Practices Under Guidelines

PUG Certification

Established in 2008, the TOFT India PUG Eco-rating recognises nature-focused lodges and accommodation providers for responsible practices in wildlife tourism.

What is PUG?

“PUG” is an acronym for Practices Under Guidelines. The TOFT India PUG Eco-rating was established in 2008 as a first-of-its-kind initiative to promote and recognise responsible practices in wildlife tourism. It represents a system of green labelling that examines your operating practices, allowing international and national buyers, suppliers and visitors to make better purchasing decisions about which lodge or resort to choose for their clients or stay at.

PUG therefore focuses on enhancing your operations across the triple bottom line: economic profitability, respect for the environment and social responsibility.

TOFT India’s PUG certification is an endorsement of your efforts and something you can be justly proud to hold.

Why join the TOFT India PUG Eco-rating?

The Indian subcontinent’s wildlife tourism sector has boomed over the last few years, bringing many positive benefits to local communities and tiger parks themselves. The 2014 Indian Tiger Census and Nepalese conservation success demonstrate how nature tourism can contribute to better conservation by generating significant economic benefits for tourism providers, park management, local villagers and surrounding communities, who can increasingly value wildlife alive rather than dead.

However, as the nature tourism sector expands rapidly, it also faces a number of challenges. For businesses, this means greater competition, changing regulations, increased enforcement and carrying-capacity issues. It also brings greater demands from visitors for responsible tourism, along with growing expectations and accountability from governments, industry bodies, NGOs and the media.

The sector is also coming under greater scrutiny due to global and local concerns around climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. In India, tourism has been criticised for contributing to pressures on tiger habitats and corridors, providing inadequate local employment opportunities, poor planning and training, and, in some cases, non-compliance with regulations.

TOFT India believes that good-quality, well-conceived, well-planned and responsibly sourced tourism can contribute to protecting Bengal tiger forests and the wildlife they support. To achieve this, the wildlife tourism sector needs to operate to high standards of economic, environmental and social responsibility, ensuring long-term sustainability for both businesses and the environment.

The PUG Eco-rating helps recognise accommodation providers that are committed to responsible wildlife tourism practices and encourages them to continually improve their environmental, social and operational standards.

Joining TOFT India and gaining the PUG certificate will give you the edge in your business:

• Enhanced marketing opportunities and networks through the TOFT India and Sanctuary Asia websites and social media, business-to-business events, media events and TOFT India’s Biannual Wildlife Tourism Awards programme.
• Offers your services a unique selling point and competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace, with clients proven to be more likely to book your services over similar alternatives.
• Helps save costs through better, more considered and considerate operating practices.
• Enriches your visitors’ experiences and helps satisfy their expectations, while gaining more repeat or referral business by highlighting your credentials.
• Helps lessen and mitigate many business risks, including competition, regulation, and consumer and legislative demands.
• Highlighting and demanding better environmental and social standards can ensure better staff motivation, retention and service, helping you to do better business.
• Lastly, TOFT India offers catalytic funding sources to develop cooperative projects that benefit conservation and community enterprises with your neighbours.

The PUG Audit Process

The PUG Audit process is designed to help you measure your environmental, economic and socio-cultural impacts while supporting and enhancing the positive impacts of your operation.

Your reward is the respected PUG certificate, which you can display and use to highlight your certification on your website, brochures, literature, in your rooms, on social media, or wherever you see fit.

Accommodation Providers Handbook to Best Practice in Natural Habitats (PDF)

It’s a Six-Step Process: The Key Components

1. Online application and self-audit
2. Secondary research and Google mapping by the audit team
3. On-site audit arranged and undertaken by our Green Team
4. Evaluation undertaken by the auditors
5. Draft audit report sent to you, with an opportunity to appeal before the final report is submitted
6. PUG Certificate and PUG ranking granted by TOFT India

You are reassessed every three years to ensure ongoing certification.

How Long Does It Take?

The entire PUG process is normally completed within 90-120 days, depending on the complexity of the application, the extent of the background information provided, and mutually agreeable dates for the on-site audit.

Once the on-site audit has been completed, the indicative timescales are:

PUG Eco-Ratings

Undertaking the PUG certification scheme is a journey towards greater sustainability for your business and its surrounding environment. The PUG report highlights both the areas where your operation is performing well and those that need improvement. Our Green Team provides guidance and support during the site visit and, where required, afterwards.

Our aim is to help every accommodation provider achieve the minimum PUG rating and ultimately work towards the highest Outstanding Practice rating.

• Our aim is to provide advice and support through the confidential report and the Green Team’s visit to help you achieve PUG certification.
• Nobody is perfect or good at everything, PUG assesses your operation as a whole.
• We recognise your strengths while identifying areas where you can improve.
• If you do not initially achieve a rating, we will advise you on what needs to be improved and you can invite us back to review your progress.

PUG Scoring

PUG rankings are based on a scoring system that considers evidence gathered by the audit team, as well as information provided by management, staff and visitors.

The ratings indicate where an accommodation provider is on its sustainability journey and range from Good Practice to Quality Practice and Outstanding Practice.

PUG Eco Rating – Under Process

At this stage, the accommodation provider has completed the on-site audit and is awaiting evaluation and rating by the TOFT India evaluation committee. This status is primarily used for member status reports.

PUG Eco Rating – Good Practice

Accommodation providers demonstrate a degree of environmental and social responsibility in their operations and may consider environmental and social issues in their operational decisions and programming.

PUG Eco Rating – Quality Practice

Accommodation providers are highly environmentally and socio-culturally responsible. They continuously work to improve their operations and sustainable travel practices, with management actively addressing environmental and social issues and working towards becoming exemplary industry leaders.

PUG Eco Rating – Outstanding Practice

Accommodation providers are exemplary industry leaders that make sustainable development and environmental and socio-cultural responsibility a priority. They demonstrate innovation, have a positive impact on the environment, local communities and their clients, and invest time and resources in maintaining sustainable travel practices. They can also serve as examples and case studies for others to follow.

Member Logo

All member accommodation providers are eligible to display the Member Logo (plaque) once they have completed the self-assessment. The logo includes the membership year.

The PUG Eco Rating Certificate

All member accommodation providers achieving a Good Practice rating or above receive a PUG certificate to display for guests and staff.

The certificate recognises their journey towards sustainability and demonstrates their commitment to responsible operations and the long-term wellbeing of the people and destinations in which they operate.

The PUG certificate is valid for three years.

Start Your PUG Certification Process

The online form takes approximately 6 minutes to complete and is the first step in your audit journey. It collects your key contact details and provides an initial understanding of your establishment and its operations through simple Yes/No questions.

This information forms the basis for the on-site audit and should be completed by the owner, proprietor or senior management of the property.

Start the PUG online application