Buy this file from http://www.download-it.org/learning-resources.php? ... profile of tourism businesses in Australia identified some 55,000 small- and micro-sized.
Chapter 13
Overcoming the Green Gap: Improving the Environmental Performance of Small Tourism Firms in Western Australia Michael Schaper and Jack Carlsen
Introduction Greening and sustainability are often issues associated with the global tourism industry. In many cases, tourism is often cited as one of the drivers for the conservation of natural areas Buy this file from http://www.download-it.org/learning-resources.php?promoCode=&partnerID=&content=story&storyID=1312 and biological diversity. For example, ecotourism is often used to illustrate how the notion of sustainable development (that is, business practices which successfully accommodate the diverse goals of economic growth, biodiversity protection and community participation) can be put into action. Tourism has environmental implications that go far beyond just ecotourism. As a major industry in its own right, tourism is a significant consumer of resources. A recent national profile of tourism businesses in Australia identified some 55,000 small- and micro-sized firms (that is, enterprises employing less 19 persons) in existence, located mainly in the food and beverage, accommodation, and travel and tour operations sectors. These represent almost 92% of all the tourism firms in the country. The profile also identified a large number of other micro- and small-scale enterprises (almost 270,000) which were not located specifically within the tourism sector, yet which drew significant proportions of their income from tourists (Bolin & Greenwood 2003). These 325,000 small firms represent almost onethird of the total 1.1 million small businesses currently found in Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002). Clearly, the cumulative performance of these individual small firms can potentially have major implications on the environment. Although it is hard to gauge the overall environmental effect of small firms around the world, it has been previously claimed that they may indeed be responsible for up to 70% of global environmental pollution (Hillary 2000). The vast bulk of tourism enterprises have traditionally been small-sized firms, and this remains the case today. This in itself creates problems, since it is much harder to measure and evaluate the performance of a small services-sector firm than a traditional “smokestack industry,” such as is found in large-scale manufacturing or industrial production. Moreover, Small Firms in Tourism: International Perspectives Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISBN: 0-08-044132-7
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198 Michael Schaper and Jack Carlsen small firms usually lack many of the financial, human and knowledge resources that large enterprises can draw upon to improve their environmental performance. In this chapter, the greening of small tourism firms is examined in detail. The paper begins with a discussion of the arguments in favour of greening, and the ways in which it can be achieved within small tourism firms. It then examines the actual performance of small firms to date, and the barriers that stand in the way of small tourism firms achieving improved “greener” performance. To help flesh out these concepts, a brief examination is provided of recent research into the environmental behaviour of small tourism firms in Western Australia. The chapter concludes with some suggestions to improve the level of “green” behaviour in small firms, and potential future research issues worthy of more examination. As much of the research into the environmental performance of small firms is also found outside the tourism discipline, the paper draws on both general material (that is, research on SMEs in many other industries) as well as on tourism-specific data.
Why Go Green? Buy this file from http://www.download-it.org/learning-resources.php?promoCode=&partnerID=&content=story&storyID=1312
Why should business organisations deal with environmental matters? Is there any compelling reason why this issue should be given any special consideration or priority in the decision-making and operational aspects of business management? Often the drivers for environmental change are usually a complex mixture of risk and rewards, rather than a simple cause-and-effect relationship (Day & Arnold 1998). A number of arguments have been put forward as to why firms should adopt a “greener” perspective in their operations. At the most basic level, it can be argued that human societies and the businesses which operate within them (such as tourism) are substantial consumers of natural resources. Both organic (such as fish and flowers) and non-organic stocks (such as landscape features) are limited in their capacity, and are a finite resource. Once consumed or destroyed, many of them cannot be recreated. Without sufficient resources, firms cannot service customers and so generate a profit (Burke & Hill 1990). During the twentieth century, the consumption and pollution of such natural resources proceeded at an unparalleled rate, during the course of which a significant amount of biodiversity was lost and many natural resources consumed beyond their recovery point (Hutchinson & Hutchinson 1997). Indeed, there are a number of historical examples — such as the desertification of North Africa, the deforestation of what is now modern-day Lebanon and the Levant region, and the loss of the Aral Sea — which suggest that the uncontrolled exploitation of physical resources by humans can ultimately damage or destroy whole social and economic systems. This behaviour has been described by Schmidheiny (1992) as “living off the capital, not the interest” of an industry’s natural resource assets. Therefore, it is in the long-term self interest of business proprietors to extend and sustain renewable resources before such depletion damages their own survival (Hutchinson & Chaston 1994). A second compelling factor is the role of external pressure. No firm exists in isolation. All organisations must operate in a world in which their actions, supplies, customer base, marketing and business strategies are also influenced by the activities, views and demands of external parties, such as consumers, governments, and competitors (Petts et al. 1998). Many
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