Green generals, jade warriors: the many shades of green in hotel management

This paper sets out to quantify the current practice of environmental sustainability in the hotel sector. It also seeks to identify environmental sustainability perceptions of senior management versus front line employees. The paper reviews literature on green issues and tourism and hospitality and focuses on five star hotels in London, UK. It categorises hotels by evidence of their green policies in the public domain and participation in green associations. A sample of hotels that show some evidence of green practises is identified. Twenty hotel managers, from six five star London based hotels are interviewed utilising semi-structured interviews and 139 front line employees, from four five star London based hotels, are interviewed using structured interviews. Although there is evidence of some good environmental practice in the sector, there is still a lot of work to be done. Furthermore, there is a clear discrepancy in the understanding of the implementation of such policies between senior management and lower level employees. Hoteliers will need to focus on constantly improving their sustainable practices, as well as, establishing training programmes that communicate their company values and current practices to all employees.