a day you leave and maybe you leave some big bags of garbage behind um and you can see how local communities would not like that I think too when we're going into very residential communities folks always see the badge they see the litter but they see the amount of noise that we're generally we're there until 12 o'clock or one o'clock and then vendors are there making a whole bunch of noise till three in the morning of course residents aren't going to like that because we just leave we just drop a whole bunch of things and then we're out right so I think on our end to your point we have to build that sense of Education we need to really show the case studies and the why we're important to business and why we're important to the community and then Advocate a little bit for it too um and make it more of a collaborative effort and I think too even you know working with people who have this vision of a wedding in mind but shifting that Vision a bit like maybe a daytime wedding is better right because it's better suited for the community right so you start to have those conversations with them too because they might have to make some compromises right yeah our kind of conception of what an event should look like uh maybe we need to change that which again speaks to doing things differently than how we've done them before but that actually opens up a lot of doors I'm sure you've you've seen some awesome weddings that do not fit the typical schedule or mold love me a daytime wedding give give me a Sunday brunch buddy and I'm home by 10 o'clock yes please I will take those all day long every every wedding vendor wants yeah I love it yeah but also brunch food is great yeah right yeah but but I mean I think that speaks again to what we were talking about before is that sustainability is not just about your carbon footprint it's about the impact that you have on the community too right so a sustainable wedding Community is one that supports its local businesses and communities um it leaves a positive impact on the environment and the community um it's not just about your footprint on that one day yeah and uh and I I think when we're thinking about that sort of systemic change um within the industry it's it's big it's hard to imagine and it's hard to imagine as small vendors too so where do we start with that looking at me I'm looking at you and [Laughter] I'm excited you know I coach a lot of businesses and um uh you know when I do the coaching I always say like just start with what you can right so first I always say to businesses is just take inventory of what you're doing because a lot of times businesses don't realize all the good they're actually doing right right and so when you start talking to them and and you go like oh you let your employees work from home on Fridays like that's a start right and they don't even realize like the impact it might have right from an environmental standpoint or um so you start just inventorying what it is that you're currently doing and then start to think about what your business values are and think about the areas to work on that align to your business values because some businesses might be more social and uh into the community from you know maybe food security or uh you know affordable housing or something on the social side um or maybe they're more into arts and culture um women's um uh you know equal employment or um education or they're on the environmental side right so I I say like just first inventory of what you're doing and celebrate that and be proud and then and then start to look at again what aligns to your values and and I always say to businesses at the end of the day if you're really lost like go to I mean it's not simple sometimes but I always say go back to the 17 goals for this sustainable development goals and look at those if you need like a bit of a framework right yeah which you can find on the parkside's website [Laughter] um so Natasha speaking as a wedding planner if you had one piece of advice for a couple who wants their guests or who themselves want to plan a sustainable destination wedding what would that one piece of advice be I think in a previous episode we've also hold it on experience and we've honed in unaffected a wedding or an event doesn't need to work the same for every person or every couple so you're choosing that destination or you're choosing that location for a specific reason so investing in that Community giving back to that community and supporting your local Artisans and your local small businesses should really be an easy sell for you right because you're just sharing your favorite things to do in that town or city um so start there and use your wedding website as a source as a resource for all of your guests because that's a really good and easy way tangible way to help make change within your own wedding awesome that is good advice well then I think it speaks too like you want to share this experience um that becomes part of your story um with your guests and there are so many experiences you can share with them um that do connect to that sense of place and so being able to curate that and tell your story through that super cool um Trina can I ask you the same question if you had one piece of advice for a couple or for a business wanting to do um sustainable travel or tourism um in their business or at their wedding what would that be uh well at their wedding you know I I would say you know use um use what naturally comes to that venue or that space use the natural assets that it has right uh don't you know and that's the thing is like don't overdo it like don't overthink it just keep it simple use those natural assets and and uh really use the local businesses in your community like really look for because that's where you're going to get the uniqueness like you talked about um and and you're gonna be able to show who you are as an individual because that's what weddings are about too is showcasing who you are right as a couple right so uh you can have fun with that right so that's what I would say and the game two for you know the business side is for businesses is a game is to look at their supply chain um because that is the greatest opportunity is that supply chain and look to see what you can also Source locally awesome that is great advice and I I think I mean it's so important to have this kind this is kind of an abstract conversation when you think about weddings but it's so important because again travel is such a big part of that footprint and so thinking about this right at the start of your planning um if you're a couple um but thinking about your whole business um if you are a wedding vendor is going to be huge so thank you both um for talking about this today this is this is such good advice and I hope that we can see a more regenerative industry in the future yeah I'm all for that awesome I don't really know how to end these so [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you foreign [Music]

2023-09-24 01:56

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