The Green Key is an international eco-label tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

 facility that aims to contribute to the prevention of climate change

Climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...

 and to sustainable tourism

Sustainable tourism

Sustainable tourism is tourism attempting to make a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate future employment for local people. The aim of sustainable tourism is to ensure that development brings a positive experience for local people, tourism companies and the...

 by awards and promoting good initiatives. The Green Key aims to change the practices and behaviors of actors, guests, enterprises, authorities, and local communities, and its desire is to involve them in increasing their responsibility toward their own environment. Currently, 17 countries in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and 1123 accommodations are involved in the Green Key Programme.

History

The Green Key originated for hotels in Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 in 1994, and, in 1998, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 joined the Green Key and started labelling camping sites. In 2002, the Green Key became the 5th programme of Foundation for Environmental Education

Foundation for Environmental Education

The Foundation for Environmental Education is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation promoting sustainable development through environmental education...

.

Criteria

The criteria for being awarded with the Green Key are involvement in fields such as water, waste, energy, Involvement and Awareness of Guests, Environmental Management, Staff Involvement, Use of Chemicals, Open Spaces and Food, and Beverages.

Global Forest Fund

FEE, which runs the Green Key Programme, uses a tool to compensate their CO2 emissions from flight travels. The funds are distributed by the programme Learning about Forests (LEAF)

Learning about Forests (LEAF)

Learning about Forests is one of the five programmes run by the NGO Foundation for Environmental Education . 15 countries in the world runs the LEAF programme....

, which involves children in planting tree activities.