Our Green Journey
At The Helix, we take our environmental responsibility very seriously. We are committed to doing our part towards a sustainable future and we are proud of our green tourism status and green flag award!
We are supported in our sustainability practices, and in our improvement journey by the world-leading sustainability accreditation partner, Green Tourism. Achieving a Green Tourism award means that our sustainability practices have been assessed and verified by a credible partner. Our grading at the last assessment 17 February 2023 was Gold. It shows that we have an ongoing commitment:
- to sustainability standards and practices
- to work responsibly, ethically, and sustainably
- to contribute to our community
- to reduce our impact on the environment, and
- to be accessible and inclusive to all visitors and staff.
Green Tourism has assessed our business against 15 sustainability criteria grouped under the pillars of People, Places and Planet. These consider the social, economic, and environmental actions we undertake, providing a holistic assessment of our sustainability performance.
Green Tourism also helped us highlight our areas of sustainability strengths. At our last assessment these included:
- Equality, Diversity, & Inclusivity - Changing places onsite. Excellent commitment to ensuring The Helix, Home of the Kelpies is welcoming and accessible to all.
- Health & Wellbeing – Very Strong performance in all areas of protecting and supporting staff and customer health and wellbeing.
- Awareness – Excellent knowledge and awareness of all aspects of sustainability on show throughout the organisation.
- Community – A very strong commitment to supporting vibrant local communities.
What do the Green Tourism gradings mean?
Green Tourism provides an overall grading of Gold, Silver, or Bronze depending on the overall score achieved across the comprehensive criteria.
Bronze: Typically, an entry-level business, who are in the early stages of its green journey but has shown great commitment to making its business work more sustainably and is currently implementing a range of measures related to the 15 goals across all three pillars of People, Places and Planet.
Silver: Typically, a business that falls under this category can demonstrate good practice across our three pillars of People, Places and Planet, but has an action plan of best practice improvements that will enhance the sustainability practices within the business.
Gold: A business that achieves the highest standards of sustainability has a strong and broad environmental ethos and can provide excellent examples of best practice throughout the majority of the three pillars of People, Places and Planet. It has made significant changes to its working practices and continues to review and maintain them.
Of those businesses in the tourism and hospitality industry that put themselves forward for Green Tourism’s third-party verification, around one-third achieve bronze, one-third silver, and one-third bronze.
Our grading at the last assessment 17 February 2023 was Gold.
