This document discusses sustainable business practices and provides case studies of how sustainability is measured in the hotel and restaurant industries. It begins by defining sustainability and discussing frameworks like the triple bottom line. It then examines how Marriott International uses tools like LEED certification to measure sustainability metrics across its properties to reduce environmental impacts. The document also looks at a case study on sustainability issues and guidelines in the food service industry. Key areas discussed include food sourcing, waste reduction, energy/water efficiency, and community involvement. The conclusion reiterates that measuring current sustainability performance allows companies to identify areas for further enhancing sustainable business strategies.

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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................1
Discussion.....................................................................................................................................................1
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................4
References.....................................................................................................................................................5
Introduction
In the settings of our world as contemporarily, it would be little doubted that the issue of
sustainable business has become increasingly concerned amongst not only industry players but
also other stakeholders those are fundamentally critical to the success of the business, including
government, customers, investors, employees, host community, to name just a few. In fact, the
concept of sustainability is no longer unfamiliar to both academic and practical fields up to
current. Rather, it was as early as 1980s that the issue of sustainable development has become
prominent and continued to prove its validity in today context. (Carroll, 2015) Bearing this in
mind, the essay is carried out for the purpose of bringing into view what could be deployed by
companies nowadays in an attempt to evaluate the current level of sustainability and formulate
strategy for enhancing sustainability of their business accordingly. In particular, case studies
regarding how sustainability measurement is conducted in hotel business as well as restaurant
one are given as salient illustration for the discussion in the scope of this writing.
Discussion
To commence, brief insights into the determination of sustainable business are mentioned as a
starting point for the essay. By way of definition, the concept of sustainability, or sustainable
development, could be broadly defined as the capability of meeting current needs without
sacrificing the possibility of future generations to meet their needs as well as aspiration (Perez &

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Bosque, 2014). As indicated by Corroll (2015), this so-called concept could be related to a rather
renowned theoretical framework named Tripple Bottom Line, which majorly refers to
companies’ capability of balancing between the profitability of the business and two other
unconventional bottom lines known as people and planet account, so that the sustainable aspect
of the business could be fulfilled. In other words, as could be implied from the framework, for a
business to be sustainable, companies are supposed to take into account both ecological and
social impacts of their operation activities, rather than being solely profit-oriented. Also
according to this author, the idea of sustainability shares similarity with such other
complementary frameworks as corporate social responsibility, business ethics, stakeholder
management, and corporate citizenship as well. From another perspective, according to Aksak et
al. (2015), the pursuit of sustainable business could be primarily taken as a form of moral
obligation to the society performed by the companies. Moreover, the integration of sustainable
practices in business operation activities could be indeed considered as a source of competitive
advantage that enables the firm to be at an advantageous position in the run for market leadership
with other industry players in the long term. That is to say, the pursuit of sustainability is indeed
an effective strategic move that allows firms to reinforce their positive corporate image as well
as reputation in the eye of stakeholders, especially government, local community, customer and
employee, and the like. Accordingly, more and more firms nowadays are declaring their
willingness to pursuit sustainable growth as well as engagement in integrating sustainable
practices into their daily-basis business operation activities. (Kadlubek, 2015) On the ground of
insights into the concept of sustainability as above, the following discussions in this writing is
bringing into view how the current level of sustainability is measured and used as inputs for
formulating strategy concerning sustainable development of the organisation in the future to
come, with examples from hotel business and food-serving industry.
As indicated in advance, the very first case study taken into analysis on the scale of this topic
review is an example of Marriott International Inc., one amongst leading firms in global
hospitality industry. Founded in 1927 as a family-owned business, Marriott has attained a
phenomenal growth to a flagship in the lodging sector with over 4,200 properties locating in
approximately 80 countries and territories up to this moment. Equally remarkably, the firm has
been well known to the world as one amongst the best organisations to work for as well as one of
the most ethical companies globally. In fact, the pursuit of sustainability has long been taken as

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virtually at the heart of company’s strategy that could be illustrated by the core values defining
Marriott’s corporate culture as well as shaping its strategic initiatives, in which the firm commit
itself to put people first, pursuit excellence, embrace change, behave with integrity and serve the
world. (Marriott, n.d.a) Concerning Marriott’s approaches to measure sustainability aspect in the
operation of its each and every property under the ownership or management of the brand, the
adoption of LEED Volume Program could be taken as a vivid example to be considered. In
general, the Leading in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED in other words, is in fact a
green building certification system that is internationally recognized. The LEED system was
developed by the US Green Building Council aiming to provide the third-party verification that a
property was designed and constructed in an environmentally friendly manner. That is to say, for
a property to be certified as a LEED hotel, requirements regarding such sustainable metrics as
reduction of water and energy consumption as well as carbon dioxide emission, efficiency of
resource usage along with enhanced in-the-house environmental quality, to name just a few, are
expected to be met. (Marriott, 2011) By the year 2005, Marriott was recognized as the very first
US hotel group to engage in designing and constructing green hotels in accordance to LEED
certification system. Up to current, Marriott has possessed more than 100 LEED-registered and
around 30 LEED-certified properties, which could be sufficient to prove the firm’s engagement
in the pursuit of green hotel establishment as well as sustainable business. In 2011, the LEED
Volume Programme developed by Marriott, which aims at providing a prototype for green hotel,
has enabled its certified properties to reduce to 25% in water and energy consumption and
allowed initial investment to be recovered within two to six years. In addition to the employment
of LEED certification, auditing tools including EEAP (Energy and Environmental Action Plans)
together with database as well as monitoring system also play a critical role in enabling Marriott
to track and put under control their level of sustainability, and monitor improvement against the
fulfilment of sustainability related goals. (Marriott, n.d.b)
In addition to an example from lodging sector, a case study from the food serving industry is also
brought into discussion regarding the appraisal on how sustainable the business currently is.
LaRose (2010) has conducted a report on the issue of sustainability in businesses of serving food.
Specifically, the author has identified major issues regarding sustainable practices in the field of
food service. On that basis, suggested guideline for cementing responsibility of the business is
further provided, including possible course of actions for reducing the amount of waste released

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to the external environment, improving cost efficiency meanwhile consolidating product quality
together with customer satisfaction and loyalty. As for the author, there are four fundamental
areas which are the most reflective in terms of current situation of the company regarding its
sustainable aspect of business. These include food sourcing, waste reducing, energy and water
efficiency & construction of building, and last but not least is the involvement of community and
other stakeholders. In other words, these dimensions are supposed to be closely tracked, assessed
as well as monitored so as to identify points where possible improvement in terms of
sustainability could be made. For instance, it is primarily crucial for those competing in the
industry to be capable of controlling the sources of inputs so that issues relating to food safety
and quality could be avoided. Accordingly, the shift to using local and organic suppliers would
also worth considering as a way to improve food quality as well as customer satisfaction,
meanwhile supporting the growth of local business, which indirectly contributes to the economic
development of local community and improve the sustainable aspect of the business accordingly.
Likewise, controlling over the level of energy efficiency, water consumption, building
construction, waste disposed to the environment as well as participation of community into the
business could present food service providers with opportunity to figure out where sustainable
practice could be integrated so that the overall sustainability of the business could be improved
as a whole.
Conclusion
By way of conclusion, the topic review was conducted with an aim to study insights into how
firms could measure its level of sustainability, and shape the strategic direction for further
enhancement of sustainable business in the future to come accordingly. With examples from
lodging business as well as from food service sector, the writing is hopefully sufficient to
demonstrate possible course of actions employed by organisations in reality.

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References
Aksak, O., Ferguson, M. and Duman, S. (2015). Corporate social responsibility and CSR fit as
predictors of corporate reputation: A global perspective. Public Relations Review, n.p.
Carroll, A. A. (2015). Corporate social responsibility: The centerpiece of competing and
complementary frameworks. Organizational Dynamics, 44, 87-96.
Kadlubek, M. (2015). The essence of corporate social responsibility and the performance of
selected company. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 213, 509-515.
LaRose, J. (2010). Sustainability in Businesses That Serve Food. [pdf] Available at:
http://www.sustainlv.org/wp-content/uploads/Sustainability-in-Businesses-That-Serve-Food.pdf
[Accessed 12 February 2016]
Marriott (2011). Marriott LEED®s the Way to Green Hotels. [online] Available at:
http://news.marriott.com/2011/09/marriott-leeds-the-way-to-green-hotels-company-leads-
industry-with-three-brands-pre-certified-leed.html [Accessed 12 February 2016]
Marriott (n.d.a). About Marriott International – Find your world. [online] Available at:
http://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi [Accessed 12 February 2016]
Marriott (n.d.b). Environment. [online] Available: http://www.marriott.com/corporate-social-
responsibility/corporate-environmental-responsibility.mi [Accessed 12 February 2016]
Perez, A. and Bosque, I. (2014). Sustainable development and stakeholder relations
management: Exploring sustainability reporting in the hospitality industry from a SD-SRM
approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 42, pp.174-187.

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