Is the Green Key standard the golden key for sustainability measurement in the hospitality sector?

Abstract

The Green Key is an eco-rating program that aims at promoting sustainable business practices in the hospitality sector. The Green Key assesses amongst others the sustainable management of energy, water and waste within hotels and other hospitality firms. The Green Key standard awards points if specific sustainable practices or environmental measures have been implemented, but does however not assess the actual environmental performance of hospitality firms. Therefore, the interesting question arises to what extent the Green Key certification levels relates to the actual environmental performance of hospitality firm This paper focussed on energy usage in hotel, because this is the biggest impact hotels have on the environment and this is the topic that is high on the political agenda because of global warming. A quantitative study was designed to test the statistical relationship between the energy usage per square meter in Dutch hotels and their level of certification. We conclude that the Green Key certification levels do not relate to actual energy performance of the hotels. The two variables are not correlated. Also the high percentage of gold certified hotels is suggesting that the label shows appliance with the standards, and not highest performance on minimized impact on the environment. The findings of this pilot will be used to further develop this research to set up a longitudinal research to find the actual impact of eco-labels on actual environmental performance.