Who is Emp­Co rel­e­vant for?
From Sep­tem­ber 2026, sus­tain­abil­i­ty labels, region­al brands, and envi­ron­men­tal claims may only be used if they are based on an inde­pen­dent, trans­par­ent, and ver­i­fi­able cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem. This applies to all orga­ni­za­tions that issue their own label or com­mu­ni­cate envi­ron­men­tal promis­es, includ­ing in the tourism sec­tor. The EU direc­tive “Empow­er­ing Con­sumers for the Green Tran­si­tion” (EU 2024/825) explic­it­ly pro­hibits the use of a sus­tain­abil­i­ty label with­out an inde­pen­dent cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem. Gov­er­nance, inde­pen­dence, mon­i­tor­ing, com­plaint mech­a­nisms, sanc­tions, and trans­paren­cy must be clear­ly defined and demon­stra­ble.

Lessons from Prac­tice
TourCert pro­vides an impres­sive exam­ple of how suc­cess­ful imple­men­ta­tion can look in prac­tice. Togeth­er with Odona­ta, the team mod­ern­ized its sys­tem struc­tures ear­ly and aligned them with the new require­ments. Key mea­sures include:

• Clear sep­a­ra­tion of con­sult­ing and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion roles

• Intro­duc­tion of dig­i­tal process man­age­ment via Odona­ta, map­ping all work­flows in an ISO-com­pli­ant sys­tem

• Qual­i­fi­ca­tion of audi­tors through the Odona­ta Acad­e­my, focus­ing on ISO 17065 require­ments and nec­es­sary tourism exper­tise

• Ensur­ing Emp­Co com­pli­ance of the TourCert label, includ­ing func­tion­al mon­i­tor­ing and com­plaint struc­tures

The result is a robust, trans­par­ent, and reli­able sys­tem capa­ble of meet­ing future require­ments.

What Should You Do Now?
Time until 2026 will pass quick­ly. We rec­om­mend review­ing the cen­tral com­po­nents of your sys­tem ear­ly:

• Review gov­er­nance. Clar­i­fy inde­pen­dence, define deci­sion-mak­ing process­es, and man­age con­flicts of inter­est.

• Strength­en trans­paren­cy. Make cri­te­ria, pro­ce­dures, audit rules, sanc­tions, and com­plaint mech­a­nisms pub­lic.

• Doc­u­ment pro­ce­dures. Clear­ly record audit method­ol­o­gy, roles, mon­i­tor­ing, and sanc­tion mech­a­nisms.

• Build a mon­i­tor­ing sys­tem. Ensure ongo­ing con­trol and updat­ing of stan­dards.

• Pro­vide evi­dence. Make all doc­u­ments avail­able for audi­tors.

Our Odona­ta Offer­ing for You
To sup­port you in this process, Odona­ta has devel­oped the Emp­Co Readi­ness Check. This pre-audit shows exact­ly where your sys­tem stands and which mea­sures should be pri­or­i­tized. Upon com­ple­tion, you will receive a clear assess­ment of your Emp­Co readi­ness and con­crete rec­om­men­da­tions for next steps.

Our Con­clu­sion: Act­ing now reduces risks and builds trust with part­ners, busi­ness­es, and guests.