During the Bothnian Coastal Route (BCR) project, the team has been learning and working on work package 2, which has focused on sustainability. Many Swedish and Finnish companies participating in the BCR project have taken part in either national or regional sustainable development programs, with both similarities and differences. We also know that the ambition of companies to achieve third-party sustainability certification is becoming increasingly important in the noise of consumer communication.
We are also committed to following the upcoming changes in legal requirements at the European level, with the Green Claims and CSRD, which will influence the content of existing national and regional practices and processes.
The BCR team has completed their initial training with our partners. Jeppe Klockareson from Fair Travel and Anu Nylund from Mood of Finland joined the team in Luleå, where we reviewed the ongoing methodology designed to engage local companies in sustainability efforts.
As Jeppe Klockareson commented: “Collaboration is essential, offering new perspectives, diverse angles, and innovative ways to advance concepts—in this case, our working method. Sweden lacks national leadership in tourism and a structured approach like Finland’s STF program. There’s much to learn from our colleagues across the border, and I hope this project will pave the way for integrating the Responsible Tourism Program with the Sustainable Travel Finland program. Together, we can create a unified version that could eventually be rolled out across both countries, and perhaps the entire Nordic region.”
As we are working across borders, our common language is English. However, all the material to support our joint work and your future worknative languages, Swedish and Finnish. We now have the first versions of the sustainability report templates, which provide a foundation for our upcoming local sustainability work.
Additionally, you can also find useful resources on the Responsible Tourism Program website to further embrace the subject we are to cover. Much of the content on this site is in Swedish but also some in English, which you might find useful.
If you’re a tourism business looking to enhance your sustainability journey, this method is for you! You could be one of the first pilot companies to participate. Our partners will join the initial meetings alongside your local representative, and for this, Anu Nylund encourages the companies to do so.
“The best thing about this cross-border cooperation is learning from best practices and using them to support companies in promoting sustainable tourism. For Finnish companies, this model offers something we are not used to, which is free sparring on-site at the company to create a sustainability plan according to the GSTC criteria. The plan can also be used during the certification and STF label application phase if the company is working on them or has set them as future goals,” Anu says.
So don’t hesitate to reach out to your representative at the Bothnian Coastal Route team for more information!
Read more about the Bothnian Coastal Route project HERE and HERE.
