History & Background:
Green Island has a long pedigree,
originating from the 'Building Better Businesses -
Green Tips for Profit' scheme which was developed from
1997-2000. This scheme was aimed at primarily tourism
businesses and was developed by the Isle of Wight Council
in conjunction with the Southampton Environment Centre,
Southampton City Council, Eastleigh Borough Council
and the New Forest District Council.
The BBB scheme identified specific
issues of importance related to the involvement and
commitment of tourism related businesses, notably the
need for a locally branded scheme that specifically
promoted the Island.
During the interim period the IoW
Agenda 21 strategy was produced which outlined the
need to develop a more sustainable tourism industry,
this was followed by the Island's Ecological Footprint
Analysis, which also strengthened the case to implement
change.
Following this in 2001 the Sustainable
Tourism Forum was successful in achieving funding from
the South East England Development Agency's Rural Development
Programme to develop a vision for sustainable tourism
on the Island, including the development of an environmental
certification scheme.
Thanks to the commitment and enthusiasm of the participating
businesses, 17 of them, Green Island was developed
and piloted during 2002. During 2003 we received
further funding from Leader+ until 2007, 2004 saw
us double in size with 35 businesses involved, in
2005 it rose to 65 and currently we have just over
100 members.
We are currently working to develop phase 2 of
the Green Island Project which will hopefully see
the full roll-out of the programme across the whole
of the Island's tourism industry.
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