The fall 2011 Roundtable season at the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration was capped by the third Sustainability Roundtable and the inaugural Roundtable on Healthcare and Hospitality.
Both sessions aimed at breaking down barriers to progress and putting emphasis on the key elements that will advance the industry.
Sustainability: A Topic of Increasing Customer Interest Co-Chaired by Eric Ricaurte (Research Associate, CHR) and Rohit Verma (Professor, Executive Director, CHR), the Sustainability Roundtable addressed several complicated issues as proposed by hospitality industry practitioners. One goal of the roundtable was to address topics that could become the subject of further research.
For hotels and other businesses interested in sustainability, one of the greatest challenges is the astonishing number of certifications, frameworks, standards, and regulations that an operator faces in various jurisdictions and countries. As presented by David Jerome, senior vice president of corporate responsibility at InterContinental Hotels Group, the result has been the evolution of the corporate responsibility and sustainability departments to handle numerous diverse issues.
Developing measurements is critical, due to the increased sustainability expectations by guests. In this context, Susan Robertson, president of the ASAE Foundation, led a discussion by presenting some key figures which indicated that the majority of associations and association meeting planners are currently incorporating or will incorporate programs related to green meetings into their professions within the next year.
Jerome cited three myths that need to be corrected for the hospitality industry to advance. Myth one is that “green is expensive,” when in fact many sustainability initiatives clearly save money. Myth two is that guests do not care about sustainability, but in fact, many guests want hotels to be sustainable, and corporate travel and meeting planners expect hotels to communicate their sustainability efforts. Myth three is that the industry can wait to make changes, but delay is expensive and problematic.
A subsequent discussion led by Paul Hildreth, Director, Engineering & Facilities Management, Global Operations Services, Marriott International, examined the calculation of carbon footprints of hotel stays based on prior CHR research on a sustainability performance measurement framework. As a reference, the usefulness of the EPA Energy Star program and its Portfolio Manager was discussed as one basis for a consistent approach to sustainability measurement. The Energy Star program’s greatest drawback is that it is a U.S.-based approach. Further research is needed to address the problem of common measurement through multiple sustainability standards and audiences.
In conjunction with the Sustainability Roundtable, student teams were invited to develop and present a corporate sustainability report for an invented global hotel company. The winning student team, “KCI Hotels,” created a company with four hotel brands and addressed a common industry issue, lack of coordination between owners, operators, and the brand. Their proposed solution was to align sustainability policies among all three parties, including incentives for achieving sustainability goals. The KCI Hotels team, which won a $2,000 first prize, comprised Ilana Edelman ’12, Kimberly Schlossberg ’13, and Chad Wemischner ’13.
To view the full program and photos of the event, please visit: http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research
