Sustainable Hospitality

&
Tourism Management
BMIH5006
Week 3
Module Learning
Outcomes
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of the
term “sustainability” and apply it within the
context of tourism and hospitality;

• Analyse concepts of “sustainable good

practice” within the tourism and hospitality
industry (rural, coastal and urban areas) and
within the transport sector.
What’s in the news this week?

Pen y Fan, Brecon Beacons

National Trust
National Park
What is the Circular Economy?

The term ‘circular economy’ was brought to

prominence by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
when it launched in 2010.

The circular economy is defined as a ‘regenerative system in which

resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimised
by slowing, closing and narrowing material and energy loops. This can
be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse,
remanufacturing, refurbishing and recycling’ (Geissdoerfer et al.,
2017:764).
What is the Circular Economy?

The circular economy is based on three principles for action:

1. Natural capital should be preserved and enhanced

2. Using resources optimally
3. Fostering system effectiveness
(Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2012)
Maayke
Damen
The Ellen MacArthur
Foundation
How Important is the Circular Economy
to the Hotel and Hospitality Sector?
 The Blunt Fact!

In a truly Circular Economy, the concept Hoornweg, D., Bhada-Tata, P. and Kennedy, C.
(2013). Environment: Waste production must
of waste simply doesn’t exist. peak this century. Nature, 502(7473), pp.615-617.
The Scale of the Challenge: E-waste

53m tonnes of e-waste

2019
7.9bn people
2050 50% more energy
2℃ rise
2100 CO2 cut 6.5% annually Let’s take a look
The Scale of the Challenge: Food waste

1.3bn WRAP
tonnes of food waste
wrap.org.uk
Linear vs Circular

The ‘linear’ economy

The circular economy

• A truly circular economy is also powered by 100% renewable

energy
• Materials and products in a circular economy might end up with
radically different functions within new business relationships
 Why should the hotel and hospitality
business care about the circular economy?

It presents a HUGE business

opportunity
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
• Businesses are under mounting pressure to offer
solutions
• Helps companies to:
• use energy and natural resources more
efficiently
• reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution
• create and maintain jobs
• Meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) – particularly Goal 12, Sustainable
Consumption and Production
Long Term Security

Builds long-term relationships with

customers
Helps to insulate businesses from volatile
raw material and commodity prices
May be highly disruptive own market sector
In it for the long game
 Not Convinced?
• In a survey by the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development (WBCSD):
• 40% of companies implementing the circular
economy referenced growth and competitiveness as
key business cases.
• In all, eight business cases for going circular are
identified.
• Just eight materials are responsible for 20% of global
emissions, 95% of water use and 88% of land use.
These materials are: steel, aluminium, plastic, cement,
glass, wood, primary crops and cattle.
 A Few Facts

The net economic benefit in Europe alone will be

worth €1.8 trillion by 2030.
 More than 200,000 potential new jobs (gross) will
be created in UK from the circular economy by 2030.
There has been a 700% increase in renewable
installed capacity over the last 10 years

Facts that speak for themselves

(wrap.org.uk)
 How to start?

• It’s not actually a single business model

• Review examples, include those created by:
• Forum for the Future
• WRAP
http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/wrap-support-h
otels
• World Business Council for Sustainable
Development
• Accenture
• The new British Standards Institute Circular Economy
Framework
www.strathmorehotels.com
• The Salutation Hotel, part of the Strathmore Hotel Group,
took part in an eight week trial to actively monitor and
reduce food waste.
• The trial successfully reduced the weight of food waste
per cover by 36% and achieved financial savings worth
approximately £10,900 per annum.
• Replicating these savings across all seven hotels in the
group could lead to reductions of 29 tonnes of food waste
and £76,000  of savings due to reduced food purchasing
costs each year.
• Strathmore Hotels saves 18% of food costs
• Smart monitoring & making changes
• Making improvements across the group
Circular Economy Business Models

Extending the Services

How things are
lifecycle of provided to
produced
products customers

• Six simple features of circular businesses are:

• Circular value chains
• Recovery and collection, including industrial symbiosis
• Durability, modularity with repair services
• Personalisation, made to order and lock-in
• Product service systems and dematerialised services
• Collaborative/sharing economy
Circular Value Chains
Production cycles aim to close the loop across the entire value
chain. They use fully renewable, recycled and/or recyclable or
biodegradable materials that can be used in consecutive lifecycles
to reduce costs, increase predictability and control.
Products are designed efficiently; minimising material use without
affecting performance. Low toxicity materials are selected where
possible; biological and technical materials are easily separated and
recovered or renewed.
E.g. QO Hotel Amsterdam
“The QO was born of the need to stop the wasteful, one-use approach
to hospitality. Instead, we want to prove that embracing a sustainable,
circular approach is the only way to create a genuinely positive
impact – for both people and planet”.
www.qo-Amsterdam.com/about
• Going full circle
• Treasure from trash
• The hotel that lives
• Warmth from
water
• Grey means green
Circular Hotels QO - Amsterdam
Recovery and Collection
including Industrial Symbiosis

Everything that was previously considered as waste is retained for

other use
This feature also includes:
• reclaiming waste and by-products from the production process
• incentivised return systems
The recycling process can include both upcycling and down-cycling
Time for a break!
What is the recycyling rate in
your county council?
Ryan Anthony Peters BA(Hons) PGDip AIH
 Carmarthenshire.gov.uk
Recycling rate 66%

Total waste per person 410kg

Residual waste per person 138kg

£5m saved by recycling instead of disposal

21k tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided

One of the world’s best!

From 7% in March 2001, the recycling rate
in Wales has increased to more than 66
percent. This is far higher than the
recycling rate in England (46%).
www.statistica.com
In 2018, Tesco joined Iceland in trialling a bottle return scheme. Tesco
allowed you to recycle plastic bottles for 10p a pop – up to the value of £1
each time.
These ‘reverse vending machines’ allow customers to return bottles of up to
750ml in size.
      
Since September 2018, the scheme has been running in five stores:
Borehamwood, Swansea, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham.
Tesco is yet to announce the results of the scheme and whether it’ll be
launched in other stores.
Durability, Modularity with Repair Services

The focus is on increasing or extending the life of products

• This could be by maintaining • Enacted through the
products through: design process with a
• repairs focus on design for:
• upgrades • disassembly
• refurbishment • modular design
• remanufacturing • material selection for
• remarketing durability
• design for repair
• E.g. Electric light bulbs (see
Phillips)
Philips – pay per lux
• Philips installs, maintains and upgrades the lighting system,
maintaining responsibility for reusing/ recycling the equipment.
• The customer pays a flat service fee for the lease of the lighting
system and energy usage of a specified time period.
• This model has been successfully trialled with Press Release

high-profile clients (e.g. National Union of Students)

• Features:
• Circular value chain
• recovery and collection
• product service systems
Personalisation, Made to Order and lock-in

 A more personalised, longer-term relationship with both the customer and

suppliers
 It becomes easier to close loops, recover materials/products and reduce resource
use
 Avoid potential losses from overstocking.
 Cut down the use of external organisations to gain customers and obtain a
greater insight into the potential demand
 Similarly, if suppliers of materials are ‘locked-in’, more precise ordering minimises
material requirements - the advantages of working with local suppliers
Product Service Systems & Dematerialised
Services
• The manufacturer bears the ‘whole cost of ownership’ with a subsequent focus on
the durability, longevity and reliability of the product along with usage rates and
reusability
• Dematerialised services are services that offers product benefits where the 'physical'
product does not exist at all at the point of use (such as computing services – the
‘cloud’)
• Examples:
• Cook Manchester offer fully equipped professional kitchen space that can be
hired by the hour on a one off or regular basis.
• Rolls Royce sell their engine's thrust as ‘power by the hour’, which includes full
in-use monitoring, servicing, repair, remanufacture and replacement.
Collaborative/Sharing Economy

• In both traditional localised relationships and further afield, digital

technology can be used to create new relationships and business
opportunities for consumers, companies and microentrepreneurs
to rent, share, swap or lend their idle goods.
• Examples:
• Innovation hubs – 20 businesses but 1 administration and
facilities
• Hotels sharing equipment – large BBQs, swimming pools,
laundries etc.
• Fewer resources are therefore required to make products that are
infrequently used
Where are we now?

A truly circular economy lies some distance in the future,

and no company can get there on its own - but if businesses
take things one step at a time, they can make progress

To transition a business to a circular economy is likely to be

a gradual and iterative process

• Consider the following five steps:

 1. What are you already doing as a hotel and
hospitality business?
All hotel and hospitality businesses should review current
activities to see what they are already doing that could be
considered to demonstrate ‘circular thinking’.
Look across all business units and include operations as well
as products and services
They should examine the business model for a circular
economy discussed earlier in this presentation
Begin with a clear understanding of what ‘circular economy’
means – and a succinct way of communicating it across the
business
 2. Engage with key stakeholders and assess
their knowledge and understanding
The business should engage with key stakeholders to assess
their understanding of circular thinking
People need to grasp how wide-ranging and powerful a
concept this is – it’s about far more than simply reducing
waste and closing loops or leasing products instead of
selling them, although these could all be important
contributors
One way of getting people engaged could be to get
colleagues thinking about where the business currently has
high costs
 3. Establish Circular Economy Champions
Convene a group involving all levels of staff that cuts across operations
and products/services, including key influencers
• This group could:
Review what has already happened in the circular economy
domain, creating a shared understanding of what worked, what
didn’t and why and what is currently planned
Create a shared understanding of what circular thinking means for
the business as it is now and start to develop more visionary
thinking about what a fully circular version of the business might
look like
Identify key areas for collaboration and represent the company on
relevant sector working groups to help solve common challenges
 4. Create Medium-Term plans and
a Longer-Term vision
• Working group members could also be responsible for
developing circular approaches internally – perhaps in the form
of a roadmap with 1 year, 3 year and 10-year destinations

1-3 year plan

3-5 year plan

10-year vision
 5. Decide where to Lead
and where to Follow

It won’t be possible for any business to solve all the challenges it
faces to becoming more circular. Many issues can only be solved by
collaboration among different businesses and sectors, throughout
value chains and even among different national governments
Decide where you can be a leader – championing an issue, bringing
real expertise and achievement to the table, and sharing your
success
Circular Hotels Project, Majorca
Circular Hotels Garden Hotels
Circular Hotels
WEBSITE
The 4 C’s

Community
Culture
Conservation
Commerce
A new way of thinking…
• On one hand - in the new economy approach - production
(in quantities) may decrease given that goods are reused,
but on the other hand the goods produced may incorporate
more value added to satisfy new consumption patterns.

• If consumers feel better re-using goods instead of buying

new ones, if firms are better off producing less goods but
with higher value added, if Earth is better off with those
eco-friendly goods, then, those fundamental changes in
behaviour should lead to new measures of what is
nowadays called economic growth.
Linear vs circular economy:
a very different approach
Circular economy: a concept adaptable to any industry, tourism included
Circular economy in the tourism sector: economically essential

• Most of the firms in the tourism sector are in microeconomics, monopolistic

competition. In a nutshell, each firm has competitors but they have been
able to differentiate from each other. Actually, the more they can
differentiate themselves from their competitors, the higher the market
power and therefore the bigger the potential economic profit.

• Transitioning from linear to circular tourism is currently definitely a way to

differentiate. Furthermore, costs for firms integrating the concepts of
circular economy will not necessarily increase. Philips Lighting has shifted
from selling light bulbs to offering lighting-as-a-service. In so doing,
customers, including companies active in the tourism sector, save money by
paying only for the light they use. This latter process is in line with the
reduction of goods & services’ possession (linear view) and in favour
of borrowing goods & services (circular view).
Conclusion
• The economy was pictured until recently as linear, with a
strong tendency to satisfy the consumers’ needs with brand
new products, somehow to give them a feeling of exclusivity. 
• However, a full range of environmental, socio-demographic
and economic indicators, mostly alarming, rose the need to
change our consumption and production habits. 
• One of the main and current issues discussed in the media is
climate change, of which principal source is, according to
studies, households’ consumption, thus including
consumption of tourism.
• To tackle this problem, new ways of thinking appeared over
the course of a few years, in particular in developed
countries, and circular economy embodies most of them.
See you next week!
h.h.thomas@uwtsd.ac.uk