The Sierra Nevada Conservancy will distribute another $17 million in fiscal year 2009, to projects designed to protect or restore “rivers, lakes and streams, their watersheds and associated land, water and other natural resources.” The money was authorized by California voters in 2006 when they passed Proposition 84, the Clean Water, Parks and Coastal Protection Act.

The conservancy established two categories of grants for fiscal year 2009–

• Competitive grants: $7 million for land acquisition, conservation easements, and site restoration; individual grants can range from $250,000 to $1 million;
  Deadline: Sept. 15, 2008.

• Strategic opportunity grants: $10 million, including $1 million for each of the six subregions; individual grants can range from $5,000 to $500,000;
  Deadlines: Sept. 2, 2008 and Feb. 27, 2009.

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The June 8th travel section of the New York Times ran no less than three articles on different aspects of what National Geographic calls geo tourism. “Back to Nature and Ready for Guests,” featured birding in the Great Plains of North Dakota. No mind that the article also mentioned bison hunting, the article’s pull quote read, “Wildlife has made a comeback; bring on the eco-tourists.”

The “Choice Tables” article focused on Aspen’s food and wine festival, noting, “Chefs build menus on what the region’s farmers produce.” Another piece pictured kayakers passing through a mangrove tunnel in the Everglades.

Journalists are always looking for a good story, or a new hook to an old story. Heading into summer, it’s a good time to think about next winter. What might catch the attention of travel writers? Once you answer that question, let the California Travel and Tourism Commission help you reach journalists worldwide.

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Eileen Fisher, the eco-friendly apparel company, provides grants to women-owned businesses. Deadline for its 2008 grants is May 30, 2008.

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Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, a marketing and public relations agency that focuses on the travel and leisure industries, says it is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects for the new year, despite a “volatile market.” In its December 2006 eNewsletter, YPB&R predicts:

• Leisure travel–especially family travel–will outpace business travel;
• Travelers will grow increasingly reliant on the Internet for travel planning and booking, and meta search engines, such as kayak.com and qixo.com,” take off; and
• Cruises and spas will continue to grow in popularity.

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The president may declare that we’re “addicted to oil,” but the Bush Administration proved again that they aren’t planning to do anything to wean the country from its deadly habit. Reporter Matthew L. Wald of the New York Times covered the Transportation Department’s March 29th announcement that manufacturers have another four years–till 2011–to improve the fuel economy of cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the U.S. by a measly 8%.

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As I perused the e-newsletters cluttering my inbox, I noticed over half a dozen conferences variously titled eco-tourism, sustainable tourism, green travel. None of them take place in California.

One of the e-pubs, The Sustainable Travel International, mentions three events:

• The Middle East Travel and Tourism Summit, an international conferece, whose theme is Sustainable Tourism: Building Strong Partnerships, last month in Jordan;
• The Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association annual Ecotourism Conference 1-3 March, 2006 in Seward, Alaska; and
• The 8th annual Sustainable Tourism Conference in Puerto Rico 25-29 Apri, 2006, sponsored by the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

In February, there was also the International Conference on Tourism and Environmental Certifications in Portugal, and the Responsible Travel Forum in Baltimore, Maryland.

Here we get California Travel Industry Association’s Conference on Tourism at Disneyland’s Magical Kingdom in Anaheim, and more than our share of adventure travel expos. That’s not to say nothing is happening in California, but given the state’s “green” reputation, its embarassing the state’s travel and hospitality industry has failed to register what has become the most important niche in the business.

While the state’s travel industry seems to be ignoring eco-tourism, green travel is on the agenda for advocates of “smart growth.” There are some hopeful signs that local businesseses and communities, in partnership with the public sector, are exploring eco-tourism as a driver for sustainable economic development and environmental preservation.

For more information, check out:

• The Sierra Nevada Conservancy, where environmental preservation and sustainable economic develop are included in the charter.
• The Sierra Business, whch created a work group on cultural and agri-tourism last year, and is promoting smart growth in Truckee and elsewhere in the range.
• UC Davis’ Small Farm Center, which hosted a nature and agri-tourism conference January 2006.
• The Sierra Nevada Alliance and its land use summit, May 6, in South Lake Tahoe.

Corporate American knows something about the U.S. consumers that travel businesses would do well to recognize: Americans care about the environment and these environmental concerns affect their purchasing decisions.

Some businesses respond to consumer demand and tastes by instituting environmentally-friendly practices, but others choose to engage in misleading public relations campaigns, aka “greenwashing.” The term has made it into the popular lexicon and the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines the practice as, ““disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.â€?

The Green Life has initiated a campaign to expose corporate greenwashing. In their annual report, “Don’t Be Fooled: America’s Ten Worst Greenwashers,” author Geoffrey Johnson argues that greenwashing “creates market distortions,” which hurt environmentally responsible businesses.

“Endowed with bigger marketing and public relations budgets, greenwashers shut the door on genuinely green business struggling to get a foothold in the marketplace. A few, notably organic food producers, have broken through, yet most, among them green-building contractors, renewable energy providers and organic apparel retailers, remain on the outside, obscured from potential customers.

Johnson also takes issue with voluntary corporate programs.

“it is apparent that self-regulation is no substitute for government mandates. Researchers studying voluntary environmental programs such as the chemical industry’s Responsible Care and the logging industry’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative have concluded that without concrete standards, independent oversight or the threat of enforcement, companies are not compelled to clean up their practices.

Green Life identifies greenwash as “an environmental problem, one that will persist, and likely worsen, until it no longer pays.” The report advises:

“. . . consumers can refuse to buy from companies that they discover are out to fool them – whether through in-depth research or merely by turning the page from the image ads to the news. The same goes for investors, who should understand that companies are not always as they appear on paper. And policy makers must weigh the results of voluntarism more heavily than they do the guarantees of companies to go green of their own accord.”

According to the report, the top ten greenwashers for 2005 are:

1. Ford Motor Company
2. BP
3. United States Forest Service
   
4. ChevronTexaco
5. General Motors
6. Nuclear Energy Institute
7. Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers
8. TruGreen ChemLawn
9. Xcel Energy
10. National Ski Areas Association

The author cites the National Ski Areas Association initiative “Sustainable Slopes” as a voluntary program that is “easily exploited by companies seeking public relations benefits without compliance costs.”

“Researchers compared the environmental performance of participating ski areas to that of non-participants and found that, on average, the former fared worse. . .The NSAA should make Sustainable Slopes meaningful by setting concrete standards; employing third-party monitoring; and sanctioning poor performers by putting them on probation or expelling them from the program altogether. The net results would be a stronger, more dependable Sustainable Slopes for the ski areas that remain, and a bolstered case for effective climate change regulations.”

The European Union has enacted a series of strict environmental laws that will affect every corporation that wants to do business in Europe. According to an article in the Grist Magazine, written by John Elkington and Mark Lee, the new E.U. environmental standards are changing the global marketplace:

“Two factors ensure that the new laws aren’t an issue only for E.U. companies. First, all those wanting to play supply and demand in the region must comply. Second, as California demonstrates in the U.S., there is a tendency for the highest standards prevailing in any key market to dictate the wider market’s evolution — as Europe goes, so might the world.”

While the new regulations aren’t popular with European companies, which are lobbying to weaken the rules, they are popular with citizens of the 25 countries that comprise the European Union. For this reason, U.S. travel destinations should take note.

A growing number of Europeans are traveling to Latin American, Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia for various forms of eco-adventures–biking, hiking, kayaking, rafting, scuba diving. And they’ve demonstated their preference for staying at environmentally-friendly establishments that support the local community.
California destinations, lodges and outfitters are missing an opportunity to market the state’s natural wonders to these travelers. To attract these adventurers, businesses need to “go green” by adopting sustainable business practices, such as:

• Serving locally grown, organic foods;
• Reducing their greenhouse gases and their environmental footprint by converting to solar power, using biodiesel and hybrid vehicles;
• Developing green buildings and landscaping with native plants;
• Reclaiming stormwater runoff and reducing water use; and
• Purchasing products and services from local businesses, and employing local people.

And California’s green travel businesses need to develop a marketing and promotion strategy.

The state legislature killed the governor’s “Million Solar Roofs” bill last fall, but the California Public Utility Commission will revive the initiative when it votes on January 12, 2006 to provide $3 billion in incentives to encourage the installation of solar technology over the next 11 years.

The goal of the California Solar Initiative is to increase the state’s total solar energy output from 101 megawatts now to 3,000 MW by 2017. See the attachment for a summary of the initiative.

As a first step, the commission voted on December 15, 2005, to provide $300 million for the CPUC’s Self-Generation Incentive Program in 2006. Even though the commission reduced the rebate level for photo voltaic systems from $3.50 to $2.80 per installed watt next year, the CPUC expects interest in the program to remain high.

The commission will take up the issue at its January 12 meeting, beginning at 10 a.m, at its San Francisco office, 505 Van Ness Avenue. The CPUC will take public comments on the initiative at the January meeting.