Finding one certification on the road to another

NSW-based tourism operator Reflections is Australia’s first social enterprise holiday park, but it wants more.

Reflections Holiday Parks has, ironically, undergone a period of reflection. 

The NSW-based tourism operator already employs a for-purpose model, but wanting to stretch its impact even further, last year, it made the strategic decision to have B Corp certification by 2030.

“We decided we wanted to be and be seen as a proper quadruple bottom-line organisation,” explained Reflections CEO Nick Baker. 

“We didn’t want to be judged just on profit alone, but on our environmental [impact], our indigenous engagement, and our community and social factors. But how is that measured? We made a goal that we wanted to get B Corp certification.”

With leadership and stakeholders on board, the organisation began the assessment process, measuring positive impact across key areas including governance, environment and community – but it wasn’t that easy. B Corp certification requires a minimum of 80 points, and Reflections only scored 23.  

The organisation outlined the objectives it needed to obtain B Corp certification across a timeline leading to the end of the decade, but ended up finding the recognition of a different impact measurement in the process.

“Our goal is to get to 35 by June next year. We have goals mapped out and under each of those points, there’s a whole heap of things to do.

“I remember going to the Social Enterprise [World Forum] recently and just thinking, this is how we operate, this is what we want to be and be seen to be doing. 

“Profit for purpose turned into this notion of social enterprise, and it made logical sense to go after that [certification], and again reaffirm our direction, reaffirm how we’re different from others. It was a very visible means for the team to commit to so that everyone can see that this wasn’t empty rhetoric coming from the leadership group.

“Social enterprise, getting that certification and the realisation of that, and the way in which we think about the organisation and therefore the lens under which we employ and operate, will help us get more of those points.”

In November this year, Reflections Holiday Parks became the first holiday park group in Australia to be certified as a social enterprise through Social Traders. It joins 11 others in the travel and tourism category, including Hotel Etico and the Abbotsford Convent Foundation.

Reflections reinvests all profit made back into its 36 holiday parks and 43 community Crown reserves, which in the 2022 financial year totalled $9.1 million, and keeps built assets such as restaurants and bouncy castles to a minimum to better protect the natural environment.

Through partnering with an environmental consultant, the organisation earmarked approximately half a million dollars for the development of a revolving investment sustainability fund, which will help the organisation understand and reduce its footprint. 

As for the community side of the operations, Reflections created a social procurement process involving local employment and a regional-based supply chain. It also allows day visitors through its parks, which Baker says makes the organisation “a much more intrinsically linked part of the communities that [it’s] in”.

“We go out of our way to procure locally or through Supply Nation, Indigenous groups and social enterprises, and not to centralise procurement deals. We’ve made a decision that we are not going to have a centralised team that goes out and buys everything for the organisation. 

“Obviously, for things like soft drinks, we’re probably going to do that at a global scale, but wherever possible for services and goods, we will procure into local communities and work with them because we see that as a vital component of what we do and how we want to be seen.

“We encourage guests to go, shop and buy locally, rather than trying to keep them inside the park as other [operators] do. We view our job is to get them out into nature, and into the communities and connected with any indigenous operators.”

Baker says the move to become greener is spurred by a growing trend in sustainable tourism, and a desire to reconnect with nature post-COVID-19. But the path to achieving social enterprise certification was not without challenges. For example, some of Reflections’ parks operate at a loss, which impacts the local network the tourism operator has set up.

“We cross-subsidise our profitable parks, which are some of our coastal ones like Byron, Hawks Nest and Seal Rocks. But some of our parks that are inland and work massively with the local communities are not profitable. They’re loss making but we cross-subsidise with profits out of the other parks to help support those because they’re important to local communities.”

Baker also identified having a procurement policy that is well understood and respected by the entire organisation as being critical – as is the ability to record and quantify social and environment impact, particularly in combating claims of greenwashing which are plaguing organisations. 

“What we’re trying to do is understand how much water, waste, power, consumables and so on does it cost to have a person in our park. That would be a really good number for us to talk to [about] reductions.”

Baker’s advice for other organisations looking to become certified? “You have to really be in it. Knowing what social enterprises are around, why you want to get social enterprise [status], digging deep into the organisation… [and] having any shareholders, stakeholders and leadership groups not believing that you’re going to fall over,” he said.

“Lay down markers in this environmentally, culturally and socially aware space. The best way to do anything is to set yourself a goal, and for us, 2030 is the ultimate goal.”