Sweet and sour grapes: Implementing sustainability in the hospitality industry-A case study

Sustainability has clearly currently become an important area of focus in business management and on the political agenda. The hospitality industry is not considered to be one of the most sustainability-aware sectors. In this study, a hotel's restaurant was studied to see the effect of a change process toward sustainability awareness. Interesting findings throughout the process were generated. These related to definition issues (including ecological and social aspects), such as prices not increasing because of sustainability implementation, the importance of supplier selection, and the need for proper communication with customers about the change process for achieving sustainability. Overall the positive outcomes of the change process ("sweet grapes") outweighed the negative effects ("sour grapes"). One recommendation from this research is to include customers and suppliers explicitly in further related research.