The current trends in business operations involve putting considerations on issues aimed at promoting economic development while considering ways of promoting environmental sustainability. The growing concerns on environmental sustainability by the society have pushed most hotels to reevaluate the effectiveness of their operations in promoting sustainable practices. This involves use of energy efficient lighting materials, adopting reuse system for towels and linen and also treating waste water for use in gardening. Green environment strategy is a form of global environmental initiative aimed at preserving the environment and promoting the livelihood of the society through promotion of equal sharing of scarce resources such as water and energy through reduction of total consumption of these resources by the hotels. Eco-efficiency hotel operations is the current trend in the hospitality industry and almost all establishments regardless of the size, are effectively coming up with ways of promoting green environment. This is especially due to the rise in number of hotel guests who are more likely to book in those hotels that have adopted environmentally friendly measures aimed at reducing the adverse impacts on the environment.
Green environment initiative is considered as an efficient use of resources hence reducing waste (Rosati, 2006). This means that adopting the initiative is beneficial to both the society and the organization as well as it reduces the total expenses. Due to the rising global environmental concerns, most hotels have adopted green initiative as a Competitive strategy since they are aware of the customers’ desire to stay in an environmental conscious hotel. This means that hotels have to come up with unique environmental conservation ideas that are more likely to attract the customers. Research shows that most hotels are working hard to get green certification by programs such as LEEM and ISO 14001 as most customers are more likely to choose a destination package that has been eco-labeled.
Although the need to adopt green environment in hospitality organizations, research indicates that the hotel managers are still faced with a challenge of implementing the green environment idea especially due to its high initial costs. This is because most organizations do not have a concrete idea on the extent of financial benefit of adopting the going green initiative. Also despite the trend of most people especially the hotel guests’ concern for sustainable environmental initiative, not many hotel guests are willing to pay extra premiums for the initiative hence making most hotel managers reluctance to adopt it due to the high initial costs. In addition, there is still uncertainty on the guests’ perceptions on most green initiative strategies such as reusing towels and linen. Despite these challenges facing the implementation of green initiative, hotels have a role to play in minimizing negative impact to the environment and also ensure that their operations have an ecological benefit to the environment and the society as a way of enhancing global environmental sustainability.
References
Millar, M. & Bolaglu, S. (2011). Hotel Guests’ Preferences for Green Guest Room Attributes. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly vol. 52(3), 302–311.
Kang, K. H. et al. (2012).Consumers’ willingness to pay for green initiatives of the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management vol. 31, 564– 572.
Orsat, R. (). Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to be Green. California Management Review Vol. 48: (2), 127-144.
