Copenhagen achieves EarthCheck Sustainable Destination Certification

For years, Copenhagen has set ambitious sustainability goals. This also applies to the city’s tourism industry which is set on contributing to the realisation of its green goals.  

A new EarthCheck Sustainable Destination certification underlines the credibility of Copenhagen's sustainable tourism efforts on an international scale, and is concurrently expected to help boost the systematization, documentation, and acceleration of sustainable transition of the local tourism industry even further.  

EarthCheck’s Sustainable Destination’s Certification is internationally recognized and scientifically based, and as a ‘third-party certification’ for the travel and tourism industry, Copenhagen has now been audited by an independent expert as well. 

It is a close collaboration between Wonderful Copenhagen and the City of Copenhagen that has led to this certification, which also happens to be in full line with Wonderful Copenhagen's overall tourism strategy ‘Copenhagen, All inclusive’. In the strategy, goal number one, for instance, is to help accelerate the green transition both locally and globally as quickly as possible.  

As part of the green transition of the city’s tourism industry, individual tourism actors are also continuously encouraged to step up their green progress and readily achieve sustainability certification. Under the auspices of initiatives such as ‘Sustainable Choice CPH’ and ‘Partnership for Sustainable Tourism Development’, both supported by the Danish Board of Business Development, more than 70 tourism businesses in the city have so far received advice and guidance on how to get started with a sustainable certification process. 

Søren Tegen Pedersen, the CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen, said:  

‘In a challenged world, a sustainable transition is not only the most overt way forward, but also an international competitive parameter for the city's tourism. In this context, it is imperative to also document the destination's overall work through third-party certification. And in addition to working with sustainable certification of our tourism organisation, individual partners, and now Copenhagen as a destination, we also wish to influence, and guide actual tourism behaviour in a more sustainable direction.’

The Lord Mayor of the City of Copenhagen, Lars Weiss, said:  

‘With an ambitious focus on green transition, including the reuse of resources and a clean and recreational harbour, Copenhagen is world-class. I’m very pleased, therefore, that the city has now achieved a sustainable certification status as a tourist destination. Tourism strengthens the city, and it is our responsibility that Copenhagen develops as a green destination with a strong attractiveness for local and foreign visitors alike.’

Wonderful Copenhagen's targeted work to make Denmark's capital a leading sustainable destination worldwide includes, among other things, documented certification of the green efforts of local players in the industry - and with the EarthCheck Sustainable Destination’s Certification now also as a tourism destination.  

As a benchmark for leading sustainable destinations worldwide, Copenhagen is also currently in 3rd place on the Global Destination Sustainability Index.

The certification efforts in the capital’s tourism industry also contribute significantly to achieving the goals of Denmark’s official National Tourism Strategy in which one of the goals is that all destination companies, as well as 70% of accommodation, and all amusement parks in Denmark, must be sustainability certified by 2030. 

In addition to Copenhagen receiving the EarthCheck certification, Wonderful Copenhagen was the first destination company to obtain a Green Tourism Organization-certification.

Throughout the years, the destination has also received a wide range of prestigious industry awards and honours for its green transition initiatives, not least within the meetings industry, including for the hands-on toolkit ‘The Copenhagen Sustainability Guide’ for meeting and event planners, and the pioneering Copenhagen Legacy Lab initiative.

In 2024, the organisation also developed the hugely successful and much praised sustainable destination action initiative ‘CopenPay’, of which a second edition is scheduled to launch in summer 2025.