ABSTRACT

Eco-Innovation .............................................................................................93 4.3 Eco-Innovation .............................................................................................96 4.4 Examples and Overview of Contemporary Practices ...................................99 4.5 Barriers to Eco-Innovation ..........................................................................102 4.6 Conclusions and Suggestion for Future Research .....................................103 4.7 Discussion Questions: .................................................................................105 4.8 Team Exercises ...........................................................................................106 4.9 Suggested Further Reading: ........................................................................106 Keywords ..............................................................................................................108 References .............................................................................................................108

Hospitality businesses, including restaurants and hotels, have a significant impact on the sustainability of the natural environment in which they function due to their obligatory consumption of considerable amounts of natural resources. Despite the fact, that the bulk of the restaurant sector consists of small establishments employing fewer than 50 employees each, there are nearly a million such establishments in the U.S. alone employing over 13 million employees and constituting 4 percent of GDP. Given the overall size of this sector in the economy, strategic, and operational changes in activities in this industry that affect sustainability deserve attention [1]. Even though attention to eco-innovation practices (i.e., those practices that help the environment) appears to be a relatively novel phenomenon in the hospitality sector, there is an incipient debate about the responsibilities of the industry with reference to the reduction of solid waste, water consumption, energy use, and air pollution [2-4].