The Dunedin City Council’s Enterprise Dunedin has launched a new carbon measurement incentive scheme to encourage broader uptake of sustainable tourism practices throughout the Dunedin visitor industry.

In line with a national shift towards carbon neutrality in the industry, and the Dunedin City Council’s own aspirations for Dunedin to achieve net carbon zero by 2030, the scheme will rebate up to $1,000 for each individual tourism business that measures its carbon emissions and achieves Zero Carbon or Climate Positive status - offsetting 100% or more of the CO2 emissions from their chosen activities.

John Christie Manager Enterprise Dunedin, says, “As we look towards a different approach to tourism in the future, it’s important we do the mahi now to start transforming our practices and identify where we can make improvements.

“Visitors are increasingly looking to support operators that are taking positive action to mitigate climate change, and the first step is to evaluate and measure the impact of current activities.

“As the destination marketing and management agency for the city, Enterprise Dunedin is keen to underpin this work by recognizing and supporting the change-makers.”

The agency is already working with a group of early adopters keen to pursue a carbon neutral pathway and it’s hoped that actions will have an influence across the entire visitor industry supply chain.

Funding for the scheme, which is open until 1 March 2022, will be drawn from the Government’s Strategic Tourism Assets Protection Programme (STAPP), which was launched last year as part of a suite of visitor industry support and recovery initiatives.

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