Doing Things Different: A Message from Our CEO

Update: As of April 22, 2019, Green Tourism Canada is now Sustainable Tourism.

There are some big changes coming from GreenStep and Green Tourism Canada in 2019, and we’re starting now!

For the past few years, we have adopted an endangered species on behalf of our members, partners and friends, but in 2019, as part of our efforts to fully embrace and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, we are changing it up!

In celebration of these changes we have made two contributions to support women and girls in developing countries, through Plan International.
These gifts address eight of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and also support #6 out of the top 100 solutions to reverse global warming, based on the research in Drawdown, the Best-Selling Environmental Book of 2017 (a must-read for every person interested in climate solutions and also available on Audible).
As a mom and a female entrepreneur, I teared up as I selected these two special gifts to express my gratitude for your business and support this year.

The Mom Shop

It’s hard enough being a mom (or dad) in the developed world, but imagine the challenges and struggles of mamas in developing countries where women aren’t afforded the opportunities or even the rights that we take for granted in our own lives.


“With this gift, you’ll help entrepreneurial women carve out their own path and design their own future. This gift includes vocational training courses coupled with numeracy and financial literacy. It will offer Village Savings and Loans programs that help women work together to create small business opportunities like making honey, peanut butter, clothing or soap – initiatives that are feeding families and providing an income. In your name, this gift will enable mothers to better care for their families and keep their children nourished, healthy and in school.”

Girl Power

As mom to a 6-year old daughter, I am so grateful that we live in a country where she has the same freedoms as boys, and can truly shape her own destiny. This is a far cry from the fate of millions of girls who are prevented from gaining even a basic education and who are forced into early and unwanted marriages.


“Your gift will help unleash the unique power that every girl has to change the world. It will offer girls nourishment, education and protection. It will help create schools that are safe, and ensure that girls are not forced into early and unsafe marriages. It will engage boys and men to help achieve gender equality, and open up economic opportunities to women so they can lead themselves and their families out of poverty. In your name, this gift is creating a world where every girl has the power to harness her unique power to shape her own future and change the world.”

According to Drawdown, “Education lays a foundation for vibrant lives for girls and women, their families, and their communities. It also is one of the most powerful levers available for avoiding emissions by curbing population growth. Women with more years of education have fewer and healthier children, and actively manage their reproductive health.”

“Educated girls realize higher wages and greater upward mobility, contributing to economic growth. Their rates of maternal mortality drop, as do mortality rates of their babies. They are less likely to marry as children or against their will. They have lower incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria. Their agricultural plots are more productive and their families better nourished.”

“Education also shores up resilience and equips girls and women to face the impacts of climate change. They can be more effective stewards of food, soil, trees, and water, even as nature’s cycles change. They have greater capacity to cope with shocks from natural disasters and extreme weather events.”

These gifts contribute to the following eight UN Sustainable Development Goals:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for some exciting announcements in 2019, and all the best to you and yours this holiday season!

Yours for a sustainable future,
Angela Nagy, CEO