Greenwashing In The Hotel Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Greenwashing In The Hotel Industry - Essay Example More than 33% of all food products that were launched in 2008 claimed to be natural according to a research by Dara O’Rourke, of the University of California Environmental policy, and a professor and founder of GoodGuide website that monitored consumer products and their eco friendliness (Cohen & Aaron, 2010). However the research found that more than 98% of foods that claimed to be natural in the US supermarkets and other hospitality institutions were found to be false regarding their Eco friendliness tags, while 22% of products had green claims with no inherent meaning. Many eco-friendly tags are aimed at saving money rather than environmental sustainability Miller, Melillo and Solman (2006) asserted that no matter how genuine hotels are, it would be very unlikely for the hotels to adhere to eco-labelling if there we nonprofits to be enjoyed. However, in a number of hotels, in order to capture this perception and create a positive public goodwill, some hotels have initiated programs that require contribution of certain sum of money to charity. For example, some hotel have elaborate signs that tell guests that reusing of towels will save money that will be donated to charity or to environmental bodies (Gallicano, 2011). As Gallicano explains, such hotel establishments undertake to carry out such gimmicks because many guests and customers do not have any knowledge regarding the internal working of the organization and their sustainable business practices. Therefore as more companies adopt green campaigns, consumers are getting more confused with the real meaning of â€Å"green ,â€Å" with branding experts finding it difficult to issue certification in green marketing due to increased... The blog reported on the green practice of reputable establishments such as the Fairmont Hotels, Kempton Hotels and Restaurants, Starwood’s, and Marriot Hotels, all which have been granted the LEED certification. The best practice that was unidentifiable from this campaign was that each hotel mentioned contributed 1% of their revenue to the local environmentalist groups, but did not have any elaborate development regarding the hotel’s undertaking to ensure environmental sustainability as would be expected under the LEED certification (Jessica, 2008). A blogger reviewing and sharing news regarding Proximity in North Carolina, which had received a LEED Gold certification and claimed to be using 36% less energy than other hotels, and 30% less water also put the reliability of such figures into question, judging from customer responses from the hotel services. Most hotels in order to hoodwink customers have huge insistencies in their eco sustainability practices. Some hotel s may meet the requirements of eco friendliness on one part only to perform very unsustainably in others (Gallicano, 2011). Moreover, some hotel establishments have undertaken to produce remarkable and well-designed websites that narrate of the measures that have been taken to meet eco-friendly practices in attempts that would amount to rating themselves on how best they meet such sustainable criteria, which does not give a holistic picture regarding their operations and real sustainable practices undertaken by the organizations.