**5.2 Findings**

This section presents the main findings of the study. The presentation of the results is divided by topics with the aim of determining the final conclusions in

*Environmental Sustainability Practices in Hotels: From Attitudes to Implementation Case… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109433*


#### **Table 4.**

*General managers' interview.*

the area of a consequence of insignificant adoption of environmental sustainability practices in hotels and some of the problems identified as negatively affecting adoptions.

#### *5.2.1 Managers attitudes toward environmental sustainability practices*

Overall, more than 99% of managers showed a positive attitude toward hotels responsibility, government intervention, and support in regard to adoption of environmental sustainability practices. Because the majority of respondents (93%) had diploma and above in tourism and related fields that help them to have awareness about environmental issues. Chan et al. [50] supports this finding that environmental knowledge has a positive impact on environmental awareness and behavior. Even if they showed a positive attitude toward environmental issue, they did not show high commitment to apply all environmental sustainability practices in their hotel's actions and day-to-day operation. Because of less concern from hotel owners, less monitoring of existing rules and regulations, and no incentive mechanism on the ground, motivation incentive system was not identified as influencing factor in previous research [18, 57, 59]. From interview analysis, 83% of general managers responded in their

interview that they had no clear strategy and environmental protection targets at corporate level.

In addition, they expect attention from corporate level of hotels and government leadership *via* financial and training to adopt those practices in their resort hotels. Generally, environmental issue was not also a control system and an essential part of appraisal system of general managers from their hotels as a whole. So, they would not have high commitment or will to exert environmental practices. In line to this finding, the previous research conducted by Bohdanowicz [11] supports this finding, but those researches did not identify what was behind the low performance. This research identified that many hotel managers were aware about the negative tourism activities but showed less commitment to perform all sustainable practices because they expect support from both hotel owners and government.

#### *5.2.2 Sociodemographic influence on managers' environmental attitudes*

Social factors could have affected hotel managers' environmental attitude. Age and education were identified as significant influencing factors whether hotel managers become involved in adoption of sustainability practices in their hotels. Four age categories were analyzed in this study, and their ages were 20–25, 26–30, and 31– 35 years, and managers over the age of 35 years. Nine attributes were observed as statistical significance. Respondents older than 35 years of age were more likely agreed to all nine points related to environmental sustainability issues than those younger than 35 years of age in this study. This was due to relation between long stay and the opportunity to have better experience regarding benefits of quality environment around resorts in which they were worked in.

Education was also another second significant factor in this study. Respondents with higher education level more likely to agree on seven points stated related to environmental sustainability practices than low education-level respondents. Relatively, this is due to better level of understanding and awareness in high level of education respondents than lower level of education about environmental sustainability practices. In contrary to previous research [1], income was identified as an insignificant factor in this study. This is due to difference in research location and target population that could bring knowledge and awareness difference among respondents. Managers and staff were target population in this research, whereas hotel guests and staffs that could not have direct decision role relatively to adopt environmental sustainable practices in resort hotels were target population in many previous researches.

#### *5.2.3 Environmental sustainable practice performance level of resorts*

Energy, water, and waste management were major problems among Bishoftu resort hotels. Many resort hotels participate in energy-efficient equipment, mostly energy-efficient bulbs which are compatible with sustainability practices. Resort hotel managers reported energy-efficient bulbs as the third most used energy-saving practice next to reusable items (e.g., cloth napkins) and reuse water for gardening programs. Even if such compatible measures started in all sample hotels, adoption of energy controlling and saving technology, energy-saving campaigns, using renewable energy sources, and adapting green building design were generally low.

Water conservation activities have gained consensus among all resort hotels. Implementing water-efficient gardening program was the second important and

#### *Environmental Sustainability Practices in Hotels: From Attitudes to Implementation Case… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109433*

relatively the most implemented practice in resorts. Water conservation activities such as conducting water-saving campaigns in kitchens, installing water meter in guest rooms, and participating in community conservation projects were still low. This was due to low concern and low bill to access water to their resorts from available lake water around. Research by Bohdanowicz [34] showed that using water-saving equipment in hotels can help to reduce water consumption.

Similarly, green campus that could contribute to clean air was observed in all sample resorts, but most hotel managers viewed campus greening as decorations to attract and retain their guests. But tree planting, conservation of existing natural forest, and reforestation in resort campus contribute not only for attracting and staying visitors in resort but also crucial for the overall balance of ecosystem. Bishoftu hotel managers also pay little attention to distributing promotional materials to urge customers to act environmentally friendly. Only one resort hotel participated in this activity. This was due to a weak guidance from owner and government for the reason that less attention and commitment, no environmental policy target set up at corporate level and significantly due to less concern and lack of deep knowledge regarding sustainable resort management and development of quality environment.

All resort hotels were accepted to treat waste well and sort waste from basic sections of their resorts. Relatively, significant amount of waste in sample resort hotels was from food production section, guest rooms, and back-of-house areas. Even if waste sorting in basic sections has been done, the way of waste treatment and management was generally weak. Only Asham Africa resort used biofuel that uses solid and liquid waste as input to recycle waste and measures like plastic reuse. Previous studies support these issues as full implementation of sustainable practice in resort hotel to increase the market value and reduce costs.

#### *5.2.4 Factors influencing adoptions of environmental sustainable practices*

It is interestingly identified in contrary to most previous research [1, 2] that owners' or general managers' commitment, government incentive for good achievement, and government policy and regulation are relatively the most influencing factors and motivators for the adoption of environmental sustainable practices in resort hotels. If there is no commitment from owners of hotels and government toward environmental protection and green activities, it is impossible to use effectively financial and even knowledgeable human resources in hotels. Observation result showed that comparatively the best examples observed in Asham Africa resort hotel in all sustainability versions are due to high commitment of the owner that supports the whole result stated. Mangers team was target population in this research, whereas many previous research [2] targets were hotel staff and guests. So these could result different findings from earlier similar research.

Mangers of resort hotels also accept that customer demand, lack of financial resources, and lack of knowledge were the next factors influencing adoption of sustainable environmental practices. But in Bushoftu resorts, those problems are not the most influencing problems for the adoption of sustainability practices. In this regard, Mittal and Dhar [61] stated that sustainable practices and polices do not always demand capital-intensive projects and contribute not only to improve public awareness but can also help to minimize cost and simple projects that can be implemented by employee's commitment. Sustainable practices are often promoted as opportunity to minimize cost, but many mangers do not believe this.
