With 1 in 10 people working in hospitality globally, the industry has the potential to significantly slow climate change, while also educating hundreds of millions of employees about being more sustainable. This incredible opportunity is why a sustainability-first mindset is crucial in hospitality managers today. Our future depends on it, both in terms of the human race and the hospitality industry.
Figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) reveal that the hotel sector alone creates 1 percent of global carbon emissions and they are on a steady rise. According to the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, to effectively reduce this, managers need to implement sustainable practices to reduce carbon emissions by 66 percent per room by 2030, and by 90 percent per room by 2050.
So then, there’s no shortage of impetus driving the need for green management within hospitality, but what exactly does it look like, both day-to-day and strategically?
Taking care of the basics
Hospitality is an increasingly diverse industry, encompassing diverse business processes and career paths. From hotels, restaurants, and events, to travel, luxury, real estate, and automotive, all managers must build their green frameworks on the solid foundations of reducing water use, cutting carbon, and minimising food waste. The framework should also focus on ensuring fair pay and productive working conditions for their team members.
These pillars must be in place to build a more granular and all-encompassing approach to sustainability within a team and business.
Managers must also look beyond the four walls and ensure that supply chains are sustainable. This is how green hospitality management can create a positive ripple effect in local neighborhoods and communities.
Finding ways to be more sustainable
With the pillars in place, hospitality managers can then move on to understanding the environmental impact of every process and procedure within a property or business. From the front of the house to the back office, operations to customer service, it is an important part of a manager’s role to ensure departments are running sustainably and efficiently.
This granular approach to being green is important to reach the highest level in hospitality management and professionals should be imparted with a thorough understanding of how they can implement sustainability across operations.
Employers require it, the C-suite demands it to meet investment and CSR commitments, colleagues are inspired by it, and guests are increasingly making purchase decisions governed by what a business is doing to protect the planet.
Leading a green team
For the modern hospitality manager, having a sustainability-first mindset is crucial, but possessing the ability to inspire and incentivise individuals around you to think and act sustainably shows true leadership. While managers may have the helicopter view, team members on the ground are carrying out the vast majority of actions, and therefore the environmental performance of a business is in their hands.
Managers need to educate employees on the reasons why being green is crucial, not just in terms of best-practice and business SOPs, but on a wider scale, explaining how joined-up actions can make a huge difference.
Armed with knowledge, team members must also be empowered to not just follow green standards, but set them, and see opportunities for the business to be even more sustainable.
This ambition can be achieved with KPIs, aligned to the execution of expected practices, but also allowing for innovation and improvement. And when this happens, there must be rewards.
Change begins with education
Sustainability-focused managers are necessary if hospitality is to play a major role in fighting climate change. There is no hiding the fact that air travel, hotels, restaurants, and events all contribute considerably to carbon emissions, waste, and the use of natural resources, but within that reality is an amazing opportunity to make a massive difference and lead by example.
The key to seizing this opportunity is without a doubt education. Hospitality businesses need agents of change, equipped with the expertise, ability, and confidence to transform processes, platforms, and people, right from their first role after graduation.
This is where the world’s leading hospitality institutions can play their biggest part in driving sustainability, helping the human race protect the environment, hit net zero, and achieve the 1.5-degrees Paris Agreement target.
