David M. Stipanuk, a hospitality facilities and operations professor in Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, helped BYU-Hawaii School of Business students in the January 25 entrepreneurship lecture see ties between environmental concerns and possible business careers.
Stipanuk, an engineer and textbook author who works closely with several hospitality industry environmental groups, explained that the movement, which can broadly be labeled sustainability, started with ecological concerns in the 1960s and 70s and has since expanded into concern for human interaction with the environment, social issues and economic implications.
He said some groups define sustainability as "making sure we're meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs." Or stated in question form, "Are we mortgaging the future for present-day benefits?"
"The sustainability term isn't one that most businesses are comfortable with," Stipanuk said. "What I see happening is a movement toward the triple bottom line or corporate social responsibility for economics, environment and equity.
In other words, industry groups are looking more broadly at what corporations do and how they impact society. "If you punch up 'triple bottom line' on a web browser, you'll see quite a movement in this direction." Indeed, a quick check brought up almost 190,000 references.
"What does sustainability have to do with hospitality and environment?" Stipanuk asked the BYU-Hawaii students. In response he noted that among his own students, one provides environmental consulting services, another works with the Caribbean Alliance of Sustainable Tourism, and yet another started a small company that puts together solid waste and composting studies. One went to Hong Kong and started a energy management company that has since expanded into China."
"Other graduates have consulted on setting up eco-lodges in Central America. Another couple -- he's from Kenya, managed resorts in Africa, but they had a bigger agenda. They formed eco-resorts.com and began to look at marketing environmentally conscious lodges in Africa with linkages to orphanages and schools. The funds they generated support those institutions."
"Environmentalists are really good business people," Stipanuk said, suggesting there's good growth potential in environmental intrapreneurship. "Most lodging companies don't have an environmental officer. Somebody who has an interest in this area...could have a marvelous influence. There are also all kinds of agritourism development opportunities; for example, ethnobotany - native plants that have potential healing properties."
Other possibilities include eco-lodge development, operations and eco-tourism, "although I prefer the term nature-based tourism"; also culture-based tourism like the Polynesian Cultural Center, "green" products for hotels and restaurants, and biodiesel using restaurant cooking oil.
"I think there's an opportunity not only here in Hawaii but in many of your home lands. There are great ways to market these things on the web," Stipanuk said. "There are all sorts of themes of not only doing well, but of doing good in the process."
Stipanuk also asked the students, "If you're successful, then what do you do? Live like Donald Drumpf? Is that how you want your legacy to look like?"
In response he cited the example of former Hawaii resident Chuck Feeney, who started Duty-Free Shoppers, but eventually "took his money and formed Atlantic Philanthropies with the goal that it burns through all of his billions before he dies. He's out working globally trying to address poverty, health care issues, trying to address all kinds of things."
In another example, he said there's a brother-brother team where the entrepreneur generates money that the other uses in missionary efforts. "The question is who is helping who?"
"There are lots of opportunities out there, but what are you going to do when you're successful?" he asked.
Inviting the students to ask their own questions, one wondered how many tourists Hawaii can absorb. "This is the challenge that many of the tourist destinations have. The question ultimately comes down to how many is too many, or how much is enough," Stipanuk replied, adding that sustainability concerns can also include cultural contamination issues.
He thought using the airline concept of "carrying capacity or limited acceptable change" bears on this question. "Hawaii needs to look at that. We have a sustainable tourism management plan here that is in its final stages of development. It calls for building more infrastructure to handle the tourists, but it does not necessarily look at managing the numbers."
"What's the number-one aspect of sustainable tourism?" another student asked.
He answered, "It very much depends on which of those three [bottom line] segments you most identify with."