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A Virginia Department of Transportation Welcome Center
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Visitor Centers can promote the Virginia Green businesses in their region!
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Recycling opportunities at a VDOT rest area
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In many cases Virginia Welcome Centers and local Visitor Centers are the first real contact that visitors have to our state or a given region, and making a good impression is very important for the tourism industry. It's also the perfect place to introduce environmentally-aware visitors to Virginia Green and to impress them with our tourism industry's commitment to protect and conserve the environment!
Visitor & Welcome Centers throughout the Commonwealth vary in size and scope. But through thoughtful design and operational techniques, environmental impacts from their operation can be greatly minimized.
Visitor Centers are the various locally and regionally supported tourism centers around the state. Virginia Welcome Centers are run by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and staffed by the Virginia Tourism Corporation.
Virginia Green Welcome and Visitor Centers is a self-certifying program where facilities must verify that they are at a minimum practicing the Virginia Green Welcome Centers “core activities” and hopefully doing much more. The Core Activities are:
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Provide recycling opportunities: provide recycling opportunities for visitors
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Minimize the use of non-recyclable food service products: use products that are made from bio-based or renewable resources, and provide for recycling or composting of items
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Water conservation: have a plan for using water efficiently
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Energy efficiency: must be taking steps to reduce its energy use
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Promote Virginia Green participants: feature the Virginia Green participants from their region
Participating Local Visitor Centers
Participating Virginia Welcome Centers
How to Join
Joining is easy. Membership in the program is FREE. Simply complete the Virginia Green Attractions application (MS Word or Adobe PDF) and email the completed checklist to VirginiaGreen@deq.virginia.gov. The application is a checklist of common-sense, good ideas for you to consider. Please feel free to tell us about any other things you are doing to minimize your environmental impacts. The great thing is that almost every activity on the list has the potential to save your facility money. Once you are approved, we will send you a certificate for display at your facility and list your facility below. Your facility will aslo be included on the Virginia Tourism Corportation's website as a Virginia Green facility.
Virginia Green is a partnership program supported by