Background The tourist boom of the 1980s and the rapid pace of development have put tremendous pressure on Greek tourist resorts, in terms of the environment and the protection of nature. Whilst tourism development has been concentrated in coastal areas, hinterlands have experienced minor economic benefits and continue to rely mainly on agriculture. Furthermore, although tourist resorts have boomed, the development of infrastructure, human resources (e.g. training) and promotion of an entrepreneurial culture have not kept pace. Objectives The "Green Drachma 2" project aimed to improve the competitiveness of local enterprises from 3 sectors, namely tourist accommodation (hotels), farmers and agro-food processing industries and at the same time contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development of the region of Halkidiki, Northern Greece. This was to be achieved by: - promoting the implementation of Integrated Product Policy (IPP) tools i.e. ecolabel (in tourist accommodation), EMAS/ISO 14001 (in food processing companies) and EUREPGAP (in the farming sector); - mobilising and linking tourism enterprises with local agricultural and food industries; and - carrying out actions to ensure wide dissemination of the project's results in Greece and Europe. Results The "Green Drachma 2" project was well planned and executed and all of the objectives were reached. The purpose of the project was to change the current model of "mass tourism" to sustainable tourism, through the improvement of products and services and the implementation of IPP tools. The project followed on from the earlier 'Green drachma' LIFE99 ENV/GR/000528, which dealt with the recycling of solid waste. The project conducted a wide dissemination campaign and it is estimated that over 800 enterprises and organisations were informed. 176 separate awareness raising events were organised. The main project website (www.greendrachma.gr) was linked to three other web platforms relating to local products, green procurements, and benchmarking. They were used interactively to solicit participation from a wide range of enterprises and organisations. During the project's duration 40,000 visits to the site were documented, from 31 countries. Links with 16 other LIFE projects with similar goals and activities were made, and know-how and information was exchanged with four of these projects. This collaboration enhanced the experience and results of the project. The project team successfully raised awareness on sustainable methods of production and services, through the application of IPP tools in three economic sectors: tourism, food production and agricultural products. The IPP tools were the Ecolabel for hotels, EMAS/ISO 14001 for small food production enterprises, and EUREPGAP for agricultural production. Through the support of the project team, information was disseminated, training of 75 participants took place, and 12 entities participated in the implementation of the IPP tools. An environmental benchmarking initiative identified best practices and created and operated an on-line benchmarking tool which provided enterprises with quantitative and qualitative comparisons for various environmental parameters. 28 enterprises participated in the benchmarking initiative. Local products were promoted and linked to enterprises serving tourists and other visitors to the region. An Environmental Contest was organised to reward the best environmental performers and attracted 89 participant organisations. It has now become an annual event. A final international conference with 200 participants was held in Crete (Heraklion, Southern Greece), which is a region with similar characteristics to Halkidiki. As a result of the project, 4 action plans for the exploitation of organic waste were elaborated and disseminated to all the municipalities of the Prefecture. The methodology for the IPP tools, the benchmarking, green procurement and the promotion of local products was documented in a Best Practice Guide which was also widely disseminated. After-LIFE project plans include the maintenance of the website, the annual organisation of the Environmental Contest by the Chamber of Halkidiki, the promotion of local products, securing the funding for the implementation of organic waste management in local authorities and the continued implementation of the IPP tools. This project has been selected as one of the 21 "Best" LIFE Environment projects in 2007-2008