Sustainability Ripples Out
Hotels have an indispensable role in reducing society’s environmental footprint. Professor Dan Wang, Dr Mei Yang and Dr Zhiming Deng of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) recently published a study exploring how third parties can play their part in achieving this goal. Their pioneering framework for identifying and classifying stakeholders in hotel environment management (EM) initiatives will help practitioners strategise the most effective ways to maximise sustainability.
Making a green transition is particularly important for the hotel industry. Hotel operation is resource-intensive and waste-heavy, and the rise in environmental awareness among ethical investors and the wider public has been accompanied by increasing legislation. “Hospitality scholars have long been investigating effective ways to improve environmental management”, the authors write. “This has led to a vast body of research on various aspects related to environmental sustainability management in the hotel industry”.
However, previous research has mostly viewed hotels in isolation, as individual entities striving to reduce their own environmental footprint. In fact, hotel operations are also influenced by the interests of various external stakeholders, such as local communities, governments and NGOs. Missing thus far is a broader view that accounts for these other key actors. “Only a few studies”, the researchers note, “recognise the importance of stakeholders in effectively implementing environmental sustainability practices and achieving sustainable outcomes”.
The stakeholder management literature offers some guidance for hotels seeking to tap into their relationships with external stakeholders. The researchers saw that the time was ripe to apply these insights to the specific domain of hotel EM. Based on stakeholder theory, companies “actively evaluate how different group of stakeholders’ engagement may either facilitate or hinder the successful execution of sustainable initiatives”, they explain. “Thus”, in the EM context, “it is important to specifically identify the stakeholders related to hotel EM and address their interests”.
To this end, the authors drew upon the theory of stakeholder identification and salience. Their framework was “grounded in the premise that not all stakeholders are equal, and their importance to the organisation can vary based on certain attributes, including power, legitimacy, and urgency”. Here, power reflects the ability of a stakeholder to influence an organisation, legitimacy refers to the perceived validity or appropriateness of the stakeholder’s involvement, and urgency indicates the degree to which their needs or demands require immediate attention.
Firms therefore prioritise stakeholders seen as most salient. The authors’ framework further specifies seven categories of stakeholder salience: dormant, discretionary, demanding, dominant, dependent, dangerous and definitive. “The determination of stakeholder salience”, however, “is not solely a managerial perspective, especially in the context of sustainable development”. They continue that “for a more inclusive assessment, a third-party perspective can be integrated into the evaluation process to balance the potential managerial bias and lack of intrinsic stakeholder engagement”.
This multi-perspective approach is consistent with the authors’ chosen research paradigm. Specifically, they situated their approach in the tradition of social constructivism, according to which “truth/reality is socially constructed and subjectively interpreted by the surrounding environment”. This view naturally lends itself to a qualitative methodology that can reveal participants’ personal experiences of the topic at hand.
Guided by this theoretical lens, the researchers performed real-world case studies in a selection of hotels to explore how stakeholders engage in EM. “The stakeholders identified by the hotels”, they report, “include hotel owners, guests, a hotel association, hotel employees, and local community representatives”. Interviews and on-site observations were conducted in five international hotel chains in Beijing and Shanghai to gather first-hand data on these various actors’ involvement with hotels’ EM initiatives.
To draw out the most relevant information from each interview, a separate questionnaire was drawn up for each type of hotel stakeholder. Senior management, for example, were asked mainly about the sustainability initiatives of their hotels in the present and anticipated future, while other hotel employees were invited to talk about their personal involvement in such practices and general observations. Guests, hotel associations, hotel owners and local community representatives likewise answered tailored questions about their knowledge of and opinions on hotel EM issues.
The conversations with managers revealed that international chains are taking EM seriously, with programmes to achieve specific emission and waste reductions. These goals, and the strategies to attain them, vary between firms: “Hilton, for instance, has set a near-term target for 2030 with its LightStay programme aimed at reducing carbon emissions by half and doubling investments in social impact”, the authors report, whereas Hyatt “adopts a broader view with its World of Care programme, encompassing the adoption of renewable energy sources”, alongside recycling and biodiversity protection.
As the most essential stakeholders, both hotel owners and employees were categorised as definitive, holding power, legitimacy and urgency. Nonetheless, despite the decision-making power of hotel owners, “their level of involvement and commitment is hindered by cost concerns and return on investment calculations”, the researchers found. The investments in new technology that are needed for energy-saving and emission reduction were repeatedly mentioned as barriers to owners’ engagement in EM – despite the recognition that “environmental sustainability is not only the responsible thing to do, but it also makes good business sense”.
Hotel employees, meanwhile, are on the frontline of EM initiatives. “Therefore”, the authors emphasise, “it is crucial for hotels to provide comprehensive training and education programmes to enhance employees’ understanding of environmental sustainability and promote a culture of green practices”. Kitchen, housekeeping and maintenance staff may be in particular need of greater EM awareness and knowledge, with one F&B director remarking that “there is often a lack of clarity on what ‘green’ really means and what each individual can do to contribute to the goal of achieving zero emissions”.
Hotel guests, classed as demanding stakeholders due to the urgency of their needs, showed mixed responses to EM initiatives – valuing sustainability as a decision criterion but struggling with specific inconveniences, such as the decision not to provide bottled water. Many hotel chains are attempting to align guests’ service expectations more closely with their green values through clearer communication: as one director of marketing put it, “we want to inform consumers of the rationales of our actions”. The authors recommend combining this strategy with close attention to guests’ responses to sustainability initiatives.
Identified as a discretionary stakeholder with high legitimacy, the China Hospitality Association (CHA) has a comprehensive certification process for hotels’ environmental performance. “However”, the researchers point out, this “Green Hotel programme is voluntary, and the CHA has no legal authority to enforce compliance among hotels”. They call for changes to the institutional environment to encourage more EM initiatives, envisioning that an active CHA “can serve as a powerful advocate for sustainable practices in the Chinese hotel industry”.
“Key stakeholders”, the authors sum up, “can influence the effectiveness of EM practice implementation”. Nonetheless, the ambitious EM programmes set out by major chains “face challenges in gaining support and engagement from stakeholders in the Chinese hotel industry”. The researchers’ systematic framework for stakeholder identification and engagement in the hotel EM context provides a valuable new perspective on holistic approaches to overcoming these barriers.
Dan Wang, Mei Yang and Zhiming Deng (2025). Pathway to Environment Management in Hotel Industry: A Stakeholder Engagement Framework. Journal of China Tourism Research, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 580–600.
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About PolyU School of Hotel and Tourism Management
For more than four decades, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University has refined a distinctive vision of hospitality and tourism education and become a world-leading hotel and tourism school. Ranked No. 1 in the world in the “Hospitality and Tourism Management” category in ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2025 for the ninth consecutive year; placed No. 1 globally in the “Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services” category in the University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2024/2025 for eight years in a row; rated No. 1 in the world in the “Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism” subject area by the CWUR Rankings by Subject 2017; and ranked No. 2 globally among comprehensive universities in the “Hospitality and Leisure Management” subject area in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, the SHTM is a symbol of excellence in the field, exemplifying its motto of Leading Hospitality and Tourism.
The School is driven by the need to serve its industry and academic communities through the advancement of education and dissemination of knowledge. With a strong international team of over 90 faculty members from 21 countries and regions around the world, the SHTM offers programmes at levels ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees. Through Hotel ICON, the School’s groundbreaking teaching and research hotel and a vital aspect of its paradigm-shifting approach to hospitality and tourism education, the SHTM is advancing teaching, learning and research, and inspiring a new generation of passionate, pioneering professionals to take their positions as leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry.
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