Green Practices in Restaurants: The Case of Eastern India

Introduction

Environmental issues have been the focus of discussion since the last few decades. People are becoming more concerned about the environmental issues and some have translated their environmental concern into pro-environmental behaviour such as recycling, energy saving, water conservation, and green purchase behaviour (Kim, 2002, Kim & Choi, 2003, 2005). It has implications for many industries one of which is hospitality. The hospitality and tourism industry is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world (Sulaiman & Haron, 2011). The hospitality industry includes hotels, food services, hospitals, and airlines among its components (Line & Runyan, 2011). The restaurant industry is one of those industries which is one of the most important consumers of resources that is needed on daily basis as for instance, food materials, water, power and so on. As a continuously growing sector, the hospitality industry has a social responsibility to contribute to environmental issues and climate change, as natural resources and the physical environment are the most precious assets in that industry (Kasim, 2009).

One such way is the adoption of eco-friendly practices. These practices are not only helpful in preserving the environment but are in the long run interest of restaurant industry itself. Furthermore, environment consciousness is increasing day by day in the whole world. In this competitive scenario, the increasing demand of eco-friendly products and services the restaurant industry will have to implement eco-friendly practices. Only then they can match and full fill customer expectation.

In line with the above notion, adoption of an environmentally friendly management approach is one of the popular issues addressed in many industries (Blum, 1997; Bader, 2005; Enz & Siquaw, 1999; La Vecchia, 2008; Stipanuk & Ninemeir, 1996). Driven by government regulations, changing consumer demand, advocacy by NGOs and international organizations (Mensah, 2005), rising water, energy and waste disposal charges, need to control guests’ desire for use of energy, strong advocacy for high environmental values, and need to seek accreditation (Tzschentke et al, 2004), the industries’ major players have taken the necessary steps to undertake the implementation of environmentally friendly practices.

However, the pressure to adopt environmental management in the service sector pales in comparison applied to those in manufacturing sector (Grove, Fish, Pickett & Kangun, 1996) due to its inherent characteristics. Service lacks tangibility (not physically present), lacks perishability (cannot be physically stored), highly heterogeneous (influenced by human factor) and characterized by inseparable transaction between service provider and customer (Kotler et al, 2006). These characteristics contribute to the long held perception of service sector as, ‘soft’, or ‘smokeless’ industry (Kasim, 2005).