Euro Disney: From Dream to Nightmare

4. Findings and discussion

EMS organizational strategy, EMS cycle Plan-Do-Check-Act

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Chart 1 The PDCA cycle

EMS strategy follows a PDCA cycle, the diagram shows the process of the EMS organization strategy. First, plan the EMS structure, and then implementing, checking the performance and acting on it. After acting on the results of the management review, tasks performed in the "Plan" stage should be revisited, thus continuing the "full circle" process. The model is continuous because an EMS is a process of continual improvement in which an organization is constantly reviewing and revising the system.1

4.1 EMS implementation in hotel

RQ1: How do you implement the Environmental Management System in your hotel?     

The open codes for this research question included the following items (1) Set up a separated management system of EMS and define annual goals in business plan. (2) Launch workshops like upcycling to involve staff and customers. (3) Implement the environmental programs on energy-saving and waste management. (4) Internal education through regular training (5) Use worldwide EMS certifications as standard to regulate environmental behaviors and internal monitoring (6) Self-evaluation on the performance of EMS and learn from the sharing information

We could divide above items with PDCA cycle, and also some other practice should be considered when apply the four steps in EMS.

Planning: develop environmental objectives, targets and the programs in which to achieve

Top management is committed to identify the regulatory environmental aspects and establishing the goals. The interviewee told us Cordis hotel set up a separated management system of EMS under the divisional structures, and he was assigned as the champion of EMS in charge of this organization. The EMS manager in hotel, representative in regional team and director of whole group constituting an organized management team.

  He also mentioned the influence of the building design, appropriate building structural design would help with the implement of the environmental practices. The current building of Cordis is not designed for hotel use but for office towel, hotel is trying to add and revise the construction during the operation, but the infrastructure changes are difficult to be made, so the building structure would be improved to fit the environmental practices if aimed at hotel at first, and he also told us some new hotels perform well because of the green building design.

Do: implementation, operations, and activities

  Energy saving and Waste management are two programs implemented by Cordis. Nowadays, many energy efficient types of lightings are available on the market such as the LED lights saving 80%-90% of electric cost. Cordis hotel uses the lights tubes with sense function in the back office and public areas and LED lightings setting in corridor to reducing the electricity consumption. When asked the specific number saved, the interviewee told us the electricity cost 1.5 million per month, and 3% saved compared to the same time last year. The waste cooking oil generated from kitchens can be recycled to produce biodiesel, which can be used in vehicles and combustion equipment.

  Staff education through regular training. The interviewee strongly believed that education relating to the environmental programs and practices is a factor that can significantly affect their implementation.

  Employees are a great source of knowledge on environmental, and health and safety issues related to their work areas as well as on the effectiveness of current processes and procedures. Also, customers’ awareness about environmental should be raised to join the environmental system. Cordis conducts a workshop recently called upcycling, which encourage associates to change the useless item into useful through recycling. This particular workshop on coffee grind involve staff and customers into the environmental practice and building a connection with EMS system.

  Programs with Non-Governmental Organizations(NGO). Cordis turns its gift shop into a pop-up store selling upcycled products made by members of St. James' Settlement's Sheltered Workshop (a non-profit multi-social service agency). All the sales from these selected upcycling products, e.g. wine cork pen and wine cork memo board would be donated to the Charity.

  Hotel indoor air quality is an another part should be considered in EMS, most of hotels set up non-smoking floor for accommodation. Vincent C.S.Heung(2013) argued that other policies include a carbon audit and calculating the carbon footprint based upon government or international guidelines and the provision of portable ozone machines to remove the odor from guest rooms when needed.2 

  Waste management should start at the point of purchasing. Minand Galle(1997) argued that green purchasing is an environmentally conscious practice which reduces waste at source and increases the potential for reusing and recycling of purchased materials.

Check: internal monitor and external evaluation

First, internal EMS audits. As for the waste management in Cordis, the interviewee told us the different kind of labelled trash bins for the separation of the waste, the monitor process would also be conducted during the daily operation. As for the external EMS criteria, ISO14001 and Earthcheck are two certifications of Cordis received and also being the standards and regulations to regulate the hotel operation from the top management to frontline colleagues.

Act: reviews and improvements

Using the results of the internal audits to conduct management review. Cordis has a big review at the end of the year to see whether the goals have been achieved and revisit the EMS plan.

Sharing the experience and practices on EMS with other hotels in Hong Kong and overseas and learn from each other to see whether could be used in our hotel. For example, the interviewee told us hotel is looking at using the glass container to replace the plastic bottle water from the peninsula’s experience. Also, the new ideas from international conferences and association in industry like the Hong Kong Hotel Association group meeting every season could also be considered applying in operation, such as the sustainable seafood’s bring in on Food and Beverage menu.

4.2 Benefits of Environmental Management System implementation

RQ2: What are the possible benefits from the implementation of the Environmental Management System?

The open code for this research question included the following items: (1) raise staff morale and professional competence, (2) save energy and reduce operating cost, (3) Take up social responsibility.

Positive employee morale benefits the business since it can maintain a productive workplace (Landry, 2016). The interviewee highlighted that staff morale has gone up as well as staff professional competence through the implementation of EMS, on the one hand, the staffs are more confident and motivated to implement EMS programs in the hotel as a result of successful environmental management and its desirable outcomes. On the other hand, regular trainings enable the staff to enrich specialized knowledge, being equipped with required qualities so that they are able to achieve greater performance in EMS practices, it is therefore the staffs are showing higher degree of willingness and motivation in implementing EMS programs in the hotel, which has contributed to the rising of staff morale as well. Meanwhile, in the hospitality industry, the competitive edge lies in human resources. Hence, mastering adequate knowledge, relevant skills and qualities play an essential role in ensuring the success of a hotel (Aaron, 2015). The Cordis hotel guarantees the qualities of staff while boosting staff morale, which has laid a solid foundation for further development. The current finding of this study on raising staff morale and professional competence was indicated as a benefit from implementing EMS, however, it was not reported as a benefit in the previous studies on EMS (Claver-Cortes et al, 2009; Bruns-Smith et al, 2015). This was probably because most of the previous research emphasized on tangible benefits rather than intangible benefits that would arise from implementing EMS.