The Good Company

Robert Girling, Heather Gordy, Pamela Lanier

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781631571701
• eBook ISBN: 9781631571718
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

The Good Company tells the stories of over 30 inspiring companies around the world that are among the ethical leaders in the industry. The broad positive message is encouraging and enervating; each of the companies seeks to live up to the highest standard. The authors tell the steps they have taken and what has motivated them or enabled them to pursue such noble aims. "At last, a book that tackles the topic of sustainability in the global travel industry, but with a real understanding of its economic importance as a better alternative - a must read."--Michael MCloskey, Former Chairman, The Sierra Club ?"This much-needed work is essentially a cookbook, filled with inspiring recipes for sustainable travel. This will be a valuable resource - for everyone from students to industry leaders - for many years to come."--Jeff Greenwald, Executive DIrector, Ethical Traveler

PART 1

Leading Hospitality for Sustainability: The Context and Issues

CHAPTER 1

Leading the Good Company in the Hospitality, Tourism, and Wine Industries

To travel is to live.

—Hans Christian Anderson

The banyan tree, historically a refuge for weary travelers, still conjures images of shelter and retreat—a connection Ho Kwon Ping and his wife Claire Chiang counted on when they founded Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts in a lush Asian rainforest. For the founders, the name recalls happy times spent under a banyan tree in their first matrimonial home and represents their passion for travel and adventure.

Today, Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts is a leading international operator in the boutique resort, residences, and spa industry. The company, very much aware of the social issues and global impact of tourism on the environment, has received the prestigious Global Tourism Business Award for its efforts in those areas.

Consider Laguna Lang, Banyan Tree’s resort in Central Vietnam. It supports and celebrates the local culture with a range of community and environmental projects, such as an organic farm, a restaurant training and mentorship program, and support for a local chocolate entrepreneur and a fishing village.

The resort, in a joint collaboration with the Hanoi charity Know One, Teach One (KOTO), also operates a restaurant that teaches catering skills to underprivileged young people in Vietnam. David Campion, Laguna Lang’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, says the project helps kids in difficult situations become active members of the hospitality industry. “We can provide industry training to support their work,” he says, adding that the company chose the project because it links Laguna Lang’s core business and specialization to the efforts of local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as KOTO.

Clean Water in Schools is another Banyan Tree program, supporting a national strategy by the Vietnamese government to reduce sick days and help families save money. Campion says that implementing such community initiatives builds “good relationships and a positive working attitude with all local stakeholders and … increases the quality of life for those around us.”¹

Banyan Trees is a good company, a company that looks beyond the immediate financial bottom line to measure and improve the social, environmental, and human impacts in all that it does. In this book, you will read about many good companies, each a leading example of sustainable business practices in the tourism, hospitality, and wine industries. These good companies and their models seek to heal the world by acting from a foundation of ethics and sustainability. They treat employees fairly and with respect, pursue policies that sustain the environment, and champion cooperation and social justice in their communities.

Might such activities draw a company’s attention away from and hurt its bottom-line, financial goals? It is unlikely. Research shows that although “profit first” is the kind of thinking that allows a business to pollute the environment and destroy natural resources,² a good company following the “triple bottom line” concept of measuring results in three areas—people, planet, and profit—reaps the rewards of balance and increased profitability.³

The formula works. Triple bottom line companies act with honesty, discretion, and balance while respecting employees who provide the labor, the environment that sustains us all, and the communities and customers who benefit from purchasing their products and services (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 The Good Company equation

Writing in Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage, Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston agree.

“Efforts to cut waste and reduce resource use, often called ‘eco-efficiency,’ can save money that drops almost immediately to the bottom line. Redesign a process to use less energy, and you’ll lower your exposure to volatile oil and gas prices. Redesign your product so it doesn’t have toxic substances, and you’ll cut regulatory burdens—and perhaps avoid a value-destroying incident down the road. These efforts lower business risk while protecting the gold—reliable cash flows, brand value and customer loyalty, for example—that companies have painstakingly collected over time.”⁴

Winemaker Paul Dolan in his book True to Our Roots writes that the hidden assumption in the argument that businesses that pursue pure self-interest will produce wealth for the many is that the “profits that businesses produce justify whatever resources must be taken from the earth and whatever business practices it takes to turn those resources into products. Now we see that this belief is flawed. Natural resources are not unlimited and human beings are not expendable…. A successful sustainable business is one that provides steady shareholder returns while improving the quality of life of its workers, the communities it calls home, and the environment it touches. Its strategic perspective reaches out beyond the next four quarters, beyond the next five years, to consider what’s ahead for the next generation.”⁵

Building good companies is a goal that reaches the highest levels of international diplomacy. The United Nations Global Compact, initiated in 2000 by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, is a global initiative to promote corporate citizenship by encouraging businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to publicly report on their progress. Thus, in the eyes of the United Nations, a good company follows honorable principles; it operates with integrity, or acts like a good, decent, honorable person.

What Company Leaders Can Do

In fact, to meet the complexity of tomorrow’s challenges, we will need many more good, decent, and honorable leaders who will apply the tools and resources necessary to implement ethical and sound business practices. And we, as citizens, should know who these leaders are and what they’re doing. These leaders must model high standards by setting personal examples; they must do their best to inspire us. They must build more customer-centered businesses, too, where companies pursue with great interest, passion, and empathy customer happiness as an end in itself rather than the sole pursuit of maximizing shareholder value.

Leaders who pursue sustainability will realize more efficient production, less waste, and lower costs. Leaders who take the pursuit a step further to a sustainable business model can benefit more by increasing goodwill and ultimately helping create a long-term, reliable customer base. Customers are listening intently to “green messages,” which tell a story about the company. One study found that 55 percent of a company’s share value is the result of intangibles, including a strong brand and reputation. Many companies are telling their stories through green certification and branding to appeal to the high-income LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) market segment, which encompasses approximately one-fifth of the U.S. market—and growing. A company will benefit if these conscious consumers find its sustainability marketing claims and practices compelling and credible. However, if consumers feel a claim is unbelievable or unauthentic, that claim may have the opposite effect.⁶

What Consumers Can Do

Today, more people and companies than ever before recognize the problems created by global tourism. And alternative approaches that protect, respect, and restore the environment arise every day. In 2013, seven of every 10 travelers said they would consider the ethical or environmental footprint of their holidays, but we still have a long way to go. Although national parks and monuments exist to protect our forests, waterways, and wilderness, the hospitality industry only beginning to change its ways.

Each year, and every time we travel, we make choices for ourselves, our families, and our businesses—choices that affect the physical and social environment in untold ways. As citizens and consumers, we have the power to bring about change when we decide where to go, where to stay, and how we will get there. As managers and employees in the hospitality industry, we influence the future by the many decisions we make. For instance, if we want safe products for our guests and employees, which food, equipment, and supplies should we choose? Where will we get those supplies? How can we properly train the people we employ? Each decision carries with it a particular set of consequences for our environment, for our employees, for our communities, and, indeed, the planet.

What can we do as concerned citizens or parents who wish to preserve the natural legacy for future generations or even restore damaged habitats to a more pristine era? As travelers who roam the earth and stay in places away from home and our usual environment, what can we do to ensure our actions are in line with our values? As providers of lodging, travel, entertainment, and food services, what can we do to minimize our impact on the Earth and preserve our cultural and social heritage?

You may be wondering, “How can my individual decisions make a difference?” But they do. We live in a world with a web of interconnected relationships in which even the simplest act can and does affect the lives of others. For example, the type of energy used in New York can destroy distant mountain valleys in the Appalachian Mountains or where coal is mined. Yet if we shift to solar energy to preserve those valleys, we will alter the lives of coal-mining families in West Virginia.

Producers and consumers of wine may consider how the grapes are farmed, how much water is used, where the energy comes from and whether chemicals used in growing the grapes affect those who work in the vineyards. For example, Sally and John Jordan had dreamed of owning a vineyard. In 1974, they began to realize their dream by purchasing a 1,200-acre ranch on the edge of the Alexander Valley, picturesque, rural, and, as yet, undeveloped. As Sally Jordan put it, “We spent weeks walking the land, following game trails here and there. We found a large knoll surrounded by clusters of oak trees that still shelter the winery today. The grasses were matted down under one towering oak where deer rested on their journey to the highest hills. That’s where we set out to build, leaving the higher ground for the wildlife.”¹ Sally and John know that growing wine grapes is a long-term prospect and that enhancing and maintaining ecosystem integrity keeps soils and vines healthy and produces higher quality grapes. In the vineyards, Jordan’s team works year-round to preserve the sustainability of the land practicing a wide range of sustainability policies, including planting a diverse array of cover crops to improve soil health and promote ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgement
• Part 1: Leading Hospitality for Sustainability: The Context and Issues
• Part 2: Key Sector Case Studies: Hotels, Eco-resorts, Cruise Ships, Tour Operators, Wine Tourism, and Niche Tourism
• Tour Operators and Destinations
• Wine Tourism
• Niche Tourism: Agritourism, Voluntourism, and Adventure Tourism
• Appendix 1 Certification
• Index
• List of Contributors