Resource Metrics and Consumption Patterns in Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking: Empirical Results from Germany and Austria

Abstract

The hotel sector is reportedly one of the most resource-intensive real estate asset classes.This research aims at enhancing the understanding of Energy, Greenhouse Gas (GHG)emissions, Water, and Waste (EGWW) resource management in the hospitality sector byintroducing environmental intensity metrics and conducting comprehensive sustainability audits. The thesis is structured into three distinct parts. It commences with a systematicliterature review (SLR) by screening 1,596 academic papers and identifying 117 to analyze in the context of environmental intensity metrics assessment, benchmarking audit results as well as influencing variables on hotel real estate operations. Following theinitial literature review, a mixed research approach using a sequential design is definedfor the empirical work in this dissertation. In the second part, a qualitative study thatincluded 16 semi-structured expert interviews clustered into four stakeholder groups isconducted. Insights from the interviews are used to narrow down the metrics further andalign them with the latest legislative regulations and the chosen geographical setting. Asa result, a set of intensity metrics referring to energy and environmental performances isdesigned and grouped based on the operational and physical attributes of hotel properties.The third part of this work is a quantitative phase, where a data set consisting of 301hotels is analyzed and further enriched with the findings of previous research phases.Providing descriptive analyses, correlation, and regression models, deeper insights intothe environmental performance of the German-Austrian hotel industry are gained. There,empirical evidence is found that resource consumption is strongly affected by qualitylevel, scope of services, location, and existence of resource-intensive outlets such aswellness areas. Significant results of multiple linear regression models with R2 above 0.6point out the interdependence of normalized energy and water consumption. Decisionmakers, academics, and hoteliers benefit from the defined intensity metrics andenvironmental auditing results, which provide an outline to monitor and benchmarkresource efficiency in hotel real estate.