Odona­ta brings struc­ture, cred­i­bil­i­ty and effi­cien­cy to sus­tain­abil­i­ty sys­tems

With a for­ward-look­ing con­cept and a clear mis­sion, Odona­ta Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Ser­vices GmbH launch­es as a new, inde­pen­dent cer­ti­fi­ca­tion body for sus­tain­abil­i­ty per­for­mance. Odona­ta offers audit­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­ce­dures that are impar­tial, ISO-com­pli­ant, and dig­i­tal­ly sup­port­ed – effi­cient, prac­tice-ori­ent­ed, and future-ready.

The offer is aimed at asso­ci­a­tions, indus­try ini­tia­tives and region­al brands with sus­tain­abil­i­ty labels, as well as stan­dard set­ters and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion bod­ies seek­ing to demon­strate their sus­tain­abil­i­ty com­mit­ments with cred­i­ble stan­dards – espe­cial­ly at a time when they are under sig­nif­i­cant pres­sure: Legal reg­u­la­tions demand greater trans­paren­cy, stake­hold­ers and the pub­lic expect ver­i­fi­able results, and many orga­ni­za­tions lack the time, per­son­nel, or struc­tures to set up their own pro­fes­sion­al audit­ing process­es.

“Many orga­ni­za­tions are reach­ing their capac­i­ty lim­its due to grow­ing demands. Odona­ta sup­ports exact­ly at this point – with clear process­es, inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion, and dig­i­tal solu­tions,” says Frank Brinkschnei­der, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor at Odona­ta.

What Odona­ta stands for
“With the found­ing of Odona­ta, we’re open­ing a new chap­ter. TourCert brings over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in sus­tain­able tourism – and we’re mak­ing that exper­tise avail­able to oth­ers for the first time. Our mis­sion is clear: We don’t just demand qual­i­ty and cred­i­bil­i­ty in sus­tain­abil­i­ty man­age­ment – we enable it. With Odona­ta, we estab­lish an inde­pen­dent ver­i­fi­ca­tion process that strength­ens stan­dards and builds trust – for busi­ness­es, indus­try ini­tia­tives, and the entire sus­tain­abil­i­ty com­mu­ni­ty,” empha­sizes Mar­co Giral­do, Man­ag­ing Part­ner of TourCert gGmbH and found­ing share­hold­er of Odona­ta Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Ser­vices GmbH.

Odona­ta emerged from the Tourism Impact Alliance, an inter­na­tion­al project by TourCert sup­port­ed by the Swiss State Sec­re­tari­at for Eco­nom­ic Affairs (SECO). The ini­tia­tive aims to har­mo­nize the mul­ti­tude of sus­tain­abil­i­ty stan­dards in tourism and enhance the mea­sur­a­bil­i­ty of sus­tain­abil­i­ty per­for­mance. Based on these expe­ri­ences, Odona­ta sup­ports orga­ni­za­tions in mak­ing their sus­tain­abil­i­ty efforts cred­i­ble, trans­par­ent, and free from unnec­es­sary com­plex­i­ty.

Four Areas of Exper­tise – Four Respons­es to Com­mon Chal­lenges
With a clear and prac­tice-ori­ent­ed port­fo­lio, Odona­ta address­es typ­i­cal chal­lenges faced by orga­ni­za­tions in the field of sus­tain­abil­i­ty. The four areas of ser­vice are inter­con­nect­ed but can also be used inde­pen­dent­ly. Odona­ta oper­ates mod­u­lar­ly, dig­i­tal­ly, and in line with inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized stan­dards.

1. Sys­tem­at­ic Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion
Many sus­tain­abil­i­ty labels face a dilem­ma: they advise, audit, and cer­ti­fy at the same time. This under­mines cred­i­bil­i­ty and legal com­pli­ance.
Odona­ta ensures inde­pen­dent audit­ing, clear­ly sep­a­rat­ing advi­so­ry and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion func­tions – keep­ing sys­tems fair, pro­fes­sion­al, and aligned with nation­al and inter­na­tion­al stan­dards.

2. Reli­able Ver­i­fi­ca­tion of Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Data
Reports, car­bon foot­prints, or sup­ply chain dis­clo­sures are only mean­ing­ful if they are reviewed. But appro­pri­ate process­es often don’t exist.
Odona­ta ver­i­fies such data using clear cri­te­ria. The results are trace­able, well-doc­u­ment­ed, and can be used for inter­nal and exter­nal pur­pos­es – includ­ing report­ing, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and reg­u­la­to­ry com­pli­ance.

3. Dig­i­tal Audit Process­es That Save Resources
On-site audits with paper fold­ers and spread­sheets are time-con­sum­ing and cost­ly. Odona­ta uses dig­i­tal tools like the ESG Cock­pit and Audit Man­ag­er. The entire process is dig­i­tal – from prepa­ra­tion, stake­hold­er sur­veys, data col­lec­tion and doc­u­men­ta­tion, to final cer­ti­fi­ca­tion deci­sions. This saves resources and enhances com­pa­ra­bil­i­ty.

“We aim to rethink cer­ti­fi­ca­tion – data-dri­ven, effi­cient, and acces­si­ble to orga­ni­za­tions of any size,” says Philipp Rath­jen, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Dig­i­tal Ser­vices at Odona­ta.

4. Secur­ing Qual­i­fied Audit­ing Pro­fes­sion­als
Good audi­tors are hard to find – and even hard­er to coor­di­nate. Odona­ta is build­ing an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, offer­ing train­ing, exchange, and pro­fes­sion­al deploy­ment plan­ning. Orga­ni­za­tions ben­e­fit from depend­able avail­abil­i­ty and ver­i­fied qual­i­ty.

“The train­ing was con­crete, hands-on, and imme­di­ate­ly applic­a­ble,” says Flo­ri­an Größwang, TourCert audi­tor from Aus­tria.

A Strong Net­work for Qual­i­ty and Scale
Odona­ta was found­ed by TourCert gGmbH togeth­er with Kruger Cor­po­ra­tion. TourCert is a glob­al­ly rec­og­nized con­sult­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion orga­ni­za­tion with over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in sus­tain­able tourism. It helps busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions imple­ment envi­ron­men­tal, social, and eco­nom­ic respon­si­bil­i­ty in a mea­sur­able way. The Kruger Cor­po­ra­tion con­tributes tech­ni­cal exper­tise from Latin Amer­i­ca – includ­ing AI-based ver­i­fi­ca­tion, blockchain com­po­nents, and dig­i­tal inter­faces. Odona­ta is sup­port­ed by strate­gic part­ners such as FLOCERT, the glob­al cer­ti­fi­er for Fair­trade.

“We can only think big – in terms of qual­i­ty, tech­nol­o­gy, and day-to-day oper­a­tions – with strong part­ners,” says Frank Brinkschnei­der.

Reg­is­ter now: Free infor­ma­tion ses­sions (in Ger­man)
Odona­ta warm­ly invites asso­ci­a­tions, indus­try ini­tia­tives, and region­al brands with sus­tain­abil­i­ty labels, as well as stan­dard-set­ters, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion bod­ies, and audi­tors, to join our free online infor­ma­tion ses­sions in Sep­tem­ber. Take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn more about Odonata’s approach­es, meth­ods, and dig­i­tal tools – and dis­cov­er how you can apply them to enhance your own sus­tain­abil­i­ty man­age­ment.

Reg­is­tra­tion for Sep­tem­ber 4, 2025

Reg­is­tra­tion for Sep­tem­ber 11, 2025