Îles de la Madeleine, October 8, 2025 — Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine confirms that it is currently engaged in the destination evaluation phase working toward a sustainable tourism certification based on criteria recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

This initiative is part of a recommendation in the Îles de la Madeleine 2021-2026 Tourism Strategy, which calls to "carry out preparatory work in order to conduct an audit to obtain a sustainable tourism certification recognized by the GSTC."

To carry out this work, Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine relies on the expertise of GreenStep, a Canadian organization that supports destinations and tourism stakeholders in measuring and improving their sustainability performance. The GreenStep framework, aligned with GSTC criteria, comprises 117 criteria organized around four pillars: governance and management; social and economic; nature and culture; and environment.

A PROCESS OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Certification is not an end in itself: it is a structuring framework that helps identify strengths, target areas for improvement and establish an action plan. The process will unfold over several stages:

• Self-assessment and evidence gathering: Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine has begun compiling initiatives, practices and local data to serve as evidence.
• Evidence review and audit: An independent third-party auditor, authorized by GreenStep, will review and validate the evidence submitted.
• Action plan development: Following the audit, GreenStep will draft a Sustainability Action Plan together with the Destination Sustainability Stakeholder Committee and provide a tracker to inform the destination's tourism strategy in the coming years.
• Certification announcement: At the conclusion of the process, GreenStep will work with Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine to announce the destination's certification designation.

A COLLECTIVE EFFORT
This process depends on the contributions of many partners — public institutions, local organizations, businesses and community stakeholders — whose input has been essential to collecting and consolidating information.

Through this initiative, Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine is reaffirming its mission to promote sustainable tourism that respects the local environment and generates positive benefits for the community. Certification will serve as a tool to structure actions, measure progress and prioritize interventions aimed at supporting residents' quality of life and ensuring that tourism remains a source of shared prosperity for the archipelago.

About Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine
Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine's mission is to bring together its members and the wider community to promote welcoming, high-quality tourism development in harmony with the environment and the local population.

About GreenStep
Founded in 2008 in Canada, GreenStep supports tourism destinations, organizations and stakeholders in their sustainability journeys by offering carbon measurement, net-zero strategies, training, planning, labels, certifications and a financing program (ÉcoFonds). Its destination certification is the only Canadian certification with criteria recognized by the GSTC.