The “Sustainable Innovative Destination” label
Lille Metropole has taken a major step forward in the field of sustainable tourism by being recognised as an "Innovative Sustainable Destination", a label initiated by France Congrès et Événements and awarded by Bureau Veritas.
This label is recognition of our full commitment to eco-responsible tourism and events organisation, in line with the UN's sustainable development goals, promoted by the European Union.
It is a call to "think and organise differently" events and tourism, an initiative supported by ADEME (French agency for ecological transition), the French General Commissariat for Sustainable Development, the “Banque des Territoires” and France 2030.
Lille Metropole’s successful application
During application process, Lille Metropole put a particular emphasis on the importance of gathering all stakeholders – over fifty local partners committed to the project and came together to co-construct the application. This places Lille Metropole as the entity with the second-highest amount of local partners associated to their project, out of a total of fourteen other French destinations to have received the "Sustainable Innovative Destination" label.
This result has been made possible thanks to the partnership between Lille Grand Palais major event centre of Lille Metropole, the Hello Lille Attractiveness Agency and the nine Tourist Offices scattered around the metropolitan area, which supported the application together with Lille Metropole. Professional tourism and events networks also contributed to the initiative: Lille Metropole Hotel Club, Lille Events, Lille Tables et Toques.
Our destination qualified for 18 of the 26 actions set out in the "Innovative and Sustainable Destination" label, including: supply of sustainable products, combating food waste, promoting energy efficiency, including people who are not in employment, accessibility for visitors with disabilities, enhanced security, etc.
To find out more
You can find out more about Lille Metropole’s sustainable tourism policies and actions on the dedicated page on Lille Metropole’s website, or by checking out the press release. More specifically, you can see an interactive map of the local professionals which are committed to Lille Metropole’s sustainable tourism standards.
To find out more about the label itself, you can click here. You can check out the map of all the destinations that received the label by clicking here.