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Royal Djurgården is awarded the international Green Destinations Platinum Award

The Royal Djurgården is, together with Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, one of the two first metropolitan destinations in the world to receive the sustainability award Green Destinations Platinum Award. Royal Djurgården receives the award for structured sustainability work within all of the UN’s sustainability goals.

Long-term sustainability work

Royal Djurgården Society has 60 members. Together with the Royal Djurgården Administration, and with the support of Visit Stockholm and the National City Park, the Royal Djurgården Society has been running long-term sustainability work since 2016 aiming for a sustainable destination as well as to connect the Swedish cultural heritage with future ambitions for a sustainable city and a sustainable tourism industry. Djurgården has four focus areas within the sustainability work: fossil-free and traffic-smart, sustainable food culture, open, accessible and welcoming and world exhibition for sustainability.

Being in an international context

During the pandemic, we sought for ways to strengthen our sustainability work. One way was to have a wider view of what we do. We asked ourselves: How well does our work compare to the UN’s sustainability goals? How does our work compare to that of other destinations – nationally and globally?

In October 2021, we decided to explore this by joining the non-profit organization Green Destinations’ Award and Certification Program. It is a program that reflects destinations’ sustainability work based on the UN’s global sustainability goals and the criteria set by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) for sustainable tourism.

Assessment based on global criteria

Through the program’s digital tools, we have systematically reviewed and reported our sustainability work for more than 100 criteria and indicators. In the end, it resulted in a report that covers just over 200 pages. In an independent review, made late this summer, the work Djurgården has done is pointed out as “a lighthouse for sustainable destinations worldwide where a destination included in a capital city can focus on all necessary issues in a structured way.”

Green Destinations Platinum Award

The audit report was base for the Green Destinations Certification Committee’s decision to give Royal Djurgården the Platinum Award.

“We have the pleasure to inform you that the Green Destinations Certification Committee decided on a 9.4 compliance score of Royal Djurgården with the Green Destinations Standard for destinations, and to grant the Green Destinations Platinum Award status. Congratulations on this excellent achievement!”

Albert Salman, Green Destinations Certification Program Manager

The award will be presented at the Green Destinations 2022 Future of Tourism Summit in Athens on September 27.

This work relates to all 17 UN goals for sustainable developmen.