About the ETGG2030 Project

With the need to make a comprehensive and long term response to the multiple crises of Global Change - including the covid-19 health pandemic,  biodiversity loss, extreme weather events and social inequality -  the European Tourism Going Green (ETGG 2030) project has the overall aim  to establish a long lasting, EU wide business sustainability online knowledge acquisition and expert training system that can function in the Agenda 2020-2030 policy-making decade as a service to support all European tourism SMEs throughout the supply chain in their move towards sustainable consumption and production. Implementation of the service will be piloted in an exemplary manner in 9 destinations in 6 countries with UNESCO cultural heritage sites and Natura 2000 sites as an immediate attempt to make the tourism eco-system and its territorial base more resilient in European areas that are most under threat.

ETGG 2030 has been funded approximately 1 million Euros for 30 months from January 2021 by the EU COSME programme to bring together sustainability experts and business support organisations in higher education, chambers of commerce, tourism organisations and NGOs to establish an ICT-based cluster approach for the development and transfer of innovative best practice in the sustainable management of small, medium & micro tourism enterprises (SMEs).  Expert knowledge support from the Erasmus-funded TRIANGLE (Tourism Research Innovation and Next Generation Learning Experience) Knowledge Alliance will be given to 8 business support organisations and chambers of commerce who will run national competitions to select 70 SMEs for sustainability support worth up to 10,000 Euros.

A common European SME sustainability online training system will be developed and implemented to give the businesses access to both an expert knowledge base and a European group of sustainability experts who will assist them through a third-party sustainability certification process. By using the training system and tools such as an ‘R U ready for Certification?’ App, the SMEs will be able to make evidence-based business decisions to implement sustainability in their operations and supply chains to improve their socio-economic and environmental performance, and simultaneously be measured in the process of becoming more sustainable.  This will allow them to raise their market profile by qualifying for a listing on the world's largest independent quality-assessed sustainable & responsible tourism market-place - the Green Travel Maps on the Tourism 2030.eu Portal - where they can establish b2b, b2c and b2g links by being included in an upgraded Travel Green Europe app.

The project will develop a post-project business plan to continue to run a collaborative training offer throughout European member states to ensure long term viability after the initial pilot funding stage and help European businesses and destinations meet the EU implementation of the circular economy and UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals 12 - Sustainable Consumption and Production; minimising their socio-economic and environmental impacts on the European territory; SDG 13 - Climate Action; SDG 14 - Life under Water; SDG 15 - Life on Land; creating worthwhile and lasting employment opportunities (SDG 8); and SDG implementation through collaborative partnership approaches (SDG 17). 

To boost SME sustainability and enable timely and effective knowledge transfer throughout the EU, the project will deliver:

2) An EU wide sustainability toolkit and training service based on the Tourism2030.eu platform.

3) Implementation of that service in an exemplary manner in 9 destinations in the 6 partner countries Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Italy with UNESCO cultural heritage sites and Natura 2000 sites in which SME sustainability is an immediate necessity.

4) Bringing 70 tourism SMEs located in Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Italy into a common continuous development process that improves their knowledge acquisition, market access and local to global promotion in the Travel Green Europe app that links businesses going green to other businesses and customers.