"Green standards" for the entire tourism industry in Russia, aimed at minimizing the ecological footprint, are planned to be developed by March 2022. This was stated by Vera Burtseva, head of the Scientific Research Institute for Sustainable Development in Construction.
The toolkit of "green standards" for the design and creation of infrastructure, focused on environmental protection, human well-being and economic efficiency, came to the Russian development market in the wake of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
«Today, the use of green technologies is a common place in developed markets. Building codes and regulations that are mandatory in Russia are primarily aimed at the safety of facilities, and not at such characteristics as environmental efficiency, resource conservation, consumer comfort. And if in the construction of residential buildings or offices "green standards" are already actively used, since they are interesting for creating added value to their products, then at the level of construction of recreational facilities this topic has never actually been raised.
Today there are attempts to create a tourist infrastructure in various natural areas, but such knowledge and practices have never been generalized,» said Vera Burtseva, director of the Scientific Research Institute for Sustainable Development in Construction.
The expert explained that the fundamental principle of the new standard will be to combine the interests of three spheres - people, ecology and economics.
Today, it is often seen that maximizing profit is at the forefront, while the interests of the end consumer and, moreover, respect for the environment are secondary.
«We believe that in the long term this approach cannot remain dominant - pressure on the market is growing too quickly from more and more discerning consumers, from public opinion, and from the position of the authorities, « notes Vera Burtseva.
The resort "Rosa Khutor" is going to change the vector in this area, having initiated the creation of "green standards" for the construction of tourist infrastructure for the entire tourism industry in Russia.
«"Green Code" is our corporate standard by which we will evaluate the quality of the construction of tourist infrastructure for nature tourism. Such facilities should, on the one hand, meet the expectations of guests, reduce the anthropogenic footprint and not turn into an operational problem in terms of operating costs,» emphasized Dmitry Kolosov, Director for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development of the Rosa Khutor Resort.
With the use of the Green Code, a network of support camps for hiking routes will be created in the vicinity of Rosa Khutor. The resort initiated an expert discussion on the formation of "green standards" for the tourism industry and is ready to actively share the experience of their implementation for subsequent scaling. A special working group will be engaged in their formation, which will include engineers, architects, specialists in the creation of a master plan.
According to Dmitry Kolosov, the jointly developed "green standards" can become a kind of an "alphabet" for a thoughtful approach to the construction of recreational infrastructure and will include detailed guidance on the selection of appropriate architectural, planning, engineering and related organizational solutions.
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