Environmental Management System Of Eco Lodge In NSW, Australia

Introduction to Environmental Management System (EMS)

Discuss about the Community Involvement For Sustainable Heritage.

The environmental management system or EMS is a process to reduce the impact of any business on the environment. EMS enables the business organization to develop an environmentally friendly business and to increase its operating efficiency (Guerrero-Baena et al. 2015). EMS gives a framework to an organization, which helps them to achieve their environmental goals by controlling their business operation. EMS is a continuous improvement process. By developing an EMS the organization is able to address its regulatory requirement in a cost-effective and systematic manner. This deals with the EMS system in the context of Eco Lodge. This is a Green Hotel and present at New South Wales in Australia. However, this hotel is situated in the remote area of NSW and there is a Sanctuary Wildlife besides this lodge.

1. Legal Aspect

Eco Lodge wants to be a green hotel. Their mission is to reduce their business impact on the environment and to achieve the Green Globe Certification. In order to achieve this, they need to follow both local and international law.  According to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999, any business needs to reduce their impact on the matters that are protected by this law (Legislation.gov.au 2018). By following this Act Eco Lodge will be able to develop an eco-friendly business in Australia. On the other hand, this organization needs to follow International Environmental Protection Act 1983 to protect the natural resources. Besides Eco Lodge, there is a Sanctuary Wildlife. Hence, by following this Act Eco Lodge will be able to protect the wildlife by reducing their business impact on the environment.

1. Competitive Aspect

In order to understand the competitive advantages of an organization, it is important to use the benchmarking tool. Benchmarking tool makes a comparison between the performance of two or more businesses (Brokenrivermr.com.au 2018). In the context of Eco Lodge, it has been received that their performance rating is 4. On the other hand, Broken River Mountain Resort is a popular tourist lodge in Australia, and their rating is 5. They have been certified for their eco-friendly business. They are environmentally and socially sustainable (Oliveira et al. 2016). Hence, Eco-Lodge has a low rating in comparison to Broken River Mountain Resort as they have not achieved green globe certification. Therefore, they need to improve their strategy to make a socially and environmentally sustainable business.

Environmental Goals

• To reduce the energy and water consumption within the hotel
• To increase awareness among the partners and the guests to build a green hotel by preserving and conserving

Socio-cultural Goals

• To bring cultural diversity through the business
• To reduce the poverty by involving the local people within the business

Eco Lodge and Environmental Regulations

Economic Goal

• To reduce the operating cost of the business by using renewable resources
• To establish a partnership work to strengthen the fund

Data assessment of an organization can be done by using the SWOT analysis.

Analysis: According to the above table the strength, weakness, threat, and opportunity are evaluated in the context of Eco-Lodge. It has been received that Eco Lodge is situated in the rural area of NSW. Hence, the entire rural community depends on the firm and animal husbandry as there are no other sources of income. This allows such organization to get local labor easily at low cost. Wildlife is the major attraction of the international tourists (Chen 2015). Hence, the presence of sanctuary wildlife is a big strength of Eco Lodge to gain the tourist's attention. Besides these strengths, there are some weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses is the distance of Eco-Lodge from the city. However, the tourists have to take a car to go to the nearest town and it takes 20 minutes. This also creates an issue for Eco Lodge to get raw materials from the suppliers within a short time. However, the maximum people are working in the firm in this area as a result, the education level is low. Hence, there is lack of skilled people, which is a major weakness of this lodge. Increasing globalization brings opportunity for this lodge to expand their business across Australia by making an environmentally friendly business. On the other hand, people in this area follow the indigenous practice. This brings scope for Eco Lodge to bring a cultural diversity by establishing a relationship between the foreigners and the local community. Moreover, lack of skilled labor may create a competitive environment for this lodge. This lodge is present in a mountainous zone as a result; climate change may lead this organization to face challenges in future.

Training is the most crucial part of employee development. In order to meet the business objectives, an organization needs to provide training to their employees. This allows the employees to understand the business goal properly and to lean they way to achieve them (Law et al. 2017). Eco Lodge has developed a sustainability management training program for their employees to achieve sustainable business goals. The elements of the training program are as follow:

Sustainable management training Program

• Development of the specific objectives
• Creation of a content and instructional design
• Knowledge distribution
• Utilize the internal and external resources
• Water and energy conservation along with controlling the pollution
• Waste material management
• Protection of the species and cultural diversity
• Identification of the reasons of high operating cost and solution
• Evaluation of the employee effectiveness
• Continuous improvement

The above training program includes 10 stages to improve the efficiency of the employees to gain sustainable development in Eco Lodge. The first step includes development of the objectives and sharing the vision with the employees. Sharing of the objectives enables the employees to understand the importance of the goals and their contribution to achieve the goals (Clark et al. 2016). In the next step, the content and instructional design is created, which generates a clear purpose and steps of the training program in Eco Lodge. Therefore, the knowledge is distributed among the employees, which allows them to improve their skill and competency level. In the next step, the internal and external resources are utilized properly. Internal resources refer to the company fund and the employees and the external resource is the help of external agencies. The main purpose of this organization is to develop sustainable and eco-friendly business. Thus, Eco-Lodge has taken initiatives to conserve the energy and reduce the water consumption. They have installed occupancy and daylight sensor to reduce energy consumption. Therefore, the employees are trained about how to recycle the waste products in this hotel.

Benchmarking and Performance Analysis of Eco Lodge

Recycling process is a vital way to reduce the impact of a hotel on its environment (Pérez et al. 2018). Therefore, there is sanctuary wildlife besides the Eco Lodge. This is the major tourist attraction of this area. Hence, the employees are trained to preserve the wild species to maximize the value of such business. Therefore, the knowledge distribution helps the employees to understand the reasons of the high operating cost and they are able to take necessary steps to reduce the cost. This can be done by using the energy conservation process as it helps to reduce the impact on the environment and to save the cost of business. Therefore, a test is taken from the employees during this training program to understand the effectiveness of the employees to meet the business goal. Finally, employees are monitored to bring continuous improvement in this organization.

In the context of Eco-Lodge, it is important to develop a controlling system to measure the customer satisfaction level and to take corrective actions to deal with the issues regarding customer satisfaction. This will be effective to gain sustainable business. Survey is a good method to understand the satisfaction level of the customers. Eco Lodge uses in-app survey and post service survey to gather feedback from the customers. They have identified that long distance of the hotel from the city is a big reason of the customer dissatisfaction. Therefore, they use loyalty measurement to identify the loyal customer. This reveals the customer satisfaction level. Pinpoint specifies allows the organization to understand the purchasing behavior of the customers that is also associated with the customer satisfaction (Cai and Chi 2018). On the other hand, Eco Lodge assesses the level of competition to understand why customers switch their organization and go to the other competitors. Competition assessment tool is an important tool to understand the trend of the current market, which leads the customer to switch from one organization to another (Ascarza et al. 2018). By using such tools Eco Lodge is able to understand that quality, distance, alternative service and lack of skilled employees are the major reasons of customer dissatisfaction. To deal with these issues they try to provide good quality service to the customers by providing them more comfort within the lodge. They offer a local trip to the customers that help them to achieve high level of customer satisfaction through competitive advantages. They provide training to the local staffs to improve their knowledge, which allows the staffs to satisfy the customers through service. Finally, they offer car service to the guests to visit the town when they want. These corrective actions are beneficial for this organization to maximize the customer satisfaction level.

SWOT Analysis of Eco Lodge

The hospitality industry can achieve social and economic sustainability through developing the community (Song et al. 2018). Eco-Lodge has taken initiative to develop the local community in terms of developing health and education. The initiatives include donation to the local school, create awareness among the indigenous people regarding the importance of child education and the establishment of health campaign to support the community.  Eco Loge has taken their initiatives to employ the local people in various positions. They use a group interview to identify the talent from the unusual areas. Therefore, they have decided to train the talented people before involving them in this organization. This is due to the managerial skill development. The third initiative is to recruit the females in the housekeeping section of the hotel.

The fair trade initiatives of Eco Lodge include licensing, fair wages, fair transaction with the clients, contractual partnership business, and taxation. However, such fair trade enables Eco Lodge to develop the farmers who produce the product and to create a sustainable supply chain. In order to support the local entrepreneur, Eco Lode has taken three initiatives such as they order the local marketers for the various types of foods based on different cultures. They make a regular visit to the local entrepreneur to inform them about the choice of local guests. Then they organize a trade fair where the local entrepreneurs are able to sell products based on the culture and nature. For the hospitality sectors, it is important to establish the policy to deal with the commercial exploitation to achieve sustainability (Cisneros-Martínez et al. 2018). Eco Lodge has developed two policies for the commercial exploitation include intellectual property law to reduce data theft and not buying products that are produced by child labor. In order to maintain equitable hiring Eco Lodge focuses on the reduction of favoritism, providing an opportunity to the women and minorities for the managerial position and implementation of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010. To maintain the basic services such as water, energy, and sanitation Eco Lodge has taken initiatives. Proper maintenance of pipeline, use of renewable energy and waste management are the major initiatives of Eco-Lodge to reduce their impact on the basic services in neighboring community.

Maintenance of the cultural heritage is crucial for the hospitality sector to achieve socio-cultural sustainability (Li and Hunter 2015). The vital codes of behavior of Eco Lodge are:

• The guests should respect the staffs while accessing the service
• The registered guests are permitted in the hotel premises
• The guests should consume the food in a specific area and dispose them properly
• Guests are not allowed to smoke and abuse alcohol within the hotel

In order to incorporate the local culture within operation, design and food or shop of Eco Lodge the following initiatives are taken:

• The interior design of the hotel is developed by using the hand craft product of local people
• Materials are taken from the local suppliers to involve them in the business
• The decoration is done based on the concept of local designer

Sustainability Management Training Program at Eco Lodge

For hotels it is crucial to follow the principles of the sustainable construction to develop green building (Lopes and Almeida 2018). The sustainable construction design of Eco Lodge includes the following features:

• Use of sustainable building materials during the construction
• Use of energy efficient equipment within the hotel
• Creating proper insulation to make a green building in the hotel
• Reduce buying new materials and reuse old materials such as wood, doors, and windows
• Development of energy star window and install the solar panels

• Priority will be given to the local suppliers while purchasing the product
• Purchase product from the minority group and the women
• Priority will be given to the recyclable products and product transportation will be done via ground instead of air
• Focus on the minimal packaging

• Identification of the sources of waste
• Disposable of the food waste in bin
• Movement of the waste towards the proper place
• Measure the volume of the damages materials

In order to measure the energy consumption and water consumption Eco Lodge has taken some initiatives:

Energy management and consumption

• Use of solar energy by solar installation
• Use of biodiesel by transforming the organic waste into diesel
• Reuse the linens and towel by drying them
• Use of wind energy to reduce the electricity bill

Water consumption measurement

• Use of water meter
• Use of my water device to understand the real-time water use
• Use of renewable water sources
• Use of ground water rather than surface water

In order to get a loyal customer, the hospitality industry needs to identify the characteristics of the target market (Ottman 2017). Eco Lodge prefers the following characteristics of the tourists:

• Age group between 25 to 60 years
• High and middle-class group
• Having knowledge about the environmental sustainability
• Having knowledge about the importance of water and energy conservation

Positioning map analysis is a vital strategy to understand the position of a business (Moon and Kamakura 2017). Eco Lodge is present second phase, which focuses on high-quality service with the high price. Its major competitor is Broken River lodge that is situated in the first phase of this map, which highlights high-quality service at low price. This ensures the sustainable business of this organization while Eco Lodge needs to improve its sustainability develop to improve the position,

• Introduction of towel reuse policy through using a conference
• Distribution of the leaflets regarding the energy and water conservation
• By sending email regarding the proper disposal of food after confirmation of booking

• Use of social media like facebook page to inform the guests about sustainability principle
• Use of company website to make awareness among the guests about the sustainability features of this organization

Conclusion

The entire study deals with the sustainable initiatives of Eco Lodge. However, their environmental management system includes service policy, marketing strategy, consumer policy and other policies to reduce their business impact on the environment. They have focused on the cultural diversity by incorporating cultural heritage into their business. Incorporation of the local culture into the service system is an effective way to make Eco Lodge as a sustainable business.

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