HOELZ CONSULTING

The discussion about sustainability has accompanied me for almost twenty years now. The journey of becoming aware of the need for a global, equitable economy as well as the realization of the limits of growth started with reading the Brandt Report and a personal encounter with Nelson Mandela in 2002, which led to my doing an internship in the Kruger National Park with a focus on “Sustainability Awareness Building”. At the end of my stay in South Africa, I had the opportunity to spend a few days at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. It was a profoundly impressive experience that continues to have a significant impact on me to this day.

After studying political science, comparative religion and public law at the University of Heidelberg, I completed my PhD in political science in 2012 on the topic of sustainable development in connection with Luhmann’s systems theory. The topics and perspectives I dealt with in my PhD at that time are also the two pillars on which HOELZ CONSULTING is based: systemic and sustainable.

Currently, as a coach and project manager, I am accompanying Wagrain-Kleinarl Tourism in the development and implementation of a GSTC-compliant sustainability strategy with the aim of achieving the first destination certification with Green Destinations in the European Alpine region.

Within this project, I guide regional tourism businesses (hotels, leisure facilities, mountain railroads) to successfully accomplish a Green Destinations sustainability certification for businesses (good travel seal – GTS). In addition, I work closely with the Austrian Ecolabel (österreichisches Umweltzeichen) and accompany Wagrain-Kleinarl in the project “Pilot Partner Region Austrian Ecolabel”.

Overall, the deeper goal in this project is to enable a dynamic space in which sustainability can grow in the region. See about this project also here.

In the years before I worked as sustainability officer and first EMAS officer at Furtwangen University (2012 to 2018).  I implemented regional sustainability projects, led the university to its first EMAS certification, was the main person responsible for the university’s first sustainability report, and helped establish the United Nations’ “RCE Südschwarzwald”. In addition, I taught sustainability reporting and systematically got to know the European funding jungle.

During my stay at the research center TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) in New Delhi (2006) with Rajendra Pachauri (former chairman of the IPCC), I got a deeper understanding of what sustainable development can encompass. During my academic year at the Center for Social Progress e.V. (2010) in Frankfurt, I was able to get a deeper insight into the German sustainability discourse through a project with the Bertelsmann Foundation.

In addition to my studies, doctorate and profession, I have consciously developed my skills further. Since the end of 2021, I am the first and only GSTC-trainer in Austria, who is allowed to teach the basic training “Sustainable Tourism” in German. Of course, I also went through this training myself as a student. This training and especially my experience as a GSTC-trainer complements my previous experience and trainings in order to approach sustainability in the context of tourism structures even better and to offer my clients an optimal portfolio.

In addition, I am an approved Green Destinations Auditor for the Award- and GSTC-certifications since 2022. I have undergone trainings in that area and have been allowed to accompany several audits (so called “shadow audits) with the environmental management system of “EMAS ” and at destination- and business-level with the sustainability systems of Green Destinations. These over years gained experienced “auditor’s view” is an important part for my consultancy work. My consulting activity is enriched by the experience as an auditor and vice versa.

The training as Master “Neuro-Linguistic-Programming” (NLP) (2010) as well as the training as “System Analyst and System Setter in Organizations (DGfS)” (one could also translate it with “system facilitation”) with Dr. Friedrich Assländer (2017) and Prof. Dr. Georg Müller-Christ (2013) have sharpened my view for systemic inter-actions and connections on all levels and is an integrative part of my thinking and working style. These trainings have contributed a lot to my problem-solving ability and my readiness for networked thinking and cooperative work.

Since 2018, HOELZ CONSULTING combines two passions into a sustainable project: alpine tourism that I’ve loved since childhood and sustainability. The challenges tourism has to face in terms of sustainability are manifold. However, the current pandemic years of 2020/21 in the tourism industry act as a crystallization point for sustainability insights and needs. Properly used, this phase can be an inspiring and forward-looking blueprint for truly reconciling sustainability and tourism. Therefore, one of the central, current questions (which, by the way, the sustainability discourse has been asking for a long time, but is now all the more urgent for all tourism businesses and destinations) is:  How can we live a sustainable, future-proof and healthy tourism that is “sustainable” for locals as well as for resident businesses, for tourists and for nature?

In the practical answer to this question HOELZ CONSULTING provides support with its experience, competence and knowledge. Sustainability is translated here in the first step in four categories, which have to be build up through the respective institution or organization:  (1) Sustainable Management (2) Socio-economic sustainability (3)  Cultural sustainability (4) Environmental sustainability.