How to Spot Greenwashing in Travel (And What Genuine Sustainable Operators Look Like)

Greenwashing has become one of the most frustrating things to navigate in travel, partly because it is so easy to do, and partly because most travelers have no straightforward way to detect it. The term refers to companies that market themselves as environmentally responsible without making any meaningful changes to their actual operations. A hotel that puts a card in your bathroom about reusing towels but still waters its grass lawn daily in a region that should have no grass at all. A tour operator that uses the word eco in their name without holding any certification. I have been working in this industry long enough, and I am now completing a master's degree in environmental sciences, to know how often the gap between marketing and practice exists. Here is what I look for.

How to Spot Greenwashing in Travel: Start With Certification

The clearest signal that an operator is genuinely committed is third-party certification. In Costa Rica specifically, the CST (Certificacion para la Sostenibilidad Turistica) is issued by the Costa Rica Tourism Board and requires an independent audit. A property that holds a CST certification has been evaluated on real criteria: water use, energy systems, community impact, waste management. That is meaningfully different from a self-declared eco-lodge. Globally, certifications from organizations like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), Rainforest Alliance, or Fair Trade USA indicate that an external organization has verified the claims. These are not perfect systems, but they are better than nothing.

What to Ask When You Cannot Find Certification Information 

If you are uncertain about a property or operator, call. A company that is genuinely committed to its sustainability mission has staff who can speak to it easily and specifically. If the person who answers cannot tell you anything concrete about the property's practices, or pivots immediately to marketing language, that is useful information. Some specific questions worth asking: Where does the food come from? What percentage of staff live in the local community? What organization certified your sustainability programs, and when were you last audited?

What Greenwashing Looks Like in Practice

Vague green language without specifics: committed to the environment, eco-friendly, sustainable practices. These phrases have no regulatory meaning and can be used by anyone. Visual cues without substance: palm leaf logos, nature photography, green color palettes on a website. These tell you the marketing team knows what travelers respond to. They do not tell you anything about the operation itself. Selective disclosure: a resort that highlights its solar panels while operating a massive irrigation system for a golf course in a water-stressed region. Or a tour operator that uses sustainable to describe one trip option while the rest of their portfolio has no equivalent consideration

Why This Matters Beyond Principle

Travelers who genuinely care about the impact of their travel deserve to know whether their money is going where they intend it to go. A thoughtful traveler choosing a certified sustainable lodge over a greenwashed competitor is making a choice that has real downstream effects: for the local community, for the ecosystem, for the industry's incentive structure. When the right operators get the business, the right practices become more commercially viable. That is how change moves through an industry.

How I Apply This When Building a Trip

When I am evaluating a property or operator for a client, I look at certification status, read what is verifiable on their website, and check with regional contacts who know which operators have built genuine programs and which have built impressive websites. That vetting is part of what I do every time I put together an itinerary. It is not a separate service. It is just how I work.  Travelers should not have to do all of this research themselves. But knowing what to look for makes it easier to ask the right questions, and to recognize when the answers do not add up.  If you would like help planning a trip with operators I have already vetted, I am happy to talk.

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