A comparative study of sustainable
communication on hotels’ websites
Teknisk- naturvetenskaplig fakultet UTH-enheten Besöksadress: Ångströmlaboratoriet Lägerhyddsvägen 1 Hus 4, Plan 0 Postadress: Box 536 751 21 Uppsala Telefon: 018 – 471 30 03 Telefax: 018 – 471 30 00 Hemsida: http://www.teknat.uu.se/student
hotels’ websites
Emma SöderholmThis thesis investigates how hotels communicate their sustainability efforts to their customers on their websites. As sustainability is becoming more known and more expected, businesses feel more pressure to have sustainable initiatives. However, sustainability has no international standards, meaning that businesses can have quite different ideas of what sustainability entails. Therefore, this study looks into different sustainable initiatives that hotels have.
The thesis uses discourse analysis to compare what sustainability issues are addressed and how they are presented on the websites. This is done by comparing six
theoretical perspectives: sustainability, marketing, storytelling, implementation, and certification. The study was conducted by investigating the websites of 75 hotels in four different cities across the world: Helsinki, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Wellington. In addition, eight international hotel chains were investigated. The hotels are first compared within countries and, afterwards, the countries are compared with each other.
The study finds that the most common sustainable initiatives in hotels are
environmental changes within the hotels. Furthermore, it is found that there is a lot of variation between how hotels present their sustainability initiatives. While some hotels present their initiatives clearly, some others only vaguely mention them or hide them away. While many hotels have certification, they do not show the certificates clearly. Furthermore, none of the international chains have certification. The thesis concludes in suggesting a possible future study that would examine how the sustainable initiatives on the websites differ from reality.
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1 Introduction... 1
1.1 Four cities that are included in the study ... 2
1.2 Good practice ... 4
1.3 Organisational work towards sustainability ... 6
1.4 Research question... 7
2 LITTERATURE REVIEW ... 8
2.1 Sustainability pillars ... 8
2.2 Tourists’ opinions ... 9
2.3 The local community’s opinions ... 10
2.4 Host’s opinions ... 10 2.5 Green-washing ... 11 2.6 Tools ... 12 3 THEORY ... 13 3.1 Discourse ... 13 3.2 Sustainability ... 14 3.3 Value creation ... 15 3.4 Sustainable marketing ... 16 3.5 Storytelling ... 18 3.6 Greenwashing ... 19
3.7 Implementation of sustainable actions ... 21
3.8 Certificates ... 22
3.9 Summary of the theoretical perspectives ... 23
4 Method ... 26
4.1 Qualitative and deductive ... 26
4.2 Sample collection ... 27
4.3 Data collection ... 28
1 INTRODUCTION
Tourism is a huge and growing industry that has a large impact on the economy of the entire world. Tourism has grown considerably during the last decades (Luo, 2018) and now creates about one twelfth of all jobs and contributes 1,2 trillion US Dollars to the global economy (Padhi & Pati, 2017).
Since tourism is such a big industry, it cannot ignore the change happening in the world. Climate change requires businesses to adapt to the environmental challenges that are damaging the world and to minimise the negative effects that tourism causes (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017). The harmful effects of tourism are a considerable concern and should be addressed quickly (Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al., 2015).
The harm that tourism causes is also detrimental to the tourism industry. The industry relies heavily on environmental, cultural, natural, and historical resources and protecting them is essential for tourism to continue (Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al., 2015). Other actors in the tourism industry - like the local community and cultural and natural heritage - are important to the continuation of tourism and tourism businesses should think of the other actor’s interests as well as the industry’s own (Alvarez-Sousa, 2018).
1.1 Four cities that are included in the study
Four cities from around the world are looked into in this study. The cities are Helsinki, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Wellington.
Helsinki, Finland
Tourism is growing constantly, worldwide as well as in Finland. According to Visit Finland (Visit Finland Helsinki Metropolitan Area, 2018) statistics, tourism in Finland has grown 5 percent per year and generated about 15 billion euros in 2017. About 29 000 businesses participated in the tourism industry, employing 140 200 people in 2017. During 2018 visitors spent over 22 million nights in accommodations, 33 percent - or 6,8 million - being foreign tourists. Of the 6,8 million, over half were from the EU. 43 percent, or 2,9 million, of the foreign overnights were in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The number has grown just over a percent compared to previous year. The upward trajectory in Helsinki Metropolitan Area has continued for five years. While the biggest group of tourists to the Helsinki Metropolitan Area are from Europe and Asia, during the last few years, a growing amount has come from the United States and Russia. The other areas, Lapland, Lake Finland, and the Archipelago have significantly less foreign overnights (Visit Finland Helsinki Metropolitan Area, 2018).
The Northern countries registered of 49,5 million in foreign overnight stays in 2018. 14 percent of that was in Finland. Finland had the second lowest percentage of overnight stays, after Iceland. Of the 49,5 million overnight stays, over 33 million were in hotels. Finland has 17 percent of those stays, again in third place (Business Finland, 2019).
About half of the overnights spent in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area are recreational while the other half are work related traveling. The percentage of recreational overnights are the lower than elsewhere in Finland, but the work-related traveling percentage is the highest (Visit Finland Helsinki Metropolitan Area, 2018). Overall, recreational traveling grew in Finland while work related travel decreased (Visit Finland Traveling, 2018). The reasons for traveling to Finland and to the Helsinki Metropolitan Area were divided, mostly between enjoying nature (37%) and Culture and Entertainment (35%) (Visit Finland Helsinki Metropolitan Area, 2018).
According to (Komppula, Konu & Vikman, 2017) about one third of tourists that come to Finland take part in nature activities of some sort. The tourism in Finland is marketed as quiet, wild, and free which is connected to nature. It is proven that being in nature has a positive influence on health. Nature tourism is a growing industry, growing even faster than the general tourism industry.
Helsinki is one of the cities with the most smart solutions in Europe and, therefore, Helsinki can be considered a smart city, according to Gretzel, et al. (2016). While the concept of smart cities is fragmented, there are some ways to define them. A smart city has the goal to improve the lives of tourists and locals simultaneously, the different stakeholders establishing value for each other and for themselves. Smart cities are cities where sustainability is considered an important factor.
A smart city requires more than technology; good leadership and inclusion of people is also necessary. Gretzel, et al. (2016) has identified six dimensions of smartness: governance, environment, mobility, economy, people and living. Actualising these six aspects is a step towards sustainability.
Berlin, Germany
recent years. The top countries of visitors are Great Britain, the United States, Spain and Italy (Visit Berlin, 2019).
Los Angeles, USA
Los Angeles passed a milestone with 50 million visitors in 2018, passing the previous year’s amount by 1,5 million. Los Angeles is the biggest city of the ones looked into in this study and has the largest number of visitors. However, only 7,5 million of these tourists were international and the rest were domestic tourists. The countries with most visits to Los Angeles were Canada, Great-Britain and Japan (Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board, 2019).
Wellington, New Zeeland
Wellington has just over 3 million overnight stays annually, about 900 000 of them international (Wellingtonnz, 2020). Even though Wellington is the capital, is it not the biggest tourism destination in the country.
1.2 Good practice
To achieve sustainability, it is important to have good practices. Good practices are a set of processes that are officially recognised as the best to use for a particular business or industry (Cambridge Dictionary, 2020).
The question is: what are the good processes in tourism? The first problem is to define sustainability. Researchers agree that sustainability requires that economic, ecological, and socio-cultural aspects are in balance (e.g. Hultman & Säwe, 2016; Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al., 2015; Bonzanigo, Giupponi & Balbi, 2016; Rotmans, 2017).
The different aspects of sustainability might be in conflict with each other, but sustainable development should uncover the tensions between them and develop policies to mitigate them (Rotmans, 2017). According to Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al. (2015) the purpose of sustainable tourism is to create a balance between protecting the environment, maintaining cultural integrity, having social justice, having economic benefits, and improving the living conditions of the local population. If sustainable tourism works properly, everyone involved can benefit from it (Hultman & Säwe, 2016).
There is, however, also proof of sustainability discussion not having positive results and only having few practical applications (Mihalic, 2016). Therefore, while it is important to create policy that encompasses the different sustainability aspects, words by themselves are not enough (Hultman & Säwe, 2016). It is important to enforce it in a meaningful way, so that all stakeholders are involved and benefit from it (Agyeiwaah, McKercher & Suntikul, 2017). The discussion about the negative effects of tourism needs to move on from critique into practice (McCombes, Vanclay & Evers, 2015). There is a need to identify what actions are needed to create sustainability in a tourism destination.
One reason why tourism businesses might have a problem with changing the current system into a more sustainable one is the cost of change which, in addition to being expensive to the business, might drive away guests that are not prepared to pay more for sustainability (Chen, 2015). Some businesses might not be able to make the changes, because of the costs. It is reported that large businesses incorporate sustainability earlier than smaller ones, due to having more resources (Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018). Sustainable development is affected by economic factors (Chen, 2015).
recycling, water conservation, transportation with lower CO2 and introduction sustainable, local practices. Other suggested actions are creating jobs and employment opportunities, having viable businesses, ensuring the quality of life of locals, energy conservation, maintaining community integrity, engaging the community, programs to develop skills, public awareness, have fair trade products and protect intellectual rights (Agyeiwaah, McKercher & Suntikul, 2017; Han, et al., 2018; Mathew & Sreejesh, 2017; Herrera, et al., 2018). Tourism should benefit the local community directly (Mathew & Sreejesh, 2017). Sustainable development in a tourism destination requires that the community is not overwhelmed with social unrest, pollution and exhaustion of resources because of the tourism industry (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017).
The actions that are the most commonly suggested are waste management, water conservation, local’s quality of life and employment of locals (Oliver, Naar & Harris, 2015; Agyeiwaah, McKercher & Suntikul, 2017; Mathew & Sreejesh, 2017; Herrera, et al., 2018; Han, et al., 2018). These might not be definite answers to creating sustainability and responsible business nor are they easy to achieve but doing all or any of them is definitely a step in the sustainable direction.
To achieve these actions, one of the most important processes is communication with as many associated groups as possible, including local stakeholders, local population, consumers, and tourists (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017).
1.3 Organisational work towards sustainability
Since sustainability has become more common, more organisations have begun to have sustainable initiatives and actions. According to Sroufe (2017) the change towards more sustainable organisations has many advantages, such as improved risk management and new research opportunities.
integrating sustainability into the organisation assures permanent, fundamental change. implementing sustainability into the whole organisation is important since it provokes the employees to create a sustainable mindset, helping sustainability to become integrated into the everyday routine (Epstein & Buhovac, 2010).
According to Deb Chowdhury (2013), to achieve sustainability, an organisation needs competence to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, which includes the capability to resolve conflicts easily. Adaptability is essential. Lawson & Lorenz (1999) argue that in order to have adaptability, an organisation needs communication between different members and integration of sustainability into the routine of the organisation as well as diversity of information.
1.4 Research question:
The purpose of this study is to investigate how some hotels communicate sustainability issues on their websites.
To be able to investigate my purpose, the following research questions were created: 1. What sustainability issues are addressed on the website?
2 LITTERATURE REVIEW
For the literature review, different articles concerning sustainability as well as different stakeholders’ attitudes towards sustainability actions were looked at.
There is no clear agreement about what sustainability is or what is should be (Budeanu, et al., 2016). A holistic approach and knowledge of sustainability are the ground on which sustainable tourism is developed on (Sala, Ciuffo & Nijkamp, 2015; Paunović & Jovanović, 2017). There can be no development without knowledge.
2.1 Sustainability pillars
Sustainability is often divided in three aspects, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural sustainability. It is important to find a compromise between the aspects (Bonzanigo, Giupponi & Balbi, 2016). Sustainability should include all three, in equal measure.
One problem with trying to achieve sustainability is that the economic aspect is often promoted beyond the others which leads to ecological and socio-cultural unsustainability. Economic sustainability does not simply mean being economically profitable, but to have investments that are viable in the future as well (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017).
With the new trend in promoting sustainability, the ecological aspect is becoming more prominent, but the social complexity is often ignored (Hultman & Säwe, 2016). One point of contention between the economic and social aspects is that the top-down is more effective compared to the opposite. That is good for the economy but could easily cause the social aspect of sustainable tourism to be ignored (Hultman & Säwe, 2016).
in a destination need to be aware of the damage that is caused and make an action plan which reduces the effects of the damage (Mihalic, 2016).
Development in tourism does not happen in isolation. It is, or should be, a part of a larger scale development in physical and economic plans and social and cultural programmes of a place (Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al., 2015). Tourism should be considered a part of the overall development.
2.2 Tourists’ opinions
Tourists have recently become more interested in sustainability and eco-compatible products (Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018). According to Bruns-Smith, et al. (2015) tourists appreciate sustainability but other aspects, such as price and convenience, are more important when choosing a service and green initiatives do not affect guests negatively. A large part of tourists demand sustainability within tourism, the percentage varying between studies. According to Oliver, Naar & Harris (2015), 95% or tourists expect sustainability and there is a distinct market for sustainable tourism. Han, et al. (2018), in turn, suggests that 87% of tourists are aware of the importance of sustainability, 80% are eco-friendly and 30% are willing to pay more for sustainability. Whatever the number, sustainability has the support of a large number of visitors. There seems to be no clear difference between leisure and business travellers (Oliver, Naar & Harris, 2015).
According to Chen (2015), tourists have the most positive attitude towards sustainability out of all the actors, in the Arctic. This might be because they want to protect scenery and life that is exotic to them in a way that it is not to the locals.
2.3 The local community’s opinions
The local communities’ opinions of tourism improve if the tourism is sustainable and if they believe that sustainable tourism increases their quality of life (Mathew & Sreejesh, 2017).
According to Budeanu, et al. (2016), the local communities and tourists often work together to try bringing sustainability, though the processes are difficult.
Tourism might start as entertaining to the locals but, especially after some time, they want tourism to have a positive impact on their community (Alvarez-Sousa, 2018). If tourism keeps damaging a destination, it will greatly displease the locals. The tourists do not want to travel to a destination that has been ruined by people coming before them and eventually the tourists will stop coming. Therefore, it is important for tourism businesses to develop sustainability practices and enforce them (Chen, 2015).
The visitors’ and locals’ opinions should be considered very important to sustainable management (Herrera, et al., 2018). Communication with stakeholders is essential for sustainability.
2.4 Host’s opinions
Although sustainability has become a regular within the tourism industry, it has no universal standards (Chen, 2015) which might result in some businesses not knowing what sustainability practices are the most beneficial for them (Budeanu, et al., 2016). Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al. (2015) remarks that tourism businesses are too focused on short-term change, when in fact they should be concentrated in long-term solutions instead.
Cultural tourism has been advocated recently (Garau, 2015). Globalisation and the growth of tourism globally bring possibilities for people, but they also have affected the way culture is perceived. Local and cultural features become standardised and defined by experts (Härkönen & Vuontisjärvi, 2018).
The visitors pursue authenticity, cultural and traditional, which leads to the tourism industry becoming very complex (Garau, 2015). This combined with the visitors’ demand for ecological sustainability leads to further competitiveness within tourism. Therefore, having sustainable practices also gives businesses a competitive advantage and helps with their image (Mathew & Sreejesh, 2017). To be able to compete in the growing tourism market, a business needs sustainable and resilient policies (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017).
2.5 Green-washing
With the demand for sustainability growing recently, there is a trend of businesses calling themselves sustainable without actually doing sustainable actions (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017). This is commonly referred to as green-washing. This problem is partly created by the absence of universal standards on sustainability that businesses must adhere to (Chen, 2015). Sustainability is difficult to define, and businesses can easily take advantage of that ambiguity.
companies not to do green initiatives or not share them with their customers (Oliver, Naar & Harris, 2015).
A hotel’s customer evaluations often do not include a sustainability aspect which might be a consequence of not having sustainability initiatives or being vary of seeming like green-washing (Herrera, et al., 2018).
2.6 Tools
Tourism needs to be assessed in different levels - global, national, and local - using current tools while developing tools for the future (Rotmans, 2017).
3 THEORY
The theory section looks into different ways of how a business can present their sustainability initiatives to their customers. Communication of sustainability to customers is important and with these concepts presented, I wish to understand different ways in which businesses present sustainability in their organisations.
First there is a section on the concept of sustainability, then marketing and storytelling followed by greenwashing and implementation of sustainability and communication. These theoretical perspectives are the lenses through which the findings of data are further analysed.
3.1 Discourse
The method used to go through the data is discourse analysis.
Discourse analysis examines the language used in order to see how it reflects the intentions of the person who wrote it. Sustainable discourse analysis also often reflects how words reflect or influence the world (Higgins, C & Coffey, 2016). Discourse finds themes in a text (Sylvestre, McNeil & Wright, 2013) and compares them to different texts.
Sustainable discourse analysis can be used to examine how companies communicate about sustainability (Higgins & Coffey, 2016).
According to (Potter & Edwards, 1996) discourse is analysed based on what the discourse is doing and why it is doing it. In other words, this could be phrased as what are the themes of the discourse and what is tried to accomplish by framing the discourse in that way.
different hotels present their sustainability initiatives with these perspectives as well as the similarities and differences between hotels.
3.2 Sustainability
The demand for sustainability is growing. Tourists expect sustainability in services (Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018) and an increasing amount of laws and policies require it (Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al., 2015).
Therefore, sustainability has become more expected by customers and governments (Bruns-Smith, et al., 2015; Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018). It is also beneficial to the business to have sustainable values since it has become a selling point due to tourists expecting it (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017). Internationally, there have been many strategies for sustainable action taken in recent years (Oxenswärdh, 2020).
Sustainability is a very complex concept and there are many problems with definitions. There are three aspects - economic, environmental, and socio-cultural - and they are all connected to each other (e.g. Hultman & Säwe, 2016) and there is discussion of which aspect should take precedence.
Sustainable development should find a balance between the different aspects in order to benefit all three aspects (Hashemkhani Zolfani, et al., 2015).
Sustainability as a concept is difficult to understand due to the intricate nature of it (Marcus, Cooper, Sweller, 1996). Garay, Font & Pereira-Moliner (2017) state that a problem is that while information concerning sustainability exists, it is not coherent for the businesses and they do not understand what is or is not relevant for them. Sustainability has many different aspects and those aspects need to interact, making it very complex. In other words, there is a lot of information at once which is easily overwhelming (Marcus, Cooper, Sweller, 1996). There are many interpretations of what sustainability is and how it should be approached.
When learning about sustainability it is important to note what part is concentrated on, since people might approach it differently. People who are promoting business are most attentive to economic factors while people promoting the environment are interested in ecological factors and resources. When promoting sustainable business both of these aspects need to be taken into account (Byrch, et al., 2007). Therefore, it is important not to just inspect a case from one point of view - economic, environmental, or social - but rather to bring together multiple viewpoints and come up with new solutions. The people promoting business might have a very different understanding of what sustainability entails (Byrch, et al., 2007). Learning about different approaches - diversity in opinions - is essential to understanding the whole situation.
3.3 Value creation
Value creation can be defined as being a product of many different actors - even all actors involved - but for the sake of analysis and practical use, it can also be defined as customers creating value in-use. In other words, it is customers giving value to a service or product by using it. This usage can be physical, virtual, or mental process or simply possessing the service or product (Grönroos & Voima, 2013; Honebein, Cammarano & Donnelly, 2009).
Grönroos & Voima (2013) also suggest that a service-providing business can be a co-creator of value if they are in direct contact with the customer during value creation. For example, a hotel can create value to a guest while the guest stays at the hotel by providing services that increase the customer’s well-being. Sustainability initiatives may increase the value placed in a service by customers, if they consider sustainability important, as an increasing number do (Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018).
3.4 Sustainable marketing
Marketing can be defined as promoting a business to impress consumers to buy from a particular business. In other words, marketing is trying to get a competitive edge on rival businesses (Kumar, et al., 2012). Since sustainable businesses are becoming more important to hotels’ customers, marketing sustainability can be an important advantage in competition.
According to Baker (2016) marketing has become more about the demand of consumers than ever. Businesses desire to increasing the satisfaction of customers as much possible to get sales. Marketing varies depending on the nature of the company and field it operates on (Baker, 2016). Moreover, in order for sustainable marketing to be taken seriously by the customers, it needs to be seen as legitimate (Peattie, 2016).
According to Peattie (2016) sustainable marketing is characterised by, among other things, an open-ended perspective rather than a long-term one, a perspective of nature as something with fixed intrinsic value and a focus on global events rather than particular ones.
Since marketing encourages consumption and sustainability encourages conservation, it is easy to see the two as opposites (Peattie, 2016; Kumar, et al., 2012). Therefore, there needs to be a balance between consumption and conservation (Kumar, et al., 2012). Sustainability marketing can do good by understanding the needs of consumers, designing more sustainable products, and communicating about sustainable change to the consumers (Font & McCabe, 2017).
Promoting sustainable agendas is a popular style of sustainable marketing. It is characterised by associating the business or products with social or environmental issues. The possible problem with this type of sustainable promotion is based on mistrust in businesses caused by lying about sustainable actions, or greenwashing. In order to avoid the controversy a business can e.g. ensure that the promoted action has actual impact, explain the benefits from the sustainable action or provide specific data about it (Peattie, 2016).
Giving the sustainable promotion a label is an easy way to create customers’ trust in a business (Peattie, 2016). This can be executed by having a trustworthy certificate, for example.
3.5 Storytelling
Storytelling means reporting about a subject in the form of a story. The theory of storytelling is based on the fact that humans feel connectedness to stories. Stories create emotional connections to, and understanding of, the subject of the story. Therefore, since a person can relate to a story, it is easier for them to remember a story than a lecture (Woodside, 2010). People naturally think in stories, rather than in arguments (Woodside, Sood & Miller, 2008). According to Hsiao, Lu & Lan (2013), connecting to a story through empathy and attitude can influence the readers intentions.
A good story is an effective way to convince a person of the subject of the story (Woodside, 2010). In advertising, it is beneficial if people could remember and possibly re-tell the theme of the story. This would ensure a larger audience for the business’s advertisement and it could easily create recurring customers for the business.
Therefore, a business reporting about their sustainable initiatives in a form of a story would make the customer remember it and it could more easily influenced their decision through emotions and attitude. Remembering the story makes it more likely that they would remember the business - and their sustainability initiatives - in the future and return.
There are many parts to a story. According to Woodside (2010), a story conveys change and motives for the change. This could be portrayed in sustainability storytelling as explaining why the hotel has started sustainability initiatives. Woodside (2010) also suggests that a story should indicate the difference between reality and expectations. In sustainability storytelling this could be accomplished by pointing out the graveness of the problems, ecological or social, that are afflicting in the world.
Storytelling through pictures
Pictures are a part of storytelling and the story as a whole often includes both pictures and text (Agosto, 1999; Calvert, 2009). Pictures might complement the text or vice versa (Calvert, 2009) depending on which is considered to be the main point of the story. Agosto (1999) presents the differentiation of twice-told stories and interdependent stories. Twice-told stories have the same information in pictures and text while interdependent stories have pictures and text which complement each other, and the story might not be fully comprehended without both parts.
Pictures are processed by the left side of the brain which is connected to emotions (Calvert, 2009). Since associating stories to emotions is effective in storytelling (Woodside, 2010), having meaningful pictures would be useful.
3.6 Greenwashing
Since the customers of hotels appreciate sustainability more and more, it is good for a business to market sustainability. This has created a movement where businesses display their sustainable actions, even minor ones or claim to be sustainable without actually having those sustainable initiatives. This is called greenwashing (Paunović & Jovanović, 2017). The term greenwashing was introduced in 1986 by Jay Westervelt (Rahman, Park & Chi, 2015).
While having sustainability is good for business, it is damaging to be blamed of greenwashing. This might lead to businesses to not invest in sustainable initiatives or avoid advertising them to their customers (Oliver, Naar & Harris, 2015).
Ramus & Montiel (2005) argue that it is difficult to be certain if a business truly is committed to doing sustainable actions, since it is impossible to fact check their statements. The possibility of greenwashing is there, and it is difficult to prove or disprove. Ulterior motives when it comes to sustainability cause customers to be sceptical of the business’s sustainability actions (Rahman, Park & Chi, 2015).
Due to the information available online, it is easy for anyone to check whether a company has reported to have sustainable initiatives or not (Ramus & Montiel, 2005). As sustainability has become more popular and an increasing number of people demand sustainability, businesses have the incentive to advertise their sustainability initiatives, which is easily done and spread online. However, news or rumours about greenwashing are as easily spread. Greenwashing might lead to a potential ‘market penalty’ which is damaging for the business (Ramus & Montiel, 2005).
According to Ramus & Montiel (2005), service industries are as likely to commit to sustainable policies but less likely to take part in specific environmental policies. Furthermore, they argue that service businesses are not incentivised to have sustainable policies in the same way as industrial businesses, nor do they have the same costs for doing so and therefore less economic interests to initiate those policies.
However, it could be argued that with the rise of sustainability-minded customers, service industries do have economic incentives to have sustainability policies. Businesses that get economic benefits from making sustainable statements are likely to do so, whether those policies are in place or not (Ramus & Montiel, 2005).
accused of greenwashing, some companies choose to not advertise their sustainable actions.
Therefore, greenwashing hurts not only the consumers and sustainable businesses but also the environment (Furlow, 2010).
Marquis, Toffel & Zhou (2016) suggest that businesses that have poor environmental performances are less likely to hide their negative environmental actions behind positive ones due to the scrutiny that follows the reputation of having poor environmental performance. Therefore, businesses with poor performance are more likely to advertise more relevant, positive information about sustainability in their business.
3.7 Implementation of sustainable actions
Implementing sustainability
Implementation of goals is defined by not only solving a current issue but also planning for future situations (Gollwitzer, Fujita & Oettingen, 2004; Gollwitzer & Brandstätter, 1997). Implementation prompts a mindset where a person can stay focused on the goal (Gollwitzer, Fujita & Oettingen, 2004).
In implementation of sustainability in a business it is important to apply sustainable actions in every aspect of the organisation. Having sustainability strategy is the starting point to fully implementing sustainability. A business strategy needs to be supported by a structure that includes the whole organisation and an organisational culture that encourages sustainability. Sustainable leadership assures that sustainability is a part of the organisation rather that a separate section (Epstein & Buhovac, 2010).
According to Epstein & Buhovac (2010) the problem many businesses face is often not knowing how to implement sustainability rather than considering it unimportant.
Communicating sustainable implementation
In order for a company to gain a competitive advantage for having sustainable initiatives, they need to communicate those initiatives in a clear and thorough manner. If customers see that a company has sustainability embedded into the routine and life of every employee and every task, it is easier for them to trust that the company actually does sustainable actions instead of lying about it.
The way in which businesses communicate their sustainability actions is essential for legitimacy and to avoid being seen as exaggerating or lying. Especially in the modern world with diverse media, it is easy to manipulate and spread information (Nwagbara & Reid, 2013).
In this modern world with diverse media, it is simple to manipulate information but it is also easier for businesses to share their sustainable activities to the customer base and they should take advantage of the opportunity to circulate information (Nwagbara & Reid, 2013).
While it is important for businesses to communicate sustainability in a coherent and trustworthy way, it is also important to manage what is being communicated. According to Klettner, Clarke & Boersma (2014) it is important to communicate a sustainability strategy as well as a monitoring framework and a way to receive input from stakeholders. This helps with gaining the customers’ trust in the sustainability initiative.
3.8 Certificates
Certificates can be used as a marketing tool and statement of a business’s commitment to sustainability (Andersson, 2016). Eco-certification has been used for improving competitiveness, saving costs, marketing, and legitimation for customers. While there are several certificated worldwide - 465 in 199 countries - it remains inconclusive whether they have the desired effect (Margaryan & Stensland, 2017).
There are hundreds of labels and certificates worldwide and most of them are concentrated on environmental sustainability. Switchmed (2017) introduces some of the most well-known labels in sustainable tourism, including Travelife, Green Key, Green Globe, EU Ecolabel and Earthcheck. Apart from EU Ecolabel, all these labels include environmental and socio-cultural criteria. These labels cost from hundreds to thousands of euros, they have about 600 to 1300 certified establishments and they are audited regularly. It is easy for anyone to search information about these labels and since they are audited on a regular basis, customers can trust that hotels are adhere to the criteria that the label represents.
As an example, the Green in Key has 13 areas of criteria: staff involvement, environmental management, guest information, water, energy, washing & cleaning, food & beverage, waste, and administration (Green Key International, 2020). All these areas have several criteria that must be fulfilled. For example, environmental management requirements include appointing an environmental manager and having an annual action plan for improvement. The food & beverage requirements include having at least three types of food/beverage that is organic and/or locally produced and registering all food waste as well as having a plan to reduce it (Green Key, 2019).
As seen by this example, the criteria can be rigorous and demands clear documentation and constant improvement.
3.9 Summary of the theoretical perspectives
creation means that customer create value to a service by using it (Grönroos & Voima, 2013). Sustainability adds value to a service if customers allocate value to it.
Sustainability appreciation is growing among tourists and they are favouring hotels with sustainable initiatives more and more (Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018). The idea of customers as co-creators of value explains that customers favouring sustainability gives sustainability value (Honebein, Cammarano & Donnelly, 2009), which makes it more important for hotels to have those initiatives.
Sustainable storytelling is reporting about an organisation’s sustainability in the form of a story. This affects customers’ emotions and attitude (Woodside, 2010), which may make them take note of the concept behind the story.
Greenwashing is a phenomenon where an organisation claims to have more sustainable actions than they do. It can also mean hiding environmentally harmful actions behind positive ones (e.g. Paunović & Jovanović, 2017). If greenwashing is revealed it is bad not only for the organisation in question but also for the trust of the customers who might mistrust any sustainability reports in the future (Furlow, 2010).
Implementing sustainability into every aspect of an organisation is important in order to make it a routine within the organisation (Epstein & Buhovac, 2010). Sustainability initiatives can save costs and give a business a competitive edge (Font & McCabe, 2017). Therefore, implementing them properly would seem to be wise. It is also important to communicate those implemented sustainability initiatives to gain the competitive edge.
4 METHOD
This study uses a deductive method to assess how hotels communicate their sustainability initiatives to their customers. I have looked into the websites of several hotels in four cities to determine how they communicate about sustainability to their customers.
4.1 Qualitative and deductive
This study is conducted using a deductive, qualitative method. The quantitative method is based on objective data while the qualitative method often relies on people’s subjective views (Bryman & Bell, 2011). While the quantitative method is based on positivism; that the data represents the truth that is not based on perception, a qualitative study tries to understand the situation from a person’s, or business’s perspective (Sale, Lohfeld & Brazil, 2002).
The qualitative method seeks to understand the points of view of the participants, the interviewees, and interpret the social world through interactions and descriptions of people (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Since this study is based on interpreting the written words of what a business has stated, it is not necessarily objective fact but rather the business’s point of view. Thus, the method is qualitative.
In this study there are theoretical perspectives that explain what kind of information about sustainability the hotels could present on their website which will then be contrasted with the information gathered on the hotels’ websites in order to gather conclusions.
4.2 Sample collection
For this study 75 hotels from four different cities in different countries around the world were investigated. The hotels were chosen by searching different hotels online and subsequently searching that hotels website for mentions of sustainability. Different websites, such as Trivago and TripAdvisor, were used to collect lists of names of hotels. Furthermore, some hotels were searched based on having certificates, i.e. from the certificate-holders’ websites. This meant that those hotels decidedly had some sustainability initiatives.
The chosen hotels include individual hotels, local chains and international chains. They are divided into five categories: four based on the country of origin and the fifth is for international hotel chains. International chains are defined by having a hotel in more than one of the studied areas. Smaller chains, that only cover one of the studied cities, are counted into the hotels of a country. There are eight international chains in this study. Bigger hotels incorporate sustainability changes easier than smaller ones due to having more resources (Buffa, Franch & Rizio, 2018). That is why hotel chains – which likely have more resources – are separated from individual ones.
The hotels that were regarded in this study were both hotel chains and individual hotels from each country.
4.3 Data collection
Data was collected from hotels’ websites and the amount of information found on each website differed. Some hotels had clearly designated sections with the name ‘sustainability’, but many hotels did not have them. Therefore, the websites were thoroughly searched for mentions of sustainability-related concepts. The websites were searched for any mention of, for example, eco-friendliness, contribution to the well-being of local residents and having a sustainability certificate. This information did not always have its own sections but was often mentioned in blogs, in connection to presenting the local city, in the ‘information’ section or under another name than ‘sustainability’. Because of this divergence in information, the information gathering was quite arduous.
4.4 Data analysis
The analysis in this study is conducted by making groups of hotels based on whether they are individual or chains as well as their country of origin. The hotels within these groups are first compared to each other, finding similarities and differences. Thereafter, the groups are compared to the other groups, pointing out similarities and differences between the groups.
Sustainability looks into what area of sustainability the hotel is promoting - ecological or socio-cultural.
Marketing explores how sustainability is marketed in the hotel, how prominent or outstanding the sustainability initiatives are and where they are placed on the website. Storytelling looks into whether sustainability is advertised as a story or whether it is simply told as facts as well as if there are befitting pictures accompanying the text. Implementation of sustainability looks into how sustainability is imbedded throughout the organisation by, for example, examining whether the sustainability initiatives are internal or external - activity within the organisation or generosity outside it. For example, an internal initiative could be energy conservation within the hotel and external one could be supporting charities outside the hotel.
If a hotel has a certificate, it expresses that they are committed to the requirements of the certificate and that they are audited regularly.
These perspectives are analysed by looking for themes in the text and examining the differences and similarities in other texts.
4.5 Reliability and validity
Reliability means that the concept that is measured stays constant and the study can be repeated. Reliability in a qualitative study can be measured using external reliability and internal reliability. External reliability measures how easily the study can be replicated (Bryman & Bell, 2011). Since sustainability is a constantly changing concept, it is likely that the sustainability initiatives in hotels change over time - possibly quite quickly. The data gathered by this study is likely to change in time. However, a similar study of how hotels present their sustainability initiatives can be replicated.
Validity determines the integrity of the research, that the study researches what it means to research. There are two types of validity. Internal validity assesses whether the observations and theoretical ideas that are developed go together. External validity assesses if the findings of a study can be generalised (Bryman & Bell, 2011).
The study looks into hotels in different cities in Europe, the United States and New Zealand. While researching data for this study, many hotels without any sustainability information were found in some other countries globally. Therefore, while the findings of this study could likely be generalised in other cities of the same country, they presumably cannot be generalised globally. This study was conducted with hotels from western countries. Therefore, the study does not include other countries, which might have vastly different sustainability practices.
4.6 Ethical considerations
This study is based on information found online from the websites of organisations. Since all the information is available to anyone looking for it, there is little possibility of this study harming, invading the privacy or deceiving the participants of the study, which are ethical principles presented by Bryman & Bell (2011).
Even though the information is public, this study will not use the names of the hotels or describe them in detail. The hotels are categorised based on the country they are in as well as whether they are individual hotels or chains.
This study does not reveal any information that the businesses investigated did not reveal themselves, it simply compares and analyses the different information found.
4.7 Method critique
information’s truthfulness. The business might claim to have a sustainable initiative while not acting on it.
Another problem with the data collection is that while a substantial time was used to look through the hotels’ websites, there is a possibility that there was a mention of sustainability that was missed.
Another problem with finding samples was that many hotels belong to the same organisations, therefore having the same standards in sustainability. This made it difficult to find a sufficient number of hotels to compare.
In the sample collection, using certain websites to gather a list of hotels, it is likely that only the most popular or the biggest hotels were investigated. This would unwittingly eliminate some hotels from the study. This problem was minimised in Finland since the author knows hotels in the area.
5 DATA COLLECTION
The data was collected in five different categories: sustainability, marketing, storytelling, implementation, and certificates.
The sustainability part studies what kind of sustainability in the initiatives in the hotels present - whether there are ecological initiatives, socio-cultural initiatives, or both. Marketing studies how the sustainability initiatives are presented on the hotel’s website and how easily the information is found.
Storytelling studies how sustainability is presented: whether there is a list of initiatives or the hotel’s sustainability initiatives are told like a story. There is also a note of whether or not there are pictures attached to the information about sustainability.
Implementation of the sustainability initiatives studies how the initiatives seem to be imbedded into the organisation by assessing whether the initiatives are internal or external. Internal initiatives are defined by the initiatives that directly affect the hotel, like conserving water. External initiatives are initiatives that do not directly affect the hotel but rather show the hotel’s supporting other organisations, like supporting charities. Sustainability that is embedded into the organisation secures more sustainable thinking and sustainable innovation (Epstein & Buhovac, 2010).
Certification looks into whether the hotels have certificates and how clearly they display them. If a hotel has a certificate, it expresses that they are committed to the requirements of the certificate and that they are audited regularly.
The hotels are compared to each other using these perspectives.
5.1 Sustainability
Helsinki
social sustainability initiatives and when a hotel does have social initiatives, they also have environmental initiatives.
The most commonly reported environmental initiatives in individual hotels in Helsinki are reducing water and energy use, recycling, recycling and waste management. The most common social sustainability actions are supporting various local events. Three out of the eleven hotels report initiatives where the hotel encourages environmental actions from the customers.
Eight hotel chains were looked into in Helsinki. Five of the hotels mention both environmental and social sustainability initiatives while only one of the hotels mentions no environmental sustainability initiatives and two do not mention any social sustainability initiatives.
The most common environmental initiatives in the hotel chains are recycling, renewable energy, reducing energy and water use and reducing waste. The most common social sustainability initiatives are supporting various local charities and the local community. One of the hotels mentions encouraging sustainable behaviour in customers.
In Helsinki almost all of the hotels that were looked into have environmental sustainability initiatives. The individual hotels are more likely to have no social sustainability initiatives while the chains are more likely to have both environmental and social initiatives. The most common environmental initiatives are similar in both chains and individual hotels and social initiatives are related to the local community.
Individual hotels are more likely to have initiatives that encourage customers to act but it was present in one of the chains as well.
Berlin
environmental initiatives found in the hotels are recycling, renewable energy, reducing emissions and having organic products.
The most common social initiatives found are collaborating with local communities and organisations as well as supporting various charities.
Ten hotel chains were studied in Berlin. Four of those hotels do not mention social sustainability initiatives. All of the hotels mention environmental sustainability initiatives and six hotels mention both environmental and social ones.
The most common environmental sustainability initiatives found are energy efficiency, renewable energy, reducing waste and reducing water use. The most common social sustainability initiatives are supporting local communities and organisations as well as supporting social justice. One hotel mention having social engagement but did not specify what that entails.
One of the hotel chains mentions encouraging customers to act sustainably.
While many of the hotel chains in Berlin mention having both environmental and social sustainability initiatives, most of the individual hotels only mention environmental ones. It is more common - in both chains and individual hotels - to see environmental rather than social sustainability initiatives. Both individual hotels and chains mention having similar environmental sustainability initiatives. The social sustainability initiatives are also similar, though the chains mention support for social justice while the individual ones do not.
Los Angeles
The most commonly mentioned environmental sustainability initiatives are energy efficiency, recycling, reducing water use and reducing emissions. The social sustainability initiatives focus on supporting local, national and international charities. One of the individual hotels mentions encouraging customers to act in a sustainable way.
Nine hotel chains were studied in Los Angeles. Two of them did not mention any social sustainability initiatives and one mention no environmental ones. The remaining six mention having both social and environmental initiatives.
The most common environmental sustainability initiatives found are recycling, reducing water and energy use and reducing waste. The most common social sustainability initiatives mentioned are supporting local and national charities and supporting the local community.
One hotel chain mentions encouraging sustainable behaviour in their customers.
In Los Angeles one hotel chain and two individual hotels do not mention having any social sustainability and one of each mention having no environmental initiatives. Some individual hotels are very vague about their initiatives.
Six chains and three individual hotels have both social and environmental initiatives. The environmental sustainability initiatives are quite similar in chains and individual hotels and the social initiatives concentrate on supporting various charities, though the chains mention of supporting local communities while the individual hotels do not. One individual hotel and one chain mention encouraging sustainable action in their customers.
Wellington
Six individual hotels were studied in Wellington and none of them mention having social sustainability initiatives. The most frequently mentioned environmental initiatives are reducing waste, reducing water and energy use as well as using local products.
Out of the six hotel chains that were looked into in Wellington, all of them have environmental sustainability initiatives but two do not mention any social initiatives. Four hotel chains have both social and environmental initiatives.
The most common environmental initiatives are reducing waste, recycling and energy efficiency. The most common social sustainability initiatives are supporting local communities and charities. Three of six hotels comment on encouraging their customers to act sustainably.
In Wellington none of the individual hotels mention having social initiatives while all but two of the chains mention having both environmental and social ones. All of the hotels, both chains and individual hotels, have environmental initiatives. The environmental initiatives are very similar in all hotels. One of the individual hotels and three of the chains encourage their customers to act sustainably.
International
Eight international chains were studied, and they all have both social and environmental sustainability initiatives. The most common environmental initiatives are reducing energy and water consumption, waste reduction, reducing emissions and renewable energy. The most common social initiatives are supporting human rights causes, supporting local and international charities and anti-discrimination policies.
Summary
All of the hotels mention on their websites that they have environmental sustainability initiatives more frequently than social ones. There are few hotels with no environmental initiatives but quite many with no social ones. Chains have both social and environmental initiatives more often than individual hotels do. Although social initiatives are less common, they are found in all groups, with the exception of individual hotels in Wellington.
The social initiatives have more variation. Charity is one of the more common social initiatives, but it was not common at all in Helsinki. Supporting social justice and human rights seems to be more common within hotel chains than with individual hotels.
The encouragement of sustainable behaviour in customers is present in Helsinki, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Wellington, though in Berlin and Los Angeles it was much less common. In Helsinki it is more commonly seen in individual hotels and in Wellington it is more common in chains.
It is also notable that many hotels present their sustainability initiatives as ‘ecological’, even though there are social initiatives included.
5.2 Marketing
Helsinki
The sustainability initiatives in individual hotels in Helsinki are mentioned in very varied ways. Many of the hotels have sustainability sections that are clearly accessible from the main page while some others’ sustainability information is mentioned in blogs. Some hotels have no other information besides showing that they have sustainable certification. Five out of the eight hotel chains in Helsinki have clear access to a section about sustainability from the main page of the hotel. The others either have information on blogs or in their “About us” sections. Some of the hotels are offer quite little information about their initiatives while others have plenty of information.
Some of the hotels, both individual hotels and chains, have very little information about their sustainability initiatives. Most of the chains and individual hotels have clear access to the sustainability section but there are still many with information that was quite difficult to access.
Berlin
The sustainability initiatives are easily found in all ten hotel chains. One of the hotels has additional information that is more difficult to find but the otherwise all of the information could be accessed easily.
All of the hotel chains in Berlin have easily accessible information about sustainability while only half of the individual hotels do. The chains have very clear information while some of the individual hotels’ information is quite vague.
Los Angeles
Six out ten of the individual hotels in Los Angeles have information about sustainability easily accessible from the main page. One hotel has no other information besides showing a sustainability certificate and another hotel mentions being eco-friendly without specifying what exactly that encompasses. The remaining two hotels have information about sustainability on their “About us” section which is not immediately accessible from the main page. One of the hotels has a logo that references “being green” in addition to their sustainability information.
Seven of nine hotel chains that were studied in Los Angeles have information about sustainability that is easy to access from the main page. Five of them have access directly from the main page and two have information via the “About us” section. Out of the remaining two, one’s information is difficult to find from the website and the other’s sustainability section is unclearly named and therefore difficult to find.
Most of the individual hotels and chains have easily accessible information about their sustainability initiatives. Some of the hotels, both chains and individual hotels, have information that is difficult to find and some of the individual hotels present their sustainability initiatives very unclearly.
Wellington
One of the hotel chains has a sustainability section that is easily accessed from the main page. The rest of the hotels have the information on their “About us” sections or under a different name that can be difficult to identify as being about sustainability.
A few of the individual hotels present quite little information about their sustainability initiatives while the hotels chains have generally more information. However, those individual hotels that have information, display it more clearly than the chains do.
International
Six out of the eight international hotel chains have sustainability sections that are very easily accessible from the main page of the hotel or via their “About us” sections. One of the remaining hotels’ sustainability section has a name that might not be immediately clear and the other has a sustainability section that is quite difficult to access since there is information in several locations.
Summary
Mostly, chains have more easily accessible information than individual hotels. In Helsinki much of the information is easily accessible but there are exceptions. In Los Angeles almost all of the hotels have clear access to sustainability information on their websites. In Wellington the individual hotels present their information more clearly than the chains, but some individual hotels have very little information. Almost all of the international chains have quite easily accessible information about sustainability.
The most common place to find sustainability easily is the international chains, Los Angeles and the hotel chains in Berlin.
5.3 Storytelling
Helsinki
The remaining hotels present their information as facts or through their certificates. Only three hotels use pictures to add effect to their text.
Half of the hotel chains in Helsinki present their sustainability initiatives using some kind of story. The remaining four hotels have their sustainability initiatives written as facts. Most of the stories are connected to the history of the hotel’s sustainability initiatives. Some of the hotels use pictures.
Only some of the hotels in Helsinki use stories to present their sustainability initiatives. There is no huge difference between individual hotels and chains in this regard. Four hotels in Helsinki use both pictures and stories together.
Berlin
Five out of eight individual hotels use stories when presenting their sustainability initiatives. The stories report the hotels motivation for sustainability, or the sustainable actions are mentioned as a part of the hotel’s history. Only one of the hotels has pictures to accompany the story.
Four out of ten hotel chains in Berlin present their sustainability initiatives in the form of a story. The stories are about the history of the hotel or reasoning behind the sustainability initiatives of the hotel.
Six of the hotels have several pictures attached to their texts.
The individual hotels in Berlin use stories to present their sustainability initiatives more often than the chains. However, there are significantly more pictures used by the chains than by individual hotels. Five hotels in Berlin have a story and pictures.
Los Angeles
Three out of ten individual hotels present their sustainability initiatives as stories. The stories are mostly related to the history of the hotel, as a part of the overview of the hotel or explaining reasons why the hotel has sustainability initiatives.
Five of nine hotel chains tell some kind of stories while reporting their sustainability initiatives. The stories are about the reasons for the hotel’s sustainable actions or connected to the history of the hotel.
Three of the hotels have several fitting pictures attached to the text while the others have few or no pictures.
Stories are used more by chains than by individual hotels in Los Angeles. Most of the chains use stories while a minority of individual hotels do. Few of the individual hotels or chains use pictures, though chains use them slightly more.
Wellington
Not many individual hotels in Wellington have a sustainable section and those that do, do not use stories to present their initiatives nor do they use pictures to support the text. Most of the hotel chains present their sustainability initiatives as some kind of story, mostly referring to the history of the hotels or reasons for having sustainable actions. Two of the six hotels have pictures fitting the theme while the others have no pictures.
There is a big difference in using stories in Wellington. While none of the individual hotels use stories, most of the chains do. A few of the chains use pictures but none of the individual hotels do.
International
Only one of the hotels presents their sustainability initiatives as a story while the others present facts rather than a story. Five of the hotels have plenty of pictures that suited the topic while the others have few pictures.
Summary
In Los Angeles and Wellington, the chains utilise stories more than the individual hotels do but in Berlin the opposite is true. In Helsinki there is no huge difference between individual hotels and chains. International chains do not often use stories.
In Los Angeles and Wellington pictures, though they are not used much, are used slightly more by chains. In Berlin pictures are used significantly more by chains than individual hotels.
In Helsinki there is little difference between chains and individual hotels. Most of the international chains use pictures. Pictures are usually more common with chains than individual hotels.
5.4 Implementation
Helsinki
Almost all of the individual hotels in Helsinki have internal sustainability initiatives and many of them have only internal initiatives. Only a few have both external and internal initiatives and none of the hotels have only external ones. Five out of the eleven hotels mention that sustainability is imbedded into the entire organisation.
Three of the eight hotel chains mention only internal sustainability initiatives while one presents only external. The remaining four mention both internal and external initiatives. None of the hotels remark on how sustainability is imbedded into the hotels.
Only one of the hotels in Helsinki has only external sustainability initiatives. More chains than individual hotels have both internal and external initiatives. Many of the individual hotels mention that sustainability is included into the entire organisation but none of the chains mention it.
Berlin
Four of the hotel chains in Berlin have only internal sustainability initiatives and the other six have both internal and external ones. None of the hotels have only external initiatives. Four hotels mention that sustainability is implemented in the organisation.
Most of the hotel chains in Berlin have both internal and external sustainability initiatives while only a few of the individual hotels do. It is more common to only have internal initiatives, though hotels with only external ones can be found. Half of both the individual hotels and chains mention that sustainability is included in the whole organisation.
Los Angeles
Five of the ten individual hotels in Los Angeles have only internal sustainability initiatives and one has only external ones. Three hotels have both internal and external initiatives.
One of the hotels mentions sustainability being implemented into the whole organisation. Two of the nine hotel chains have only internal initiatives and one has only external. The other six hotels have both internal and external initiatives. Three of the hotels mention sustainability being imbedded into the organisation.
Most of the chains have both internal and external initiatives while only three out of nine of the individual hotels do. Both individual hotels and chains have more often solely internal initiatives than solely external ones. One of the individual hotels and three of the chains mention sustainability being incorporated into the organisation.
Wellington
The individual hotels in Wellington mention only internal sustainability initiatives. None of them mention sustainability being incorporated into the hotel.
Four hotel chains out of six have both external and internal sustainability initiatives and the remaining two hotel chains have only internal initiatives. Two of the hotels mention having a team responsible for sustainability issues.
