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Assessment & Reporting System

User manual of the online platform

for

AUDITORS-ADVISERS

www.greendestinations.eu

Version 2.4

July 2018

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Table of Contents

Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3

2. Login ................................................................................................................................................ 3

3. My Space ......................................................................................................................................... 4

3.1 My space – my profile ................................................................................................................... 4

3.2 My Space- My Destinations .......................................................................................................... 5

3.2.1 COACHED DESTINATIONS ...................................................................................................... 5

3.2.2 AUDITED DESTINATIONS ........................................................................................................ 6

4. Coaching/advising a destination for Assessment & Reporting ....................................................... 7

4.1 Green Destinations Report and assessment ................................................................................. 8

4.1.1 Green Destinations Standard reporting ................................................................................. 9

4.1.2 Guidance .............................................................................................................................. 10

4.1.3 Remarks................................................................................................................................ 11

4.1.4 Action Plan ........................................................................................................................... 12

4.1.5 My Action Plans.................................................................................................................... 14

4.1.6 Sustainability Report ............................................................................................................ 15

4.1.6 Remarks Report.................................................................................................................... 15

4.2 Indicator Report .......................................................................................................................... 16

4.2.1 Accessing the Green Destinations Database of quality indicators ...................................... 16

4.2.2 The Indicator Report ............................................................................................................ 17

4.2.3 The indicators ....................................................................................................................... 17

4.2.4 Indicators without a ‘Review’ button .................................................................................. 19

5. Auditing a Destination ...................................................................................................................... 20

5.1 Auditing the Green Destinations Standard ................................................................................. 20

5.2 Auditing the Green Destinations Indicator Report ..................................................................... 22

Annex 1: External database sources ..................................................................................................... 25

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1. Introduction Welcome to the new Green Destinations online platform! This manual aims to you as

auditor-adviser through our system and help you to navigate all of its features.

In case of any questions or recommendations, please contact us via

platform@greendestinations.info!

2. Login You have a received an email from platform@greendestinations.info with your login details.

If that is not the case please contact us via this email address.

Go to http://www.greendestinations.eu to login.

Fill in your username (=email address) and password to log in to sign on the online platform.

The login page also gives you the option to change your language settings as seen in the

upper right hand corner of the screen.

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3. My Space In the ‘My Space’ section is where you can see the destinations that you have been assigned to as

coach/adviser and auditor (My Destinations); or edit your personal details (My Profile)

3.1 My space – my profile Click on “My space” - My Profile to complete your personal details, and click update to save

changes. You are able to update your data at any time, or change your password if needed.

For first time logging in, click tab “organisation” to edit or complete your destination,

organisation, country, and preferred language.

On the tab “Organisation”, you can edit the details if your organisation. If you work with the

system on a personal base, you can leave this blank. Click update to save information.

Under “Personal Data”, you can change your email address that you wish to use; but

remember that this will then also be your new login name to access the system.

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You are able to change your password at anytime, but clicking “change password” tab under

My profile.

3.2 My Space- My Destinations Here, you can select your destinations’ assessments – either as auditor or as coach/adviser.

As Coach/adviser you can edit the destination’s assessment just as the destination itself; as

Auditor you cannot edit the destination’s assessment but approve or disapprove their

answers (Yes/No).

By default you’ll see two groups:

- Audited Destinations - <<YOUR NAME>>

- Coached Destinations - <<YOUR NAME>>

3.2.1 COACHED DESTINATIONS

To view your Coached destinations, click on the ‘members’ icon to see the destinations

assigned to you as coach/adviser.

On the next screen, click on the ‘Report’ icon behind ‘Coached Destinations - <<YOUR

NAME>> to see the assessment of the respective destination.

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Now you’ve entered the Assessment for your coached destination, which you can edit (select

Yes/No; submit text, upload files) just as your destination. See section 4 for more info about

coaching/advising a destination.

3.2.2 AUDITED DESTINATIONS

To start auditing a destination, click the ‘members’ icon behind the group ‘Audited Destinations

<<YOUR NAME>>

On the next screen, click on the ‘Report’ icon behind ‘Audited Destinations - <<YOUR

NAME>> to see the assessment of the respective destination.

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Now you’ve entered the Auditing environment of the destination, see section 5 for more instructions

how to perform the audit.

4. Coaching/advising a destination for Assessment &

Reporting

Start the coaching of a destination with the Green Destinations Standard report which contains +/-

100 policy criteria. The Quick Scan can be disregarded.

If you’ve clicked the “report” icon of your Coached Destination (see section 3.2.1) you will arrive at

the assessment of your coached destination (see below).

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On the right side of the screen, you can adjust some visual settings for example to show all

subthemes, show reporting progress, and select the appropriate language of the report questions.

4.1 Green Destinations Assessment & Reporting

Start your assessment by adding some factual information of in theme 0: “Destination

characteristics”. You’ll see the following subthemes: General information, scope of the assessment,

geographical data. Tick ‘Completed’ to validate all data of this theme 0.

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4.1.1 Green Destinations Standard reporting

Themes 1-6 contain the 96 Green Destination’s standard criteria. The text under the criterion title

represents the main criterion description.

Clicking through the criteria, you are able to tick yes or no, specify why yes or no (follow the

directions) and upload data when necessary, following the directions.

Clicking through the criteria, you can tick yes or no, specify why yes or no (follow the

directions) and upload documentation when necessary, following the directions.

ALWAYS CLICK ‘SAVE’ AFTER ADDING CONTENT

Uploading files with the File Manager

To upload files to a specific criterion, use the file manager.

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Here, ‘My Uploads’ is your destination’s collection of uploaded files that can be connected to any

(number of) criteria. To upload a document for the first time, go to tab ‘Upload new file’. Connect

the uploaded file to the criterion clicking ‘+’ behind the filename under ‘My uploads’.

In principle destinations should provide answers to all

criteria, except when the criterion is marked as ‘Not

Mandatory’ – these criteria can be replied to gain bonus

points but are not mandatory to receive ‘Certified’

status according to the GSTC standard requirements.

Also, some criteria have the ‘not applicable’ option –

check whether you may tick ‘not applicable’ in the

‘Guidance’ tab.

4.1.2 Guidance

All criteria have an explanation and guidance for how to comply featured in the ‘Guidance’

tab. Consult each Guidance explanation carefully before submitting an answer.

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4.1.3 Remarks

Under the tab “Remarks” coaches and auditors are able to ask questions / give remarks to the

destination. This feature is used as an active text box to communicate with one another (when

logged in, your destination can see your assessment and comments). Here you can add notes, and

make suggestions about information that has been uploaded, or to further explain how the

destination can improve on criteria.

Don’t forget to click the ‘save‘ buttons to store your comments. The save button with the

exclamation mark will indicate in the overview on the left hand side of the screen that there is a new

comment with the respective criterion.

You, as destination coach or auditor, can find comments from one another by the following icons:

In the report overview (toggle ‘Coast Questions Shown’) with explanation marks behind the

subtheme titles

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Within the subtheme, behind the criterion title:

4.1.4 Action Plan

Under the tab ‘Action Plan” the destination is able to add actions to meet the criterion or improve

performance. These tasks will make up the Action Plan (see also section 4.2)

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Moreover, coach/advisors are able to suggest and review “Best practices“ when filling in

information.

Submitted Best Practices are reviewed by the Green Destinations Secretariat and posted if deemed

OK.

4.1.5 My Action Plans

Apart from the way just explained in 4.1.3; there is another way to populate your action plan: adding

new actions in the tab ‘Action Plan’ of each criterion in the assessment; or by going in the left side

menu of the Overview page to ‘Action Plan’ and clicking “settings” to add new task (see below)

Once clicking here, you are able to add an action plan. By choosing a title, and using the text

bar to add comments on what the action plan will be/overview of the process. You can add

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a start and end date when the action will begin and finish. Moreover the amount of hours

before completion and the budget needed.

This feature also allows you to review the version you are working on, create a new version

and see all versions in which you have worked on. By clicking “download” you are able to

view a report of all the criteria you have been working on.

4.1.6 Sustainability Report

With this feature, reports from the assessment are able to be downloaded. Report settings

allow you to choose how you wish the report to be formatted. Whether you want to see all

visible “0”’s in the report for criteria, an explanation of criteria, etc. Here you are also

allowed to add a report title and short explanation of what it entails. Also you can add

information about your company, mission statement, and sustainability policy.

4.1.6 Remarks Report

This option gives you the opportunity to make a PDF report from the comments / remarks

that have been made by coaches/auditors that have assessed the destination at with their

comments/and to display each indicator. You can adjust the format yourself under report

settings.

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4.2 Indicator Report

The Green Destinations Platform contains also a ‘Database of Quality Indicators’ for

destination sustainability, which can be consulted and – for selected indicators – edited by

the destination.

Sources

Indicators come from the following types of sources:

1. External Databases (such as indexes for Human Rights, Press Freedom, environmental

performance etc from independent sources such as Transparency International, World Bank,

UNEP etc)

2. GIS maps of land cover in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015

3. Destination input and expert evaluation (rating 1-5 based on instructions)

4. Visitor Reviews on public websites such as Zoover and Tripadvisor

These External database names are shown in the Guidance of each externally sourced indicator.

Specifications of these databases can be found in Annex 1 of this guidance.

4.2.1 Accessing the Green Destinations Database of quality indicators

There are 2 ways to access the Indicator Module in the online platform once logged in as

Destination:

1) In the list of available reports, select the ‘Green Destinations Indicator Report’

2) In the drop-down box in the top-right side of the screen, select the ‘Green Destinations Indicator

Report’ option

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4.2.2 The Indicator Report

The database indicator input is divided over 6 themes (make sure to toggle the ‘All subthemes

shown’ button to see the subthemes)

The first theme is factual geographic data, some if which is used to calculate the indicators in the

next 5 themes.

In the next 5 themes you will find the sustainability indicators. The indicators will show in green the

‘Value in database’ and the corresponding unit (e.g. km; km2; KWh; a rating 1-5, or an index.

4.2.3 The indicators

Go through the indicator report following these steps:

1. Select your destination’s attributes

Some destination-specific themes are shown only after submitting the first indicator of the list under

‘General Geographic Information’: Destination Attributes (click review to submit):

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Select here if your destination has coast, bathing water or winter sports (urban destination will be

added soon). You can select and deselect. Click submit to save the attributes. This will show

attribute-dependent indicators in the rest of the report

2. Submitting reviewed values

Some indicators are pre-inserted from our database, some you have to submit yourself. Key to

complete the assessment of indicators is to find and click the ‘review’ buttons in the right-most

column. Submit your new or reviewed value and explain why. After submitting, an auditor will have

to approve before it becomes effective. Explanations submitted will be stored and included in the

Sustainability Report of the Indicator Report.

After submitting a Reviewed indicator value, the value needs to be approved by an auditor before it

replaces the old value. Pending submitted reviewed values are indicated with the hourglass icon:

If an auditor rejects, a red cross will appear.

3. Numbering and searching

Because of the dynamic presentation of attribute-dependent indicators, and since we may add

indicators from time to time as we’re improving the database, the automatic numbering (first

column) will remain changeable. Therefore a column with our unique Ext. IDs (1) is shown (these

won’t ever change). You can search for this ID with the search box on top (2).

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Make sure to show ‘ExternalID’ (3)

4. Please note: When submitting a reviewed/new value:

- Don’t use thousands separators (e.g. 100.000 inhabitants should be submitted as 100000) - Use dots as decimal separators (e.g. not 4,2% but 4.2%) - Use just a dash ‘-‘ to change a value into ‘no value’.

Once a reviewed value has been submitted, this will be notified on a weekly basis to the Secretariat or the auditor(s) reviewing your report. They shall approve; approve with edit; or reject your submitted value.

4.2.4 Indicators without a ‘Review’ button

Indicators without such a ‘Review’ button cannot be edited because for example:

They are calculated from a Geographical Information System (GIS); e.g protected

nature area within a 10km radius around the destination’s centre (coordinates).

N.B. Usually, in case of a radius calculation, the next indicator is a reviewable version

of this indicator, which can be completed based on real data e.g. from within the

destination’s planning department. As soon as this value is submitted and approved

(by an auditor); this value will over-rule the ‘radius’ value.

They take a national index from existing data sources (e.g. artisanal fishing or

corruption) this value applies to all destinations within the country

They are the result of calculations from other indicators (e.g. ratio shoreline length /

total land area).

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5. Auditing a Destination

If you’ve clicked the “report” icon of your Audited Destination (see section 3.2.2) you will arrive at

the assessment of your audited destination (see below).

5.1 Auditing the Green Destinations Standard Start the auditing of a destination with the Green Destinations Standard report which contains +/-

100 policy criteria. The Quick Scan can be disregarded.

Now, you can see the to-be audited destination’s self-assessment, where you have in the left-side

menu the 3 options (red-orange-green radio buttons) to mark for each criterion: ‘Approve; ‘partially

compliant’ or ‘not compliant’ based on their input (see below)1.

1 Detailed guidance when to choose : ‘Approve; ‘partially compliant’ or ‘not compliant’ can be found in a separate Auditor/Advisor Manual

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For each criterion you have marked as not compliant or partially compliant, auditors are required to

leave a remark to justify the decision and indicating what is missing to reach full compliance. This

should be done in the tab ‘Auditors remarks’ in the Remarks section (see below). If you believe

compliance can be reached relatively quickly (e.g. if evidence is missing) you can set a completion

date (e.g. upload document X within 10 days) so the Destination has a second chance to comply.

In order to provide the destination you’ve audited with a handy overview of your remarks, use the

‘Remarks Report’ functionality in the left side menu. Make sure to set in the report settings as

indicated below, in order to make sure your auditor remarks are included in the PDF export report.

Click on the PDF logo to download the report once settings are OK. You can then share this report

with the destination to let them know what is missing.

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On the right-hand settings menu, toggle ‘Auditing Progress shown’ to view for each (sub)theme the

auditing progress. Once every criterion is assessed, you can toggle ‘Audit Report shown for user’

(destination). If the audit is final, notify the secretariat to release the results to the GD Database.

5.2 Auditing the Green Destinations Indicator Report

Access the Indicator Report as auditor from the main menu (see below)

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Auditing the Indicator report will entail going through all indicators that have a ‘Review’ button.

Start by checking if all indicators with a ‘Review’ button have a value.

If a destination has submitted a new or reviewed value, an hour glass icon will appear. This means

this indicator value is awaiting approval by an auditor (you).

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For each indicator that has a value ‘Pending Approval’, click the Review button to edit,

approve, or reject the submitted value.

Edit submitted value

In the ‘Reviewed value’ field, you are able to edit the Reviewed value if you feel the submitted value

is slightly incorrect. In the ‘Auditor answer’ field, mention the original value and why you’ve edited

it. Click ‘Approve’ to confirm the edited value. The edited value will replace the original value in the

indicator report and the GD database.

Approve submitted value

If you agree with the submitted value, simply click ‘Approve’ button. The approved value will replace

the original value in the Indicator report and GD database.

Reject submitted value

If you don’t agree with the submitted value; first explain your decision in the ‘Auditor Answer’ field;

then click ‘Reject’. No value will be overwritten in the report or database.

Please note:

When submitting a reviewed/new value:

- Don’t use thousands separators (e.g. 100.000 inhabitants should be submitted as 100000)

- Use dots as decimal separators (e.g. not 4,2% but 4.2%)

- Use just a dash ‘-‘ to change a value into ‘no value’.

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Annex 1: External database sources

OHI Ocean Health Index

EPI Environmental Performance Index

RaR Reefs at Risk

UNESCO World Heritage sites; World heritage In danger

Blue Flag Blue Flag beaches and Marinas

EEA European Environmental Agency

UNStats United Nations Statistics

WHO World Health Organisation

Numbeo Pollution

UNEP Air Quality

World Bank Air Quality

SSF Sustainable Society Index

EU Green Energy

Observ'ER Observatoire d’Energies Renouvables

Zoover Zoover rate

TripAdvisor Historica Buildings, Museums

TI Transparency International

WEF Global Gender Gap

VoI Visions of Humanity

RSF World Press Freedom

IHRRI Human Rights Index

NM NationMaster

FfP Fund for Peace

BD BookDifferent