Chapter 12 Hotels and sustainability

Frans Melissen

Useful further reading (online)

  1. Website dedicated to the sustainable development goals of the UN

    https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/

  2. Link to the original UN report (the Brundtland Report) defining sustainable development

    www.un-documents.net/our-common-future.pdf

  3. Link to a report evaluating progress in realising the sustainable development goals

    http://10458-presscdn-0-33.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/gss-evaluating-progress-towards-the-sustainable-development-goals.pdf

  4. Link to a report evaluating the contribution of businesses to realising the sustainable development goals

    http://138.197.42.254/uploads/BetterBiz-BetterWorld.pdf

  5. Link to a dissertation evaluating the hospitality industry’s response to climate change

    http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2361&context=thesesdissertations

  6. Link to an explanation of how to communicate sustainability to guests (in hotels)

    www.greenhotelier.org/know-how-guides/communicating-sustainability-to-guests/

  7. Link to the supporting website of the Routledge textbook Fundamentals of Sustainable Development with a number of useful resources

    http://routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9781138092655/summaries.php

Useful videos

Climate Change Explained

The social responsibility of business | Alex Edmans | TEDxLondonBusinessSchool

Further discussion questions

  1. What would a fully sustainable hotel look like? How would guest accommodation provision be organised? What would rooms look like? How about the bathroom? What would the menu in the restaurant look like? How would breakfast be served? How would staff behave?
  2. Airbnb is more and more becoming an important player in the accommodation sector. It is a representative of the so-called sharing economy and, as such, claimed to contribute to sustainable development. Would you agree with this claim and why? From a sustainable development perspective, how should hotels react to a new development on the accommodation market like Airbnb?
  3. One of the easiest ways to reduce energy use in hotels is to no longer apply air conditioning. As a guest, would you be willing to accept this? And how could management increase the willingness of guests to accept such a measure? What other measures would be ‘easy’ to implement? How would guests react to those measures? How could you increase willingness of guests to accept those measures?
  4. Sustainable development is not just about the environment; it is also about people and treating them fairly. To what extent should hotels feel responsible for the fact that a lot of people in our world are not treated fairly and live their lives in poverty? What could hotels do to contribute to resolving this problem?