Five Point Environmental Strategy Of Marriott International Tourism Essay

Introduction

Since 1987, when the concept of sustainability was mentioned on a coordinated international platform, the movement towards sustainability had expanded across the globe. The governmental and non-governmental organizations, corporations and consumers those focusing on the need to exist in harmony with their surroundings and environmental footprints are increasingly. The hospitality industry also not exception, therefore the concept of sustainability has begun to gain momentum in this industry. (Ernst and Young, 2008)

http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/pdf8/e_y120408.pdf

Alison Sperry (2010) defined that Going Green means:

…Going Green is making the daily decisions with responsible that benefits to the environment and also can reduce waste and pollution. This concept also encourages a lifestyle of recycling, using chemical-free products, using alternative energy sources such as wind and solar and reducing the dependency on fossil fuels for energy.

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Hotel businesses developed and operated by the consumption of significant amounts of natural resources which are affected the sustainability of the natural environment. The field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) therefore, has grown considerably over the last decade due to an increasing number of companies formally recognising the impacts they have on the environment, on society and on the economy (Jones et.al, 2006).

Going green’s concept is a concept of people learns how to make the environmentally friendly choices. Going green also is a concept that supporters make some changes to encourage healthier and environmentally friendly living.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6681447_concept-going-green.html

Ernst and Young (2008) defined that “green: not a black and white issue.” The travelers that concerned about the environment were increasingly and they always make their own determination as to what constitutes “greenness” in the lodging industry.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6681447_concept-going-green.html

According to Deloitte Survey (2008) showed that, consumers, employees and individual travellers start to concerned more about the hospitality industry’s sustainability. Most of the individuals also start to changes their lifestyles and accepting higher green standards for themselves and also to the companies that they cooperate with.

http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_cb_sustainability_190608(1).pdf

Marriott International has more than twenty-year commitment to start the environmental preservation. The Marriott International is “working toward a greener, healthier planet” and their operating units are employ methods to protect the surroundings of natural and resources (Marriott, 1996 – 2010).

Every year, the Marriott International and its owners had spent around 10 billion just for buy the products and services for its 3,300 hotels around the world. Marriott International also expanding its “green” hotels and buildings’ portfolios. Besides that, approximately 275 of Marriott’s hotels have received the “ENERGY STAR®” label from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Marriott, 1996 – 2010).

http://www.marriott.com/marriott.mi?page=green_buildings

Last but not least, Marriott International also was ranked 42nd out of 100 in “The Greenest Big Companies” on Newsweek’s first-ever list. Moreover, Marriott International also gets the “2009 Tourism for Tomorrow Award for Sustainability” in the categories of the Global Tourism Business by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) (Marriott, 1996 – 2010).

The Problem Statement

The problem of this topic is about how Marriott International. Inc. practices their going green programs in their properties. Marriott International Corporation is a leading worldwide hospitality company (Marriott, 2010). Currently, Marriott has more than 3100 of lodging properties is in the United States and 65 is in other countries and territories across 17 lodging and vacation resort ownership brands (Marriott, 2009). Marriott has more than twenty-year commitment to environmental preservation (Marriott, 2010). In 2007, Marriott formed a Global Green Council, a cross-functional team of senior executives that collaborated with Conservation International, a global environmental organization, to evaluate its practices, set long-term goals, develop an environmental strategic plan and catalyze its progress (Marriott, 2010).

Five-point Environmental Strategy of Marriott International was developed in collaboration with Conservation International which are includes (Marriott, 2009):

Reduce Consumption of Water, Waste and Energy

Greener Buildings, expansion of LEED-certified hotels

Greening Supply Chain

Protecting the Rainforest with Carbon Offsets

Employee & Guest Engagement

Over the last decade, for, the Marriott International corporate organized the “Going Green” programs which involved in energy conservation by changed 450,000 of the light bulbs with fluorescent lighting, installed around 400,000 low-flow of showerheads and toilets and also introduced the linens reuse programs in their hotels worldwide (Marriott, 2009). Besides that, the Marriott’s Retro-Commissioning (MRCx) program, planning process and a comprehensive evaluation that helps their properties become as energy efficient as possible, was conducted at more than 30 of its largest properties (Marriott, 2009). Through projects completed over the last few years and those currently under way, Marriott anticipate saving 12 million kilowatts of power (Marriott, 2009). In general, properties find that after it implement all the recommendations that evolved from an MRCx assessment, it energy costs decrease 5 to 25 per cent and they are achieving, on average, a payback on their investment in just 1.4 years (Marriott, 2009).

In the Americas, Marriott achieved a 2.2 per cent reduction per available room (Marriott, 2009). In late 2009, through a partnership with a U.S.-based landscaping company, Marriott adopted a climate-specific approach to landscaping, using native plants and restricted colour palettes to reduce irrigation demands and cut the amount of fertilizer required to keep plants healthy (Marriott, 2009). In 2009, Marriott’s landfill waste in the USA totalled 726,993 tons which reflects a 17 per cent reduction from 2007(Marriott, 2009). Additionally, its recycling rate also was increased to 69 per cent and all the header quarters’ waste also was diverted from the landfill to the waste-to-energy plant (Marriott, 2009). Also, Marriott expanding its existing of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ programs that already in place of 90 per cent of hotels which included guest room and meeting rooms (Marriott, 2009).

Forty Marriott International hotels are expected to receive the LEED certification from the USGBC (USGBC, 2010). In addition, Marriott international’s global Headquarters in Bethesda was received the LEED-Existing Building Gold status (USGBC, 2010). Moreover, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency also had awarded Marriott International for three following years with its Sustained Excellence Award and more than 275 of its hotels also placed the “ENERGY STAR®” label (Marriott, 2010).

Marriott International has greening its supply chain by introduce the “greener” solutions at no extra cost (Marriott, 2009). For instance, Marriott has purchased 24 million of ‘Greener key cards’ which consists 50 per cent of recycled material, which had save around 66 tons of plastics from dumped into the landfill (Marriott, 2009). Moreover, Marriott’s will begin replacing the 100,000 synthetic pillows with those Eco-pillows that filled with material made from recycled bottles. In addition, one million of Earth-friendly towels that Marriott purchases in North America are no need to be pre-washed, which had save six million gallons of water (Marriott, 2009). Marriott hotels in Central Europe were used a laundry detergent that already cuts approximately 100,000 kg amount of phosphates released into waste water (Marriott, 2009).

Marriott has teamed up with many Corporation or organizations to help them support their efforts to preserve and protect the environment (Marriott, 2009). For instance, Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS), Conservation International, ENERGY STAR®, International Tourism Partnership (ITP), and U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The Marriott’s protecting the rainforest strategy is help to protect 1.4 million of acres in endangered rainforest for the Juma Sustainable Development Reserve which partnership with the state of Amazonas in Brazil (Marriott, 2009).

Research Questions

The followings are some key questions addressed by his research:

Is the Marriott International had practiced the going green?

How the Marriott International practiced the going green in this industry?

Why the Marriott international will practiced the going green?

What level of going green programs of Marriott International?

What differences between Marriott International’s going green program with other companies?

Does the going green program increase the income of Marriott International?

Research Objectives

To answer the above research questions, this study seek to accomplish the following objectives:

To investigate going green practiced among all Marriott International’s properties.

To determine how the Marriott International practiced the going green.

To determine the reasons of Marriott International practiced the going green.

To examine the level of going green practiced among all Marriott International’s properties.

To compare the level of going green with other companies.

To determine the advantages and disadvantages of going green in Marriott International.

To determine the effect of going green programs to Marriott International.

Hypothesis Statement

Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework

Conceptual Framework

Marriott International. Inc.

Going Green’s Programs

The strategies and programs of going green in Marriott International. Inc.

The programs or strategies of going green in hospitality industry.

The Actions that practices by Marriott International corporate.

Theoretical Framework

This research mostly searches on the Marriott International Corporate practising the level of going green in most of their properties. The reason why Marriott International become famous in going green program because their organized a lot of events or activities to greening their companies. In the internet or newspaper, we can see that Marriott International corporate organized a lot of activities in greening and get a lot of award internationally in greening program. Besides that, their also is one of the famous go green corporate in the world. Moreover, the going green is not easy to practices in the companies because it need a lot of resources to make it really work.

Scope and Limitation

This study was carried out among all Marriott International in going green program. The Marriott International, Inc.’s operations are grouped into the five business segments which are North American Full-Service Lodging, North American Limited-Service Lodging, International Lodging, Luxury Lodging and Timeshare.

Significance of the study

The significance of this research is to evaluate the level of going green activities that practices or organized by Marriott International Corporate.

According to The New York Times (2009), the Marriott International announced that they would no longer deliver newspapers to every guestroom in the morning. They only will deliver to which guest rooms had requested a newspaper or can pick one up in the lobby. Although that change is arguably as much about saving money more than saving trees. Marriott had assessed that it would reduce the newspaper distribution at its hotels to about 18 million only annually.

http://zoominlocal.com/santa-rosa-press-democrat/2009/10/25/#?article=621947

Furthermore, this research is for acknowledge people around the world to know how important and advantages of going green in hospitality industries now a days. Now, most of the knowledge people are targeting the greening companies to cooperate with than normal companies.

This is why more and more companies going to practising greening in their company because followed by the trend of all around the world.

Chapter Two

Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The literature review will begin with an essential understanding of the key points needed in order to accomplish the aim of the project. The research will be analysed in the literature to help construct an academic structure on the definition and concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The literature will also evaluate the purpose of sustainable development in the hospitality industry and its advantages and limitations. One area which has been particularly analysed is the going green programmes that practice by the hospitality industry as it contains most of the key areas. Furthermore, the literature reviews also analysing the views, theories arguments and perspectives of previous authors for assessment. The literature reviews also will finally perform as a source with which to analyse the differing perspectives on these key points identify gaps for argument and highlight key issues associated with going green programme in hospitality.

2.2 Corporate Social Responsibility Definitions and Concepts

The field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown considerably over the last decade due to an increasing number of companies formally recognising the impacts they have on the environment, on society and on the economy (Jones et.al, 2006). CSR issues are now being integrated into all aspects of business operations and explicit commitment to CSR is made in the visions, missions and value statements of an increasing number of companies all over the world (Ofori and Hinson, 2007).

Definitions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have, however, remained an area of deliberation from the concepts very beginnings. A variety of definitions have been framed. The Commission of the European Communities (2001, p.6 ) defines CSR as:

“…a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in the business operations and in their interactions with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.”

CSR therefore, is not just fulfilling legal responsibilities but may also go beyond compliance to embrace wider social, environmental and economic goals (Commission of the European Communities, 2001).

The concept of CSR is one which has emerged over the last 50 years to occupy a significant role in certain aspects of organisational theory and has only been in wide use since the 1960s (Meehan et al., 2006). CSR was eventually recognised as businesses that are part of society and have the potential to make a positive contribution to social goals (Jones et al., 2006). CSR therefore seems to be synonymous with charitable and voluntary acts by business organisations designed to improve social skills. Conversely, Donaldson and Preston (1995) believe that businesses are not responsible to society but responsible to their stakeholders and view CSR from this perspective.

One of the more cited definitions of CSR is proposed by the World Bank (2003), which defines CSR as the responsibility of businesses to contribute to sustainable economic development-working with internal stakeholders, the local community, and society to improve the quality of life which is positive for business and development. The similarity among these different definitions of CSR is that companies should engage in CSR behaviour as part of their organisational strategy.

Bevan et al. (2004) list nine potential benefits of CSR which include reduced operating costs; improved profitability and financial performance; enhanced capability to innovate; better risk and crisis management; long-term sustainability for companies and the workforce; improved staff commitment and involvement; good relations with government and society; enhanced reputation and brand value; and enhanced customer relationships and increased awareness of customer needs.

2.3 The Sustainability Development of the Hotel Industry

International Tourism Partnership (2010) defines the term ‘green’ in business as originally related to environmental issues; it has evolved to embrace all aspects of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Sloan et al. (2009) define a sustainable hospitality operation as one which manages its resources in such a way that economic, social and environmental benefits are maximised in order to meet the need of the present generation while protecting and enhancing opportunities for future generations.

Green Hotels Association (2010, p.2) provides a more resource-oriented definition of the Green Hotel:

“Green Hotels are environmentally-friendly properties whose managers are eager to institute programmes that save water, save energy and reduce solid waste, while saving money to help protect the earth”.

According to Green Hotels Association (2010), “Green Hotels” have gained a foothold in lodging operators’ contribution to society’s concern for the environment which focuses on programmes which are designed to save water, save energy and reduce solid waste. Programme components such as towel rack hangers and sheet-changing cards have achieved positive responses by hotel management staff as well as guests for over ten years (Green Hotels Association, 2010).

The UK hotel sector would appear to accept that it does have an impact on the environment (Brown, 1996). This is not only confirmed by exploratory research but also through the formation of the International Tourism Partnership (ITP). The ITP has published an environmental magazine, the ‘Green Hotelier’, whose readership cares about environmentally and socially responsible hotel behaviour as focused on positive sustainable travel and tourism development (International Tourism Partnership, 2010). According to research by the Carbon Trust (Green hotelier, 2010), rising energy prices and taxes are the biggest worries facing the British hospitality industry in 2010. This view is supported by Alexander and Kennedy (2002) who find that the most costly and wasteful use of resources in hotels are usually in the consumption of non-renewable energy, excessive water use, and the generation of waste

Brown (1996) argues that however the general manger of a hotel would appear to be restricted in introducing environmental improvements in the hotel unless a cost saving or other tangible benefit is identified. This view is supported by Butler (2008) who finds that the hospitality industry has been waiting for increased consumer demand and lower costs before it fully embraced green operation. In part, the slow adoption of green building standards has followed the approach that most hotel guests did not think that being green was that important, particularly if recycling or other green activities increased room rates or was inconvenient (Butler, 2008). Without consumers demanding green hotels, the perception of greater cost for green hotel development was an obstacle to the industry’s adoption.

2.3 Case study of Accor and Hilton

Based on their total room number and location of their hotels, the tho hotel groups selected for case study were Accor Hotel Group (Europe) and Hyatt Corporation (USA), being in 2009 the top 10 hotel groups in UK (Caterersearch, 2010). Marriott International Corporate also is one of the top 10 hotel groups in UK.

Company

Number of hotels

Number of rooms

Number of hotels worldwide

1

Whitbread Hotel Company

577+

40,000+

580

2

InterContinental Hotels Group

248

34,955

4,200 

3

Travelodge

(Dubai International

Capital)

372

23,150

380+

 4

Accor Hotels

 138

 19,996

 4,000

5

Hilton Hotels Corporation

78 

16,566

3,200

 6

Best Western

 285

 15,305

 4,035

 7

Wyndham Worldwide

122

12,274

 7,000

8 

Marriott Hotels

 58

 12,015

 3,200

 9

Carlson Hotels Worldwide 

 50

 9,718

1,030 

10 

The Rezidor Hotel Group  

 42

 7.759

 380

Table 1: Top 10 Hotel Groups in the UK, 2009 by number of bedrooms.

(Caterersearch, 2010)

2.3.1 Accor Group Hotels

Accor currently manages 4,100 hotels under 13 different brands worldwide (Accor, 2010). Accor’s philosophy is based on hospitality and respect for diverse cultures, incorporating environmental best practices in all its operations (Accor, 2010). The goals of their ‘Earth Guest’ programme, launched in 2006, are to reduce water and energy consumption, promote balanced nutrition and to double, in three years, the number of hotels that offer fair-trade products (Accor, 2010). The programme is divided into two parts which are a social responsibility development area (EGO) and an environmental responsibility development area (ECO) (Accor, 2010). EGO is includes programmes for local development, the protection of children, combating of epidemics and the promotion of healthy eating; and ECO is includes the reduction of water and energy consumption, and the improvement of waste sorting and recycling, as well as the preservation of biodiversity (Accor, 2008 and 2009).

The Hotelier’s Environmental Charter is Accor’s internal benchmarking tool and provides the local hotel managers with guidelines for environmentally sustainable business practices. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (2010), the Hotelier’s Environmental Charter has been adopted by 88% of Accor’s 4,000 properties. The Charter gives hotel managers and employees clear instructions on how resources can be saved in the areas of energy, water and waste (Accor, 2008).

The first and second point of Hotelier’s Environmental Charter considers is energy and water (Accor, 2010). Compact fluorescent light bulbs are used in 82% hotels for areas that remain light 24 hours a day (Accor, 2010). Accor also continued to promote the use of renewable energy sources, installing solar-powered hot water systems in 32 hotels in 2009, with a total of 99 hotels now equipped worldwide (Accor, 2009). Accor is actively involved in water conservation measures and water consumption per occupied room was reduced by 4% between 2006 and 2009 (Accor, 2009). Moreover, flow-regulators have now been installed in showers and faucets in 89% of hotels (Accor, 2009).

Accor actively promotes waste sorting and recycling as well as eco-designed products for instance, 51% of hotels recover paper, cardboard and glass (Accor, 2008). Accor has improved its performance in waste management by manage with a dedicated waste management module that monitor the amount of waste produced per room, the recovery rate and the cost of waste disposal (Accor, 2009). Waste Traceability mainly concerns the separation of waste, where the company already achieves a high score in France owing to its proactive information policy (Accor, 2008). According to Accor (2010), their hotel prefers eco-labelled suppliers. In 2002, Accor dispatched an environmental purchasing charter to its purchasing organisations as well as to over 2,000 preferred suppliers (Sloan et al., 2009).

2.3.2 Hilton Hotels

Currently, Hilton Hotels Corporation has more than 3,200 hotels and 525,000 rooms in 77 countries. In 2009, Hilton is new global headquarters in McLean, Virginia which meets the highest environmental standard for his design, operation and construction. (Environmental Leader, 2009)

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/08/11/hilton-kimpton-hotel-chains-go-for-the-green/

Besides that, the sustainability target that aims in coming 2014 by Hilton Hotels was announced. Those include:

20 per cent: Reducing energy consumption from direct operations;

20 per cent: Reducing CO2 emissions;

20 per cent: Reducing output of waste;

10 per cent: Reducing water consumption.

Hilton has already begun to green its hotel operations. Through the introduction of carbon-free electricity at its facilities in the U.K. and Ireland, Hilton says it reduced CO2 emissions in participating Hilton hotels by more than 64,000 tons, or 56 percent of its carbon footprint. The company says it has also reduced its energy and water consumption 10 percent over the last two years.

Hilton Hotels reported in May that it has delivered energy savings of more than 10 percent last year across more than 80 hotels in Europe.

A 2007 survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives and KDS revealed that only one-third of corporate travel policies promote sustainable tourism. While many travelers said they would prefer a green hotel, other factors such as price win out when they’re booking.

2.3.3 Summary

Most major chains are looking for ways to integrate green into their hotels, and water and energy conservation are popular routes. Marriott International has set the goal of lowering GHG emissions 2.2 million pounds by 2010, says Ed Fuller, president and managing director of the company. Wolfgang Neuman of Hilton Hotels sees near-term moves toward eco-friendly air-conditioning, solar heating, and heat recovery systems to extract waste water from one system and use it in another. And by 2010, 200 of Accor’s hotels in France will have solar panels.

Chapter 3

Methodology

3.1 Introduction

In this dissertation, in order to obtain broad knowledge about environmental operating practise in the hotel industry, a wide range of secondary sources will be reviewed. In addition, research strategy adopted was to conduct multiple case studies in three top hotel companies in Europe and the USA. The main data collection techniques used in this research study was documentation analysis and content analysis. This chapter is divided into three sections. In the first, the interpretive stance in the field of information system is examined. The next section is about the construction of the secondary research design which deals with the research design and covers the reasons for selecting resources. Finally, section three describes the research approach followed in case study research.

3.2 Research Design

Currently, secondary literatures have increase rapidly, particularly as new resources which are developed or ready through the internet (Saunders et al., 2009). In this research project, secondary research will allow the research to incorporate suitable and reliable data of green operation initiative in hospitality, so that all the gathered data can respond to the research questions relating to the green behaviour of hotel in Europe and the USA. Secondary research differs from primary research in the collection of the information is not the responsibility of the analyst. Stewart and Kamins (1993) point out that the analyst enters the picture after the data collection effort is over in secondary research. On the other hand, in primary research, the analyst is responsible for the design of the research, the collection of the data, and the analysis and summary of the information (Stewart and Kamins, 1993). Secondary data although, has lack of direct control of the date, type, and procedure for collecting and recording of the data (Sauder et al, 2009), however, secondary data is more financial and time saving. For instance, secondary data particularly not necessary to wait for or pay to marketing researchers for a research project to collect primary data. By using secondary data, author can has more time and effort in analysing and interpreting the data, as it has already been collected. Secondary research moreover may increase the quality of the research by targeting the real dilemma and mistakes. Consultation on secondary resources increases the efficiency of the research by targeting real gaps and oversights in knowledge.

Primary research therefore has not been used in this project due to the wide variety of secondary data has been found. Primary research methods such as, questionnaires or interviews will not provide relevant information for this topic. On this basis, it can be concluded that secondary research is the main source of information provided in this study including information from academic journals, books, corporate reports and internet. Nevertheless, author should analyse cautiously the information gathered to determine its validity and reliability. This is because the research only uses one kind of research models and the argument generated about research topic.

3.3 Sources of Data

3.3.1 Primary

3.3.2 Secondary

Secondary research is the key resource of information incorporate in this dissertation; however, different secondary resources might have different type of information. A guideline for obtain valid and reliable information from different resources therefore, has been designed which can found in Table 4.

Table 4

Type of information

Resources that might have that information

Established facts and figures

Reference books; official publications; government web sites

General information on a topic

Books of collected articles; text books; web sites of relevant organisations

Reviews of the literature on a topic

Journal articles; books of collected articles

Publications of recent research results

Journal articles; proceedings of conferences

Professional and academic debates

Journal articles; web sites of relevant organisations; newspapers

Table 4: The types of resources that provide different information.

In order to justify the author’s arguments and offer a range of information about the research topic, secondary resources such as academic journals, books, corporate report and the internet have been used.

Academic journals have offered different views and theories of Corporate Social Responsible (CSR) concept and environmental operating practise in hospitality. Journals such as “Cornell Hospitality Quarterly”, “International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management” and “Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research” illustrate some research studies that have been conducted concerning the green operation initiative in hotel industry. All the relevant information gathered from these journals will be analysed and used to evaluate the level of green behaviour of top hotel company. Journals however often assembled to research aims that differ from the current research; therefore, data and complex arguments has to be carefully evaluated, as well as understood and interpreted.

The information in books is normally written in more well-organized and accessible way which will help to clarify the research questions and objectives. In this research, text book is rarely used due to insufficient related books in library about sustainability in hospitality. “Sustainability