World climate change and global warming is becoming a serious problem for the world today. As the hotel industry is one of the largest business sectors that create a carbon footprint from their daily activities or services. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine the activities, practices and performance of the hotel before and after to find out the influence and impact of the sustainable practices in the hotel industry on business performance.
In addition, the performance in terms of business, which still cannot be measured due to many factors, may affect the increasing number of hotel customers. The world climate has changed throughout history, global warming is one of the serious problems. Same as many organizations that started to think further about the conservation of natural resources.
In Thailand today, sustainable practice for the organization has become one of the main concerns in many companies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the activities, practice and mindset of hoteliers before identifying the impact and impact of sustainable hotel practice on business performance. This study examined a case study of a hotel that participated in this green.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- History of Sustainable Development
- Green Hotel Concept
- General Green Practice
- Energy Management
- Water Management
- Waste Management
- The Change and the Impact Toward Hotel Industry
The customer began to persuade and pressure the hotel to implement technology that helps save energy. The concept of sustainability in the hotel industry is to raise awareness of growing environmental degradation, which can be adopted and enforced more effective measures for natural protection. General Green practices can be shown by many actions, which are the possible corrective measures that are able to project an environmental improvement of the hotel's performance.
The hotel can monitor from the effectiveness of the energy saving initiatives by tracking monthly. These factors can target the hotel to save energy and reduce atmospheric pollution (Zein, Karim, Majdolaine Semlali Wazne, and Gregoire Meylan, 2008). The hotel can start with the hotel product and simple service behavior that can be the change of use for the high efficiency lighting, heating and cooling system.
In another research it is mentioned about the implementation plan after the measurement and target set, the hotel can monitor the area of water consumption such as bathroom, laundry, swimming pool, kitchen, household, etc. to focus on how the hotel can implement the water saving plan. O'Neill, Siobhan and Holly Tuppen, 2013) Furthermore, it can also be started with the simple practice in the hotel that saves water and does not run the tap, with the help of low-flow taps and shower heads and action plan and water audit. Reduction, reuse and recycling are the terms mentioned in the study of the green hotel waste management.
In the office and back of the house department can change from using paper to using electronic files which can save more for the waste paper. Holding the green meeting in the hotel can help reduce waste by providing E-proposal to reduce paper consumption, Linen less for conference setup to reduce the waste process of laundry system, eco-friendly coffee break menu and participate for food donation to local charity to reduce food waste. From the article, the hotel can definitely generalize the better financial performance, lower utility bills and solid profitability that came from the less consumption of water, waste, renewable energy and the new operating concept.
The hotel can measure the firm's performance on economic performance such as financial return, cost reduction, market share and sales growth. Marketing and promotion of green marketing campaign is another opportunity for the hotel to improve the corporate image of social responsibility.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Research Design
- Sample Company Background
- Population and Sampling
- Data Collection
- Data Analysis
Plaza Athénée Bangkok, A Royal Méridien Hotel is one of the hotels under Starwood Hotel, the global hotel chain that has over 1,200 properties worldwide. The hotel was founded in 2000, which is now in its 15th year of operation. The hotel is located in the center of the city on a quiet street on the wireless boulevard.
The same business idea and environmental concern from the company, (Thaibev) TCC Hotel Asset Management also develops this system in the hotel segment. TCC Hotel Assent Management partners with Starwood Hotel Chain to develop Plaza Athénée Bangkok, A Royal Méridien Hotel to become the model of sustainable hotel. The hotel is the first hotel in the world to have ISO 20121 Certification for Sustainable Event Management System.
ISO 20121 is a system designed to improve the sustainability of events organisations' activities, products and services. The hotel has promoted the Sustainability Champion and Green Council initiatives in the hotel to work with all relevant departments and carry out audits on energy and water consumption. The research population was selected from the employees who work in the Sustainable Hotel, of which 30 participants are selected by the employee who has worked in the hotel for at least 3 years and the people who are part of the organization who have worked from the hotel. the start of the program until the program is certified.
The researcher was looking for the interpretation and understanding of the questions, not aimed at finding facts. To discover the answer and idea of the research question, the qualitative interview approach is one of the most important methods, because the interviewer can get as many ideas, details and experiences from the interviewee as possible, which is more flexible than the quantitative approach in statistical and numerical form . The analysis of the qualitative interview response aimed to discover and understand the research question by utilizing the data collection through personal interview.
Data analysis is where the researcher can move from collecting data to interpreting the information in the form of understanding, explaining and interpreting the answer that the research was investigating. Researcher hopes that all the recorded data can be analyzed and support the research. question about the hotel impact and performance of participating in the sustainable practice.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Demographic Profiles of Respondents
Research Findings
- ISO 20121
- Embrace Responsibility Policy toward Sustainable Practice .1 Environmental: Reduce Environmental Footprint
Volschenk explained how the hotel increases the environmental awareness of employees within the organization. We monitor the temperature of the air conditioning at the back of the house, but also of the public area and the party room” (engineer staff). The result was evident from the figures of reducing electricity consumption compared to 2012: one year after participating in the 2013 program, the hotel can reduce 14.4% (YTD) less than in 2012.
During our renovation project, we have ordered all the equipment that can help reduce the amount of water from the shower in the guest room and the faucet in all the toilets in the hotel to control the level of water leakage every time” (Engineering staff). For the hotel, we reuse the water for recycling in the toilet tank and for watering the plants in the garden” (Engineering staff). Now we started using the hot water to clean the oil stains and also changed the faucet set to make the water spray in the larger area, which saves a lot of water than before.” (Kitchen and food. & beverage staff).
Following the sustainability campaign 30/20 with 20, it is the hotel's goal to reduce water by 20% of the previous consumption by creating the green council and the Energy and Water Audit to advise and check on the use of energy and water in the hotel by to follow the action plan. But the amount of water consumption also depends on the occupancy of the hotel and the functions of the hotel, which is not the same number every year. In each department, we carry out waste sorting, which is mostly paper, recycle waste, bottle and food and separate in the hotel's waste management area to make use of this waste.
We have changed all water bottles in the hotel to be glass bottles instead of plastic” (House Keeping Staff). Starwood Chain has the internal program called Starwood Care, as one of the Cares in the program is Care for Community, we have a recognition award for the employees who themselves contribute to helping the community such as Some large companies have indicated in the selection mode that the hotel must participate in the sustainable practice.
Sustainability is one of the most important criteria when choosing the desired hotel for business.” As a result, a hotel can generate more business by participating in a sustainability program. In addition to the environment and business performance, the result can also be shown in financial performance for costs, which can also show costs for the supplier from the reduction of electricity and water consumption, for example meeting equipment, pen, paper, water bottle, flowers, and etc.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Practical Implications
The organization does not value profit in terms of money, but its profit in terms of making the community a better place to live. In addition, it can also benefit business suppliers who want to become a sustainable company if they are preferred suppliers in the hotel industry. The customer is also part of this program for those who want to work together with the organization and be part of a green meeting or charity event.
To apply the strategy to the real business practice, we need to train the people who deal directly with activities so that they will have the information and knowledge to make better use of the program and be able to train others to make the practice more effective .
Limitations of the Study & Recommendations for Future Research There are possible limitations in the present study which come from the
APPENDICE
Appendix A: The Interview Guide
Management Level
Officer Level
