SOME INSTRUMENTS USED TO ACHIEVE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE IN TOURIST ACCOMMODATION UNITS

Mirela Stefanica

doi:10.29358/sceco.v0i28.426

Abstract

The paper highlights some instruments that help us to achieve environmental performance in tourist accommodation structures. The most known instruments used to achieve environmental performance are as follows: ISO 14001 standards (Environmental Management Standard), EMAS (European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme), and EU ECOLABEL. With the help of these instruments, we can identify and quantify the material and power resources consumed, the emissions and waste generated, we can evaluate their potential impact over the environment, and we can identify the options to reduce these impacts. The reasons at the basis of the creation of these instruments are extremely complex, going beyond the purely economic frame in order to enter an ethical sphere of debates inciting the spirit of almost all the population on the Globe, which is the type of planet that we leave as inheritance to our followers, the future generations. According to the reports of the European Commission regarding these instruments we have shown the evolution and the present situation of EMAS registrations and EU Ecolabel for European tourist accommodation services.

Highlights

IntroductionPerformance represents a special achievement in a certain field of activity
Accepted, performance represents a special achievement in a certain field of activity
Performance is defined as: the art of good businesses, the way to use the best possible part of company resources in order to reach the objectives of the organisation (Bessire, 1999), a state of competitiveness of the organisation, reached by a degree of efficacy and efficiency which ensure a sustainable presence on the market (Niculescu & Lavalette, 1999), a special result obtained in the field of management, economy, commerce, etc., imprinting characteristics of competitiveness, efficiency, and efficacy to the organisation and to its process and structural components (Verboncu & Zalman, 2005, Roman et al, 2015)

Summary

Introduction

Performance represents a special achievement in a certain field of activity. The studies performed by other specialists in the field of tourism highlighted the following success factors: personal involvement, personnel welfare and training, quality food and services, money as a value, marketing activities and comparative evaluation with the best practices (Bergin, 2003); strategy of economic development, of cost management, need to gain new customers and to maintain the existing ones, monitoring competitors’ activity, efficient management of the assets, efficient management of the personnel, encouragement of innovation (Flanagan, 2005); profitability, budget control, quality of services, management of the relationship with the customers, customer’s profile, clarity of objectives, investments in personnel, productivity and personnel as drivers of innovation and teamwork (Nica, 2010); profitability, maintaining the customers, their satisfaction, evaluation of efficiency and innovation (O’Donoghue & Luby, 2006); service improvement, focus on customer and SOME INSTRUMENTS USED TO ACHIEVE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE IN TOURIST ACCOMMODATION UNITS services, creative use of technologies, development of basic capacities (Kandampully, 2006). The environmental policy, synthetically presented in figure 1, is a public document, describing the measures to be taken in the tourist unit for environmental protection

Objectives

Planning

Findings

Conclusions