Enviromental Management

7/28/2019 Enviromental Management

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Environmental Management: New Dimension to Tour ism

Training

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Environmental Management

Introducing Environmental Management to the Sri

Lankan Hotel Sector

4/10/2012

S.R.C.Kumari


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originating in Europe) began sending questionnaires to find out if the hotels they were

promoting had environmental programmers incorporated in their daily operations.

They also indicated that by the year 2001 a majority of the operators would not be

sending future business to hotels that did not have such environmental programmes in

place.

As a result, in July 1997 the environmental Audits for Sustainable Tourism (EAST)

Project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

in partnership with the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and the

Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) were launched in Negril, Jamaica. This

project, which was implemented by Hagler Bailly,Inc., a US- based environmental

consulting firm, was established to demonstrate the benefits of becoming an

environmentally conscious hotel by adopting an environmental management system

(EMS). This is a comprehensive organizational approach that is structured to ensure

sound environment.

The audits, which were designed by Hagler Bailly, Inc., focused on:

The use of energy The use of water Generation of wastewater Generation of solid waste The use of chemicals Management and staff practices

On completion of the audits, fourteen hotels were provided with energy saving

equipment as identified and recommended in the audit report. An integrated EMS was

then designed and implemented within their operations. At the end of the data

recorded.

During the first year of the project it was felt that the hotels which had implemented

an EMS should seek some international recognition for their efforts. As a result, the

consultants, in conjunction with the JHTA and the office of the prime Minister-

Tourism began investigating both the ISO 14000 and Green Global certification

programmes. It was after various options were investigated that the JHTA and theCaribbean Hotel Association (CHA) agreed to adopt the Green Globe certification.

The decision was based on the fact that the programme was designed specifically for

the travel and tourism sectors. It adopt the Agenda 21 principles for sustainable

tourism development as part of the criteria and, similar to 1001, required the

implementation of an EMS.


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Figure: 1.1 Top reasons given by hoteliers for making hotels environmentally

friendly.

Figure: 2.2 Top perceived barriers to becoming environmentally friendly

Friendly, indicated a genuine concern for the impact their operations would on the

physical environment, as shown in figure 2.1.

When asked what they perceived as barriers to this process, they stated that learninghow to make the transition and identifying sources of funding to finance

implementation were the main factors, as shown in figure 2.2. They all felt, however,

that becoming environmentally friendly could be translated into operating profits.

What was interesting was that governments enforcement of environmental laws and

standards ranked the lowest as a reason for becoming environmental friendly.

24%

19%

19%

8%

30% Lower cost

Marketing

Reputation

Compliance

Environmental impact

17%

29%

26%

14%

14%

lack of knowledge cost

cost of Audit

financing

technical difficulties

Uncertainty of savings


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Figure: 2.3. Summary of EAST project audit result for average Jamaican hotel-

breakdown recommendations by implementation cost.

Figure: 2.4 Summary of EAST project audit result for an average Jamaican hotel-

breakdown of recommendations by payback.

The project was also able to demystify the illusion that the process of becoming

environmentally friendly was an expensive one. The audit repots indicated that, of

the recommendations made to the hotels to improve performance, over 70% had a

cost factor of less than US$10 per room, as indicated in figure 2.3 and a payback

period of less than tow months, as shown in figure 2.4.

The audits future identified the following factors common to the majority of hotels:

Inefficient use of water. Leaking toilets accounted for 40% of the daily wateruse in a thirty-five-room hotel.

Excessive and unnecessary use of chemicals. One hotel spent over J$240,000a year on a chemical degreaser to clean the kitchen grease trap instead ofdoing it manually.

3%

19%

78%

cost >us$50/room

cost >us$10 to50/room

cost >us$10 /room

2%

62%

36%payback> 1 year

payback> 2 months

payback=2 to 12 months


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Excessive solid waste generation. Fifty percent of hotel solid waste can becomposted and used on the property, reducing the consumption of plastic

garbage bags.

Staff operating procedures are not followed or enforced. In 90% of cases,housekeepers automatically replaced all used guest towels on properties thathad linen reuse programmes.

Poor (or no) monitoring. Approximately 70% of audited properties had noeffective utilities monitoring programmes and management was not aware of

department shortfalls.

These six areas indicated the areas in which, and personal among whom, training

should be focused, namely, management and staff, across all the departments of the

hotel operations, with some special attention being placed on maintenance.

To future emphasize the economic benefits of going green and the importance of

sound environmental training, in a report prepared by bill Meade and Antonio Del

Monaco (19991) of Hagler Bailly, Inc., the following was observed:

They noted that a green hotel sector would use 77% less water than the average, and

86% less than the inefficient hotel sector. The same simulation was done for energy.

The difference between the consumption of electricity for a green hotel sector and that

of an average hotel sector was over 47 million kilowatt-hours per year. The green

hotel sector using one- third less electricity than the average, and two- thirds less than

the inefficient hotel sectors.

The EAST project clearly demonstrated the environmental management within any

operation led to a win-win situation. EMS contributes to improving the market

share and, at the same time, reducing operating costs. It also demonstrated that

adopting environmental best practices was not necessarily an expensive venture, as it

had beentried and tested with resounding results it also made it clear that the tourism

and hospitality industry had no choice but tourism become green to ensure

sustainability of the businesses. The major challenge now is to find ways and means

to change the mindset of managers and workers in the hospitality sector and prepare

them to meet these new challenges.

All of these factors arising from the audit reports indicated that the problems in hotels

were operational than they were structural and therefore for any improvements to be

made, the focus would have to be primarily on the changing of old working habits and

operational practices. The EAST auditors therefore concluded that great

environmental and financial benefits could be achieved by more frequent monitoring

of utility bills, closer management supervision, improved staff practices, preventative

and routine maintenance of water and energy using equipment, and providing

incentives for staff to implement programmes. All this clearly indicated the urgent

need to place a new focus on education and training.


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Environmental Responsibility

We encourage conservation of the wider landscape through the educational content of

our guided walks, ecology training and awareness raising activities local eco-

systems such as rivers, woodlands, wetlands, meadows, bogs all being integral parts

of our rich natural heritage. Management of these eco-systems should allow for

conservation of the whole landscape. Human development should have minimum

impact on the surrounding landscape, thereby ensuring healthy eco-systems with

clean air, water, soil. Energy conservation is promotedwe use human-powered tools

wherever possible. Also we bring water to the workshop site using a ram-pump which

uses only the pressure of the water itself created by gravity. Participants are told to

use the water sparingly so that the tank does not empty. Waste is collected at specific

places where it is sorted into different bins for recycling. All organic waste is

composted. We give priority to local accommodation providers who adopt eco-

friendly practices by giving priority of bookings to those giving the best eco-friendlypractices including use of energy-efficient appliances, eco-friendly cleaning products,

and recycling, composting, fair-trade products).

A New Focus

A quiet revolution is taking place in the Caribbean-one less visible than the

construction of new hotel rooms or the construction of new cruise ship piers.

Nevertheless, its advent is profoundly changing the nature and shape of the tourism

and hospitality sector in every hotel room, housekeeping, laundry, food and beverage,

and maintenance facility and in every tourism destination that elects voluntarily to

join the environmental movement. This revolution is environmentally sustainable

tourism. The Caribbean hotel industry, particularly, is positioned to reinvent itself in

a way that improves profitability, enhances guest relations, builds bridges into local

communities and preserves the natural beauty of the Caribbean. The question is,

where should the tourism and hospitality industry go from here?

The time has come for all subsectors of tourism to be more responsible and

accountable for the manner in which they develop, manage and operate. The successor failure of tourism in the region lies, not in the hands of governments or

international agencies, but in the hands of governments or international agencies, but

in the tourism product or, in broader terms, the environmental.

There needs to be a focus on the importance of the environment to tourism.

Environmental issues should not be viewed as something other than, some

unrelated and alien. Each sector of the society and each individual has a

responsibility to the education only. When this is understood will the true benefits of

sustainable development be seen by all.

Enviromental Management

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