Todays’ world is changing and it is affecting the environment. Therefore, eco-awareness is an important key to keep the planet save on long-term. Due to the growing awareness, the hospitality industry has started to pay more attention towards sustainability. To help guests be more aware of the eco-consciousness of hotels, the industry uses certain certificates. These certifications can for example mean that the hotel focuses on re-using towels or buying eco-friendly linen. Although, the question remains are hotels honestly being sustainable or are they just window dressing, in order to attract more guests thus making more money?
To answer this question, it is important to understand what sustainability means. Sustainability is the “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs” (Brunt land Report for the World Commission on Environment and Development 1992). A sustainable life gives us a way to live in peace with the all the worlds beauty around us, without damaging it. These days, hotels are also focused on sustainability. Following, it is important to understand why hotels should become more sustainable. Looking at hotels individually, it can be said that they do not have a negative impact on the environment. However, all the hotels together are forming a risk for the environment. About 75 percent of the hotels’ environmental impact can immediately be linked to enormous expenditure, such as energy, waste and water. These aspects influence hotels in choosing to become eco-friendly. According to Brebbia and Pineda (2004) one of the most powerful aspect to become more sustainable as a hotel, are saving costs. Besides the above mentioned aspects, also the customer loyalty is also a big influence, considering to be more sustainable.
The behaviour of guests has changed over the past 25 years and the expectations towards hotels has increased. Nowadays, guests choose their destination based on location, amenities and service. Besides these factors, about 79 percent of travellers all around the world would choose an accommodation based on their eco-friendly program (Rahman, Park and Chi, 2015). Another powerful aspect is the competitive advantage the hotel receives when implementing sustainability in their company. On the other hand, it is getting more difficult for sustainable hotels to differ from their competitors. This is because nowadays a lot of hotels observe each other and copy their profitable strategies (Sloan, Legrand and Chen, 2009). More and more people are aware of the global warming and other changes in the world and are therefore willing to adjust themselves in order to support the climate. By focusing more on sustainability within the hospitality industry, guests become more attracted to the so called ‘green hotels’ and are willing to pay more for these eco-friendly accommodations.
Nowadays, hotels and other industries are constantly busy with green-labelling their products, such as natural, non-toxic or biological. Besides labelling products, hotels also tend to use eco-friendlier colours, like blue which stands for trust and peace, when producing a product. These changes also lead to fake labelling, which is also known as ‘greenwashing’. As cited by Daryl Zhao: ’Greenwashing is the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.’ Critics from Greenwashing Index say that greenwashing can have a ruinous outcome on a companies’ truthfulness. When consumers are able to look through the window dressing of an hotel, this will hurt the company’s reputation and on long-term, their sales. This industry is where greenwashing most often occurs Many hotels pick the easiest way to show ‘green’ awareness, such as buying eco-friendly shampoo. However, these shampoo bottles won’t be recycled after all. Greenwashed hotels take advantage of guests who are booking a room in a rush and do not have the time to investigate whether the hotel is actually eco-friendly. Consumers don’t know that they are being misled and actually do not help the environment at all (Washington State University, 2015).
Besides consumers and guests, hotels are also being conned. Imagine a hotel manager wants to focus on sustainability within the hotel and tries to get a certificate so the hotel gets higher paying guests. To receive this certificate, the hotel manager needs to purchase new air-conditioning systems which are advertised on a website to be eco-friendly. Afterwards, the hotel manager finds out that the eco-friendly label was false and losses guests and therefore revenue. Imagine a hotels states that it utilises solar panels for water heating, but it appears that the hotel has no water conservation program. Accordingly, the tourism operation will become unsustainable on long-term. Another example is that a lot of restaurants claim to serve biological food. Yet, restaurants do not tell where their products come from. This example can also be used for re-using towels. Nevertheless, hotels provide evidence of what happens to their re-used towels after their stay.
All facts considered, it can be said that the hospitality industries are finding several ways to look ‘green’ to attract more guests. The phenome greenwashing has been around for many years and is affecting the hotels as well as guests. In my opinion, there are hotels who use greenwashing and there are hotels who actually want to do something for the environment. I have been to a lot of hotels and to be honest I never have realised that greenwashing occurs in the hospitality industry, probably because this mostly happens behind the scenes. I think that people should be more aware of this trend and realise the effect greenwashing has on the environment. Furthermore, I would suggest people to do more research about their purchased products that claim to be eco-friendly. Since technology is growing, more people can pretend to have sustainable products and this could be bad for the climate on long term.
Reference list
- About Greenwashing | Greenwashing Index. Greenwashingindex.com. Retrieved 18 January 2017, from http://greenwashingindex.com/about-greenwashing/
- Brebbia, C. A. and Pineda, F.D. 2004, Sustainable Tourism. WIT Press, Boston. Retrieved on January 14, 2017 from http://green.hotelscombined.com/Gyh-References.php
- Imran Rahman , Jeongdoo Park , Christina Geng-qing Chi , (2015) “Consequences of “greenwashing”: Consumers’ reactions to hotels’ green initiatives”, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, pp.1054 – 1081. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
- Jauhari, V. (2014). Managing sustainability in the hospitality and tourism industry (1st ed., pp. 10-26). Apple Academic Press.
- Meaning of Colors in Color Psychology. Empowered By Color. Retrieved 17 January 2017, from http://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html
- Miller, L. (2013). Before You Book: Eco-Friendly Hotel Or Just Greenwashing? Gadling. Retrieved 6 January 2017, from http://gadling.com/2013/10/16/eco-friendly-hotel-or-greenwashing/
- Sloan, P., Legrand, W., & Chen, J. (2009). Sustainability in the hospitality industry (1st ed., pp. 96-104). Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier.
- Washington State University. (2015, October 1). Hotel ‘greenwashing’ dirties eco-friendly reputation: Consumers can see claims as self-serving. ScienceDaily. Retrieved on January 12, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151001154113.htm
- What is sustainability? Global Footprints. Retrieved 4 January 2017, from http://www.globalfootprints.org/sustainability
- What Is Sustainability and Why Is It Important? | EnvironmentalScience.org. Environmentalscience.org. Retrieved 21 December 2016, from http://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability
- Zhao, D. (2014). Greenwashing: Misleading claims of Environmental Friendliness. Retrieved from http://www.greencitizen.com/greenwashing/