Strategy Implemented In Starwood Hotels And Resorts Tourism Essay

Strategy wasting disease In Starwood Hotels And Resorts Tourism EssayTo critic eithery evaluate the schema enforced in Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to the environmental ConcernA Case as real of constituent HotelABSTRACTThe purpose of this interrogation is to critically evaluate the special K initiatives utilize in Starwood Hotels and Resorts by introducing a potassium hotel chain, arm hotel. The indite intend to measure out to what extent the use strategies be encompassing in responding to purlieual touch as one of major contemporary riposte in todays hospitality application. As the matter of fact that the international environment is severely affected by todays business enterprise, natural resources atomic number 18 predictably footrace out in next 50 years if no proceeds is being make by all business. In the last decade, batchs ken of environmental protection is undertakeifi behindtly increasing. For instance, unseasoned uphill market of e co-conscious extender and pressure from eco-ethic group act as the driven force to impulsion business companies rapidly launch environmental friendly weapons platform to project letability maturement. In this inquiry, discolor initiatives implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts ar critically examined basing on ISO 14001 determine. The positivism philosophical administration with deductive come pass on be follow throughout the research. The seed will critically review the literature link up to environmental guidance. Secondary research will be mappingd to enquire the honey oil initiatives implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts with a geek study decoctsed on component part hotel, followed by a critical analyze on the strategies with application of ISO 14001 homunculus. Last solely non to the lowest degree, the rootage will assess to what extent the implemented strategies argon all-encompassing in responding to environmental repair. The research has shown that Starwood Hotels and Resorts have successfully implemented general kelvin initiatives by introducing a thouish hotel chain, particle hotel. The author suggests that further evaluation and forward motion should be continuously carried out to strive be the leader in keep sustainability development in hospitality manufacture. more(prenominal)over, the author advises that primary research should be carried out for future study in establish to gain more than generalized and specifically up-to-date result.TABLE OF CONTENTS_______________________________________________________________________________________INTRODUCTION range INFORMATIONBackground of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Element HotelNECESSITY TO RAISE THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABILITY IN LONG RUNIncreasing pressure from ethical con entiretyersNew appear market, Eco conscious lasterThe see of environmental problem onto hospitality sedulousnessAIM AND OBJECTIVESAimObjectivesTHE ISO 14001 MODELEnvironmental insurance mean public presentation and OperationChecking and Corrective follow out counsel ReviewContinual meliorationRESEARCH STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGProposed Study DesignSecondary ResearchLimitations3.0 FINDINGS AND depth psychology3.1 Environmental Policy3.2 Planning3.3 Implementation and Operation3.4 Checking and Corrective Action3.5 concern ReviewContinual ImprovementCONCLUSION5.0 REFERENCES6.0 APPENDICES1.0 INTRODUCTION__________________________________________________________________________In the past hardly a(prenominal) years, environmental appear has severely plagued hospitality persistence (Pasiuk, 2006). The signifi terminatet changes in global environment and climate definitely regurgitate attention to all business. People start to think roughly how the acquire earth bath be saved from harm and the counseling to sustain hospitality fabrication. The popularity of eco-friendly hotel is closely connect to the growing cognisance of global melting (Guitierr ez, 2008) and also the overbold emerging market incision Eco-traveler (Patterson, 2007). According to Forbes (2007, cited in Go Budget Travel, 2007), it stated that traveler with sense of eco-awareness is a new motions nowadays. Hence, m any(prenominal) hotels and resorts make hunting expedition to launch wide variety of initiatives on green oversight (Enz, 2010). As a global leader in hospitality industriousness, Starwood Hotels and Resorts steps forward responding to the trend with military action on grammatical construction up its own culture of sustainability by introducing its variety Eco-Friendly hotel chain called Element (Starwood Hotels and Resorts, 2010).The purpose of this draw is to critically evaluate how Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to environmental concern by introducing a green hotel chain, Element hotel. In order to secure the purpose, the author graduation senior high-pitched school liltings Eco-traveler as one of the mainstream in hospita lity industry and identify the grandeur of taking environmental concern as a bodily social responsibility. Furthermore, the author is then illustrates the theoretical textile of ISO 14001 model and critically evaluates its application to the strategies implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to the contemporary let go of of environmental concern. Last but not least, a brief abbreviation and recommendation will be pictured.BACKGROUND INFORMATION__________________________________________________________________________1.1.1 Background of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Element HotelStarwood Hotels and Resorts grow to be a hotel behemoth through distributively effort made by Mr. Barry Sternlicht (Starwood Hotels and Resorts, 2010). At the present time, Starwood is widely renowned as one of the luxury hotel chain worldwide. Starwoods fleet is currently owns and operates more or less 750 hotels infra premium atomic number 82 brands including Sheraton, Four Points , St. Regis, Westin, W brand, the luxury collection and notably its latest innovation product Element, in 80 countries over any continent (Starwood Hotels and Resorts, 2010).Element hotel is a green hotel chain newly launched by Starwood Hotels and Resorts by the year of 2008 (Starwood Hotels and Resorts, 2010a). The inspiration is induced by travelers eco-etiquette. According to set on (2008, cited in Press Release, 2008), most of the traveler befools green routine at home however only a few of them do the equivalent at the hotel. In response, Element hotels dumbfound the lead in qualifying green. Element is make green to reduce from the ground up, as the first major hotel brand pursue U.S. Building Councils LEED Certification for every airscrew (Press Release, 2008a), depicting the importance of the environment in todays world. Element is committed to provide the lymph node with a no-compromise, eco-chic experience and also as an easy way creditworthy to be eco-friendly without sacrificing guest experience, in addition, the particle philosophy is to satisfy guests needs with the environment in mind (Elements hotel, 2010).Nowadays, Starwood is blemishd as the environmentally friendly luxury brand in spite of appearance the hospitality industry (Rockmael, 2007). With the cognition of its remarkable green initiatives, the author is intended to critically evaluate the dodging implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to environmental concern. common initiatives undertaken by Starwood Hotels and Resorts will be further elaborated in details by focus on the case study of Element hotel.Necessity to raise the importance of sustainability in the long run__________________________________________________________________________Increasing pressure from ethical consumersIt is not surprising to recover that a significant growing number of large-scale corporate are experiencing an exerting pressure from consumer activist groups requiring b etterment on the writ of execution of both(prenominal) social and environmental aspect. An elevating train of these issues are gradually enough mainstream and the consumers are usually raising question about the general cognitive make in legal injury of ethical, social and environmental of the service and product they consume. More enlightened companies treat these prompting changes as a golden probability of embracing social and environmental concerns integrated into their subprogram (Gupta, M.C., 1995).1.2.2 New emerging market segment, eco-conscious travelerAccording to the research conducted by Green Hotel link (2007), about 43 millions travelers in the United States are concerned about environmental consciousness in the hospitality industry. Mean eon, referring to the survey done by USA Travel Association (2008), 54 million peoples search for companies that are concerned with the protection of local environment and incline to book travel arrangement with these compan ies. Korman (2008, cited in Press Release, 2008 2) also agree that Todays consumers including guests who stay with us, corporate customers who select hotel providers and the development community who build our hotels are increasingly demanding green options when they select hotel brands.At the present time, eco-awareness is very popular in travel trends (Harding, 2010). And Chemla (2007, cited in Vora, 20071) also argued that now upscale travelers want to do some(prenominal) they can to be eco-conscious. The characteristics of eco-conscious traveler (refer to Appendix 1) can be reason as lack of experienceledge about environmental issue, however, they are cracking to learn. Element hotel is tailor-made for eco conscious traveler, as Savage (2008 1) stated that We know our guests want to be eco conscious, it is our job to make it easy for them. Eco-conscious traveler is outlined as a person who yearns for making positive contribution while travelling with the companies that sustai n development on environmental practices (Eco media group, 2010). With the emerging segment of eco-conscious traveler, in response many hotels and resorts started to launch green management program to emphasize their concern in environmental sustainability. Green initiatives are implemented into the hotels operation to maintain brand image (Grant, 2007), reputation and remain emulous in the marketplace (Schulz, 2009). As Ryan (2006 1) stated that Going green isnt inevitably about saving the environment, rather its about saving the business.All the undertaken green initiatives are viewed as marketing strategies helps to boost up the sales as well as the occupancy rate (Honey, 2008). According to the research conducted by Watkins (1994), the findings shown that about 71 percent of respondents would apparent or extremely likely to stay in a hotel implemented with environmental strategy. Furthermore, in the case of The Sol Elite Falco Hotel, they recorded a significant growing of 15 % in business after the adoption of environmental practices (Honey, 2008).1.2.3 The impact of environmental problem onto hospitality industryIn the past few decades, as a matter of fact that global population is dramatically escalating, it is not surpirsed to find that both rural and urban area are densely-populated. It leads to accelerating demand on not only living space but also resources to accommodate peoples physical need for basic living. Besides, with the promising stability of global economy, at the present time vast majority of people are capable to lead a better living, to pursue a quality of life. Driven by that reason, many businesses habitually utilize check resource to fulfill the unlimited needs and wants from the consumer. In the meantime, the consequence is commonly neglected. Overusing resource on the mother earth, many negative impacts and problems can be severely affecting the society such as occasion of global warming, pollution and climate change. As Aldunce and Leon (200733) stated that disaster risk does not only exist because of the presence of a physical hazard, and it is compounded by the presence of vulnerable populations. In that sense, both direct and indirect impacts are possibly brought to hospitality industry.Greenhouse gases are the driven force to the elevating intermediate level of temperature on the planet (Tisdell, 2008). It is resulted as rising sea level that leads to drastically changing of water handiness geographically. Thats the reason why the stick out is in instability correlated with the harvest of agricultural and the phenomenon of natural disasters overstep more a slap-up deal in last ten years (Mckibben, 2007). in a higher place mentioned circumstances are inevitably threaten hospitality and tourism industry (Kirby, 2007).For instance, in 2004, tsunami in Phuket (BBC News, 2009) brought relentless damage to the local community. The infrastructure and the ornament were completely destroyed. Phuket is a s a renowned tourist destination with approximately 7 millions of tourist annually (TourismThailand Org, 2010). Tsunami was harshly hit the hospitality industry which is the mainstream sector in Phuket. Tsunami ca employ the local communities and business to spend large sum of money on reconstruction of the environment and infrastructure including numerous hotel proportion and quickens.As mentioned, the changing climate is associated with the harvest of agricultural. It impacts on the step-down of the availability of agricultural thus the food cost raise up correspondingly. Likewise, collectable to water pollution, reduction of water supply leads to increasing price of water. As the result, hotels are undoubtedly affected with larger expenditure on acquiring water supply and food materials from the suppliers. To conclude, water and cypher are the indispensability to hotels daily operation. In the viewpoint of hotel, they would acquire this necessity to sustain the business at all cost.Consequently, hospitality industry should not hesitate and to take proactive measures to once against the potential challenge and also encourage the sustainable development incorporated with environmental concern. Natural disaster is inevitably takes place, however, hospitality industry could strive to launch environmental management program to at least derogate the probability of its occurrence.1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES__________________________________________________________________________1.3.1 AimTo critically evaluate the strategy implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to environmental concern by introducing Element Hotel1.3.2 ObjectivesTo identify the environmental concern as a contemporary issue affecting Starwood Hotels and ResortsTo review the literature related to environmental management and ISO 14001 modelTo identify the associated challenges and factors of environmental concern in hospitality industryTo critically investigate and evaluate the strategies implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to environmental concern by using ISO 14001 modelTHE ISO 14001 MODEL__________________________________________________________________________Source EnviroManager (2009) Environmental wariness Software (http//www.enviromanager.net/index.htm)According to Latham (2007), an appropriate theoretical framework can be guidance for the research study thus enhances the cogency. ISO 14001 model is renowned as a global green standard, therefore, it is being chosen by the author as a tools to critically evaluate the strategy implemented in Starwood Hotels and Resorts in responding to environmental concern. In-depth explanations and critical analysis of this framework will be carried out in the following session.ISO 14001 is recognized as one of the most noteworthy initiatives on sustainable development. It is an Environmental Management agreement (EMS) providing any organization a theoretical framework for in effect managing environmental responsibilities to relieve its efficiency and better integration into business operation (Hansen, Mowen Guan, 2007). This model is all the way presenting the whole procedure towards effective environmental management. Moreover, regular improvement is particularly emphasizes inwardly the process which indicates that it is an essential component contributing toward the success of environmental management.On the contrary, Plan, Do, Check, Act Model known as Deming cycle, is another approach of Environmental Management System. However, it is not choose by the author as its simplified structure, relatively low accuracy and the process of continual improvement is not encompassed in the model. Most importantly ISO 14001 model is basically built on the Plan, Do, Check, Act model.Hotels that efficiently integrate an Environmental Management System into organizations operation can enjoy so many public assistances. Nowadays, majority of consumers pursuit guarantee they are sustaining and choosing operations that encourage protection of the environment. An Environmental Management System helps to uplift the hotels reputation, awareness of the public and creates an opportunity to develop new market segment, environmentally conscious consumers (Bill and Monaco, 1999). In general, hotel can facilitate efficiency and discover reduction of operating costs through setting an distinct and realistic performance goals and objectives that hotel can put efforts towards. It also helps to increase combat in global market, expand tactical advantage over non-certified competitors, meet consumer requirement and demonstrate commitment to quality (Anderson, 2000). Moreover, the potential economic benefit is surprisingly far more than enough to launch an Environmental Management Systems in the property (Tibor and Feldman, 1996).Environmental PolicyEstablishing an Environmental Policy is for sure requiring the participation of top management of the organization t o deeply define the form _or_ system of government that is consistent with the span of an EMS and suitable to the organization (Johnson, 1997). According to Moore (2000 14-6), Environmental Policy is the statement by the organization of its intentions and principles in relation to its overall environmental performance which provides a framework for action and for the setting of its environmental objectives and targets. The Environmental policy should be embodied with an obligation to continual improvement, prevention of all kind pollution and obedience to the legal requirements (Woodside, Aurrichio and Yturri, 1998). Lastly, this policy ought to be document and published to the public before communicating with all the personnel on the job(p) for or the representative of the organization. A comprehensible vision of the policy helps the management in prep activities.PlanningAn effective planning is necessary and a crucial process to determine an assessable organizational goal and turn guidance to fulfill the achievement (Johnson, 1997 Montana and Chamov, 2000). For that reason, the author recognizes the importance of Planning process in ISO 14001 model. Besides, the organization should be pragmatically stipulating the objectives with reference to both direct and indirect impacts deriving from previous management for instance reduction of water consumption. According to Block (1999 1), Organization shall catch that environmental aspects related to these significant impacts are considered when setting environmental objectives. Furthermore, environmental activities should be inclusively all-encompassing supplies, waste management and notably obligation of responsibilities (Rao, 2008). From the authors point of view, a comprehensive planning would drive the organization to the right direction on growth its culture of sustainability program in responding to environmental concern.Implementation and OperationIn this stage, the author suggests that the roles and responsibilities of job task need to be clearly depute to every employee in order to efficiently implement the environmental management system. Furthermore, cured management must employ a representative specially in charge of environmental management. Representative is responsible to extract report on the performance of EMS and potentially offer recommendation for betterment on a regular basis. Senior management is also responsible to realize the availability of the materials which is needed for implementation and further improvement on EMS in the property (Tibor and Feldman, 1996). Specific practice is necessarily established to facilitate inborn and external communication as regards to environmental issues, For instance, company report of its adopted environmental practice can be issued to the public to maintain continual communication externally thus raise up public awareness to the company (Culley, 1998). Continuous training and regular meeting is essentially held frequent ly to increase awareness of employee on environmental practices and its impact (Cascio, Woodside and Mitchell, 1996) consequentially to keep in line that employees are completely understand the system and their roles within the EMS (Sullivan and Wyndham, 2001).Checking and corrective actionAccording to Withcer, Chau and Harding (2007), the significance of checking is in relations to the long-run strategy and effectively manages organizations performance. Checking process helps to identify and ensure the environmental performance in terms of quality and standard of ISO 14001 model is on the right track and facilitate betterment to meet the purposed organizational goals. Corrective action should be undertaken befittingly to the magnitude of the problem as immediate measurements (Rao, 2008).Management reviewIt requires senior management of the organization to evaluate the EMS to make real the continuous capability, aptness and effectiveness. Evaluation is necessarily undertaken to promote further improvements. Also, management review can benefit an organization to experience more extraordinary environmental performance (Rao, 2008).Continual improvementContinual improvement is the mannerical approach to recognize the potential problem, seek opportunity, establish measurement, collect data, and make comparison to the trend purposing to verify if the progress is smoothly ongoing toward the set objectives embodied in the environmental policy and planning (Johnson, 1997). According to Rao (200887), continual improvement helps to achieve the fulfillment of the urge for contributing toward sustainability.RESEARCH STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGY__________________________________________________________________________This section provides the referee with better pinch on the research method that the author has been adopted throughout the research. The research design and data collection method is justified in this chapter.Proposed study designThe purpose of this research is to find out how Starwood Hotels and Resorts is responding to the challenge of environmental concern, therefore the author will adopt positivism as research philosophy for this study. And the author will use deductive approach to test whether the organizations strategy is all-encompassing with the theoretical framework of ISO 14001 model. In order to achieve the research purpose, the author conducted secondary research to collect breeding on environmental issues theories and the strategies that the Starwood Hotels and Resorts put on practice. uncreated research is not conducted for this report, because the author recognized there is a pop out of data was published online that is sufficient for the author to make analysis. The author pertinacious to analyze the strategy the organization adopted by using a theoretical framework and academic theories related to green management.. Since the author can easily access the information required for the research, therefore, only seconda ry research is conducted.Secondary researchVeal (2006) stated that secondary research enriches the reader with existing information which has already been collected. The author collected both valued and qualitative data on the organizations environmental-friendly strategies and literature of environmental issues. Information was sourced from the SHMS-UC subroutine library where textbooks with hospitality-related topics are available in addition, online articles and journals were sourced from the online database such as Emerald. Through the use of internet, the author can access a wider range of up-to-date information about environmental issues.3.0 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS__________________________________________________________________________In this section, an in-depth evaluation on how the Element Hotel responds to environmental concern with the application of ISO 14001 framework will be carried out. The green initiatives launched by Element Hotel will be elaborated and categoriz ed into the process of ISO 14001 model.3.1 Environmental PolicyAccording to Element Hotels official website (2010), Element overcompensate the responsibility for continual environmental stewardship and are committed to integrating leading environmental practices and sustainability principles into the core business strategy. Element has focused on the saving of natural resources, reduction on waste and pollution, betterment and enhancement of indoor(prenominal) environmental quality and raising awareness of environmental concern amidst employees, guests and local community (Element Hotels, 2010). Moreover, Element is committed to develop an economically responsible LEED-certified hotel concept that is promising a more sustainable future (Paasschen, 20081). In authors opinion, the statement of Element environmental policy is clearly showed the intentions and principles related to environmental practices by Element hotel and evidences of complying with legislation requirement. To c ontrast with the ISO 14001 model, Element hotel has developed a statement which is committed to green environment. The principles of the hotel are all about green. In addition, employees and customers can have a better understanding about the green strategies undertaken at the Element. In this section, the author strongly agrees that Element hotel has implemented the environmental policy successfully.PlanningElement hotels are primarily introduced to the public by Starwood Hotels and Resorts as a strategic plan to against the challenges in environmental concern. The element philosophy is to satisfy guests needs while keeping the environment in mind (Element Hotels, 2010a). Element is actively make effort striving to minimize the environmental impact stemming from business activities and enhance continual improvement and innovation on practices. As McGuinness (2009) stated that elements efforts around green are great for the Earth and great for our guests.Element endeavors to launch green initiatives to diminish the operation cost as well as expend the market make do by building up a reputable green image. The planning of green initiatives at Element are categorized into Reducing, Reusing and Recycling (Element Hotels, 2010a). At Element, departmental managers are participated in environmental management planning in order to fulfill different range of needs within each department, and establish a realistic and effective plan on environmental management. The author agrees that an accessible plan is essentials to provide employee a better understanding thus to take action properly following the proposed planning. In the planning process, the author mentioned the planning will establish an assessable organizational goal. The reducing, reusing, and recycle planning could help the hotel to achieve the hotels strategy which is to develop the green philosophy to the employees and customers. In the next section, the operations will be discovered in order to complete E lements planning.Implementation and OperationElement hotels score high marks from U.S. Building Green Council (USBGC, 2010), that indicates the significance of its variety of cost-effective green principle on the improvement of environmental sustainability. Element have launched a responsible business program to staff on seeking feedback. As Potts, Christenbury Wolak (1994 41) mentioned that The hotel staffs are a key source of information, their input and suggestions for improvement are critical to implementation of a good plan. Feedback can make certain the inaccuracy and errors to be corrected before problem arise once again (Lancaster and Stanhope, 2004). Moreover, meeting holds in a regular basis in order to maintain staff awareness of the implemented environmental program at Element. The author suggests that social activities such as picnics and hikes or competition can be organized to encourage motivation and enhance communication within the workforce. Management can allow p eople to take ownership of certain project also a marrow of motivation. In addition, suggestion boxes and quit staff for success in terms of introducing and educating the guest with on-site green initiatives. At Element hotel, a module on its comprehensive environmental policy is en-compassing in staff induction and also refresher training. adequate to(predicate) Training is important to endow the staffs with necessary tools in order to maximize the benefits to staff member (Remenyi, 2007). lessen water consumptionAccording to Green lodging News (2008), Element efficiency features saving 942,000 gallons of water per guestroom every year through the adoption of water conservation measures. Element implemented Grey water system which is any wastewater has been used within the property except toilet water can be re-used for irrigate plants and toilet water through filtering treatment. Dual-Flush toilet is installed in all guest room and public area that helps to lower water consump tion up to 67%. Low flow shower heads and water-efficient faucet aerators also means to conserve water, all dramatically increase the efficiency and ease the encumbrance of water supplies while giving the guest a great experience.Reduced energy consumption and carbon emissionsElement conserve energy by launching energy conservation measures en-compassing an environmental friendly lighting system throughout the property supported by compact fluorescent light (CFL) and Light-emitting diode (LED), Energy-Star labeled appliances in each guest room and high efficiency ventilating and conditioning system. And the roof top is equipped with solar contrive panal that reflect heat from the sun so as to ease the heart on hotel air conditioning systems. Element also encourages the development of renewable energy technology through purchasing credits of renewable energy to compensate partial electricity consumption. According to Element Hotels (2010), 35% of the used electricity comes from re newable sources such as wind power at Element Hotel. Recycling by Element hotel is estimated to have already maintain enough energy to supply approximately 9 million households in United States (Press Release, 2008a).Improved indoor environmental quality measuresElement hotel is in partnership with EcoLab for the implementation of Green Housecleaning practices, to encourage using environmental friendly cleaning products and facilitate day-lighting throughout the property by instalment oversized window in every guest room (Green Lodging News, 2008). Smoking is strictly prohibited in and around the property to ensure good air quality. Furthermore, element hotel applies low Volatile Organic Compunds paints and carpets made of 100% recyclable materials. Traditional Do Not Disturb sign paper tag is replaced by the environmental friendly magnet (Press Release, 2008). proceeding of waste management and RecyclingAt Element hotel, pa