The Hospitality Industry Confronts the Global Challenge of Sustainability

Abstract

The third annual CHR Sustainability Roundtable continued the process begun in earlier roundtables of advancing the response of industry and academe to the challenges facing the hospitality industry regarding sustainability. Held October 29–30, 2011, at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, the roundtable brought together representatives from several global hotel companies, service providers, and a diverse group of hospitality and sustainability academics and researchers. Building on the prior year’s discussion and research, the roundtable focused attention on specific issues of interest as identified by the industry. Those included the complexities of managing sustainability in numerous jurisdictions worldwide, across a variety of hotel types and operating levels. Roundtable participants also continued the discussion of how to standardize or otherwise rationalize the measurement of the many elements that constitute sustainability. Although sustainability programs provide value to the industry, another driving factor is demand from customers, particularly groups, meeting planners, and corporate customers. As a final goal, the roundtable served as a springboard for increasingly focused research that adds value to the industry’s discussion and sustainability practices.