Abstract
This paper focuses on Hilton’s proprietary sustainability performance measurement system (SPMS) called LightStay (2010–2017). It draws on the case-study method and relies on three principal sources of information: in-house documents, a questionnaire completed by users of LightStay and interviews conducted with external experts. Specifically, the paper traces the system’s evolution and highlights its distinctive features, exploring the challenges and trade-offs related to the design and workings of an SPMS in a hotel multinational. The study shows, among other things, how LightStay, using an internationally approved methodology of data collection, calculation, metrics and benchmarking, compares a hotel’s predicted and actual environmental performance. It concludes by arguing that LightStay is a holistic platform that not only integrates precise measurement of the firm’s environmental effects with its business operations and strategic goals but also acts as a repository of sustainability knowledge and a facilitator of organisational learning. Its value and originality lie in providing unique insights into the workings of a proprietary SPMS at a nonanonymised hotel company.
Highlights
Without doubt, there is a fast-growing realisation among individuals, companies and governments of the need to pursue sustainability
There is a large amount of overlap between corporate sustainability (CS), which derives from the idea of sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is conceptually rooted in stakeholder theory and business ethics [2]
Our case study relies on three principal sources of information: (1) in-house documents; (2) an online questionnaire completed by users of LightStay at Hilton managed hotels and corporate offices in Europe, Middle East and Africa (or, in other words, among team members (TMs) as those employed at Hilton properties and corporate offices are called) and (3) email and phone interviews conducted with four external experts directly involved with LightStay
Summary
There is a fast-growing realisation among individuals, companies and governments of the need to pursue sustainability. There is a large amount of overlap between CS, which derives from the idea of sustainable development, and corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is conceptually rooted in stakeholder theory and business ethics [2]. It is argued that CSR and CS are oriented towards “the same future” [3]. That CSR and CS are oriented towards “the same future” [3] This is all the more so in the context of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, with multinationals being well placed to help attain most of them (e.g., clean energy). Sustainability poses assorted challenges that “manifest themselves in terms of trade-offs which involve stakeholders, organizational operations, as well as financial and intangible assets” [4] (p. 337)
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