Improving Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry

Frans Melissen, Lieke Sauer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351675079
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Over the past few years the hospitality industry has become a lot more sustainable than it used to be. However, the industry's contribution to the sustainable development of our societies is still significantly smaller than it could be. This book specifically addresses the links between operations, tactics and strategy from a sustainable development perspective and moves beyond describing what is to reflect on what could be or even what should be, thus providing students with a concise guide for improving sustainability concepts and businesses in the hospitality industry.

Each chapter uses specific cases and examples to reflect on different ways in which sustainability principles can be used for revisiting the host–guest relationship and improving the industry's business processes and models. In doing so, the book provides current and future professionals with guidelines, inspiration and a call for action to take sustainability within the hospitality industry to the next level, based on inclusiveness, equality and a sustainable relationship with our natural environment.

CHAPTER

1 Hospitality and sustainability

Introduction

To understand the relevance of the hospitality industry for sustainable development of our societies, we first need to understand what sustainable development means. Therefore, the next section addresses the origins and meaning of the terms sustainability and sustainable development. The subsequent sections then provide an exploratory appraisal of the relationship between hospitality and sustainability. As part of this appraisal, we review the current status of addressing sustainability and the way the concept of social responsibility is interpreted and applied in the hospitality industry, the crucial role of reporting, communicating and transparency in all this, and the (perspectives and behaviours of) key stakeholders. Together, these elements set the stage for a preliminary assessment of both the current and potential contribution of the hospitality industry to achieving sustainable development of our societies.

Sustainability and sustainable development

In this day and age, numerous companies use the word ‘sustainable’ as an adjective to describe their products, services and processes. Many politicians also use it to specify the type of economic growth they pursue through their decision-making. More and more consumers seem to prefer, or at least are willing to try, products and services that are marketed or labelled as ‘sustainable’. For some products, processes or decisions, ‘green’ is considered to represent a synonym for ‘sustainable’ by many. Green energy is sustainable energy. Greening your home means using more sustainable materials and sustainable, or less, energy. Green growth is economic growth that supports sustainable development of our societies.

Somehow, these particular characteristics of the products and services we, consumers, buy and consume to satisfy our needs have become important to us. In fact, they have become so important to us that some of the companies who provide them feel the need to overstate their case when it comes to the actual environmental (or social) impact of their products, services and processes. In a world in which sustainability apparently has become an important quality, some are tempted to mislead consumers with respect to the actual benefits of what they produce and offer, and the way in which they do so, or at least exaggerate a little. This is usually referred to as ‘greenwashing’. In fact, greenwashing has become so common that most consumers nowadays more or less assume some exaggeration to be part of any message by companies, or politicians for that matter, referring to their sustainability performance. Unfortunately, this also means that whereas more and more of us, in our roles as consumers and voters, feel sustainable development is important, quite a few of us have also become rather sceptical regarding the motives of those claiming to be or act sustainable.

This scepticism, which has sometimes even turned into cynicism, is something that clearly needs to be addressed and tackled if we, as humanity, are to achieve sustainable development of our societies. It is a topic we will return to repeatedly in the remaining chapters of this book. However, before doing so, we need to have a full understanding of what ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainable development’ actually mean. What is it that we are aiming for when we say we want to achieve sustainable development? What are the characteristics of products, services and processes that would actually make them contribute to (increasing the chances of us) achieving this objective, and thus make them qualify to be labelled ‘sustainable’? The fact of the matter is that answering these questions unequivocally is not that easy.

Even though the origins of the concept of sustainability can be traced back to hundreds of years ago, it would be fair to say that two specific reports have really catalysed widespread discussions about this concept amongst academics, politicians, thought leaders and the business world. The first is entitled The Limits to Growth, which was written by the so-called Club of Rome in 1972. Representatives from academia, civil society, diplomacy and industry from around the world founded this club in 1968. In their report, they warn that the continued growth of the Earth’s population, combined with increased food production, pollution and the (excessive) use of non-renewable energy sources, such as oil, gas and coal, will cause serious problems for all of us. In fact, they use the words ‘a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in […] population’ (Meadows et al., 1972, p. 183) to elaborate on the gravity of the situation. They were not the first to warn that the way we, humans, exploit our planet’s resources to satisfy our needs could very well lead to us harming or even destroying our surroundings and, ultimately, ourselves. However, what makes this report different from earlier warnings is that it came with some very specific and detailed predictions of what would happen if our behaviour did not change in this respect. What makes this report especially relevant and influential in any discussion on sustainability and sustainable development is that even today, close to five decades after its publication, these predictions pretty much describe exactly what has happened since. In other words, these predictions have so far proven to be ominously accurate.

The second report that is referred to in many discussions on sustainable development is Our Common Future by the United Nations’ World Commission on Environment and Development (UNWCED), chaired by former Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland and therefore also known as the Brundtland Commission. This commission defined sustainable development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (UNWCED, 1987, Chapter 2, item 1). In essence, this report describes our common challenge, as humanity, to create a world in which the needs of all people can be satisfied in a way that accounts for the limitations in what our planet can provide in terms of resources. In other words, finding a way to satisfy our needs that prevents the predictions of the Club of Rome coming true. As straightforward as this definition may sound, it is important to realise that the Brundtland Commission added some crucial explanations to this definition in their report. For instance, they stated that with respect to the needs of people, it is important to realise that all people have ‘legitimate aspirations for an improved quality of life’ (UNWCED, 1987, Chapter 2, item 4), not just those fortunate enough to live privileged lives or be born in rich parts of our world. This means that meeting the needs of people goes beyond just providing food and safety but also encompasses issues such as education, belonging somewhere and the chance for self-development.

Achieving a state of development of our societies that would qualify as sustainable development is quite a challenge. Especially if you realise that we, as humanity, currently already use more resources than Earth can provide in the long run. If you combine this realisation with the predicted growth of our world’s population and the fact that significant portions of the population currently live their lives in circumstances that certainly do not meet the criteria for a decent quality of life, let alone an improved quality of life, the gravity of the situation becomes clear.

Numerous news reports, documentaries, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs and vlogs, personal stories and the like about the current state of both our environmental and social systems further illustrate the gravity of the situation. As a result, most people in our world are now more or less aware of the situation and share a sense of urgency. Most of us realise that our societies are currently on an unsustainable course and measures are necessary. Climate change and poverty, hurricanes and armed conflicts, pollution scandals and a range of health problems all have one thing in common. They could all be argued to represent signals from our planet, combining into one very clear message: you, humans, better change the way you have arranged your world to satisfy your needs, and fast! The fact that these signals have not only continued but have actually become stronger and more worrying over recent years also implies that the way in which we have so far targeted achieving sustainable development is clearly inadequate. The situation cannot be resolved by simply balancing the outcomes of individual decisions based on the well-known three pillars of sustainable development: people, planet and profit. This is too slow, leads to sub-optimisation and ignores the ethical and systemic dimensions of the required change. To put it bluntly, simply recycling some materials and turning the thermostats in our houses down a notch will not be enough. We will need to drastically change the way we – consumers/voters, businesses and politicians – make decisions in order to change the distribution of wealth across our globe, how we account for the needs of (different groups of) people, our technological systems, our production systems, and more. We will return to this in more detail in the remaining chapters of this book. First, the remainder of this chapter reviews the current contribution of the hospitality industry to achieving sustainable development of our societies.

CASE 1.1

Sustainable development goals and transparency

Introduction

In 2000, the United Nations (UN) established the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These eight goals included targets with a main focus on people and prosperity. Ending hunger, reducing poverty, increasing education and fewer (victims of) diseases were some of the goals set. In 2016, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were established, which build on the MDGs. These goals also focus on the Planet aspect and represent a shift in thinking towards addressing sustainable development in general, and as a whole. All 193 members of the UN have signed up to realising these goals. The goals serve as a reference point and guideline for the UN until 2030. All 17 goals interconnect with each; success for one goal affects success for others. The issues discussed affect everyone on the planet and therefore involve all of us to make the world a safer, more prosperous and more sustainable place for all humanity.

Figure 1.1 The 17 Sustainable Development Goals

Source: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/news/communications-material/

SDGs and the hospitality industry

Ever since all members of the UN undersigned the SDGs, numerous local and global initiatives have emerged for trying to achieve these goals. Some of these initiatives focus solely on the tourism and travel industry, including the hospitality industry. The Impact Travel Alliance (ITA) has set up one of these initiatives. They have organised a series of events in their 30 hubs around the world, bringing three global issues to the forefront. By using these 30 hubs, ITA activates the global community on a local level. The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) is an initiative with the sole aim of connecting the world’s large hotel chains, as they believe working together makes you stronger. ITP focuses on the four SDGs addressing water, carbon, human rights and youth unemployment. Another example is from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), who has announced that they will advocate for increased gender equality in 2018, which is a fundamental human right. This requires investing in education, vocational training and skills development for women, so that they feel empowered to make choices for their future.

Risks and opportunities of applying SDGs for/in the hospitality industry

The SDGs were set on a global scale, thus constituting a clear reference point for partnerships or other initiatives. However, this also means that the SDGs are a political agreement, setting national targets for countries, not companies. Therefore, companies could easily ignore the SDGs and refer to national governments as the ones who bear responsibility. Another risk is that the colourful SDGs are only used to spice up Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies and reports rather than actually resulting in actions to achieve the goals because there are no accreditation bodies or measurement policies in place to determine who qualifies for actually assisting in achieving these goals and who does not. In other words, the SDGs are vulnerable to greenwashing. Finally, the way the SDGs have been established and communicated by the UN allows and actually very much invites parties such as individual companies to focus on some SDGs, and ignore others that are equally important, just because they are easier to align with business as usual. Simultaneously, and fortunately, there are examples of companies who have adopted all 17 goals and have chosen a more holistic approach, for instance through joining forces with other companies. Another pro of the SDGs is that they are framed to stimulate innovation rather than being formulated as something you have to do based on specific minimum requirements. Goals like Sustainable Consumption and Production could very well actually become the driving force for new business models.

Good or bad example?

Melia Hotels International released a statement in November 2016 that they will incorporate the SDGs in their CSR policy. When looking for evidence on their website, it is not clear where the SDGs tie in (into their overall strategy and day-to-day operations) and how they will be/are being reported on. This raises some doubts about the transparency and genuineness of such a claim. However, Melia still seem to be involved with quite a few interesting sustainability initiatives because they do pop up regularly when looking for best practices of CSR in the hospitality industry, for instance on social media or in professional and scientific literature. We will leave it to you to decide whether this is the result of clever communication and good marketing or a genuine desire to do good and acting upon that.

Source: United Nations, http://www.undp.org.

Melia Hotels, https://www.meliahotelsinternational.com.

Sustainable development and the hospitality industry

The hospitality industry encompasses a wide range of different types of businesses, both with respect to the products they offer to customers and aspects such as size and ownership arrangements. A small independent restaurant operated by a husband and wife, in which the husband’s domain is the kitchen and the wife interacts with diners, serves them food and drinks, takes care of reservations and payments and so on, belongs to this industry. Marriott International is an American hospitality company that manages and franchises hotels and other types of lodging facilities. In 2016, Marriott merged with Starwood to create the world’s largest hotel company. This company covers about 30 brands and more than 5000 properties worldwide, which amounts to more than a million rooms. This international hotel company is also part of the hospitality industry. Restaurants and hotels are generally considered the two key areas of this industry. However, ‘hospitality industry’ is often also used as an umbrella term for not only these two sectors but also businesses and professionals operating in entertainment and recreation, such as theme parks and casinos; travel service provision, such as cruise lines and sightseeing companies; and assembly and event management, such as convention centres and exhibitions. In turn, the hospitality industry is part of the wider tourism industry, which also includes businesses such as travel agencies, (online) booking companies and airlines.

This heterogeneity of the hospitality industry and the ambiguity regarding delineation of its borders make it difficult to provide a precise assessment of its contribution to (achieving) sustainable development. As indicated in the Introduction to this book, providing a full overview of all sustainability aspects linked to this industry and the (technical) details of addressing them in the particular contexts created by the specific circumstances of the full range of different companies involved is beyond the scope of this book. However, in general terms, the hospitality industry could make a contribution in two distinct ways: (1) reducing the negative impact(s) of this industry, and (2) increasing the positive impact(s) of this industry.

The negative impact of the hospitality industry

Tourism can be linked to a range of negative impacts from a sustainable development perspective. The one that stands out is greenhouse gas emissions associated with this industry. Most of these greenhouse gas emissions are linked to travelling, as a result of most tourists either using a car or an airp...