University Ethics and Sustainability Report, MGT301A

This report, prepared for the MGT301A Ethics and Sustainability module, examines two critical ethical issues within the hospitality industry: food wastage and water scarcity. The introduction defines business ethics and highlights the environmental concerns prevalent in the hotel sector. The discussion section identifies food wastage as a significant ethical problem, citing the vast amount of food discarded daily and its impact on global hunger and environmental pollution. The report then proposes an ethical framework to address this issue, emphasizing the importance of measuring food waste, developing action plans, and sharing progress within the industry. The second issue, water scarcity, is explored, noting the excessive water usage in hotels through activities like prolonged showers and inefficient dishwashing. An ethical framework is proposed, suggesting measuring water usage and implementing low-flow fixtures. The conclusion emphasizes the negative impacts of both food and water wastage and underscores the need for individual and management awareness to eradicate these unethical practices. The report references several academic sources to support its arguments.

Running head: ETHICS
Ethics
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Identification of issue 1...............................................................................................................2
Ethical framework for addressing issue 1 and justification of choice.........................................3
Identification of issue 2...............................................................................................................3
Ethical framework for addressing issue 2 and justification of choice.........................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Reference list...................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
The term business ethics can be defined as the ethical approach taken by the management
while examining the principles and ethical issues that can arise in a business environment.
Several ethical environmental issues can be encountered when it comes to the hospitality
industry. Two of the real life environmental issues that are currently faced by the hotel industry
across the world are huge wastage of food and water. In this report, the two mentioned ethica
environmental issues will be identified and ethical framework for addressing the issues and
justification for selecting them will be provide in this report.
Discussion
Identification of issue 1
Wastage of food is currently a highly discussed issue in the hospitality industry.
Considering the fact that a huge amount of food is prepared in the hotels industry, often that are
not being consumed by the consumers are thrown away. Considering the fact that a huge amount
of population in both developed as well as under-developed countries are dying out of hunger,
throwing away consumable food items can be considered as a highly unethical act. 842 million
people in the world do not have enough to eat. According to a survey, every year, consumers in
rich countries waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa
(Pirani & Arafat, 2016). Apart from that, throwing away consumable food creates two major
environmental issues. Firstly, throwing away food that is consumable escalate the demand of
food as well as food crisis. Secondly, the thrown away food often gets contaminated with water
resulting in water pollution that in turn harms the aquatic life (Pirani & Arafat, 2014). Apart

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from a huge number of local hotels, several national as well as international hotels are found to
be involved in this unethical practice.
Ethical framework for addressing issue 1 and justification of choice
Several ethical frameworks are suggested by researchers to eradicate wastage of consumable
food by hotels and restaurants. One of the ethical frameworks suggests that hotels and restaurants
should follow the following steps in order to effectively eradicate wastage of food.
1. The amount of food that is being wasted on a daily basis must be measured.
2. An action plan should be developed in order to reduce wastage of food using collected
data, targets and time scales (Fox & Fimeche, 2013).
3. The progress should be reviewed each and every month by the hotel management.
4. The progress should be shared with the entire hospitality industry in order to encourage
prevention in the wastage of food.
Considering the fact that optimum production of food will not only prevent food wastage but will
also reduces the production crisis of the hotel and restaurants, the above mentioned ethical
framework is chosen as the optimal solution of consumable food wastage.
Identification of issue 2
Scarcity of water is a recognized global issue and it is estimated that by 2030, half of the
world’s population will be in high water stress. In such situation, several resorts and hotels are
found to be wasting water by allowing prolonged shower taken by the guests and huge pools.
Moreover a huge amount of water I misused while washing dishes since machines used for
washing dishes are not efficient in saving water. According to survey, about 23 percent of water
is misused every day while performing daily activities in hotels (Legrand, Chen & Sloan, 2013).

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Considering the fact that a huge number of individuals are suffering from water crisis, this
misusage of water can be considered as a highly unethical act.
Ethical framework for addressing issue 2 and justification of choice
According to researchers several methods can be implemented by hotels and restaurants to
reduce the wastage of water (Rahman, Reynolds & Svaren, 2012). The ethical framework
addressing the issue provides with the following steps:
1. In order to reduce the water wastage, it is highly crucial to know the trouble area. Hence
hotels and restaurants should measure their meter in order to yield valuable information
about the water usage (De Grosbois, 2012).
2. Low flow faucets and shower heads have the capability to reduce as much as 30 percent
of the water usage. Moreover, the management of hotels can implement newer
technologies like aerated shower head in order to prevent wastage of water.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that both wastage of food as well as water
are imparting highly negative impact on the environment. However, both the issues can be
eradicated with the help of the discussed ethical frameworks. However, awareness of each and
every individual along with the management of the hotels and restaurants is highly crucial to
completely eradicate the evil practices.

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Reference list
De Grosbois, D. (2012). Corporate social responsibility reporting by the global hotel industry:
Commitment, initiatives and performance. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 31(3), 896-905.
Fox, T., & Fimeche, C. (2013). Global food: waste not, want not. London: Institution of
Mechanical Engineers.
Legrand, W., Chen, J. S., & Sloan, P. (2013). Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry 2nd Ed:
Principles of Sustainable Operations. Routledge.
Pirani, S. I., & Arafat, H. A. (2014). Solid waste management in the hospitality industry: A
review. Journal of environmental management, 146, 320-336.
Pirani, S. I., & Arafat, H. A. (2016). Reduction of food waste generation in the hospitality
industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 132, 129-145.
Rahman, I., Reynolds, D., & Svaren, S. (2012). How “green” are North American hotels? An
exploration of low-cost adoption practices. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 31(3), 720-727.