Ľudmila Novacká & Cafer Topaloğlu Environmental Management Practices in Hotels 2015 Environmental Management Practices in Hotels Evidences from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and the Ukraine Authors: Prof. JUDr. Ľudmila Novacká, PhD., University of Economics in Bratislava, responsible co-ordinator and researcher – parts I., II.1., II.3., II.4., III., IV., V., VI. Assoc. prof. Cafer Topağlolu, PhD., University Muğla – part II.2. Partners, co-ordinators: 1. Mugla University, School of Hospitality and Tourism, University Muğla, Turkey, responsible co-ordinator Cafer Topağlolu 2. South Bohemian University, Faculty of Economy, České Budějovice, The Czech Republic, responsible co-ordinator Kamil Pícha 3. University Koper, Faculty of Tourism studies, Portorož, Slovenia, responsible co-ordinator Gordana Ivanković 4. EHTE Estonian School of Hotel and Tourism management, Tallin, Estonia, responsible co-ordinator Toomas Undusk 5. I. I. Mechnikov National University Odessa, Ukraine, responsible co- ordinator Veronika Shmagina 6. University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, responsible co-ordinator Jordanka Alexieva Scientific reviewers: Prof. Ing. Peter Baláž, PhD., University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak Republic Assoc. prof. RNDr. Pavol Plesník, PhD., Silesian University Opava, Czech Republic Dr. Adrian Barsby, Foundation pour la Formation Hôtelière, Geneve, London, UK © FH, Ľudmila Novacká, Cafer Topağlolu Technical editorial work: Dipl. Eng. Ladislav Bažó, PhD., University of Economics in Bratislava Translation: Assoc. Prof. Stanislav Benčič, PhD. Proof reading: dr. Sebastian Fuller, Apsley Business School, London Title of project: Joint research, evidence: 5608, EUBA O-13-102/0011-00 Publisher: Vydavateľstvo Ekonóm, Bratislava, 2015 Impression: 100 pcs ISBN: 978-80-225-4210 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................ 4 1. The project: Environmental management practices in hotels .................. 7 Evidences of outputs and evaluation .................................................... 12 1. Implementation of environmental practices and barriers ........................ 14 2. Initiatives and state supports for the hotels .................................................. 19 3. Environmental practices in the hotels as a result of legal regulations .... 22 4. Motivation .......................................................................................................... 27 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 30 References ............................................................................................... 32 Ouputs by resource markets .................................................................. 35 Attachment - Questionaire ................................................................... 216 Introduction Environmental management in hotels is the basic scope of the content of this submitted paper. The hotel industry, using environmental management, can implement more renewable environmental and sustainable principles and updated technologies. There is huge theoretical basis and development that has been in process for more than twenty years. Every concept we can base on the argumentation of many experts: Backy J. and Brown M.E., 1978, Hardon J.E. and Mitlin D. 1992, Pezzey J., 1992, Blowers A. and Glasbergen P. 1996, Khan M.A. 1995, Clayton A.M.H. and Radcliffe N.J. 1996, Dovers 1995, Shearman R., 1990, Jacobs M. 1993, Hunter C., 1995, 1997, Bartelmus 1994, Selman 1996, Fyall A., and Garrod B., 1997, Turner K., 1994, Faucheux S., O´Connor M., Van der Straaten J., 1998, Bayliss and Walker 1996., Barton H, 2005, Dresner S., 2008, Hershauer James.C., BAsile George, McNall Scott G., UN Earth Charater (1) Knowles T., Diamantis D., and El-Mourhabi J.B. (2004) – they summarised the history of scientific approach to this issue. They present development of sustainability by four concepts. There are: the concept of sustainability, the concept of development, the concept of needs, the concept of future generations. They reaffirmed and reiterated four scenario of tourism and hospitality sustainability. These four types of scenario described Hunter the first time. There are: very weak sustainability type or tourism imperative scenario, weak sustainability type or product led tourism scenario, strong sustainability type or environment led tourism scenario and very strong sustainability type. (2) Page and Connell (2009) examinated implementation of the concepts in relation to sustainable tourism in practice. They are agreed that practice of sustainable tourism has been a voluntary activity and not driven by policy measures to regulate and direct it. They confirm that they have greater financial resources. (3) They continue the idea of Hawkings and Middleton (2012) related to environmental impact assessment (EIA). Their conclusion is that EIA is only applicable to new developments, nor existing operations which cause environmental damage. (4) The similar knowledge presented Harrington R.J. and Kendall K.W. (2006). They mention the interaction between complexity and firm size and its impact on level of involvement as the most interesting relationships. By their study the small firms used a low-involvement implementation process in an environment of low 4 complexity but a high-involvement process in an environment of high complexity. (5) Sharpley R.A.J. (2009) he analyses the economy of tourism environment. He doe’s do conclusion that the tourism environment and its elements they have the forms of capital. The economic value of the elements of the tourism environment lies in the revenue that is eventually generated from their exploitation. (6) Bruns-Smith A., Choy V., Chong H. and Verma R. (2015) they conducted survey in 100 resorts in the US and 120 000 customers. The study finds an increased willingness to participate when hotels offer incentives, such as loyalty program points, for participating in environmental programs. Although the link between environmentally sustainable programs and improved customer satisfaction is weak compared to standard drivers like facilities, room, and food and beverage quality, hotels are increasingly expected to maintain sustainability programs as a regular feature of their business. The authors presented the statement, that green programs do not diminish guest satisfaction, so hotels may consider their cost-benefit analysis, potential for improved employee relations, and reduced risk in addition to “green” satisfaction to determine whether these investments are beneficial. Finally, it seems that many green investments are now considered to be a more or less standard aspect of hotel operation, regardless of cost or satisfaction considerations. (7) The challenge ahead therefore lies in adapting the hotel industry to changing environmental impacts and at the same time to transform hospitality into a greener sector. As a key driver of jobs, trade, investment and development, the tourism and hospitality sector has tremendous economic value around the globe. That fact encourages its sustainable growth in the transformation toward the Green Economy. Agenda 2030 (2015) proposes the transformation of the world, as well. The “5P” (people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership) navigates all stakeholders in their processes aiming to achieve the sustainable development. Agenda 2030 sets requirements, which involves competencies belonging to national governments, local authorities and their public administrations, local residents, the scientific and academic community and all the people. A considerable share for fulfilling of Agenda 2030 objectives lays with the private sector and its corporate responsibility. It involves requirements for transparency and human rights due to diligence, reporting obligations, and the disclosure of the clime footprint of enterprises. (3) Broad spectrum consisting of 17 basic goals is applicable in hotel industry. Mostly, it involves following objectives: 5 The goal 8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. The goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns The goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. (8) It is now internationally recognized that the world must dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by decreasing its use of fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources like wind, solar and hydropower are unlimited, as they capture energy flows available from the natural environment. Use of renewable energy sources will help secure our future energy supply and lower the negative human impact on the environment. Currently, renewable energy accounts for 8% of the total energy used in the European Union, and targets have been set for this to increase to 20% by 2020. Europe has the world’s largest hotel stock with approximately 5.45 million hotel rooms – nearly half of the world’s total, but represents only 21% of the world total accommodation sector’s CO2 emissions. (9) EU hotels are in a strong position to access renewable energies as over a third of the world’s renewable power capacity is located in the European Union. Hotels can benefit from using renewable energies for example in water heating, space heating and air-conditioning. Currently renewable energy accounts for 8% of the total energy used in the European Union, and targets have been set for this to increase to 20% by 2020. The EU Action Plan for Energy (2015) identifies the tertiary sector, including hotels, as having the potential to achieve 30% savings on energy use by 2020 – higher than savings from households (27%), transport (26%) and the manufacturing industry (25%). (10) Energy efficiency (EE) means using less energy to perform the same tasks and functions. For hotels, this could mean reducing the amount of energy needed for heating by improving insulation of the hotel building, by introducing lighting control or also regulate space heating and cooling. Energy efficiency saves energy, costs, and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases like CO2. Changes, which are proposed by 2030 Agenda, are reflected in transforming policies, transforming business a transforming consumption. 6 In reference to transforming tourism we can apply the basic principles to hotel industry as well. There are following selected principles: Transforming Policies: - Ensure responsible resource management - Introduce binding regulation on corporate responsibility and reporting - Strengthening information and education Transforming business: - Integrating local markets - De-linking resource use and protecting ecosystems - Respecting and actively implementing international standards - Using independent assessments and certification Transforming consumption: - Motivation of customers to change their consumer behaviour - Abolishing subsidies that cause counterproductive market distortions and undermine sustainable development - Removing of obstacles on the way to sustainable decisions 1. The project: Environmental management practices in hotels The project “Environmental management practices in hotels: evidences from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and the Ukraine” is presented the outputs from the scientific research project supported by “Foundation pour la Formation Hôtelière”: "Joint research” registered N 13- 102/0011-00 at University of Economics in Bratislava Responsible co-ordinator: University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia Prof. JUDr. Ľudmila Novacká, PhD. assistant: Ing. Dominika Bojová, PhD. Participating foreign partners delivering collected data (order of universities according to date of data delivery): 7 1. University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Commerce, Bratislava, Slovakia, responsible co-ordinator: Ľudmila Novacká 2. Mugla University, School of Hospitality and Tourism, Muğla, Turkey, responsible co-ordinator: Cafer Topağlolu 3. South Bohemian University, Faculty of Economy, České Budějovice, Czech Republic, responsible co-ordinator: Kamil Pícha 4. University Koper, Faculty of Tourism Studies, Portorož, Slovenia, responsible co-ordinator: Gordana Ivanković 5. EHTE, Estonian School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Tallin, Estonia, responsible co-ordinator: Thomas Undusk 6. I.I. Mechnikov National University Odessa, Ukraine, responsible co-ordinator: Veronika Shmagina 7. University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, responsible co-ordinator: Jordanka Alexieva Great gratitude is expressed to all responsible coordinators for their active cooperation and contribution to form the appropriate database. Figure 1: Process 2011 2012 2012 2013 2013 2014 2014 2015 6-12 1-6 7-12 1-6 7-12 1-6 7-12 1-6 Aim of the research project X FH partner schools consent The research methodology X Questionnaires compiling X Data collection X1 Interim report X Data collection X2 Interim report X Data collection X3 Data processing X Final report X4 X1 – Slovakia, Turkey, Czech Republic X2 – Slovenia, Estonia X3 – Ukraine, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia X4 – The research was prolonged due to late delivery of data from surveyed countries Objectives of the research project o Basic goal: To evaluate hotels environmental policy in practice in selected countries. 8 o The partial goal: To create a cooperation project of selected member schools and universities within the FH. The research methodology Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire survey on quota sample hotels in mentioned countries. The project encludes sampling destinations of contrasting types (coastal, mountain, rural and urban) in seven countries. Text of questions in the questionnaire was partially modified on the basis of The Validation Research Study in the year (2011) using a sample of 30 hotels in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia Text of the questionnaire was inserted into Monkey survey electronic system which represents a paid system that was opened for all participating school partners. The costs of fee payment were increased due to longer collection period of questionnaires which is also why there was a need for multiple prolongation of the system. In any case, this fact does not affect work and quality of data. A data entry file with entering addresses for each country, which was sent to all partner schools. The data collection was set at 20 hotels in each country. On the basis of official statistics considering the structure of surveyed hotels, there was quota structure derived in accordance with categories (standards). Quota structures hotels denotes their service standard level (*rate) were maximally taken into consideration in the surveyed countries. Intention to survey 20 hotels from each country failed in Slovenia due to duplicity of questionnaires or in case of inadequate (or duplicate) submitted questionnaires. In Estonia, the collection of questionnaires was incomplete or more precisely interrupted due to illness of the responsible co-ordinator. Filling out an online questionnaire in Monkey survey system was convenient particularly for 5* hotels, hotels of 2 * and hotels of 3 * categories were not willing to work with the questionnaire electronically. Those hotels accepted an alternative possibility. They filled down print questionnaires, received from each partner´s school in their country; the questionnaires were distributed by local co-ordinator. 9