Sustainability And Resource Management Answers


  • Internal Code :
  • Subject Code : SRM301
  • University :
  • Subject Name : Management

Santo Maris Oia situated in Santorini, Greece Report Writing Assessment Answer

Executive summary

The current study has developed sustainability report on the operations of Santo Maris Oia situated in Santorini, Greece. The report includes an investigation of the operational factors of the organisation that may potential harm the sustainability of the organisation. It also includes an analysis of the current strategies taken under consideration by the organisation for sustainable business practices. An environmental, social and economic factor that may impact on the future sustainable operations of the organisation has also been critically analysed. 

Introduction

Corporate social responsibilities are the set of commitment and practices of an organisation related to the environmental and social sustainability. In simpler term, businesses are required to follow and embrace the notion of CSR in their business practices so that they can become stewards of the social and environmental landscapes where they belong from. The current study is concerned with the potential negative impact of current operations of Santo Maris Oia on sustainability. The study will also include an investigation upon the strategies used by the hotel to become sustainable using triple bottom line concepts. Potential environmental, social and economic factors are also to be analysed so that their impacts upon sustainable tourism operation of the organisation can be understood. 

Overview of Santo Maris Oia

This organisation is located at a near distance with the Oia village of Santorini. This company offers the visitors with luxury suites and spa services along with exclusive views to the impressive sunset of Santorini and the essence of Aegean Sea. It offers 57 Suites and Villas for a relaxing stay and 5 infinity pools services (Metaxa Hospitality Group, 2020). The additional services include minibar, free parking, Spa service, Airport transportation, Private balcony and others. There are 669 employees working in this hotel. The target market of the organization is the high income group premium customers with the need of highly comfortable and luxury hotel and accommodation services. 
Assessing potential negative impacts of the organisation’s current operations on sustainability
It has been discussed that the organisation provides highly effective services with high availability and quality as this offers a range of additional amenities along with the luxury suites. 

Energy use

A number of ways through which the operations of the organisation may impact upon the sustainability of the organisation includes high consumption of the natural energy (Metaxa Hospitality Group, 2020). The appliances, lighting, cooling and heating system that this hotel uses are responsible for consuming high amount of energy which may cause detrimental impact upon environment and society. 

Waste production

Wastes produced during operations also have the potential to impact negatively on the sustainability of the organisation. The waste production may take place as a result of food preparation and other accommodation services (Krinis, 2019). Hotel equipments such as chef's aprons, napkins and neckties are likely to be land filled by the hospitality organisations like Santo Maris Oia which may potentially have highly negative impacts upon the environment as well as local community. 

Water consumption

Water consumption is a highly essential requirement of the organisation that is not avoidable. As it is committed to provide highly essential accommodation services, it is required to consume water for completion of the daily operations. This is highly alarming as this may contribute to the drought condition. 

Impact on the community

This organisation offers highly sophisticated and luxurious services to its visitors and it fully designs the stay and travel of the visitors of the hotel. This also provides tourism guidance services which is appreciable and may become highly startling on the culture of the society. If the service designing fails to meet the cultural requirements and understanding it is likely for the organisation to ruin the cultural heritage of Santorini. 

Standard service procedure and codes of ethics

It is highly expected from the organisations like Santo Maris Oia to develop a standard operating procedure which will optimise the operations right from booking of accommodation of the customers along to the data usage. It can be stated that faults in the operating system may impact harmfully on the customers as there is high possibility of data breach (Metaxa Hospitality Group, 2020). This may lead the organisation to face legal issues that might not impact positively on the reputation of the organisation.  
Examination and evaluation of current strategies that the organisation has implemented using Triple Bottom Line
The above stated potential impacts are to be reduced with the help of some strategies to mitigate the associated operations problem. The current section of the study will conduct an examination of the effectiveness of the strategies taken under consideration by the current organisation using the triple bottom line approach. The triple bottom line can be considered as a framework which sets recommendations for organisations to focus on their concerns and commitment towards society and environment. The elements of triple bottom line include People, Planet and Profit. 

Planet

It has been identified that the main priorities of the current organisation includes respect to the planet, celebrating the glory of the nature, reducing detrimental impacts of the organisation and others. One can witness a 300 year old olive tree which has been kept by the organization in spite of the alteration and modernization of the services as the tree is the carrier of “ancient Greece’s classic symbols for wisdom”. This organization has also attempted to make a garden with full of herbs, flowers, organic foods and others. The building of the hotel is also constructed in eco-friendly manner along with the usage of the traditional heritage of Santorini and most of the building materials are sourced from land. 
There is a constant approach applied by the organisation to reduce the carbon footprint. The water and waste management system has also been modified to gain the best results. For instance, water heating procedure has been moved to instalment of solar panel through which the organisation is saving up to 3,319,000 kWh/ period over the six months of the operation of the hotel (Santo Maris Oia, 2020). It has also engaged itself in the local programs for promoting awareness of the community members to protect the local biodiversity. 

People

It is essentially important to be considered by the current organisation Santo Maris Oia as it is the base of the company operations and services. One of the key priorities of the current organisation is to give back to the society in which it operates currently (Express Press Release, 2020). This is achieved by the organisation through gaining inspiration to incorporate into designing and decorating, gastronomy, promoting cultural, history and heritage preserving and respecting the customs and traditions and others. In order to support the local community, the organisation also source hospitality products such as food from the local Islands’ producers. It also sponsors the local athletics, social organisations and other cultural institutions to preserve and enrich the local community life. These programs are arranged for supporting the people in need of healthcare and education. The hotel also is there for the local job aspirants as most of the employees are hired by the organisation from the local community (Express Press Release, 2020). This organisation also trains the employees so that they can provide perfect service and accomplish their works with sophistication and also support them for developing for the future endeavours. 

Profit

The organisation Santo Maris Oia believes that the sustainability is the essential element that is required for gaining the competitive advantages against the existing rivals in the market. The aim of the organisation is indulge into healthy economic performance through following the philosophy of Corporate Social Responsibility (Santo Maris Oia, 2020). The core value of the organisation in this context is integrity and virtue.  This organisation builds and maintains goodwill with everyone associated with the service process across the members working in the organisation. The financial sustainability policy of the organisation has been developed on the foundation of compliance with the regulations, sustainable hospitality operations and ethical supply chain policy. 
Critical analysis of environmental, social and economic factors that could impact on future sustainable tourism operations for

Santo Maris Oia

External environment of an organisation is an important factor that highly directs the operations processes and strategies implemented for driving a healthy economic growth. However, there are some environmental, social and economic factors that may affect a business process through making the operations difficulties and others issues due to which businesses like Santo Maris Oia may get affected in future (De Lange & Dodds, 2017). In order to respond to those issues organisations it may become difficult to comply with every sustainability values and norms that might impact detrimentally upon the organisation. The current section of the study is about to identify and critically analyse those factors that may impact upon an organisation in the context of their sustainability practices. 

Environmental

The organizational activities that may in negatively impact the environment are the main issue in the context of tourism development. The tourism operations impacts upon the organization in a number of ways such as transportation, infrastructure, resorts, golf courses and others. Tourism is strongly affected by the environmental changes such as climate change. The natural environment is a significant resource for tourism. Particular features like river, landscapes, rocky outcrops, lakes, animals and plants are the tourism attraction. Therefore, the prospect of a hospitality business is highly associated with the preservation of the local environment (Espiner, Orchiston & Higham, 2017). However, it has been observed in the recent years that the tourism environment is getting affected through the environmental damage caused by the climate change. For instance, organizations like Santo Maris Oia are being increasingly pressured due to the hardship of minimizing the environmental effects through using high technologically equipped electric vehicles. 
Unless the organization can take this into their consideration, it will be difficult for them to reduce their contribution to the environmental damage thus reducing the organizational profitability. In order to maintain this they have to procure high level of technology which would increase the additional expense. This may lead the organization to face difficulties in going forward for economic sustainability. 

Social

There are several social factors that have the potential to impact negatively on the sustainability of Santo Maris Oia’s operations. Investigating those factors it has been identified that the recent social element that has a huge potential to impact on the sustainability of the organization is the Covid-19 Pandemic. As pr the instructions people are required to maintain social distance with each other in order to be safe from the virus (Butler, 2018). This has reduced the number of visitors in the hospitality organization and affected the tourism business worldwide as well. It can be stated that this has also made the employment uncertain of the employees of the organization which may lead the organization to fail to meet the objectives of protecting the people of the triple bottom line. One of the major objectives of the current organization is to ensure employment and training of the local job aspirants which may not become possible due to the spread of the virus. This can be considered as a social factor tht is responsible for negatively impacting upon sustainability practices of Santo Maris Oia. 

Economic

Over tourism is a great problem that Santorini is facing in the recent years. It has become one of the most popular destinations. It is a big problem of the organization as this increases the potential of negative social and environmental impacts. It increases water consumption level which is against the sustainability values of the current organization (Aqaba, 2017). It also contributes to the air pollution due to increased transport and similarly increases waste production. This may led to high environmental damage due to which the future sustainable operations of the organization may suffer. It also reduces the ability to use the resources in a sustainable way as over tourism increases consumption. This may impact upon sustainable resource usage practices of the organisation. 

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, it can be stated that Santo Maris Oia is equipped with sustainable operating tools and strategies using which it meets its objectives of protecting the planet, increase profit and support people. Factors that are responsible for impacting upon the sustainability of the organisation are Energy use, Waste production, Water consumption, Impact on the community and culture Standard service procedure and codes of ethics. However, this organisation can be recommended to experts that will effectively design the sustainability practices in various spheres of the organisational operations. Along with this, Santo Maris Oia can also arrange trainings for the current workforce to utilise their capabilities to improve the sustainable operative techniques for future endeavours. 

Reference List

Aqaba, J. (2017). The effect of hotel development on sustainable tourism development. International Journal of Business Administration, 8(4).
Butler, R. (2018). Sustainable tourism in sensitive environments: a wolf in sheep’s clothing?. Sustainability, 10(6), 1789.
De Lange, D., & Dodds, R. (2017). Increasing sustainable tourism through social entrepreneurship. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Espiner, S., Orchiston, C., & Higham, J. (2017). Resilience and sustainability: A complementary relationship? Towards a practical conceptual model for the sustainability–resilience nexus in tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(10), 1385-1400.
Express Press Release, (2020), The Spa of Santo Maris Oia Luxury Suites & Spa is nominated as Best Greek Resort Spa for 2017 at the World Spa Awards. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://express-press-release.net/news/2017/08/01/121672
Krinis, N. (2019). Metaxa Hospitality Group: Where Luxury Meets Sustainability | GTP Headlines. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://news.gtp.gr/2019/04/08/metaxa-hospitality-group-where-luxury-meets-sustainability/
Metaxa Hospitality Group, (2020), Metaxa Hospitality Group: authentic hospitality greece, resorts crete, santorini hotels. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://www.metaxahospitality.gr/about/our-story/
Metaxa Hospitality Group, (2020), Sustainability Report Presentation 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://www.santomaris.gr/media/1359/sustainability-report-2018_-metaxa-hospitality-group_en-final.pdf
Metaxa Hospitality Group, (2020). Overview. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://www.gtp.gr/TDirectoryDetails.asp?ID=9025
Santo Maris Oia, (2020), Solidarity Portrayed in Children’s Smiles. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://www.santomaris.gr/media/1171/press-release-solidarity-portrayed-in-children-s-smiles.pdf
Santo Maris Oia, (2020), Sustainability Santorini Hotel Greece. Retrieved 11 July 2020, from https://www.santomaris.gr/oia/en-gb/hotel-santorini/sustainability

 


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