Optimize the Trivial While Ignoring the Existential? A Leverage Points Analysis

I am using Donella Meadows' twelve leverage points (LP) framework as a tool for analysis. Result: hospitality focuses on the weak intervention points (LP12-10:) while avoiding higher-leverage interventions (LP6-1).

Table 1 (to be found in the full article with link below) maps current hospitality practice against transformative potential across all twelve leverage points, proposing actions for 2026 and beyond (and thus responding to this viewpoint).

Hotel development decisions create 30-50 year path dependencies; a poorly designed building (e.g. with poor energy rating) constrains operational possibilities regardless of management effort. Yet much of the sustainability effort concentrates on operations: adjusting thermostats, flow rates, portion sizes. Meanwhile, many critical higher-leverage interventions remain partly or simply unaddressed: redesigning franchise agreement rules (LP5) to mandate sustainable procurement; redefining success metrics (LP3) beyond RevPAR toward ecosystem restoration; questioning growth paradigms (LP2).

The deepest challenge: hospitality never asks "Should this hotel exist? Are operations appropriate at this scale in this location?" The industry cannot simultaneously pursue growth AND acknowledge limits; cannot extract value AND regenerate systems. These are difficult tensions to resolve. Regenerative hospitality may transcend this as it operates at these higher leverage points.