Abstract:
Green Certification towards the sustainable concept has become a remarkable area in the hotel industry.
Sustainable concept is no more new for the hoteliers and sightseers seek greener of the accommodation
prior to arrival. Green Certification is contributing towards creating an environment friendly hotel by
integrating the sustainability concept. Most of the hoteliers perceive that the Green Certification is a
marketing tool which increases the customer demand as well as profit. Also, it is kind of aggressive tools
which can contribute to competitiveness in a successful manner. Some people are saying that the Green
Certification is one of the energy saving mechanisms because it directly focuses towards energy saving
aspects. Even though Green Certification is more important for the hotel sector, there may be some
challenges when maintaining the Green certification. Therefore, investigating those challenges is an
essential requirement for entire hotel sector towards the continuation of the Green certification. Hence, the
aim of this study has been initiated to investigate the challenges in maintaining Green Certification in the
hotel sector in Sri Lanka. A qualitative research approach was followed to investigate the challenges in
maintaining Green Certification in Sri Lankan hotel sector and twelve individuals were interviewed from
three cases to obtain data for the research. Semi-structured interviews were carried out as data collection
method and the collected data were subjected to cross case analysis to investigate challenges. Eventually,
the outcomes of this study demonstrated that there are several challenges in maintaining Green
Certification and it was explored under five categories, namely technical, managerial, political and legal,
environmental and biological, social and cultural.
Citation:
Bandara, N.H.M.W.W.C.P.K., Dissanayake, D.M.P.P., Karunasena, G. & Madusanka, N. (2017). Challenges in maintaining the green certification in Sri Lankan hotel sector. In Y.G. Sandanayake, T. Ramachandra & S. Gunatilake (Eds.), What’s new and what’s next in the built environment sustainability agenda? (pp. 106-113). Ceylon Institute of Builders. https://ciobwcs.com/downloads/WCS2017-Proceedings.pdf