Dealing with Greenwashing in Hotels - Essay Example

? Dealing with Greenwashing in Hotels Presented Dealing with Greenwashing in Hotels The number of companies claiming to offergreen services and products is increasing over the last few years, with more consumers and companies putting more emphasis on eco-friendly technologies, and environmental sustainability in any production operations. With the current gradual shift of the market towards eco-sustainability, companies are finding it hard to operate in the conventional way, with customers putting more pressure to such hotels to comply with environmental sustainability requirements. The eco-tourism sector has many certifications based on eco –sustainability with hotels being awarded ratings and certifications depending on the level in which they comply with environmental standards. Consequently, there are a large number of hotels, pretending to offer eco-friendly services on the surface, with no tangible or practical results in the market today, as customers portray more preference to environmental sustainable services. This is known as greenwashing. This paper discusses the use of strict control and monitoring, and tough penalties as effective ways to discourage greenwashing in hotels. Gallicano (2011) describes ‘Greenwashing’ as the act of deliberately misleading consumers on the environmental practices adhered to by an establishment regarding their services and products. This term evolved from the public awareness where the public discovered there were major inconsistencies between companies’ actual behavior and claims regarding eco- -friendly practices, in order to hoodwink and attract more customers using high accreditation from environmental bodies such as LEED. Many companies have used such green-labels as marketing tools with nothing tangible to show with regard to environmental sustainability. Several hotels have developed signs that explain to guests that reusing towels will make savings that would be channeled to charity or environmental organizations (Gallicano, 2011). While such a move is a worthy cause and is supported by many guests, some companies do not end up meeting their bargain as customers are not privy to the internal working policies of such a hotel. Moreover, there are currently vague standards in the hotel industry that create loopholes for greenwashing to take place. A research by Dara O’Rourke an environment professor at the University of California noted that 33% of all food products released to the market in 2008 claiming to be natural made false claims. These foods made their way to hotels still claiming to be natural with guests being duped on the real nature of the foods (Erica & Aaron, 2010). 98% of the above foods were found to have a false claim, while 22% of the food products had green claims that could not be established, implying such claims were made to dupe the customers who may not be aware regarding green standards, with hotels serving such food to customers with the belief they are eco-friendly. To avoid greenwashing hotels have the responsibility of making a follow up of all their suppliers to ensure they adhere to green standards. The issue of greenwashing has sensitized customers to a large scale with more and more customers being vigil to the services offered in many tourism hotels across the globe, and particularly those claiming to have attained high levels of green certification. In July 2007, one of the highly influential blogs, TripplePundit.com that has received a large number of similar claims, had elaborate discussions indicating that Going Green has become serious deception in the hotel industry (Jessica, 2008). The blog analyzed some of the leading hotels that included Marriot Hotels, Fairmont Hotels and Starwood’s, all of which claimed to have been granted a LEED certification. From this blog, customers indicated thatch the best extent in which the companies could be claimed to have gone green is through the contribution of 1% of their revenue to local environmental groups. According to customers, most of the hotels lacked strategies and plans in ensuring adherence to eco-friendly operations within the hotel establishments (Jessica, 2008). Some of the above hotels claimed to have achieved the LEED gold certification, though not much could be accounted to reflect such high eco certification. Giving customers a platform to air their experiences would force companies to adhere to green standards, which would reduce green washing problem in hotels. The above operations by hotels, claiming to be under-eco standards in the hotel industry have led consumers to be increasingly confused regarding the real meaning and implications of ‘going green’ in such institutions. In addition, branding experts responsible for issuing the green certification are finding it hard to issue such certificates as the public outcry from hotels already issued with green certification continue to increase; this implies greenwashing is on the rise (Gallicano, 2011). Therefore the lack of connection between what companies are doing and what they claiming to be if not checked would weaken the relationship that exists between consumers and the brands, as consumers have not experienced real changes in services in hotels that claim to have achieved green certification. This would lead more consumers to put into questions the authenticity of the standards, though they are established for a worthy cause, and have proved to be useful in ensuring sustainability in areas where they are followed as required (Martha, 2002). For example, Gallicano (2011) in a case study of Starbuck’s Hotel indicated that the hotel with its green certification has managed to improve its operations considerably according to eco-friendly guidelines. The research involved detailed analysis of the Hotel’s online information including its CSR reports, the public opinions, criticisms, and suggestions were critically analyzed online. A framework powered to compare and contrast the online information and CSR as outlined by Starbucks and the online public criticism regarding the hotel’s services and its green accreditation was also designed. To achieve fairness, each criticism the public made was critically followed and evaluated rising all information about the company, as well as the online discussions between Starbucks and the public regarding its greenwashing claims. The research found that most of the criticisms were not fair and had been adequately addressed by the hotel management; the company was found to have adhered to eco-friendly policies to a good extent (Gallicano, 2011). This implies high degree of honesty and openness deals adequately with the issue of greenwashing. From the above example, research has shown that following customer comments and opinions regarding services in a hotel, comparing the criticisms to the hotel presented and its services and making a critical analysis would aid much investigating greenwashing in many hotels. Leading blogs such as Terachoice Environmental Marketing and EnviroMedia have been designed to help customers in identifying and analyzing hotels with greenwashing practices in the market (Martha, 2002). In 2008, Terrachoice Environmental Marketing conducted a critical research in thousands of products in food stores and found that only one product avoided greenwashing, indicating the seriousness of the problem today (Gallicano, 2011). There is need to make strict following on food and their production process in leading hotels that have been granted-eco labels. According to a survey by the Travel Industry Association, eco-travel has grown tremendously with more than 78% of Americans considering themselves environmentally conscious, with more than three quarters of all American travellers believing it is important that their travel do not have a negative impact on the environment; 62 % of travellers according to the research were willing to pay even more for any company that does more to safeguard the environment (Self, Self &Haynes, 2011). Such a lucrative business driven by eco-sensitive consumers in hotels and travel companies have pushed such hotels to the limit in ensuring they obtain eco-labels, which explains the prevalence of greenwashing today; it is the only possible means to ensure they have the eco-certifications with no practical results. Consequently, there is a growing worry that the meaning of ecotourism is being misused, watered down, and used as just a marketing tool to take andante of the high demands by such consumers, and to boost the company’s revenue (Self, Self &Haynes, 2011). Strict regulations and disciplinary measures would also play a role in discouraging the greenwashing in the hotel industry. Each eco-standard certification has a specific criterion that has to be met before such a hotel is certified. It would follow that the hotel once certified has to be required to follow the standards outlined. This would require regular and procedural follow up by the standard bodies, in ensuring the certified hotels operate according to the spirit of the eco-labels. Any hotel found to be involved in greenwashing should be heavily fined, and stripped off the eco-label certification. This would require the certification body to have a well-designed and regularly updated website where the public can get first hand information of all the hotels certified, and those stripped off the certification. The current customer awareness on the benefits of eco-friendly services has resulted in a rush with many hotels obtaining green certifications and eco-labels, which are used in a dishonest way to dupe customers. Many hotels after being certified under LEEDs and eco-tourism certification use such tags for marketing, with nothing tangible to showcase on the ground regarding strategies and plans towards environmental sustainability. The increasing awareness among the public has made it possible to identify such hotels, with many blogs coming up to analyze the tourism industry and identifying greenwashing cases. However, with strict monitoring and consolidation of all standards under a single body, strict penalties for defaulters and use of processes standards, the problem of greenwashing may be reduced in hotels. This would put an end to the dishonesty in many hotels that use eco-labels as marketing gimmicks to hoodwink customers, but do not operate in accordance with standard requirements. References Erica O., & Aaron M.C., (2010) From Eco-friendly to Eco-intelligent, The Futurist, 44(5), 28-32. Gallicano D.T., (2011) A Critical Analysis of Greenwashing Claims, Public Relations Journal 5(3), 1-21. Jessica H., (2008). Green is the Word, Hospitality Design, 30(7), 55 Martha H., (2002)Who Owns Paradise? Strong Certification Programs Separate Genuine Ecotourism from Greenwashing Fast-Buck Artists, The Environmental Magazine, 13(4), 33 Self R M. Self R.D., & Haynes B.J., (2010) Marketing Tourism In The Galapagos Islands: Ecotourism Or Greenwashing? International Business & Economics Research Journal, 9(6), 111-126. Read More