Hospitality Management: Eco Lodge Environmental Performance Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Environmental Management System (EMS) implemented by Eco Lodge, a green hotel located in rural New South Wales, Australia. The report details the hotel's commitment to sustainability, including green marketing strategies, energy conservation policies, and waste management practices. It explores the challenges faced by the lodge, such as the lack of skilled staff and its distance from urban centers, while also highlighting its strengths, like its proximity to a wildlife sanctuary. The report covers various phases of EMS, including initial review, information gathering, data assessment using SWOT analysis, employee training programs, and management system documentation. Furthermore, it examines the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the lodge's operations, emphasizing its efforts to incorporate local culture and promote community development. The report concludes by assessing the effectiveness of the implemented strategies and providing recommendations for continuous improvement in the hotel's environmental performance and overall sustainability within the Australian hospitality sector.

Running head: HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Hospitality Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

2HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Executive Summary
This report deals with the environmental management system in the context of Eco Lodge.
However, the purpose of Eco Lodge is to develop a green hotel. This lodge is situated in the rural
area of NSW. However, lack of skilled staff, distance from the city and poor service quality are
the major challenges of this organization. In order to reduce their impact on the environment,
they have taken green marketing strategy, energy conservation policy, and waste management
policy. These initiatives will be helpful for this hotel to minimize their impact on the
environment and develop an eco-friendly business. However, this organization also tries to
incorporate local culture into the service system. Moreover, they use green building strategy to
develop an environmentally friendly design for their hotel. Hence, such sustainable initiatives are
helpful for Eco Lodge to make their business sustainable in Australian hospitality sector.

3HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Environmental Management System...............................................................................................4
Phase 1: Initial Review................................................................................................................4
Phase 2: Information and Commitment.......................................................................................5
Phase 3: Data Assessment...........................................................................................................6
Phase 4: Analysis and Training...................................................................................................7
Phase 5: Management system and documentation......................................................................9
6. Social/Economic....................................................................................................................10
7. Cultural Heritage...................................................................................................................11
8. Environment..........................................................................................................................12
9. Marketing strategy.................................................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

4HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Introduction
The environmental management system or EMS is a process to reduce the impact of any
business on the environment. EMS enables the business organization to develop an
environmentally friendly business and to increase its operating efficiency (Guerrero-Baena et al.
2015). EMS gives a framework to an organization, which helps them to achieve their
environmental goals by controlling their business operation. EMS is a continuous improvement
process. By developing an EMS the organization is able to address its regulatory requirement in
a cost-effective and systematic manner. This deals with the EMS system in the context of Eco
Lodge. This is a Green Hotel and present at New South Wales in Australia. However, this hotel
is situated in the remote area of NSW and there is a Sanctuary Wildlife besides this lodge.
Environmental Management System
Phase 1: Initial Review
a. Legal Aspect
Eco Lodge wants to be a green hotel. Their mission is to reduce their business impact on
the environment and to achieve the Green Globe Certification. In order to achieve this, they need
to follow both local and international law. According to the Environmental Protection and
Biodiversity Act 1999, any business needs to reduce their impact on the matters that are
protected by this law (Legislation.gov.au 2018). By following this Act Eco Lodge will be able to
develop an eco-friendly business in Australia. On the other hand, this organization needs to
follow International Environmental Protection Act 1983 to protect the natural resources. Besides

5HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Eco Lodge, there is a Sanctuary Wildlife. Hence, by following this Act Eco Lodge will be able to
protect the wildlife by reducing their business impact on the environment.
b. Competitive Aspect
In order to understand the competitive advantages of an organization, it is important to
use the benchmarking tool. Benchmarking tool makes a comparison between the performance of
two or more businesses (Brokenrivermr.com.au 2018). In the context of Eco Lodge, it has been
received that their performance rating is 4. On the other hand, Broken River Mountain Resort is a
popular tourist lodge in Australia, and their rating is 5. They have been certified for their eco-
friendly business. They are environmentally and socially sustainable (Oliveira et al. 2016).
Hence, Eco-Lodge has a low rating in comparison to Broken River Mountain Resort as they have
not achieved green globe certification. Therefore, they need to improve their strategy to make a
socially and environmentally sustainable business.
Phase 2: Information and Commitment
Environmental Goals
 To reduce the energy and water consumption within the hotel
 To increase awareness among the partners and the guests to build a green hotel by
preserving and conserving
Socio-cultural Goals
 To bring cultural diversity through the business
 To reduce the poverty by involving the local people within the business
Economic Goal

6HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
 To reduce the operating cost of the business by using renewable resources
 To establish a partnership work to strengthen the fund
Phase 3: Data Assessment
Data assessment of an organization can be done by using the SWOT analysis.
S-Strength
 Availability of the labors as the rural
community highly depends on firms
and husbandry.
 Presence of natural beauties such as
wildlife sanctuary, which is the major
tourist attraction
W-Weakness
 Distance of the Eco Lodge from the
nearest town
 Low level of skill
O-Opportunity
 Increasing globalization attracts the
international tourists
 To bring diversity as maximum people
are indigenous
T-Threat
 High competition, which is occurred by
other organizations due to having
skilled labor
 Increasing climate threat
Figure 1: SWOT Analysis of Eco Lodge
(Source: Author)
Analysis: According to the above table the strength, weakness, threat, and opportunity are
evaluated in the context of Eco-Lodge. It has been received that Eco Lodge is situated in the

7HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
rural area of NSW. Hence, the entire rural community depends on the firm and animal husbandry
as there are no other sources of income. This allows such organization to get local labor easily at
low cost. Wildlife is the major attraction of the international tourists (Chen 2015). Hence, the
presence of sanctuary wildlife is a big strength of Eco Lodge to gain the tourist's attention.
Besides these strengths, there are some weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses is the distance
of Eco-Lodge from the city. However, the tourists have to take a car to go to the nearest town
and it takes 20 minutes. This also creates an issue for Eco Lodge to get raw materials from the
suppliers within a short time. However, the maximum people are working in the firm in this area
as a result, the education level is low. Hence, there is lack of skilled people, which is a major
weakness of this lodge. Increasing globalization brings opportunity for this lodge to expand their
business across Australia by making an environmentally friendly business. On the other hand,
people in this area follow the indigenous practice. This brings scope for Eco Lodge to bring a
cultural diversity by establishing a relationship between the foreigners and the local community.
Moreover, lack of skilled labor may create a competitive environment for this lodge. This lodge
is present in a mountainous zone as a result; climate change may lead this organization to face
challenges in future.
Phase 4: Analysis and Training
Training is the most crucial part of employee development. In order to meet the business
objectives, an organization needs to provide training to their employees. This allows the
employees to understand the business goal properly and to lean they way to achieve them (Law
et al. 2017). Eco Lodge has developed a sustainability management training program for their
employees to achieve sustainable business goals. The elements of the training program are as
follow:

8HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Sustainable management training Program
 Development of the specific objectives
 Creation of a content and instructional design
 Knowledge distribution
 Utilize the internal and external resources
 Water and energy conservation along with controlling the pollution
 Waste material management
 Protection of the species and cultural diversity
 Identification of the reasons of high operating cost and solution
 Evaluation of the employee effectiveness
 Continuous improvement
The above training program includes 10 stages to improve the efficiency of the employees to
gain sustainable development in Eco Lodge. The first step includes development of the
objectives and sharing the vision with the employees. Sharing of the objectives enables the
employees to understand the importance of the goals and their contribution to achieve the goals
(Clark et al. 2016). In the next step, the content and instructional design is created, which
generates a clear purpose and steps of the training program in Eco Lodge. Therefore, the
knowledge is distributed among the employees, which allows them to improve their skill and
competency level. In the next step, the internal and external resources are utilized properly.
Internal resources refer to the company fund and the employees and the external resource is the
help of external agencies. The main purpose of this organization is to develop sustainable and
eco-friendly business. Thus, Eco-Lodge has taken initiatives to conserve the energy and reduce
the water consumption. They have installed occupancy and daylight sensor to reduce energy

9HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
consumption. Therefore, the employees are trained about how to recycle the waste products in
this hotel.
Recycling process is a vital way to reduce the impact of a hotel on its environment (Pérez et
al. 2018). Therefore, there is sanctuary wildlife besides the Eco Lodge. This is the major tourist
attraction of this area. Hence, the employees are trained to preserve the wild species to maximize
the value of such business. Therefore, the knowledge distribution helps the employees to
understand the reasons of the high operating cost and they are able to take necessary steps to
reduce the cost. This can be done by using the energy conservation process as it helps to reduce
the impact on the environment and to save the cost of business. Therefore, a test is taken from
the employees during this training program to understand the effectiveness of the employees to
meet the business goal. Finally, employees are monitored to bring continuous improvement in
this organization.
Phase 5: Management system and documentation
In the context of Eco-Lodge, it is important to develop a controlling system to measure
the customer satisfaction level and to take corrective actions to deal with the issues regarding
customer satisfaction. This will be effective to gain sustainable business. Survey is a good
method to understand the satisfaction level of the customers. Eco Lodge uses in-app survey and
post service survey to gather feedback from the customers. They have identified that long
distance of the hotel from the city is a big reason of the customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, they
use loyalty measurement to identify the loyal customer. This reveals the customer satisfaction
level. Pinpoint specifies allows the organization to understand the purchasing behavior of the
customers that is also associated with the customer satisfaction (Cai and Chi 2018). On the other
hand, Eco Lodge assesses the level of competition to understand why customers switch their

10HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
organization and go to the other competitors. Competition assessment tool is an important tool to
understand the trend of the current market, which leads the customer to switch from one
organization to another (Ascarza et al. 2018). By using such tools Eco Lodge is able to
understand that quality, distance, alternative service and lack of skilled employees are the major
reasons of customer dissatisfaction. To deal with these issues they try to provide good quality
service to the customers by providing them more comfort within the lodge. They offer a local
trip to the customers that help them to achieve high level of customer satisfaction through
competitive advantages. They provide training to the local staffs to improve their knowledge,
which allows the staffs to satisfy the customers through service. Finally, they offer car service
to the guests to visit the town when they want. These corrective actions are beneficial for this
organization to maximize the customer satisfaction level.
6. Social/Economic
The hospitality industry can achieve social and economic sustainability through
developing the community (Song et al. 2018). Eco-Lodge has taken initiative to develop the
local community in terms of developing health and education. The initiatives include donation
to the local school, create awareness among the indigenous people regarding the importance of
child education and the establishment of health campaign to support the community. Eco Loge
has taken their initiatives to employ the local people in various positions. They use a group
interview to identify the talent from the unusual areas. Therefore, they have decided to train the
talented people before involving them in this organization. This is due to the managerial skill
development. The third initiative is to recruit the females in the housekeeping section of the
hotel.

11HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
The fair trade initiatives of Eco Lodge include licensing, fair wages, fair transaction
with the clients, contractual partnership business, and taxation. However, such fair trade enables
Eco Lodge to develop the farmers who produce the product and to create a sustainable supply
chain. In order to support the local entrepreneur, Eco Lode has taken three initiatives such as
they order the local marketers for the various types of foods based on different cultures. They
make a regular visit to the local entrepreneur to inform them about the choice of local guests.
Then they organize a trade fair where the local entrepreneurs are able to sell products based on
the culture and nature. For the hospitality sectors, it is important to establish the policy to deal
with the commercial exploitation to achieve sustainability (Cisneros-Martínez et al. 2018). Eco
Lodge has developed two policies for the commercial exploitation include intellectual property
law to reduce data theft and not buying products that are produced by child labor. In order to
maintain equitable hiring Eco Lodge focuses on the reduction of favoritism, providing an
opportunity to the women and minorities for the managerial position and implementation of the
Equal Opportunity Act 2010. To maintain the basic services such as water, energy, and
sanitation Eco Lodge has taken initiatives. Proper maintenance of pipeline, use of renewable
energy and waste management are the major initiatives of Eco-Lodge to reduce their impact on
the basic services in neighboring community.
7. Cultural Heritage
Maintenance of the cultural heritage is crucial for the hospitality sector to achieve socio-
cultural sustainability (Li and Hunter 2015). The vital codes of behavior of Eco Lodge are:
 The guests should respect the staffs while accessing the service
 The registered guests are permitted in the hotel premises
 The guests should consume the food in a specific area and dispose them properly

12HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
 Guests are not allowed to smoke and abuse alcohol within the hotel
In order to incorporate the local culture within operation, design and food or shop of Eco Lodge
the following initiatives are taken:
 The interior design of the hotel is developed by using the hand craft product of local
people
 Materials are taken from the local suppliers to involve them in the business
 The decoration is done based on the concept of local designer
8. Environment
For hotels it is crucial to follow the principles of the sustainable construction to develop
green building (Lopes and Almeida 2018). The sustainable construction design of Eco Lodge
includes the following features:
 Use of sustainable building materials during the construction
 Use of energy efficient equipment within the hotel
 Creating proper insulation to make a green building in the hotel
 Reduce buying new materials and reuse old materials such as wood, doors, and windows
 Development of energy star window and install the solar panels
Purchasing policy of Eco Lodge
 Priority will be given to the local suppliers while purchasing the product
 Purchase product from the minority group and the women