Pathways to Sustainability: Community Charters and Collective Intelligence

	Speaker:
	Gordon Titchener Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader, Tourism Management Waiariki Institute of Technology
	Description: In 1998 the community of Rotorua, New Zealand brought leading industry and community stakeholders together to form a Charter of Sustainable business practice, reflecting the unique characteristics of the region. While this "grassroots" approach to sustainability has been hailed as an innovative approach in raising awareness among SMEs, it is complementary to more formal ecolabelling schemes such as Green Globe 21. The charter (www.sustainablenz.com) aims of incremental improvement are now being facilitated through a new Diploma in Sustainable Tourism Management programme, which seeks to unite local businesses with NGO and government "mentors". As an applied programme all assessment is judged on its tangible benefit to the community. The next step in the development in the charter process is to link the local operators with like-minded individuals in different parts of the country, with the consumers of their products, and to communities throughout the globe. This presentation relays the NZ experience as a comparative study in the mobilisation of a business community, and relates how we have used tools of community informatics, such as web-raising, to break down traditional barriers within communities. As a web-based course using the freeware Moodle, the DSTM is an innovative vehicle for the diffusion of open source sustainability. The challenges and rewards of such an approach would be the focus of this particular workshop.