Shades of Green. Greenwashing in the Tourism Industry

The Earth Summit in Rio+20 outlines firmly the connection between the green economy and the sustainable development, and one of the key theories of this conference is the confirmation that these two concepts have in common the achievement of the same goals.
After the Brundtland report the term sustainable development had a further prominence in 1992 at the Earth Summit becoming a guiding principle for international cooperation on development. This expression definitively broke the stalemate between environmental protection, economic development and social inclusiveness, defining these three concepts as the pillars of sustainable development, and confirming their interdependence and their mutual nature.
Today we have to face many unsustainable problems such as loss of biodiversity and climate change, but first of all we should understand how to achieve environmental sustainability avoiding the creation of a damage for the economic growth. We have to move society on a more sustainable path if we want to achieve these goals. Many organizations and institutions are unable to bring the three pillars of sustainable development together in an effective manner.
Moving towards a green economy can be the only possibility to reach these goals and to promote an equitable growth.
The environment is for the green economy a determining factor of economic production, value, stability, and long term prosperity, it is a key source for the economic growth, the human well-being and the innovation.

"The shift to a green economy can be seen as a pathway to sustainable development, a journey rather than a destination".

The transition to a green economy is not a substitution of the concept sustainable development but rather an integration. A new green economic paradigm can support the reduction of environmental risks and at the same time it can produce new social and economic benefits for the developed and the developing countries.

The UNEP defined green economy and sustainable consumption and production as two sides of the same coin:

"They both share the same objective of fostering sustainable development, covering macro to micro-economic dimensions of public policy and regulation, business operations and social behaviour. Sustainable consumption and production is primarily focused on increasing resource efficiency in production processes and consumption patterns. Complementing this, green economy activities consider macro-economic trends and regulatory instruments governments can pursue through economic and other policies to promote economic growth and job creation that meets the criteria of being green and decent".

The achievement of green economy and sustainable development are therefore two interdependent objectives, which require a transformation of policy and regulatory instruments as well as a behavioural change in society. Moving towards a green economy should become a strategic goal for achieving sustainable development and the connection of these two concepts can improve our quality of life, reduce environmental problems and assure an intergenerational equity essential for the eradication of poverty. For these reasons a green economy does not replace sustainable development, but achieving sustainability respecting the three pillars of sustainable development we can transform our economy for the better.
To achieve these goals we need many economic changes and first of all a cultural change in our consumption behaviour. Many scientists wonder about the possibility of a sustainable change in the Western consumption culture, they argue that consumer behaviour can serve as a vehicle to influence production patterns. The green innovation as the main instrument to achieving green development, includes in addition to technological, institutional and organizational, also social and cultural innovations, if we want to realize this transformation we need a shift of living styles, consumption behaviours and a more general change in values.