Frans Melissen - Improving Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry

Over the past few years the hospitality industry has become a lot more sustainable than it used to be. However, the industrys contribution to the sustainable development of our societies is still significantly smaller than it could be. This book specifically addresses the links between operations, tactics and strategy from a sustainable development perspective and moves beyond describing what is to reflect on what could be or even what should be, thus providing students with a concise guide for improving sustainability concepts and businesses in the hospitality industry.

Each chapter uses specific cases and examples to reflect on different ways in which sustainability principles can be used for revisiting the hostguest relationship and improving the industrys business processes and models. In doing so, the book provides current and future professionals with guidelines, inspiration and a call for action to take sustainability within the hospitality industry to the next level, based on inclusiveness, equality and a sustainable relationship with our natural environment.

Frans Melissen is a Professor of Sustainable Business Models/Sustainable Experience Design at the Academy of Hotel Management of the Breda University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands.

Lieke Sauer is a Lecturer of Sustainable Business Models at the Academy of Hotel Management of the Breda University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands.

Hospitality Essentials Series

Series Editor: Roy C. Wood, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Northampton

Hotel Accommodation Management

Edited by Roy C. Wood

Strategic Questions in Food and Beverage Management

Roy C. Wood

Improving Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry

Frans Melissen and Lieke Sauer

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/Hospitality-Essentials-Series/book-series/RHE

First published 2019

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2019 Frans Melissen and Lieke Sauer

The right of Frans Melissen and Lieke Sauer to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Melissen, Frans, author. | Sauer, Lieke, author.

Title: Improving sustainability in the hospitality industry / Frans Melissen and Lieke Sauer.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Series: Hospitality essentials series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018025637 (print) | LCCN 2018042210 (ebook) | ISBN 9781315164755 (Master ebook) | ISBN 9781351675093 (Web PDF) | ISBN 9781351675079 (ePUB) | ISBN 9781351675062 (Mobipocket) | ISBN 9781138057692 (hbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781138057708 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315164755 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Hospitality industry--Management. | Hospitality industry--Environmental aspects. | Social responsibility of business. | Sustainable tourism. | Sustainable development.

Classification: LCC TX911.3.M27 (ebook) | LCC TX911.3.M27 M45 2019 (print) | DDC 647.94068--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018025637

ISBN: 978-1-138-05769-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-05770-8 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-16475-5 (ebk)

For all those who want to contribute to making our world more hospitable for all

First, we would like to express our gratitude to Emma Travis and Carlotta Fanton at Taylor & Francis/Routledge for their support for this book and their guidance during the preparation. We would also like to thank Xavier Font, Nadia Teunissen, Hans Westerbeek, Lars Moratis, Yoy Bergs, Helene van Straten, Bert Smit, Joseph Roevens, Rob van Ginneken, Jasper Bosma, Tim Brown, Geoff Mare, Stan Josephi and Jrn Fricke, for providing us with tips and inspiration for cases, and Gienke Osinga, Simen Kooi and Anne van Delft, for giving us the time and freedom to embark on our plan to write not just another sustainability book about what is. We also thank all of our colleagues at Breda University of Applied Sciences for their understanding and allowing us to put in the time needed to focus on what should be.

Finally, we would like to thank the Hospitality Essentials series editor and our friend, Roy Wood, for encouraging us to take on this challenge.

Frans Melissen and Lieke Sauer

Breda

May 2018

As indicated by its title, this book focuses on sustainability in the hospitality industry. It is not the first book to do so. In fact, a number of textbooks, but also edited works and (popular) science books, all addressing this topic in some way or another have been published over the years. Many of them are dedicated to describing best practices and case studies related to implementing or using specific (more) sustainable technologies, processes or materials in hospitality settings. Others provide current and future hospitality professionals with inspiration and explanations with respect to specific cutting-edge approaches to particular aspects of sustainability within particular contexts. Some focus on the applicability of particular sustainability concepts, such as cradle-to-cradle or the circular economy, in the hospitality industry and either elevate one of those concepts to a panacea or explain in detail why the peculiarities of this industry make it especially difficult or even impossible to apply it. Whereas some of these books address the link between day-to-day operations in hospitality businesses and sustainability, others look into the relevance of sustainability for decision-making at the strategic level.

Therefore, you might ask why we would need another book on this topic. The honest answer is that we, the authors, feel we could add something to the collection of resources already available to you, the reader, that seems to be missing: A perspective on how to take sustainability in the hospitality industry to a next level. Numerous initiatives and programmes dedicated to introducing (more) sustainable practices have certainly made this industry more sustainable than it used to be. A lot of progress has already been made. However, this has not (yet) resulted in a true integration of sustainability into the business models, strategies, tactics and day-to-day operations applied by the vast majority of hospitality businesses and professionals. The hospitality industry is not yet fully aligned with the concept of sustainability. It is not yet making the contribution to sustainable development of our societies that it could make. This book explains why and, more importantly, explores avenues to change this situation. Therefore, it goes beyond addressing the most obvious links between operations, tactics, strategies and business models in hospitality on the one hand and sustainable development on the other. Instead of describing