The Initiative titled “Built Environment Standards for Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Guesthouses and Homestays” aims to enhance the climate resilience of homestays and guesthouses in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka by retrofitting their built environments. The initiative seeks to leverage the products and services developed through these interventions for broader commercial and industrial applications. Additionally, we plan to utilize the outcomes of this initiative in other provinces and scale up to include other establishments in the tourism and hospitality management industry. This initiative is funded by the USAID Climate Adaptation Project (2021-2026) and implemented by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka.

The initiative focuses on several key areas, including:

• Developing built environment standards for climate-resilient and sustainable homestays and guesthouses in the Coastal Dry Zones of Sri Lanka
• Developing affordable financial products and introduce to the local finance institutions to meet the capital requirements of the homestays and guesthouses to invest in retrofitting their built environments
• Developing replicable knowledge products and train the local technical service professionals, enhancing their skills and expertise in retrofitting tourism accommodations to improve climate resilience
• Developing quality communication products and conducting awareness sessions and outreach programs that address the knowledge gaps of guesthouse and homestay owners and managers in climate change adaptation and retrofitting their facilities
• Developing a certification mechanism to certify the compliance of homestays and guesthouses to the climate-resilient built environment standards
• Designing a pilot project to retrofit the built environments of an initial group of homestays and guesthouses located in the most competitive tourist destinations in the Eastern Province