Green supply chain management practices in sustainable development on hospitality industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Tourism is a fast-growing industry in worldwide & business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, food products or automobiles. It has been identified that tourism is natural resource based industry. Sri Lanka has been recognized one of the most attractive designation mainly due to unique environmental, culture & history characteristics. At present the county is on the path to develop tourism industry as a main source of economic income which create direct and indirect many opportunities. Day by day increasing awareness and demand of environmental concern sustainable tourism, country need to implement sustainability practices to being competitive among other countries in the long run. Further need to achieve sustainable development without generating significant environmental problems. This study investigates Green Supply Chain Management practices available for service sector as general and particularly practical applicability for hospitality sector Sri Lanka. This study finds that (1) commonly practicing green practices in service sector worldwide; (2) green supply chain management practices in hospitality industry in Sri Lanka; (3) impact of green supply chain management practices for sustainable development of hospitality industry in Sri Lanka. The importance of this research is identification, prioritization and validation of green practices, which influence hotel/resorts’ performance in the industry. The theory of Green SCOR model was associated to describe GSCM. Based on a review of the extensive literature and response of in depth interview of industry expert an assessment framework is developed in this research, which consists of identification of green practices and relationship for impact of the firms’ performance. Both deductive and inductive reasoning, the quality of the data gathering will improve significantly and the research will be less biased since the research strategy consists of a ‘mixed method’. Management will be benefited to implement green supply chain practices in sustainable manner in business operation and sharpen the competitive edge as a corporate citizen. This was proven by the practical example in two largest hotel chains in Sri Lanka & Maldives.