The last few years have been very challenging for the whole hospitality sector, as the majority of people and travelers relocated to online conferences whenever you can and holiday seasons became a luxury for many individuals. Beside this shortage the most important hotels on earth and its shareholders have decided to provide a great deal of emphasis in sustainability and renewable technology. This took place because they comprehended that to become a key player in this competitive market, they absolutely needed to create a long term strategy, which consisted in profitable operation coupled with particular emphasis to the needs of the folks who both use and work in the hotel and also concentrate on careful trusteeship of natural resources. These ideas, well known as the triple important thing, were pointed out for the first time by John Elkington in 1997, who essentially assumed that in order to be ecological, without particular respect of the industrial sector, it is essential and necessary for a corporation's business to operate with more responsibility, and regarding of not only cost-effective margins (earnings), but also environmental (world) and social issues (people). My goal in this research is to investigate how these three pillars of sustainability should fit the nowadays hospitality sector.
According to Dr. Herv Houdr, General Director of the Willard InterContinental Hotel, the triple bottom line in hospitality is attainable giving a whole lot of emphasis to all or any the three steps, starting from the economical viability: "The Sustainable Development strategy is not the result of the delusion of folks who determined that this world would be better if we were going back to our natural root base and resources. SD is unquestionably geared toward success and the future. Without profit it seems evident that no business would be sustainable"(HervЁ, 2008).
From this offer we recognize that it is very important to remember an hotel it isn't a NGO or a NPO and must be profitable to stay lasting. With this important principle, the idea ought to be to drive an enterprise with also an ethical viewpoint and use ecological development to attain an high turnover but also lowering the costs, in order to have an improved profit percentage, wich creates value for the shareholders.
The second step concerns sociable responsibility. As briefly described in the intro, hotel's two major components in this problem are employees and the city. An hotel should be recognized as a fair employer and be sure that its employees are happy and happy to be associated using its name, for occasion Accor's hotels motto is motivating its 170, 000 employees through the theory that "one staff can make the difference. ". The hotel also needs to be well included locally by helping worth it triggers and every firm should select the ones that work to its goals and community. Not only it is right and ethical to provide our help across borders, but if an international clientele considers that the hotel is involved in international causes, this will probably reinforce the understanding of generosity and caring of both hotel and the country, facing in this manner a double result.
The previous pillar is about the environmental protection. Among other steps, the hotel will apply for nationwide and international environmental qualifications and honours, such as ISO 14001, ISO 22000 (both are international environmental documentation), and the IHRA environmental award. An hotel could also consider the idea of starting a his own effort concerning the environment, like Taj Hotels Group have with Globe (Environment Awareness & Renewal at Taj Hotels), a task which is approximately the effort of one of Asia's major and finest band of hotels to invest in energy saving and environmental management. This project has also received a qualification from Green Earth, the one worldwide environmental recognition program for travel and tourism. Furthermore, in everything an hotel does to be able to reach this kind of goal, it will be useful to research for a link with a well-known firm to benefit from their existing infrastructure and therefore to ensure the correct and moral program of the funds that'll be donated or, more in general, the actions that will need place.
STAKEHOLDER APPROACH
As described by Business Ethics, Ethical Decision Making & Circumstances: O. C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich, Linda Ferrell, it is crucial for a 21st century company to build a strong marriage and interaction using its stakeholders, because they are both influenced by and also have the ability to affect the business enterprise, as recognized before in the next pillar of sustainability. This basic view has been transposed also in the hospitality sector, where now it is repeated to witness this kind of stakeholder way in order to maximize the positive impact and minimize negative effect on society. Although there are many different approaches, it's important to highlight key features, such as assessing the corporate culture, figuring out stakeholder communities and related issues, and attaining also feedbacks from them. From then on being explained it stands to reason that communication is a key part of this project and permitting all stakeholders know about the strategy is merely as important as placing and utilizing the triple bottom line strategy in the first place.
The hotel industry is well placed to demonstrate to the world that a sustainable development can be done, because annually hundred millions of individuals enter in contact with it.
Consequently, as a significant player, hospitality can reach many individuals and individuals through the good communication plan. Travel and tourism represents one of the most crucial sources of economical activity on the globe, and therefore an individual hotel can affect many industry stakeholders.
It has already been found how an hotel may enter in contact with some of its key stakeholder such us employees, clients and shareholders in the three pillars. It is also interesting to investigate deeper the links with other major stakeholders like suppliers and then to truly have a look at a secondary stakeholder like the mass media.
Regarding the suppliers, hotels are in the right position to talk about the values of sustainability development plus they should actually encourage them to embody this key points in their strategy. One big example is given by the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, which is in fact requesting its suppliers to provide sustainable products, also forcing them to find and add these products to their catalogues, to become available also to other clients. This is really important because in this industry, usually, one supplier handles more clients and therefore the approach of a lasting product strategy by a supplier may lead to a massive use of these lasting products throughout the whole hospitality sector. In fact, as highlighted by dr. HoudrЁ, Willar Intercontinental procurement company, Avendra, presents also Fairmont Hotels, Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels Corp. and Golf club Corp USA. This means that, because of the hotel initiatives (in cases like this the Willard Intercontinental), if Avendra completely embraces the strategy its 3 billion us dollars buying electric power will indicate in 3 billion dollars of ecological products purchased, which furthermore will be sold at all their hotel clients and that will finally type in contact with the final customers, creating in this manner a real virtuous group of sustainable understanding.
How predicted in the intro an organization also needs to be aware of its secondary stakeholders, to be able to handle successfully its position with particular target in the exterior market. In the hospitality sector an integral player may be recognized as the mass media. Nowadays, in simple fact, they are simply facing a whole lot of interest and coverage of initiatives related to the lasting development. All of the relation shown about global warming and petrol prices means that the advertising are seeking for stories concerning the ways of thwart these issues. A hotel should make work to be recognized of its initiatives and prices by the mass media associates (both normal and web-based) and also talk about information of its activities in order to encourage its clients to invest their times in it. By doing this, sustainable development becomes a distinctive selling point for a hotel, which permits him to gain also competitive advantages. There could be also another step, where in fact the hotel induces or shares the initiatives despite having its rivals (for instance exactly as Willard Intercontinental did with Avendra) but, in cases like this it'll be paramount for the hotel to be acknowledged by all the stakeholders as the early mover and pioneer in the sustainability field and do this clear ideals that support the hotel perspective should be provided in a mission statement:
Accountability: We focus on undertaking our assigned
tasks with quality and deliver outstanding
results;
Education and development: We offer everyone the opportunities,
knowledge, and skills to develop both personally
and professionally;
Empowerment: We've the authority to adopt ownership,
anticipate needs, and make decisions which go over our
customers' prospects on first contact;
Integrity: We believe in honesty, ethical tendencies, respect,
and trust;
Professionalism: We are an action-oriented team of savvy
experts who are keen and quality influenced;
Sustainable Development: We have been committed to economic
viability, and cultural and environmental responsibility;
Working smart: We encourage advancement, proactivity, agility,
and a safe work place.
HoudrЁ, H. , 2008. Sustainable Hospitality:Ecological Development in the Hotel Industry. Cornell Industry Perspectives No. 2. Online P. 5-20. Offered by willarddc. com/sd/docs/willardwhitepaperproof. pdf Accessed 20 Oct 2010
