Greening programs have multiple benefits for the organizations that practice them. Besides the potential for businesses such as CERES, Susan might also present several other values of a green program to the GM. These include the following: First, greening programs offer lucrative cost saving opportunities as a result of reduced wastage and increased responsibility with regard to energy consumption. Second, a greening program can earn Excelsior Hotel widespread recognition and enhanced reputation through support for environmental conservation. This may be facilitated through the achievement of the Green Seal Certification (Greenseal.org, N.d). Finally, the hotel can also gain a competitive advantage through greening practices and therefore set it apart from the competition, or at least keep up with the trend.
A successful greening program should involve all stakeholders if possible because collective effort is the key to achieving the objectives of such programs (Globalstewards.org, N.d). Susan’s team will likely involve staff to facilitate the greening initiative and should therefore at a minimum include senior personnel from all functional areas or departments of the hotel. This is important because the impetus will come from these individuals. This approach will ensure that the program is affected in all areas of the hotel, and support from all top personnel from these areas is guaranteed. In addition, Susan might also consider outsourcing an expert to spearhead the process because it is clear that Excelsior lacks both the experience and expertise to set off this initiative with less than a year to have it running. It will be necessary to carry out a comprehensive marketing research relevant to green market practices in the industry in order to investigate other green market opportunities for Excelsior Hotel.
References
Greenseal.org. (N.d) Green Seal Lodging Certification. Retrieved on February 8, 2012 from
www.google.co.ke/search?q=green+seal+certification+pdf&oq=green+seal+certification+pdf&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Globalstewards.org. (N.d) Go Green Hotels: Green Ideas for Hotel and Resorts. Retrieved on
