During this assignment, I am going to be describing the impact of the hospitality industry on the
environment. I will be displaying awareness of the general problems associated with sustainable
development. I am going to be talking about specific dilemmas including economic, social, cultural
and political.
Generally, sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs. For example, recycling is sustainable and it will help the
environment long-term. Things that help to be more sustainable include no air travel, no car travel,
walking/cycling, no red meat and being vegetarian/vegan. By reducing car/plane travel and cutting
down on red meat, this is helping to look after the environment and preventing climate change. The
UK wastes a huge amount of food per year, and this is not sustainable for the4 environment.
Purchasing goods that are sourced locally is helping the environment because they won’t have been
pumped with chemicals (to make them last longer) and they won’t have had to travel over by a
plane. Within the hospitality industry, some organisations are more sustainable than others. For
example, Starbucks are encouraging customers to purchase a reusable cup so they can cut down of
plastic cups. Many hospitality businesses also have paper straws or even metal straws, this is also
helping the environment. Many hotels are developing to because eco-friendlier and more
sustainable as it is important to look after the environment. For example, finding goods from local
sources, composing and donating food from the kitchen, making more things ‘green’, reducing waste
during events, furnishing rooms sustainably (e.g. natural fibre sheets, reusable coffee mugs/glasses,
biodegradable packaging etc) and much more.
Economic:
Economically, businesses are changing their approaches to sustainability long term as this will
benefit them. For example, being sustainable and eco-friendly doesn’t just help the environment but
it also gives individual businesses a good reputation and will make more people want to shop there.
For example, if a coffee shop is using plastic cups, plastic straws, not recycling and wasting lots of
food, this is going to put people off the business and will cause people to want to go to a different
shop. Certain businesses are becoming a dilemma because of the environment. For example, face
masks are becoming an issue as they take around 500 years to decompose so will be burned which
isn’t good for the environment. As well as this, coca cola used a lot of plastic but are starting to use
more cardboard for their packaging. This will benefit them as they will start to be seen as a
sustainable company. Taking culture into consideration, some businesses will be more sustainable
than others. This is because it is more important to certain businesses. For example, some car
brands are passionate about just producing electric cars as this won’t produce dangerous emissions.
On the other hand, some businesses aren’t as keen to realise electric vehicles. However, it is likely
that in the future, we will only really see electric cars which will really help the environment.
Social/cultural:
Sustainability is important locally as well as internationally as it affects the world, not just local
places. By not being sustainable, will lead to more global warming and other negative economic
effects which will impact the whole world. Culturally, sustainability is important to many businesses
in particular (some more than others) depending on the business culture. For example, some
businesses may not care much about being sustainable and their business might rely on a lot of
plastic. On the other hand, some businesses are trying really hard to eliminate plastic from their
goods (some examples include McDonalds, Guinness, Evian and many more). To help the
environment, this requires people to all help together and for everybody to do their bit. For
example, if every hospitality business recycles, this alone with massively help the environment. The
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