This chapter reveals the overview of sustainability; the overview of environmental sustainability; environmental sustainability and climate change; environmental sustainability, water resources, and energy consumption; and the overview of sustainable tourism. Sustainability is the important issue that attempts to bridge social science with civic engineering and environmental science with the technology of the future. Environmental sustainability is important because it ensures people have water and resources, and adopting its practices protects the environment and human health. Sustainable tourism is a growing segment of the global tourism industry that makes the positive contributions to the environmental, socio-cultural, and economic well-being of destinations and local communities around the world. Sustainability, environmental sustainability, and sustainable tourism are rooted in three issues that are considerably linked to fossil fuel depletion, climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions, and the increasing costs of energy and water.
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Sustainability is the business strategy that drives the long-term corporate growth and profitability by mandating the inclusion of environmental and social issues in the business model (Kasemsap, 2017a) and requires the transformation in the environmental inputs used for products and processes (da Ronch, di Maria, & Micelli, 2013). Sustainable consumption is an integral element of sustainable development and an issue of paramount importance, increasingly recognized by the international community (Kasemsap, 2017b). Sustainability integrates the environmental, economic, and societal aspects (Grigoroudis, Kouikoglou, & Phillis, 2012) regarding the triple bottom line (TBL) (Tullberg, 2012). The topic of sustainability has moved from the borders of supply chain management (SCM) research to the mainstream and is an area of significant research activity (Pagell & Shevchenko, 2014).
Sustainability concerns may exist when current generations' preferences for environmental benefits occurring in the very long term are equal or higher with respect to those for benefits occurring in the long term (Faccioli, Hanley, Torres, & Font, 2016). Environmental sustainability is an important issue for many individuals, businesses, and governments (Shakir, 2011) and is the predominant prerequisite for social sustainability (Soliman, 2015). For all types of businesses, environmental sustainability is of great concern (Evangelista, Huge-Brodin, Isaksson, & Sweeney, 2014) and drives companies to extend their green effort across their supply chain (Wu, Wu, Chen, & Goh, 2014) toward green supply chain management (GSCM) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) (Seuring & Muller, 2008).
With the effects of climate change becoming an increasing concern, the tourism sector must urgently respond by mitigating its emissions and adapting tourism businesses to the changing climate conditions (Michailidou, Vlachokostas, & Moussiopoulos, 2016). Stakeholders' and customers' pressure on sustainability has pushed many companies to transform the environmental sustainability concepts into the business practices (Kumar, 2016). Stakeholders understand the stakes of sustainable tourism as either the lost opportunities for the environmental development due to the failed regulation of a natural resource, or as deteriorating the social relations due to the failed maintenance of socio-cultural values (Hultman & Sawe, 2016).
This chapter aims to bridge the gap in the literature on the thorough literature consolidation of sustainability, environmental sustainability, and sustainable tourism. The extensive literature provides a contribution to practitioners and researchers in order to maximize the business impact of sustainability, environmental sustainability, and sustainable tourism in sustainable settings.