Why Hotels Are Going Green
Sustainability in business, which refers to operating business with positive impacts on the environment and community, has been considered for a long time an important vehicle to drive enterprise success. Especially, while several issues on protecting the environment have been sweeping global societies and business sectors in recent years, which are represented as a ‘going green’ movement, many leading corporations such as McDonald’s, Dell, Google, Starbucks have seriously participated in the green business practices. Hotel businesses are no exception to this trend, going green. Some big hotel chains, for instance, Hilton Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott Hotels have been making a meaningful impact on the environment. Going green practices of some hotel chains could be understood as business decisions toward global challenges, responsibilities, and sustainable business strategy.
Recently, the business environment and customers’ demands have been shifted from the traditionally established criteria to the challenging areas, sustainability in general and going green in particular. From hotel businesses’ point of view, the going green trends have become an important matter that cannot be ignored. Adaptation would be a key factor of operating a business to do well and even to survive in a harsh and constantly changing business environment. One thing that is certain is the fact that going green is a global movement, to which hotel businesses have to adapt to ensure their positions in the hotel industry without sacrificing their profits-even saving their costs- and loyalties from customers.
In a similar vein, going green is not just about conservation of the environment; it is also about communication, in terms of sustainability, with (potential) customers, employees, and investors who demand eco-friendly policies from hotels. Several polls, for instance, showed that more than half of the customers favored brands which have a positive effect on societies. In fact, traditional hotels have generated a ton of waste like disposable products, toiletries, water and food waste, carbon footprint, and fossil fuel energy. However, some leading hotel chains have focused on the reductions of waste, water, and energy usages, the application of recycling practices, and the generation of sustainable energy on their properties, which help them to increase their profitability and market value(Going green, 2022). For instance, 94% of Hilton’s energy is generated from green sources; Hyatt Hotels actively work to reduce all kinds of waste in their operation; Marriott Hotels have reduced 12% of greenhouse gas emissions and 13% of water uses (Eco-friendly, 2022). These kinds of initiatives and policies are seriously related to not only the environmental improvements, but also hotels’ responsibilities revolving around improvement of customers’ expectation and reputation, of motivation of their employees, and of financial performance for their investors, which generally help to drive business success (Spiliakos, 2018).
In this respect, hotel chains can dominate the market and develop new growth opportunities while fostering public demand and support. As some surveys show that millennials and generation Z are more concerned about sustainability, especially green issues than any other existing generations, corporations including hotels can increase their values, business opportunities, and profitability (Rafi, 2021). TripAdvisor, for instance, has developed a program showcasing hotels with eco-friendly practices and policies, such as “hotels going green with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)” (Fredericks, 2020), which would be one of the examples of why hotels should go green to satisfy their customers and expand their business opportunities in the green market environment.
Eco-friendly hotels are businesses that significantly impact the environment by reducing waste, saving energy, and even lowering costs. Although the green movement in the global societies and among the new generations can be considered unavoidable to hotel industries, hotel business practices in green can actually create many positive opportunities of not only protecting the environment, but also fostering business relations with customers, employees, and investors, and expanding new business possibilities. Going green is not optional but essential for hotels.
