Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China: Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development

China has embarked on the largest program of new hotel construction the world has ever seen. Even though the nation’s growth rate has eased somewhat in the past year, China’s hotel development continues at a pace that would see at least three new 150+ room hotels open every day for the next 25 years.1 Even if the industry does not continue to expand at this rate, China’s hotel growth carries substantial consequences in terms of increases in energy and water consumption, and an expanding carbon footprint. In this paper, we outline the dimensions of this issue, and we urge hotel developers to heed the national government’s push for greater sustainability.

Highlights from the 2016 Sustainable and Social Entrepreneurship Enterprises Roundtable

The April 2016 Sustainable and Social Entrepreneurship Enterprises roundtable brought together over 20 faculty, students, and leaders and entrepreneurs from a wide variety of mission-driven enterprises that focus on sustainability or social welfare. Jeanne Varney, lecturer at the School of Hotel Administration, opened the day by inviting attendees to speak to and even test some of their innovative ideas on fellow participants during the day. Varney noted: “One of our goals for the roundtable was to have a really diverse set of attendees and to hear a lot of different perspectives.”