A Multicriteria Perspective to Integrate Environmental Management And
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Doctoral Thesis University of Trento School of Social Sciences Doctoral School in Local Development and Global Dynamics A multicriteria perspective to integrate environmental management and environmental accounting in the tourism industry The case of Small and Medium-sized Hotel Enterprises (SMHEs) in the Alpine Province of Trento A dissertation submitted to the doctoral school of local development and global dynamics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in Local Development and Global Dynamics Dina Rizio March, 2016 Trento, Italy I ADVISOR Professor Mariangela Franch Università degli Studi di Trento INTERNAL EVALUATION COMMITTEE Professor Pier Paolo Franzese Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope” Professor Paola Masotti Università degli Studi di Trento EXAMINATION COMMITTEE Professor Riccardo Leoncini Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna Professor Giorgio Osti Università degli Studi di Trieste Professor Carlo Ruzza Università degli Studi di Trento III To Alessio, Elisa, Barbara, Marina & Donato V This research received a financial support from ASAT (Associazione Albergatori ed Imprese Turistiche della Provincia di Trento) and Fondazione Caritro (Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto) through Fondazione Trentino Università. VI ABSTRACT The environment, understood as the biophysical support to human society and economic systems, is a relevant variable to firm management. The way the environment is managed can affect not only firm competitiveness but also firm environmental performance both in the short and long-term. The environment generates the inputs (in terms of stocks of natural capital and flows of ecosystem services) supporting human economy and receives back outputs and by- products (waste and emissions) generated by human activities. Therefore the environment does a constant work providing inputs and receiving outputs throughout each function and businesses phase of firms, playing a key role for their development and sustainability. This thesis examines the following two main issues: 1) how to apply environmental management theory in the context of tourism industry, and 2) how to assess the environmental performance and sustainability of Small and Medium-sized Hotel Enterprises (SMHEs) by using a multicriteria assessment framework. Both a specific economic sector and different type of firms are investigated: the tourism industry and selected SMHEs in the Province of Trento. The environmental management theory, through an online survey of SMHEs in the Province of Trento, explores the implementation of environmental practices, the characteristics of enterprises as environmental determinants and the motivations and perceptions to environmental commitment. Environmental accounting is instead employed to assess environmental costs and impacts associated to selected hotels in the Province of Trento. Keywords: environmental management, environmental performance, sustainability, hotels, multicriteria assessment framework, environmental accounting, emergy accounting. VII TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... VII 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Context, main definitions, innovative aspects ............................................................... 1 1.2 Aim of the thesis and research questions ...................................................................... 3 1.3 Structure of the thesis .................................................................................................... 4 2 Literature review ..................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 Theoretical background ................................................................................................. 9 2.1.1 The environment in management theory ...................................................................... 9 2.1.2 The role of the environment and sustainability in tourism enterprises ....................... 12 2.1.3 Environmental assessment: the receiver and the donor-side perspectives ................. 15 2.1.4 The need for a multicriteria assessment framework ................................................... 19 2.2 The environmental management in hotel sector ......................................................... 22 2.3 The environmental performance and sustainability of hotel sector ............................ 29 3 Materials and Methods .......................................................................................................... 33 3.1 Environmental management ........................................................................................ 33 3.1.1 Area of study .............................................................................................................. 33 3.1.2 Survey processing system ........................................................................................... 37 3.1.3 Sample representativeness .......................................................................................... 48 3.1.4 Sample characteristics ................................................................................................ 51 3.1.5 Multivariate analyses .................................................................................................. 54 3.2 Environmental accounting: a multicriteria assessment framework ............................. 61 3.2.1 System analysis .......................................................................................................... 67 3.2.2 Goal, boundaries and system diagram ........................................................................ 68 3.2.3 Characteristics of the selected hotels and data collection ........................................... 71 3.2.4 Material Flow Accounting .......................................................................................... 73 3.2.5 Energy analysis and Gross Energy Requirement........................................................ 75 3.2.6 Emergy Accounting .................................................................................................... 79 3.2.7 Emissions accounting and impact categories ............................................................. 85 IX 4 Results and discussion .......................................................................................................... 87 4.1 Environmental management ....................................................................................... 87 4.1.1 Operational, communicational, and organizational practices ..................................... 87 4.1.2 Determinants and commitment ................................................................................... 92 4.2 Environmental accounting: performance and sustainability assessment .................. 100 4.2.1 Environmental performance of selected SMHEs ...................................................... 101 4.2.2 Comparison among three SMHEs ............................................................................ 117 4.2.3 Analysis of hotels’ waste flows ................................................................................ 125 5 Summary and concluding remarks ...................................................................................... 131 Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 139 Appendix A. Questionnaire................................................................................................. 139 Appendix B. Sample representativeness ............................................................................. 149 Appendix C. Energy systems symbols ................................................................................ 153 Appendix D. Chi-squared tests ........................................................................................... 154 Appendix E. Calculation procedures .................................................................................. 157 Appendix F. Mass, energy, emergy, emissions accounting ................................................ 173 Appendix G. Input-output tables ......................................................................................... 183 References ................................................................................................................................... 187 X List of figures Figure 1. Structure of the thesis. ..................................................................................................... 7 Figure 2. Interaction between the environment and the hotel sector. ........................................... 20 Figure 3. Survey processing system. ............................................................................................. 37 Figure 4. Tree of research areas in the questionnaire. ................................................................... 41 Figure 5. Pre-testing process. ........................................................................................................ 45 Figure 6. Online information flow of the final survey. ................................................................. 46 Figure 7. Timeline of the survey administration, pilot test excluded. ..........................................