Sustainable Hospitality and the Current Status

Question: Write a report on rapid growth of the hospitality industry and the current status of the environmental conditions, implementation of the environmental sustainability practices. Answer: Introduction The report outlines the methods adopted by the hotel in their business for attaining sustainability. It highlights the impacts of sustainability and also describes the need for sustainability in hospitality management. Over the past few years, it can be observed that the hoteliers are focusing on the practices for enabling sustainability and sustainable practices in the hotel environment. The hospitality management is putting emphasis on the importance and development of sustainability in the hotel as it is directly correlated with the hospital development and its operations. Sustainable issues are among one of the various problems faced in todays world in all the businesses. Need of sustainability The hospitality sectors are putting more focus on the strategies that will help in ensuring sustainability in their working environment. There are lots of chances of enhancing sustainable business strategies and pollution free workplaces. The dramatic negative impact on the environment has been seen through energy and water consumption, use of consumable goods and overuse of products, and also the accumulation of solid and waste hazardous excretions. Hotels are more relying on consumption of energy for HVAC operations, in lighting, fuel, and other power uses. Overuse of water in bathrooms, laundry, and other general purposes. Waste products are more and more generated by the disposal of paper, equipment, batteries and other more. The hoteliers realize that guest experience can be enhanced by integrating some of the natural elements that will generate the evolution of green thoughts in the community. There are certain factors that could be done to maintain the concepts of sustainabili ty in a hotel environment. The benefits of accepting sustainability are- reduction in costs, economic incentives, regulatory affairs, guests feelings, corporate brand identity and publicity of brand image. Strategies adopted for sustainability To explore sustainable practices, the companies need to adopt the strategies and methods which can enable sustainability in hotels. There are many hotels which have already adapted steps for sustainable management in their environment. The cities of Europe and Asia have shifted their attitudes towards sustainability. Earlier, the whole of the market used to focus on consumerism; that means they were emphasizing on the best ways of serving customers (Prudhomme and Raymond, 2013). But now the business marketing and their strategy are shifting towards focusing on sustainable and environmental factors that would enable sustainability. The major problems that sustainable development is generally facing today are- changes in climate, pollution, erosion, biodiversity loss, the abundance of resources and water cleanliness. It can be said that in a working environment, the ability of the organization to conduct business in a way that can help in minimizing pollution and appraises careful use of natural resources is termed as sustainability. Evidences of sustainability management practices The sustainability specialist, Briton John Elkington in 1997, put forward the concept of the triple bottom line. According to this, for attaining full sustainability bottom line performance along with social and environmental performance need to be achieved. Among many of the hotels present in the United States, the company Destination Earth has developed certain methods which they follow for attaining sustainability (Xu and Gursoy, 2015). They have developed green teams who work in carrying out the sustainability programs in all their hotels and resorts around the country. They have made partnerships with environmental consultants and had introduced certain customized initiatives for encouraging environmental sustainability. There are many benefits of choosing environmentally sustainable methods. The profits are- customer loyalty, employee retention, awards and recognition, risk management, increased brand value and regulatory compliance. By the use of the methods that can help in s aving energy, water, and other renewable sources, sustainability can be achieved. Methods adopted for sustainability There are certain steps by following which a hotel can attain sustainability (Legrand et al, 2012). The operational principles are related to the concepts of what to do and how to do business in daily life practices. The operational principles are- good employer, environmental responsibility, community contribution and fairness and also influencing others. The interaction between the principles of economic growth, social equity, and environmental protection can help in producing a sustainable system (Binder and Varga, 2015). In hotels, the formulation of new policies and procedures, management of control systems and human resources practices can also help in achieving sustainability. The cost savings, fiscal and regulatory incentives, regulatory affairs, stabilized utility prices and their availability, guest experience, marketing image, employee retention and investor requirements. Zero-energy housing follows the ways that help in the reduction of energy consumption for heating room (Melissen 2013). The use of an appropriate mechanical ventilation system and using the used air, which is evolving out from technical functions can help in heating rooms. Use of low energy light bulbs and LEDs can help in saving energy. Recently developed automatic key card systems are installed in the rooms of hotels for energy consumption by people, and they are shut when they are not in the room (Deale 2015). For reducing the water usage and the consumption rate, the water distribution profile of hotel should be determined. Guests in the hotels use water at a great rate, so it needs to be minimized for saving water resources. Using water efficient showerheads and rainwater for washing purposes can help in overwhelming the problems. Installation of aerators and flow restrictors can be a highly efficient method or serves as a low budget solution for solving the problems of over-consumption of energy. Most of the hotels have taken initiatives for recycling and reduction of waste materials (Jones et al, 2016). The three Rs reduce, reuse and recycle of the highest priority in the hospitality industry. It can be observed that paper and composed beverages are the causes of over 65% of all the hotel wastes while 95% of it can be reused by recycling them. The most accepted form of renewable energy in the hospitality industry is using the sun as energy providers (Ali et al, 2016). According to the carbon trust organization, more than of the UK workers have been using active policies to minimize carbon emissions and are agreeing to avoid the usage of maximum energy as resources. Green practices in the hospitality industry require measurement of carbon emission which is estimated by HCMI. HCMI stands for hotel carbon measurement initiative (Chan and Hsu, 2016). This is found to be an effort for determining the carbon emissions from rooms of the hotels. This serves to be the first and simplest steps adopted by many hotels towards sustainability. This estimation helped in comparison of the basic sustainability of the hotels globally and also lets makes decisions of how to invest money and at what rates. The hotels can also move towards sustainability by recycling of non- hazardous wastes. Recycling of wastes like cardboard, cups, plastics, household wastes and much more can help in attaining sustainability (Lim 2016). The use of green products in hotels can help in minimizing the negative impacts of the products in environmental. The green products are less non- toxic, less- processed, recyclable and biodegradable and so their use can help in reduction in consu mption of water and energy. On the other hand, apart from adopting all these methods, educating employees and making them aware is one of the important things to be considered for creating sustainability (Prud'homme and Raymond, 2016). Current energy technologies have been contributing to create serious environmental problems. The world is facing problems of extinction of fossil fuels and the transition to renewable energy resources is required. Benefits of sustainable practices There are several benefits of adopting sustainable management in the workplace. The benefits are- cost savings, competitive advantage, employee retention, customer loyalty, regulatory compliance and risk management (Jones et al, 2016). Many hotels have used social initiatives and corporate social responsibility for attaining sustainability. Corporate social responsibility involves promoting and practicing environmental initiatives (Fermani et al, 2016). Hotels sustainability practices are important for saving energy and resources. Many of the environmental regulations today are targeting on facility activities like management of storm water, removal of harmful substances and health and safety of the environment. Guest experiences are influenced significantly when the hotels adopt the practice of sustainability. Using sustainable practices helps in maintaining the brand image of the hotel. Conclusion With the rapid growth of the hospitality industry and the current status of the environmental conditions, implementation of the environmental sustainability practices within the hospitality industries is important for preservation of the natural resources and the victory of the industry. Gaining knowledge about the methods that can maintain sustainability can help in improving the industrys fame and dignity. Sustainable practices in the hospitality industry have been found to have profound growth as because the managers are getting more aware of the benefits arising due to the adoption of sustainability. All the hospitals should adopt the practice of sustainability for the betterment of the environment and people too. Reference Ali, A., Murphy, H.C. and Nadkarni, S., 2016. 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