The impact of the Green Claims Directive for sustainable hospitality
Professor Xavier Font (University of Surrey) examines the complexities of sustainable practices in the hospitality industry, highlighting the discrepancies between consumer surveys on sustainability and actual behaviors. It reveals the prevalence of 'greenhushing,' where companies undercommunicate their sustainability actions due to fear of criticism from both environmentally conscious and anti-green consumers.
If we are to believe the many surveys conducted by both industry and academics, consumers are fully aware of the negative impacts of the tourism industry, and most of them are committed to changing their ways. The reality is however rather different, in part because the surveys we see suffer from self-selection bias (the people that choose to answer them do so because they are interested in the topic of the survey) and self-deception bias (those people genuinely want to believe that they will do the right thing).
Academic studies on the attitude-behaviour gap in relation to sustainable tourism behaviours have however shown that in the heat of the moment, we all seem to believe that a sustainable product, service or experience will require a compromise on one of the attributes that really matter: price, quality, convenience, location, risk… For this reason, the hospitality industry must stop presenting sustainability as a unique selling proposition in its own right, and to start considering it as one more proof point of those five attributes that generally matter to a larger proportion of society. It’s not that we don’t want to be sustainable, it’s just that there are other things that we want more, and more urgently, to satisfy our needs.
HYB 2024 Hospitality ESG Edition
The global hospitality sector is at a crossroad when it comes to implementing sustainability. Consumers demand trustworthy information while regulators and investors expect transparent disclosure on sustainability performance. Owners, brands and managers aim to mitigate the sector’s footprint thus reaping the financial and reputational benefits. Industry players that fail to adopt a sustainability strategy or fall short in the implementation stage may struggle to remain competitive in the long term. Industry experts and researchers identify key areas where sustainable innovation can have the greatest impact, developing new technologies and solutions to address sustainability challenges, and creating policies and incentives that encourage the adoption of sustainable practices. The HYB 2024 Hospitality ESG Edition aims to unlock the sustainability innovation stack by highlighting the range and interconnectedness of sustainable technologies, systems, and practices that can be combined in a holistic way that creates a more sustainable hospitality ecosystem.