Economic aspects of cyclical implementation in Greek sustainable hospitality

Abstract

The circular economy has appeared at the forefront of the agendas of global economic, environmental and social institutions. While the European Commission has stressed the emphasis on zero waste, the circular economy implies more than that. This paper uses a sample of 25 4- and 5-star hotels in Greece with published sustainability reports and explains how and up to what degree, they can be regarded as circular economies. This paper will aid hotel management to understand the loops (cyclical economy examples) present in the hospitality industry and can be used for benchmarking as well as the education of their green teams and the set-up of a green marketing tool. Foremost, the paper can enable targeted policy implementation by central, regional and municipal governments as well as systemised information on the state-of-the art of the Greek hotels, through the first sustainability databank the paper compiles, which otherwise would remain fragmented without much use.