GRIP sustainable travel and tourism 

GRIP, the Norwegian centre for sustainable production and consumption, was established in 1995 by the Norwegian Ministry of Environment to motivate and facilitate a sustainable development of Norwegian businesses and local authorities, and implement the aims of our common Agenda 21.

GRIP is an independent, non-commercial foundation financed by the Ministry, but steared by a board consisting of representatives from the Confederation of Business and Industry, the Federation of Trade Unions, the Association of Local Authorities, the Confederation of Commercial and Service organizations and the Association for the Conservation of Nature (NGO).

GRIP covers a number of different branches and professional fields, among these the travel and tourism industry. GRIP develops methods for a more sustainable and eco-efficient travel and tourism industry, field tests these methods in pilotprojects around the country, and distributes handbooks for reducing the environmental load and increasing the profitability of each individual establishment. The GRIP handbooks are all developed in close collaboration with the industry in question. and some of them are field tested in pilotprojects in the industry. The pilotprojects are financed partly by GRIP, but at least 50 % is contributed by the industry or business itself. The destination development projects are also financed partly by the local authorities. The initiative for the development of these guidelines comes from both government, the trade organisations, the industry/businesses in question and GRIP. GRIP also arranges courses, conferences and seminars to disseminate information on methodology, environmental know-how and bestpractice examples.