Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China: Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development

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Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China: Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development

Gert Noordzy

Northside Consulting

Eric Ricaurte

Greenview

George e James

Clynice Travel & Tourism Consulting

Meng Wu

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Noordzy, G., Ricaurte, E., James, G., & Wu, M. (2016). Environmental implications of hotel growth in China: Integrating sustainability with hotel development. Cornell Hospitality Reports, 16(12), 3-9.

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Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China: Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development

Abstract

China has embarked on the largest program of new hotel construction the world has ever seen. Even though the nation’s growth rate has eased somewhat in the past year, China’s hotel development continues at a pace that would see at least three new 150+ room hotels open every day for the next 25 years.1 Even if the industry does not continue to expand at this rate, China’s hotel growth carries substantial consequences in terms of increases in energy and water consumption, and an expanding carbon footprint. In this paper, we outline the dimensions of this issue, and we urge hotel developers to heed the national government’s push for greater sustainability.

Keywords

sustainability, China travel and tourism, international travel, energy use, emissions

Disciplines

Environmental Studies | Hospitality Administration and Management | International Business

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CENTER FOR HOSPITALITY RESEARCH INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES

Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China:

Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development

by Gert Noordzy, Eric Ricaurte, Georgette James, and Meng Wu

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

According to a recent count, China has 2.7 million hotel rooms. Although the nation’s economic growth has cooled somewhat in recent months, there is no reason to believe that this number will not continue to increase. Moreover, some areas of China (such as Shanghai) have continued their expansion. By one estimate the number of hotel rooms in China is expected

to grow to 9.1 million by 2039. In addition to outlining the scope of China’s hotel industry this white paper points to the potential for and the importance of the industry improving the sustainability of its operations, particularly regarding carbon emissions, energy, and water consumption. Because the key is to include sustainability in hotel planning and design from a project’s outset, we discuss both the barriers and opportunities for China’s hotel industry to improve its sustainability.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Gert Noordzy is managing director of Northside Consulting, a boutique consulting rm focusing on new hotel opening processes. Gert graduated from Hanze College Hotel Management School, Zwolle, The Netherlands, and holds an MBA from the University of Saint Joseph, Macau. He has over twenty years professional experience in Greater China and South-East Asia. He has been involved in opening over thirty new hotels, and has published a book on project management of hotel opening processes.

Eric Ricaurte is founder of Greenview, a hotel sustainability and research rm. Eric graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s degree in hotel administration, and holds a master’s degree from New York University where he is an adjunct instructor. He has over twenty years professional experience globally, and has published a number of papers on sustainability for Cornell University Center for Hospitality Research.

Georgette James, founder of Clynice Travel & Tourism Consulting, is a
Certi ed Public Accountant turned travel and tourism consultant.
Georgette graduated from University of Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, Columbia University with a master’s degree in international a airs, and New York University with a graduate certi cate in tourism management. She has nearly twenty years of professional business experience and has been involved in tourism market trends intelligence and industry research since 2013.

Meng Wu is an international hotelier and strategic sourcing expert. Meng was born and raised in Shanghai, and then lived and studied in Canada for ten years. She holds a master’s degree in sustainable development and organization from Paris- Dauphine University. Meng has over twenty- ve years of professional experience in Greater China and became actively involved in corporate sustainability in 2010.

2 The Center for Hospitality Research • Cornell University

CORNELL HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVES

Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China:

Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development

by Gert Noordzy, Eric Ricaurte, Georgette James, and Meng Wu

China has embarked on the largest program of new hotel construction the world has ever seen. Even though the nation’s growth rate has eased somewhat in the past year, China’s hotel development continues at a pace that would see at least three

1
new 150+ room hotels open every day for the next 25 years. Even if the industry

does not continue to expand at this rate, China’s hotel growth carries substantial consequences in terms of increases in energy and water consumption, and an expanding carbon footprint. In this paper, we outline the dimensions of this issue, and we urge hotel developers to heed the national government’s push for greater sustainability.

1 Yang, Y. (2011). Number of hotel rooms set to soar. China Daily www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2011-11/08/content_14053498.htm. Lodging Econo- metrics. (2014). Asia-Paci c Lodging Real Estate Trends – Executive Summary. www.lodgingeconometrics.com/2q14-asia-paci c-executive-summary/

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Exhibit 1

Hotel room growth projections—USA versus China

Sources: Morgan Stanley, (2011). “China High-Speed Rail on the Economic Fast Track,” Morgan Stanley Blue Paper (www.morganstanley. com/views/perspectives/China_HighSpeed_Rail.pdf); United Nations World Travel Organization; and IHG, 2009.

As a starting point, our analysis of sustainability in China’s hotel industry nds challenges in the development process.
The major gains in e cient resource use in hotels occur in the conceptual planning and nancing stages, but it appears that sustainability considerations are not included in these early de- velopment phases. One veteran energy management expert has said that “new hotel projects are rarely if ever conceptualized with sustainability factored into these phases of the new hotel project life cycle.”2 By the time the architect, consultants, and technical services companies get involved, property developers most often have already obtained approvals and secured nanc- ing. This makes it extremely challenging and impractical for ho- tel operators to convince hotel owners to put a project on hold and redesign the project to improve its sustainability. Changes to the project baseline inevitably result in delays, not only due to redesign, but also to reapplying for required government building permits and construction and gaining approval of ad- ditional funding.3 At the same time, the approach taken by hotel companies when negotiating new management and franchise agreements with hotel owners focuses on branding and system contribution. Unfortunately, the value proposition does not always include sustainability, although most international hotel chains do have a strong focus on environmental programs.

Rather than treat sustainability as an afterthought, we strongly recommend that hotel developers and hotel companies strengthen their emphasis on sustainability so that these con- cepts are embedded in the early in development planning. The

2 Robert Allender, Energy Resources Management. (2015).http:// energy-rm.com.hk/. Noordzij, G. (2014). Project Management of Hotel Opening Processes, First Edition. CreateSpace

3 Project Management Institute (PMI). (2013). A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), Fifth Edition. Library of PMI Global Standards—Foundational Standards.

bene ts of this approach not only include increased operational e ciency and reduced costs, but collectively help to mitigate the risks associated with the scale of resource consumption needed to fuel hotel growth in China.

China’s Travel Market

The Chinese State Council recognizes the importance of travel and tourism and has included it as a pillar industry in its Twelfth Five-year Plan of the Central Government. The China Tourism Academy estimated the number of domestic travelers in 2014

at 3.63 billion, and the number international visitors at 130 million.4

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the total contribution of travel and tourism to China’s GDP reached ¥5.366 billion in 2015 (or 7.9% of GDP). Receipts were expected to rise by 6.3 percent in 2016, and by 7.0 percent per annum to ¥11.225 billion in 2026. Again, even with the world’s recent economic slowdown, travelers will still be visiting China in substantial numbers.

China’s domestic travel generated about 90.3 percent of the direct travel and tourism GDP in 2014. It is expected to generate ¥3.740 billion in 2015, and rise by 6.1 percent per an- num to ¥6.742 billion in 2025. According to the Global Business Travel Association, China’s domestic business travel spending grew by 15.9 percent in 2014 and was expected to grow another

18 percent in 2015. China spent a total of US$262 billion on business travel in 2014. 5 Forty-two percent of this domestic business travel is for meeting, incentive, convention, and exhibi- tion travel, according to the Global Business Travel Association.6

One reason for the growth in travel and tourism in China is that the country has focused its economic agenda on domestic consumption, including hospitality businesses and service indus- tries relating to travel and tourism. 7 Hotel investment not only supports this transition but also becomes attractive for domestic capital allocation as part of the trend toward investment in real estate.

In that regard, investment in travel and tourism in China attracted ¥832.5 billion, or 2.8 percent of total national invest- ment in 2015, ranking second globally. In terms of employment, the industry supported close to 65 million direct and indirect

4 TOPHotelProjects. (2015). Hainan: The tourism of China’s island paradise is booming. www.tophotelprojects.com/en/hainan-tourism-china-s- island-paradise-booming.

5 Global Business Travel Association. (2014). GBTA Foundation Forecasts China Business Travel Spend to see Double Digit Increases in 2014, 2015. www.itb-asia.com/gbta-foundation-forecasts-china-business-travel- spend/.

6 Chinese Business Travelers Spend $110 Billion USD on Meetings & Events in China; www.gbta.org/PressReleases/Pages/RLS_110215.aspx.

7 Keqiang, Li (2012), “China deepens strategy of domestic demand expansion in the course of reform and opening-up,” China.org.cn (online), available at: www.china.org.cn (04-05-2015).

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The Center for Hospitality Research • Cornell University

Exhibit 2

Top 10 worldwide hotel groups as of January 2015

Source: MKG Hospitality Database, corporate annual reports

jobs, or 8.4 percent of total employment in 2015. This number is expected to rise by 3.5 percent per annum to 94 million jobs in 2026. 8

China’s Hotel Outlook

Anticipated increases in domestic and international travel are fueling demand for more lodging facilities. Currently there are approximately 2.7 million hotel rooms in China. 9 As summa- rized in Exhibit 1, China’s National Bureau of Statistics predicts that the number of hotel rooms in China will more than double to 6.1 million by 2025, equaling the expected U.S. number by that time. Then by 2039 China is expected to reach 9.1 million hotel rooms, more than three times the current number. Need- less to say, most of these will be newly constructed. 10

According to Lodging Econometrics’ China Construction Pipeline Trend report, there were 2,513 new hotel projects in the pipeline in mainland China at the end of 2015, comprising 548,550 rooms.11 This marks a 5-percent year-on-year decline in terms of projects and a 2-percent drop in rooms.

The pace of hotel construction in China also appears to be decelerating in most parts of the country. According to the Lodging Econometrics report, there are now 1,884 hotel

8 World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). (2016). Travel & Tourism Economic Impact 2016 China. www.wttc.org/-/media/ les/reports/econom- ic%20impact%20research/countries%202016/china2016.pdf.

9 AT Kearney. (2013). “China’s Hospitality Industry—Room for Growth.” www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/10266/Chinas-growth-drives- hoteliers-optimism.

10 “Number of hotel rooms set to soar,” China Watch. The Washington Post. (2011). http://chinawatch.washingtonpost.com/2011/11/number-of- hotel-rooms-set-to-soar.php.

11 The report itself is behind a paywall. See: www.lodgingeconometrics. com/shop/construction-pipeline-trend-report/.

projects under construction in China, with 384,000 rooms, representing approximately 70 percent of the country’s total pipeline. But this represents a 13-percent decline in terms of projects compared to the previous year, and an 8-percent drop in terms of rooms. Travel Daily Asia observes that this is the rst drop in planned hotel projects since 2007.12 At the same time, STR Global estimates that Shanghai alone has 35 hotels comprising more than 9,000 rooms in the pipeline for the near future.13 China has an estimated two thirds of all construction projects in Asia.

Senior executives of major international hotel chains expect that the outlook for the hotel sector in China will remain strong, as the tourism industry will continue to grow over the next few years.14 Almost all of the major international hotel companies have indicated that development in China is a perti- nent strategic objective as part of their ambitious global growth strategies, as shown in Exhibit 2. The global development pipeline of the top ten international hotel companies alone is es- timated at US$86 billion worth of xed asset projects. In China this represents US$26 billion.15

12 “Chinese hotel pipeline contracts for rst time since 2007,” Travel Daily Asia, February 15, 2016, p. 2.

13 Mark Elliott, “9,000 New Hotel Rooms Coming to Shanghai,” Travel Daily Asia, February 15, 2016 (www.traveldailymedia.com/232706/9000-new- hotel-rooms-coming-to-shanghai/).

14 Hotel News Now. (2013). China’s growth drives hoteliers’ optimism. www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/10266/Chinas-growth-drives-hoteliers- optimism.

15 Noordzy, G. and Whit eld, R. (2014). “Root Causes of Hotel Open- ing Delays in Greater China,” Cornell Hospitality Report. Cornell University Center for , School of Hotel Administration. www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/ research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-17923.html.

Cornell Hospitality Report • May 2016 • www.chr.cornell.edu • Vol. 16, No. 12 5

Exhibit 3

Average energy and water use per occupied room in selected countries

Exhibit 4

Sample GHG emission output rates by country

Adapted from: Howard Chong and Eric Ricaurte, “Hotel Sustainability Tool 2015: Energy, Water and Carbon. Cornell University,” Cornell Hospitality Report (School of Hotel Administration; www.hotelschool. cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/tools/tooldetails-18779.html).

Even given the volume of development planned by the top hotel groups, the majority of projects remains under control of smaller chains and independents. We suspect that these industry players would not have as strong a sustainability commitment
as the international chains and may not incorporate the most e cient xtures, furniture, or equipment standards in their hotel design.

Energy, Water, and Carbon Emissions from Hotel Operations in China
With so many entities involved in China’s hotel pipeline, we anticipate that the writers of many development and feasibility studies are not taking into account the collective e ects of their development plans, especially with regard to energy use, water consumption, and carbon emissions. We also don’t see a chance for so many developers to take advantage of economies of scale through group purchasing power.

Studies have shown that in general, China’s hotels consume more water and energy per square meter and per occupied room than those in other large countries (see Exhibit 3).16 A comparative study of business hotels in Asia Paci c illustrating

16 Chong, H. and Ricaurte, E. (2015). “Hotel Sustainability Tool 2015: Energy, Water and Carbon,” Cornell Hospitality Report. Cornell University Cen- ter for Hospitality Research, School of Hotel Administration. www.hotelschool. cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/tools/tooldetails-18779.html.

Compiled from; International Energy Agency Data Services. 2014. “CO2 Emissions from Fuel Combustion,” 2013 Edition.

water use disparities reveals the scale of the problem.17 Hotel rooms in the United States consume on average 627 liters per occupied room, compared to 1,555 liters per occupied room in China.

We see two cultural reasons for the disparity. First, for per- sonal reasons, owners favor lavish displays in public areas and lobbies that use high amounts of energy and water.18

Even without the public displays, energy and water conser- vation measures are not common practice in China, except in international and Asian-branded properties. That, however cov- ers only 22 percent of the hotel supply in Asia. The remaining independent operators or smaller local chains tend not to apply conservation measures, because sustainability is not always a priority and because these rms have less access to capital for equipment upgrades and retro ts that would aid in energy and water conservation e orts. Nevertheless, we expect China will follow the international trend of decreasing percentages of independent hotels.19

The discrepancy is exaggerated further when comparing carbon emissions and water stress, because coal is the major fuel

17 EarthCheck Research Institute. (2013). White Paper on Tourism and Water. http://earthcheck.org/media/4087/2013-earthcheck_white-paper-on- water_2013.pdf; and EarthCheck Research Institute. (2014). Second White Paper on Tourism and Water: From Challenges to Solutions—Providing the business case. http://earthcheck.org/media/4088/2014-white-paper-on- water_from-challenges-to-solutions.pdf.

18 P. Slattery, The Economic Ascent of the Hotel Business, Second Edition (Oxford, UK: Goodfellow Publishers Limited, 2012).

19 HVS. (2015) “Decisions, Decisions… Which Hotel Operating Model is Right for You?” www.hvs.com/article/7303/decisions-decisions-which- hotel-operating-model-is-right/

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The Center for Hospitality Research • Cornell University

Exhibit 5

CO2 comparison of output per square meter and occupied room

Exhibit 6

Sample baseline water stress of cities in China

Adapted from: Chong and Ricaurte, op.cit. Exhibit 7

Extrapolation of utility consumption and carbon footprint

Adapted from: Chong and Ricaurte, op.cit.

for electrical generation, responsible for about two-thirds of the nation’s power. Because of this reliance on coal, China’s coun- trywide average output of CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity generated in the grid is over 50-percent greater than that of the United States, Thailand, and the U.K., and over ten times greater than in France or Brazil (see Exhibit 4). As a result, the energy comparison of output per square meter or occupied room dem- onstrates a greater footprint of CO2 (Exhibit 5).

Water consumption impacts are also exacerbated when considering issues of water stress and water quality. China’s major urban areas are under more signi cant water stress than other counterpart cities of top tourism arrivals (see Exhibit 6). 20 Therefore, the collective increase in water use in stressed areas of China may result in increased costs and issues of water access.

China is one of several nations that have begun to address these sustainability issues, by applying international regulation

20 International Tourism Partnership. (2013). Green Hotelier in: World Water Week ITP publishes its global Water Risk Assessment report—ITP Water Risk Assessment. www.greenhotelier.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/ITP- Water-Risk-Assesement-Final.pdf.

.Source: WRI Aqueduct 2014. Baseline water stress is calculated as the ratio of local water withdrawal to available water supply

and standards that help increase e ciencies in new buildings. The Green Building Evaluation Standard came into e ect in January 2015, and the new Hotel Building Design Regulations, including e ciency measures, were released in March 2015.21 However, the regulations do not address some of the key drivers of energy and water e ciency which take place at the initial stages of planning. Moreover, a lack of enforcement re- mains a major impediment to implementing these regulations.

To demonstrate the value of including the new standards in prospective hotels, we extrapolated the high and low quar- tiles of Chinese benchmarks from the Cornell Hotel Sustain- ability Benchmarking 2015 data and applied them to hotels in the development pipelines, as shown in Exhibit 7. This exer- cise shows the improvements possible if hotels are developed with e cient energy and water attributes.

As depicted in Exhibit 7, the potential savings in carbon emissions are substantial. If the hotels forecasted to be open in China in 2025 increased their e ciency they would save the equivalent of 84 million tons of CO2, which is greater than

21 JGJ62-2014,

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the annual carbon footprint of such countries as South Korea or the Philippines.22

We want to emphasize that the e ciency measures that would prevent or counter the drivers of hotel energy consump- tion are relatively simple and inexpensive to implement. Given that climate and occupancy are the greatest consumption drivers, the following are just ve examples of low-hanging fruit that can easily be embedded into the development process with proven returns and higher asset value:

• Energy e cient HVAC;
• E cient appliances, windows, xtures, and lighting;
• Digital thermostats in guestrooms, with sta trainedon e cient temperature settings;
• Insulating exposed pipes and covering swimmingpools; and
• Landscaping with native or drought-tolerant plants.The range of water and energy measures is wide and the implications are immense given the size of the hotel pipeline. Indeed, the savings may help maintain the pipeline, as there arises a question of whether most cities’ municipal water supply will be able to meet this demand in the worst case scenario. To absorb 84 million tons of CO2, a total of 2.1 billion trees would have to be planted. 23

  Industry Challenges

  Despite the inherent value of sustainability as a strategic com- petency, we have identi ed several major challenges in adopting methodologies for resource e ciencies for new hotel openings. These challenges are a silo mentality, lack of understanding, a knowing-doing gap, misperception of the cost of sustainability, personal biases, and a disconnect between builders and users.

  Silo approach. First, we observe that the hotel industry does not look at sustainability in a holistic manner. Instead, in- dustry decision makers consider the components of sustainabil- ity in silos and do not necessarily t the pieces together. To move forward, the industry needs to break down the silos and examine the big picture. The trend of holistically addressing sustain- ability components is on the rise due to the gain in prominence of (corporate) sustainability professionals. The main challenge that remains is for hotel owners and operators to include holistic sustainability solutions in the overall development budget.

  Lack of understanding. Second, hotel managers and owners do not yet view sustainability as a strategic competency, even though studies have shown its strategic value. In that

  22 Comparing country annual CO2 output in 2011 obtained from the World Development Indicators CO2 Emissions http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.KT/countries.

  23 The World Bank. (2015) Data—CO2 emissions.. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.KT/countries.

regard, hotels with green programs command higher average room rates, higher pro ts, and higher numbers of return cus- tomers, when compared to their less-green peers.24

Knowing-doing gap. Third, hotel companies need to ad- dress the problem that has been identi ed as the knowing-doing gap in the implementation of project management.25 Simply put, the knowing-doing gap expresses the problem of know-
ing what to do but not knowing how to actually implement the resulting strategic plans. To close this gap, executive manage- ment needs to embed sustainability into all phases of new hotel development, and seek to embed sustainability into company culture from the top down.

Misperception of sustainability costs. Fourth, the previous two challenges are aggravated by a cultural bias which causes hotel developers to focus only on the cost of sustainability, rather than to balance out the costs against the potential ben- e ts, including the expected incremental pro ts and cost savings.

Bias of Chinese hotel owners. Fifth, although the Chinese government is committed to sustainability, there is
still inertia slowing this government policy. While it’s generally the case in China that when a program has been endorsed by the government or has become legislation, that program will happen, it’s also the case that the main focus of hotel owners
is to develop lavish hotels, without considering energy-e cient assets. We observe that hotel owners in China are willing to invest in energy saving, but they do not see this as a long-term strategy. Thus, the key question becomes whether the infrastruc- ture is ready to support hotel owners who are willing to invest in sustainability.

Builder versus end-user dilemma. Finally, we see little incentive for project developers to invest in sustainability, due to a short-term focus. Hotel projects are managed by on-site construction managers, whose involvement generally does not exceed three years. In this limited time, the project managers are focused on controlling their construction budgets, and their performance is partly or fully measured on how tightly they con- trol their costs. This approach frequently results in (excessive) compromises on critical sustainability features. Ironically, these decisions end up costing an owner more money in the long run than could be saved by cutting corners during the development process.

24 Verma, R., Walsman, W. & Muthulingam, S. (2014). “The impact of LEED certi cation on hotel performance,” Cornell Hospitality Report. Cornell University, School of Hotel Administration. www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/ pdf/showpdf/4013/chr/research/leedcert.pdf.

25 Janice Thomas, Connie Delisle, and Kam Jugdev, “Exploring the ‘Knowing-Doing Gap’ in Project Management,” presented at International

Research Network on Organization by Projects (IRNOP V), at Hotel de Zeeuwse Stromen, Renesse, NL, December 2001

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The Center for Hospitality Research • Cornell University

The Way Forward

As we stated at the outset, our purpose here is not to be critical of China’s hotel industry, but to outline both challenges and opportunities for improved sustainability by expanding the awareness of the aggregate risks, implications, and opportunities for increasing energy and water use e ciency of hotels in China (or failing to do so). Next, we suggest four actions that hotel management companies can take to help hotel owners embrace sustainability as a strategic competence and take advantage of the virtuous cycle of e ciency.

Speci c case studies. Hotel companies can provide owners with case studies of actual cost savings from speci c projects relating to energy and water e ciency for new hotel projects, with proven returns.

Project life cycle. From a project management perspec- tive, the companies can map out all necessary steps of sustain- ability measures to reduce energy and water consumption throughout each phase of the hotel project life cycle, thereby preventing a short-term approach. 26

Prepare for future legislation. Operating rms can demonstrate how embedding resource-e cient strategies will help hotel owners and developers align with current and future legislation and trends toward e cient buildings.

Consumer trends. Finally, the management rms can highlight the growing trend of consumers seeking green hotels, along with the increased involvement of travel, tourism, and industry participants, including the focus from travel websites, such as TripAdvisor’s GreenLeaders program. 27

26 Noordzy, G. and Whit eld, R. (2015). “A Project Life Cycle for New Hotels.” www.4hoteliers.com/features/article/9026.

27 TripAdvisor. (2015). GreenLeaders. www.tripadvisor.cn/GreenLeaders.

Final Thoughts

With the rise of China’s middle class and the growing appetite for international travel, China’s travel and tourism industry will continue to expand for many years in the foreseeable future. To provide su cient accommodations for the growing number

of visitors, China’s hotel industry is growing nationwide. We believe, however, that the nation’s planners are aware that the increased number of hotels can have a detrimental impact on China’s already stressed environmental resources.

By changing the trajectory away from further environ- mental damage on the part of the hotel industry, China has
an opportunity to curtail the negative impacts of energy and water resource overuse and proactively plan for their sustain- able use. China’s hotel development professionals also have the opportunity to become the industry’s leaders in hotel growth and environmental sustainability. By adopting the sustainability standards already promulgated by the government, the hotel industry can help China position itself to be a role model for future growth economies. By implementing best practices in environmental sustainability measures in each stage of the hotel planning and development process, China’s hotels can become benchmarks—the industry gold standard.

To that end, in this paper we sought to increase aware- ness of the rise of energy and water resource use due to the tremendous growth in China’s hotel development; inform industry leaders regarding practical solutions to mitigate the environmental impact of resource overuse; highlight the long term savings and nancial bene t of adopting resource e cient measures both in existing hotels and those still in the planning and development stages; and contribute to the already existing dialogue regarding energy and water resource e ciency mea- sures and their e ect on environmental sustainability. We hope that the information provided in this paper can help hotel devel- opers, owners, and other industry professionals make informed decisions on sustainable resource savings options and realize
the bene t of early stage planning and implementation of these sustainable measures in every phase of the hotel development process. n

Cornell Hospitality Report • May 2016 • www.chr.cornell.edu • Vol. 16, No. 12 9

Center for Hospitality Research

Publication Index chr.cornell.edu

2016 Reports

Vol. 16 No. 11 The International Hotel Management Agreement: Origins, Evolution, and Status, by Michael Evano

Vol. 16 No. 10 Performance Impact of Socially Engaging with Consumers, by Chris Anderson, Ph.D., and Saram Han

Vol. 16 No. 9 Fitting Restaurant Service Style to Brand Image for Greater Customer Satisfaction, by Michael Giebelhausen, Ph.D., Evelyn Chan, and Nancy J. Sirianni, Ph.D.

Vol. 16 No. 8 Revenue Management in Restaurants: Unbundling Pricing for Reservations from the Core Service, by Sheryl Kimes, Ph.D., and Jochen Wirtz, Ph.D.

Vol. 16 No. 7 Instructions for the Food Preparation Scheduling Tool v2015, by Gary Thompson, Ph.D.

Vol. 16 No. 6 Compendium 2016

Vol. 16 No. 5 Executive Insights on Leader Integrity: The Credibility Challenge, by Tony Simons, Ph.D., with Kurt Schnaubelt, John Longstreet, Michele Sarkisian, Heather Allen, and Charles Feltman

Vol. 16 No. 4 Authenticity in Scaling the Vision: De ning Boundaries in the Food and Beverage Entrepreneurship Development Cycle, by Mona Anita K. Olsen, Ph.D., and Cheryl Stanley

Vol. 16 No. 3 Communication Planning: A Template for Organizational Change, by Amy Newman

Vol. 16 No. 2 What Guests Really Think
of Your Hotel: Text Analytics of Online Customer Reviews, by Hyun Jeong “Spring” Han, Ph.D., Shawn Mankad, Ph.D., Nagesh Gavirneni, Ph.D., and Rohit Verma, Ph.D.

Vol. 16 No. 1 The Role of Service Improvisation in Improving Hotel Customer Satisfaction, by Enrico Secchi, Ph.D., Aleda Roth, Ph.D., and Rohit Verma, Ph.D.

2015 Reports

Vol. 15 No. 22 Have Minimum Wage Increases Hurt the Restaurant Industry? The Evidence Says No!, by Michael Lynn, Ph.D., and Christopher Boone, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 21 Hotel Brand Conversions: What Works and What Doesn’t, by Chekitan S. Dev, Ph.D.

Vol. 15. No. 20 The United States Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Employees in the Young and Abercrombie Cases: What Do They R Peally Hold?, by David Sherwyn, J.D., and David B. Ritter

Vol. 15 No. 19 The New Science of Service Innovation, Part 4: Select Research on People from the 2014 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, by Cathy Enz, Ph.D., and Rohit Verma, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 18 The New Science of
Service Innovation, Part 3: Select Research on Technology from the 2014 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, by Cathy Enz, Ph.D., and Rohit Verma, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 17 The New Science of
Service Innovation, Part 2: Select Research on Organizations from the 2014 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, by Cathy Enz, Ph.D., and Rohit Verma, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 16 The New Science of Service Innovation, Part 1: Select Research on Data from the 2014 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit, by Cathy Enz, Ph.D., and Rohit Verma, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 15 Adopting the Code: Human Tra cking and the Hospitality Industry, by Michele Sarkisian

Vol. 15 No. 14 How the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Damaged the Environment, the Travel Industry, and Corporate Reputations, by Alex Susskind, Ph.D., Mark Bonn, Ph.D., and Benjamin Lawrence, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 13 Creative Capital: Financing Hotels via EB-5, by Arian Mahmoodi and Jan A. deRoos, Ph.D.

Vol. 15 No. 12 Hospitality HR and Big Data: Highlights from the 2015 Roundtable, by J. Bruce Tracey, Ph.D.

10

The Center for Hospitality Research • Cornell University

Vol. 15
and Tourism Business: Opportunities and Obstacles, by John H. Thomas, Ph.D., Miranda Kitterlin-Lynch, Ph.D., and Daymaris Lorenzo Del Valle

Vol. 15 No. 10 Utility and Disruption: Technology for Entrepreneurs in Hospitality; Highlights of the 2015 Technology Entrepreneurship Roundtable, by Mona Anita K. Olsen, Ph.D., and Kelly McDarby

Vol. 15 No. 9 Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Tool 2015: Energy, Water, and Carbon, by Howard G. Chong, Ph.D., and Eric E. Ricaurte

Vol. 15, No. 8 A Competency Model for Club Leaders, by Kate Walsh, Ph.D., and Jason P. Koenigsfeld, Ph.D.

No. 11 Cuba’s Future Hospitality

CHR Advisory Board

Syed Mansoor Ahmad, Vice President, Global Business Head for Energy Management Services, Wipro EcoEnergy

Marco Benvenuti MMH ’05, Cofounder, Chief Analytics and Product O cer, Duetto

Scott Berman ’84, Principal, Real Estate Business Advisory Services, Industry Leader, Hospitality & Leisure, PwC

Erik Browning ’96, Vice President of Business Consulting, The Rainmaker Group

Bhanu Chopra, Founder and Chief Executive O cer, RateGain

Susan Devine ’85, Senior Vice President–Strategic Development, Preferred Hotels & Resorts

Ed Evans ’74, MBA ’75, Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources O cer, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Kevin Fliess, Vice President of Product Marketing, CVENT, Inc.

Chuck Floyd, P ’15, P ’18 Global President of Operations, Hyatt

R.J. Friedlander, Founder and CEO, ReviewPro Gregg Gilman ILR ’85, Partner, Co-Chair, Labor &

Employment Practices, Davis & Gilbert LLP Dario Gonzalez, Vice President—Enterprise

Architecture, DerbySoft
Linda Hat eld, Vice President, Knowledge

Management, IDeaS—SAS
Bob Highland, Head of Partnership Development,

Barclaycard US

Steve Hood, Senior Vice President of Research, STR

Sanjeev Khanna, Vice President and Head of Business Unit, Tata Consultancy Services

Josh Lesnick ’87, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing O cer, Wyndham Hotel Group

Mitrankur Majumdar, Vice President, Regional Head—Services Americas, Infosys Limited

Faith Marshall, Director, Business Development, NTT DATA

David Mei ’94, Vice President, Owner and Franchise Services, InterContinental Hotels Group

David Meltzer MMH ’96, Chief Commercial O cer, Sabre Hospitality Solutions

Cornell Hospitality Report

Vol. 16, No. 12 (May 2016)

© 2016 Cornell University. This report may not be reproduced or distributed without the express permission of the publisher.

Cornell Hospitality Report is produced for the bene t of the hospitality industry by
The Center for Hospitality Research
at Cornell University.

Michael C. Sturman, Director
Carol Zhe, Program Manager
Glenn Withiam, Executive Editor Alfonso Gonzalez, Executive Director of Marketing and Communications

Center for Hospitality Research Cornell University
School of Hotel Administration 389 Statler Hall

Ithaca, NY 14853
607-254-4504 • chr.cornell.edu

Nabil Ramadhan, Group Chief Human Capital O cer, Human Resources, Jumeirah Group

Umar Riaz, Managing Director—Hospitality, North American Lead, Accenture

Carolyn D. Richmond ILR ’91, Partner, Hospitality Practice, Fox Rothschild LLP

David Roberts ENG ’87, MS ENG ’88, Senior Vice President, Consumer Insight and Revenue Strategy, Marriott International, Inc.

Rakesh Sarna, Managing Director and CEO, Indian Hotels Company Ltd.

Berry van Weelden, MMH ’08, Director, Reporting and Analysis, priceline.com’s hotel group

Adam Weissenberg ’85, Global Sector Leader Travel, Hospitality, and Leisure, Deloitte

Rick Werber ’83, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Sustainability, Development, Design, and Construction, Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc.

Dexter Wood, Jr. ’87, Senior Vice President, Global Head—Business and Investment Analysis, Hilton Worldwide

Jon S. Wright, President and Chief Executive O cer, Access Point Financial

Cornell Hospitality Report • May 2016 • www.chr.cornell.edu • Vol. 16, No. 12 11