Environmental and Sustainability Issues in Hospitality Management - Essay Example

Hospitality Event Introduction Environmental issues represent adverse human activities that can have a dreadful impact on the biophysical environment. In modern days, there is a wide category of environmental issues including climate change, global warming, environmental degradation, intensive, pollution, soil issues, intensive farming, resource depletion, and waste. Studies clearly point to the fact that manmade disturbances account for a major portion of environmental issues. Thoughtless development activities lead to the emission of harmful gases and dumping of toxic substances which in turn negatively affect the geological structure of the environment. Recent reports indicate that hospitality events notably contribute to environmental issues, especially global warming and climate change. This paper will discuss how hospitality management and professional organisations are dealing with current environmental and sustainability issues. It will also evaluate the significance of promoting environmental sustainability. Current environmental and sustainability issues While dealing with current environmental issues, undoubtedly climate change is the most potential one. Climate change can be simply referred to as a permanent change in a region’s statistical distribution of weather that occurs over a long period of time. Even though climate change is a natural process historically, nowadays man made causes outweigh the natural forces. Hence, the rate at which climate change occurs has been increased for the last two decades. The process of climate change has far reaching consequences on human life, agriculture, ecosystems, biodiversity, and the atmosphere (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2008). Increased rate of fossil fuel combustion and the resultant CO2 emissions significantly contribute to the process of climate change (Natural England, n.d). Large scale livestock agriculture, thoughtless land use, and ozone layer depletion also play a significant role in worsening this issue. Since climate change is an irreversible process which results in long term environmental complications. Mace et al (2005) argue that climate change threatens necessary habitat requirements of some species of animals and this situation often leads to the extinction of many vulnerable species (p.99). This situation can adversely affect the balance of ecology. Most notably, climate change may amplify the issue of global warming. In short, climatic change raises a series of potential challenges to the long term sustainability of the environment. Similarly, global warming is another threatening environmental issue. It can be defined as the rise in average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and ocean’s surface. Average temperature of the earth’s surface has increased by approximately 0.8o C since 1980. According to the Fourth Assessment Report prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (cited in Deimling et al, 2006), during the 21st century, the average global surface temperature is expected to rise in the range of 1.1 to 2.9o C for the lowest possible emission scenario whereas the projected highest emission range represents 2.4 to 6.4o C. Ozdemir & Altindag (n.d) indicate that the issue of global warming has severe impacts on the environment, especially aquatic organisms. Researchers unanimously opine that emission of greenhouse gases caused by human activities including combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation is the major reason for global warming. Sivasakthivel & Reddy (2011) reflect that greenhouse gases like CO2 and chlorofluorocarbons cause the depletion of ozone layer and consequently huge amounts of radiations including infrared and ultraviolet rays reach the earth’s atmosphere. Reports indicate that number of vehicles is increasing day by day and hence the global warming issue is likely to worsen in the coming days. All the aspects of the current trends indicate that global warming can have an extremely harmful influence on environmental sustainability. More specifically saying, unscientific and careless waste management is another troublesome environmental issue facing the modern society. Majority of the industrialists and households are not aware of the application of proper waste management mechanism or its significance in promoting a sustainable environment. Hence, they dump waste materials including e-wastes in their surroundings, marshlands, and oceans. Such practices have wide range severe implications on the environment. Studies have proven that waste dumps significantly contribute to emission of greenhouse gases (European Commission, 2011). Even though a number of ‘waste to energy’ conversion technologies have been developed, improper waste management is still threatening environmental sustainability because people and businesses do not give much emphasis on waste management practices. Role of hospitality outlets and professional organisations Every area of the society has undergone tremendous changes over the last few decades and this transformation can be greatly attributed to globalisation and thereby global circulation of cultures, ideas, and capital. Nowadays, hospitality events are very popular and this change directly reflects cultural uplift of the modern society. However, it is observed that majority of the hospitality events noticeably add to environmental issues mainly in the form of waste disposal (Good Teacher, 2010). To illustrate, consider the hospitality event ‘gala dinner’. It is a special occasion ceremony in which kings, queens, presidents, or prime ministers may be chief guests. Most often, guests will get together in a private dining room and choose their meal from the menu prior to the planned event. A gala dinner involves smart dress and often the dress code may vary in accordance with the requirements of the organiser. Usually, guests are seated in a banquet-style arrangement rather than a cabaret event seating arrangement. In addition, there may be entertainment activities mainly including dance performance after the dinner. Generally, gala dinner events are organised in separated arranged restaurant halls. Nowadays, these dinner parties are more frequently conducted as part of social functions and others. While analysing a gala dinner event from an environmental perspective, it is clear that such hospitality events creatively intensify environmental issues including waste dumping. To illustrate, disposable plates and cups are used for gala dinner events and often they are dumped after the party. Many of the restaurants do not have proper waste manage mechanisms and hence waste materials from such hospitality events are not treated scientifically. In addition, such events consume huge amounts of energy and this situation would raise additional challenges to declining energy sources. The UK government has framed a set of policies for promoting environmentally sustainable business operations in the country. Those provisions force hospitality outlets and other professional organisations to make their activities ‘green’. The UK’s strict environment policies have greatly persuaded hospitality event managements to improve their waste treatment activities. In addition, promotion of environmental sustainability has become one of the major corporate social responsibilities and consequently nowadays hospitality outlets and other organisations are giving more focus on their waste management activities. Waste to energy conversion is the major strategy adopted by modern organisations including hospitality firms to promote their waste management. Simply, waste to energy conversion is the process of incineration of waste source for creating electric energy or other forms of energy (Mora Associates, 2007). Under this process, organisations generate electricity by disposing their waste materials properly. However, this waste treatment method is not suitable for every hospitality outlet and other professional firms because of high installation and maintenance costs. Anyhow, it can be stated that hospitality events like gala dinner still contributes to environmental issues like waste dumping, global warming, and climate change. UK’s public bodies such as Environmental Agency impose strict regulations on hospitality outlets and other organisations. In order to overcome such barriers, hospitality managements just establish required waste treatment facilities but do not use them effectively. As proper waste treatment mechanisms would cost them higher and involve long time, hospitality outlets try to somehow dispose their waste materials. In short, hospitality events are not 100% eco-friendly as they give more focus on short term profitability. However, reports indicate that some event management teams maintain separate department for waste treatment activities and thereby promote long term sustainability of the environment. Therefore, it can be concluded that hospitality outlets are not effective in dealing with environmental issues. Legal, economic, and ethical view point While analysing the legal landscape of the United Kingdom, it seems that the country give specific importance on formulation, implementation, and evaluation of environmental policies. There are a variety of both governmental and non-governmental bodies functioning in UK with intent to promote the country’s environmental sustainability. Environment Agency, English Heritage, and Nature England are the major environment based public bodies in UK (Great Britain, 2006, p.2). The UK government believes that maintenance of a healthy environment is vital to encourage the country’s business and industrial sectors. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 specifically focuses on proper waste management and control of environmentally harmful gas emissions. From an economic view point, environmental issues adversely affect the overall economic development of the UK (Centre for Policy Dialogue, 2009). Intense environmental issues evidently force the country to spend more on sustainability activities and this situation may lead to a cut in public spending. In addition, foreign companies or entrepreneurs would be reluctant to launch their venture in a country where high level environmental issues persist. Those issues may further worsen the economic status of the UK economy which is still struggling to recover from the impacts of global economic recession from 2009. Issues like climate change can have severe impacts on the UK’s agricultural sector, which represents the country’s 71% of the land area. Similarly, from an ethical view point, people have the responsibility to handover the environment to next generation without any damage. As we discussed earlier, environmental issues like climate change is irreversible and therefore its negative effects are directly passed to next generations. However, many of the UK’s business houses exploit the environment for their personal financial gains despite the government regulations. Most of the environmental issues cased by people affect other parts of the globe too. Hence, environmental issues caused by hospitality outlets in UK are against environmental ethics. Evaluation and analysis The above sessions discussed current issues affecting environmental sustainability in detail by giving specific reference to the hospitality event gala dinner. The findings and conclusions indicate that hospitality outlets and professional organisations notably contribute to environment sustainability issues including waste dumping, global warming, and climate change. While analysing current trends, it seems that environmental issues associated with hospitality events like gala dinner are likely to affect UK’s overall development. Even though the UK government exercises better control over the environmental issues in the country, waste dumping activities still raise some level of threats to the nation. As Milmo (2009) points out, reports were published regarding Britain’s toxic waste dumping in Africa (The independent). It clearly indicates the country still lacks proper mechanisms to recycle waste materials and thereby avoid environmentally harmful waste disposal practices. Since hospitality events have become an integral part of UK’s social functions, legal authorities struggle to regulate such events. Currently, the UK has a set of improved environment polices and it executes them efficiently. As compared to other European countries, UK follows more rigid regulative practices. In addition, huge amount of energy is required for conducting hospitality events. Hence, hospitality outlets significantly contribute to the country’s energy crisis issues. Studies indicate that current rate of energy consumption would cause the United Kingdom to face severe energy deficiency issues in the near future. Hence, the UK government has specifically frame policies to control environmental issues associated with hospitality events. Environmentally responsible organisations like Environment Agency have to take initiatives to intervene in hospital events. Such practices would assist the country to ensure that the hospitality outlets do not violate UK’s stated environmental regulations. It is also suggestible for environmental authorities to supervise the hospitality events by including their representatives in event management teams. The government should ensure that all the requirements are properly met before issuing license to a new hospitality event management firm. Finally, it is strongly recommendable for the UK government to adopt strict regulative policies including license cut against hospitality outlets those violate the country’s environmental policies. Such policies would be beneficial for the country to encourage its hospitality outlets to add value to environmental sustainability. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that hospitality events like gala dinner raise great level of challenges to the UK environment. The increasing frequency of hospitality events prevents the UK government from effectively regulating waste management practices. Reports indicate that such events are likely to worsen the UK’s environmental as well as energy crisis issues. Since majority of the event management teams focus on short term financial objectives, they do not pay enough attention to proper waste management. Therefore, it is advisable for the UK government to effectively intervene in hospitality events in order to control illegal waste dumping activities and thereby promote environmental sustainability. References Centre for Policy Dialogue., 2009. Environment related trade barriers and the WTO, CPD Occasional Paper Series 77, pp.1-17, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Deimling, TSV, Held, H, Ganopolski, A & Rahmstorf, S., 2006. Climate sensitivity estimated from ensemble simulations of glacial climate, Climate Dynamics. European Commission., 2011. Greenhouse gas emissions from waste disposal, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations., 2008. Climate change and biodiversity for food and agriculture: Technical background document from the expert consultation held on 13 to 14 February 2008, Climate Change, Energy and Food, pp. 1-10, [Online] Available at: < ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/013/ai784e.pdf> [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Good Teacher., 2010. A debate on the future of sustainable hospitality: Is the sector doing enough? Do consumers care? Can the industry make a difference?, Eat Sleep & Drink: Whitbread, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Great Britain., 2006. Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006: Chapter 16; Explanatory Notes, Britain: The Stationery Office. Mace, G, Masundire, H & Baillie, J., 2005. Biodiversity. In: Ecosystems and Human Well-Being: Current State and Trends: Finding of the Condition and Trends Working Group, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, USA: Island Press. Mora Associates., 2007. Waste-to-energy (WtE) technology, Research Report, pp. 1-8, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Milmo, R., 18 February 2009. Dumped in Africa: Britain’s toxic waste, Children exposed to poisonous material in defiance of UK law, The Independent, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Natural England., n.d. What are the causes of climate change, Our Work, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Ozdemir, E & Altindag, A., n.d. The impact of global warming on aquatic life, [Online] Available at: [Accessed 22 April 2012]. Sivasakthivel, T & Reddy, KKSK., 2011. Ozone layer depletion and its effects: A review, International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, 2(1), pp. 30-37. Read More