Objectives of Energy Management
Energy management is the best way to control the cost of the company and maximizing profits by reducing and controlling the organization energy consumption. This is important because it enables the companies to control the cost of the organization by managing the energy consumption in the organizations. The main objectives of energy management are protection of the climate, resource conservation and cost saving. This energy management process is closely connected to the other business functions such as the environmental management, production management and logistics. Energy audit is the systematic methodology to take the decisions in the area of the energy management.
This term refers to the amount of the energy that is consumed by the organizations. Various energy resources are natural gas, coal, electricity, oil and other renewables. Looking at the statistics, from the year 2009, World’s largest energy consumer country is China. In USA, the consumption of energy was flat in 2016 because of the reduction in coal use and it increases the consumption of the oil and gas.
Freshwater is very essential for every human being and it is necessary to consume the water resources carefully. The definition of the water consumption given by the researchers is the process of taking the freshwater from the surface water resources either temporary or permanently. Only 2.5% of water on the earth is fresh water and the rest is frozen in the form of the polar ice and glaciers. According to the statistics, it is reported that the 70% of the worldwide water is used for the purpose of irrigation in the agriculture (QCIN, 2012). Many of the sources of the fresh water are surface water, rivers, and frozen water, industrial and domestic. There are many organizations who used water for various activities such production, logistics, and manufacturing processes. In terms of the restaurant, they used water for making foods, for customer services and many other business activities. There are many ways to conserve the water such as building water conservation programs by identifying the water conservation opportunities and implementing the plans for the same. Some of the tips to conserve water are such as:
- Increase awareness among the employees of the by educating staff, assigning them responsibilities and posting signs etc.
- Reduce the consumption of the domestic water by installing automatic shutoff valves in the taps and saving water from the excessive flow
- To reuse the water resources and investigate another sources of the used water.
Waste management is the process of managing wastes by generating solid wastes, minimizing, collecting, and separating and disposal systems.
The waste minimization is possible by focusing on three main factors which are:
- Recycle: Recycling in the business of the food is prevalent nowadays. This is a great method of reducing and managing the food wastes at restaurants. Restaurants need to expand the waste management programs by focusing more on the recycling programs that includes paper, plastic, metal, aluminium and plastic. It is recommended for restaurant business to focusing more on the recycling programs as consumers 60% of the consumers prefer restaurants having recycle programs. There are many people in our country who will pay more for the food at an eco-friendly environment at the restaurant (Waitakere City Council, 2001).
- Reuse: in the field of hospitality sector, restaurants should buy those products which have the reusable packaging. It will be better to speak with the suppliers of food items to use the reusable plastic tubs instead of using disposable polystyrene and cardboard packaging. Also, in restaurant business, the organization can reuse the cooking oil for 2-3 times. By doing and working in this way, helps the company in cost minimization.
- Reduce: Proper utilization of the resources is the most key element of reducing the waste. It is necessary that everything should be well organized that it will help the other staff members to utilize the products in efficient and effective way. It is recommended that the hospitality sector should use the refillable sugar dispensers, reusable cutlery food storage containers and reusable tableware.
People in our country are very health conscious and they prefer more sustainable food and will pay more for the healthy foods. There are many vegetables, fruits which are grown with many chemicals and pesticides. Therefore, it is suggested that the restaurants need to focus on the sustainable food production.
World’s largest energy consumer country
This research is based on the environmental sustainability of the hospitality business. The main purpose of this research is to analyse about the restaurant business and their initiatives towards the environmental sustainability on the basis of waste management, energy and water management.
This study was closely performed to understand the main concepts of the environmental sustainability and the importance of the auditing in the restaurant. The restaurant chosen for this research report is the George café in Australia. Some of the recommendations are also given to improve the sustainability.
The audit is very important as it helps the organizations to make the better decision making in the area of food, energy, and waste and water management. The sustainability reports or auditing reports are an effective tool in restaurant business for the food safety as audits helps in certifying the proper safety practices. On the other side, the main objective of the environmental auditing is to save the environment and minimize the risk of health. Audit is a management tool which is used:
- To determine the how well the restaurants are managing and performing all its sustainable activities.
- To minimize the risk on the health and safety of the people
- To verify the compliance of business operations with the laws and regulations of the state or domestic (Williams, 2010).
According to web research, there are many documents that required for the auditing process. The data of information related the current business activities can be extracted or analysed from the policies and procedures of the restaurant, all type of previous records such as monitoring process, maintenance programs, existing inspection details and physical controls.
This part of the research includes the identification and relevance of the previous researches conducted on the basis of the waste management and the sustainability in the hospitality sector. This section will explain the previous literature in order to understand the importance of the energy management, water management and waste management.
Environmental auditing is the most essential tool to analyse the effect of the business operations on the environment against the set standards. Environmental auditing is of various types depending on the business and the set of standards. According to the researchers and scholars, various restaurants in the hospitality industry recognize the fact that the environmental matters are important for the growth of the restaurant business and auditing is used to:
- Investigate the restaurant operations against set standards
- Understand the environmental initiatives taken by the organization
- Identify the difference in the environmental matters and set standards.
Therefore, it is observed that the auditing is very helpful in improving the present activities of the employees working in the organizations and also aim to reduce the adverse effect of the business operations on the environment (Eyler, et al., 2015).
The proper definition of the environmental auditing is given by the international chamber of commerce (ICC).
Importance of Freshwater Conservation in Restaurant Business
“A management tool comprising systematic, documented, periodic and objective evaluation of how well environmental organisation, management and equipment are performing with the aim of helping to safeguard the environment by facilitating management control of practices and assessing compliance with company policies, which would include regulatory requirements and standards applicable”.
According to the energy conservation act 2001, energy audit is the verification, analysis and monitoring of the use of the energy that includes the information related to the energy used by the organizations and an action to plan to reduce the energy consumption. According to the various authors, the main objective of these audits is to reduce the costs of company as well as to determine the different methods and ways to reduce the energy consumption per unit. According to the viewpoints of the managers of the restaurant, the need of the energy audits arises just to set the benchmark for managing the energy as well as also provides the opportunities to plan more effectively and minimize the cost of the restaurants (Ramachandra & Bachamanda, 2012).
Various studies also found that with the growing importance of the food industry, the restaurants need to focus more on the problem of the water shortages as water is the most necessary element of human life. In terms of the restaurant, they used water for making foods, for customer services and many other business activities. There are many ways to conserve the water such as building water conservation programs by identifying the water conservation opportunities and implementing the plans for the same. As per the viewpoint and research of the Angulo and Atwal all the policy makers need to take care of the elasticity of the water in order to manage the water resource management (Angulo, et al., 2014).
The hospitality industry is the key driver for growth of the economy. According to the previous researches, the third largest sectors in the word is the hotels and restaurant industry as they are contributed nearly US $187.9 billion which is 12% of the GDP in the year 2014 and 2015. Restaurant is the largest service sector and facing a great competition nowadays. Therefore, because of the rise in the growth restaurants also need to improve its sustainability in order to attract more and more customers. According to the reports of the service industry, proper utilization of the resources is the most key element of reducing the waste. Waste management is the process of managing wastes by generating solid wastes, minimizing, collecting, and separating and disposal systems (NYSRA, 2009).
Waste Management in Hospitality Industry
This chapter in the major project will explain the research methodologies and the methods used for the collection of the data. The research is analysing the various parts and viewpoints of the people with regard to the issues. George Café restaurant and their environmental audits are the main focus of the research. The word research methodology refers to the method of doing research in the correct direction and collection of the data by using the different tools. The purpose of this research methodology is to determine the importance of the environmental auditing and will help to determine the role of the water, energy and waste management in the growth of the restaurant. There are many methods available to collect the data such as the interviews, questionnaires, surveys, review of the publications. The main motive of this study is to find out the importance of the auditing and the perspectives of the customers towards the energy, waste and water management factors (SBAP, 2014).
There are two types of approaches- quantitative and qualitative. The Quantitative approach is based on the numerical data which can be evaluated and measured by the data collection instruments. Collecting the data with the help of the questionnaires or interviews is very useful in comparison to the qualitative methods. In this study main focus is given on the Quantitative approach to find out the answers of all the research questions.
The Research Design involves a different type of approaches that can be used for the research work and also include different strategies to implement in order to get the reliable data and to find the accurate results.
Primary and secondary data are the two different types of data. The primary data refers to the fresh data and the secondary data is the data which is based on the previous studies and already available data within the organization. The primary data is collected for the accuracy and efficiency of the study. Primary data is assumed to be more credible in comparison to the other types of data. For this study we are focusing on the George’s café restaurant and their customers and employees to conduct the questionnaire survey (SOAS, 2011).
Description of Business: George’s Cafe is the restaurant that provides the brunch, dinner, coffee and dinner to the people of Australia. The business of George’s café was established in Sydney in the heart of Burwood. Restaurant is able to provide the unique atmosphere to its customers and the main focus of the restaurant is on the customer services. George’s Café is mainly focusing on all the tastes and quality of food and flavours. The business is able to manage the availability of the fresh ingredients. The main aim of the George’s café is on the improvement of the customer services and maximizing the profits. There are many areas where company need to focus and improve them such as the environmental sustainability to attract the health conscious people and the eco- friendly customers. The business of restaurant is highly dependent on the quality and taste of the food (ICED, 2011).
Sustainable Food Production in Restaurant Business
The data is collected through the questionnaire distributed among the various customers who visited the George’s Café Restaurant. The questionnaire was distributed among 100 people and out of which only 90 people share their responses. (Refer appendix for questionnaire)
From the above study, it is observed that George’s café restaurant is less focused on the environmental auditing and focusing more on the quality of food and flavour.
The pie chart and the research shows that there are 68% of the people are very much concerned about the environmental issues and the restaurant need to focus on the environmental factors. Therefore, it is clear that the George’s café need to focus on the environmental aspects also along with the customer services. This is also the best way to attract the maximum number of customers and reduces the cost of the restaurant by focusing on all the environmental issues.
Through the research, it is observed that the George’s café shows less concern on the environmental factors and audit reporting. There are 70% of the people who shows their agreement on that the restaurant industry need to consider all the environment factors in order to provide the sustainable food. Rest of the 20% are neutral in this environmental matter. The below graph shows the percentage of the responses of the customers who visited to the George’s Café restaurant.
The most important factors from the viewpoint of all the respondents are energy management, water management, waste management and sustainable food. There are 86% of the people who are agreed with the all of the environmental aspects. It is analysed that restaurants need to focus on all the environmental issues for the sustainable future. It is observed that the auditing is very helpful in improving the present activities of the employees working in the organizations and also aim to reduce the adverse effect of the business operations on the environment.
Through the research, it is observed that the George’s café does not find enough initiatives taken towards the environmental audit. There are 67% of the people who shows their agreement on that George’s café restaurant is not taking the enough initiatives towards the audit. Rest of the 10% are neutral in this environmental matter. The below graph shows the percentage of the responses of the customers who visited to the George’s Café restaurant.
There are many customers who love to visit at that place that offers the eco-friendly environment as well as the sustainable food. There are 72% of the people who attracted towards the eco-friendly and sustainable food. The below pie chart shows the responses in the favour of the sustainable food and eco-friendly.
Importance of Environmental Auditing in Restaurant Business
The below diagram or chart is showing the viewpoint of the people who are ready to pay the high amount of money for the healthy food. The people are ready to pay high amount of money because they are very much health conscious and below pie chart shows that there are 78% of the people showing their positive response.
It is clear from the research findings and the previous literature that restaurants need to focus on the areas of sustainability as there are 87% people found that George’s café need to prepare the environmental audits in order to control the costs and performing efficiently in the area of managing waste, water and energy consumption.
The idea of the green restaurant is found interesting and attractive to all the customers and they will prefer to visit the green restaurants. There are 88% of the people in the below graph shows their positive response towards the green restaurant.
The findings of the research survey shows the various recommendations for the George’s café with regard to improve the sustainability audit of the company. It is clear from the above analysis that the restaurants can also attract the customers by offering them sustainable food, Because the results of survey show that people are ready to visit at the eco- friendly environment of the restaurant as well as ready to pay the high amount also because customers are very much concerned about the environmental issues nowadays. It has been recorded that the café restaurant need to prepare the audits to check the performance of the restaurant against the set standards and rules. The customers gave the positive response towards the restaurants who adopted sustainable strategies for their business. The most important factors from the viewpoint of all the respondents are energy management, water management, waste management and sustainable food. There are 86% of the people who are agreed with the all of the environmental aspects. It is also analysed that the audit is playing a very important role in the growth of the business. Therefore, it is observed that the auditing is very helpful in improving the present activities of the employees working in the organizations and also aim to reduce the adverse effect of the business operations on the environment.
Some of the tips or recommendation to improve the sustainability are such as:
- Increase awareness among the employees of the by educating staff, assigning them responsibilities and posting signs etc.
- Reduce the consumption of the domestic water by installing automatic shutoff valves in the taps and saving water from the excessive flow
- To reuse the water resources and investigate another sources of the used water.
The waste minimization is possible by focusing on three main factors which are:
- Recycle: Recycling in the business of the food is prevalent nowadays. This is a great method of reducing and managing the food wastes at restaurants. Restaurants need to expand the waste management programs by focusing more on the recycling programs that includes paper, plastic, metal, aluminium and plastic. It is recommended for restaurant business to focusing more on the recycling programs as consumers 60% of the consumers prefer restaurants having recycle programs. There are many people in our country who will pay more for the food at an eco-friendly environment at the restaurant (Coal, 2012).
- Reuse: in the field of hospitality sector, restaurants should buy those products which have the reusable packaging. It will be better to speak with the suppliers of food items to use the reusable plastic tubs instead of using disposable polystyrene and cardboard packaging. Also, in restaurant business, the organization can reuse the cooking oil for 2-3 times. By doing and working in this way, helps the company in cost minimization.
- Reduce: Proper utilization of the resources is the most key element of reducing the waste. It is necessary that everything should be well organized that it will help the other staff members to utilize the products in efficient and effective way. It is recommended that the hospitality sector should use the refillable sugar dispensers, reusable cutlery food storage containers and reusable tableware.
- Sustainable food: people in our country are very health conscious and they prefer more sustainable food and will pay more for the healthy foods. There are many vegetables, fruits which are grown with many chemicals and pesticides. Therefore, it is suggested that the restaurants need to focus on the sustainable food production.
- The audit is very important as it helps the organizations to make the better decision making in the area of food, energy, and waste and water management (Ganga, 2011).
- The sustainability reports or auditing reports are an effective tool in restaurant business for the food safety as audits helps in certifying the proper safety practices.
- The main objectives of the environmental auditing is to save the environment and minimize the risk of health.
- Audit is a management tool which is used to determine the how well the restaurants are managing and performing all its sustainable activities and to minimize the risk on the health and safety of the people
- Auditing should be done in a careful manner in order to verify the compliance of business operations with the laws and regulations of the state or domestic.
- Auditing of Café should help others to investigate the restaurant operations against set standards (Eyler, et al., 2015).
- Café should take some environmental initiatives for sustainable growth
Conclusion
The audit is very important as it helps the organizations to make the better decision making in the area of food, energy, and waste and water management. The sustainability reports or auditing reports are an effective tool in restaurant business for the food safety as audits helps in certifying the proper safety practices. On the other side, the main objective of the environmental auditing is to save the environment and minimize the risk of health. Audit is a management tool which is used to determine the how well the restaurants are managing and performing all its sustainable activities, to minimize the risk on the health and safety of the people and to verify the compliance of business operations with the laws and regulations of the state or domestic. It is clear from the research findings and the previous literature that restaurants need to focus on the areas of sustainability as there are 87% people found that George’s café need to prepare the environmental audits in order to control the costs and performing efficiently in the area of managing waste, water and energy consumption.
References
Angulo, A., Atwi, M., Mur, J. & Barberan, M., 2014. Economic analysis of the water demand in the hotels and restaurants sector: Shadow prices and elasticities. An AGU journal, 50(8), pp. 6577-6591.
Coal, B., 2012. Independent environmental audit report, Available at: https://www.bulgacoal.com.au/en/publications/environmental-reporting/Audits/Bugla-Underground-Compliance-Audit-Report-2012.pdf
Eyler, A. et al., 2015. Physical Activity and Food Environment Assessments: Implications for Practice. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 48(5), p. 639–645.
Ganga, S., 2011. Environmental Audit: An Overview, Available at: https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/28706/11/11_chapter6.pdf
ICED, 2011. Environment audit report, Available at: https://iced.cag.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/1.-Environment-Audit-Report-MOEF.pdf
NYSRA, 2009. Green Hospitality Initiative Workbook, Available at: https://www.nysra.org/uploads/8/4/9/2/84927158/ghi_green_workbook_updated.pdf
QCIN, 2012. Criteria for audit of food establishments, Available at: https://www.qcin.org/PDF/TFSF/safe_food_criteria_for_audit2.pdf
Ramachandra, T. & Bachamanda, S., 2012. Environmental Audit of Municipal Solid Waste Management, Available at: https://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/biodiversity/pubs/ces_tr/TR118_SPoonancha/Shruthi_report_12_TVR_r_230407.pdf
SBAP, 2014. Environmental Auditing: Surviving an Inspection, Available at: https://www.state.nj.us/dep/aqes/sbap/docs/saifdrycl.pdf
SOAS, 2011. Introduction to Environmental Auditing and Management, Available at: https://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-demos/000_P508_EAEMS_K3736-Demo/module/pdfs/p508_unit_01.pdf
Waitakere City Council, 2001. The better restaurant and café guide, Available at: https://www.waitakere.govt.nz/abtcit/ec/clnprod/pdf/restcafegde.pdf
Williams, C., 2010. Environmental Audit Report: Royal Society of Arts, Available at: https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/rsa-environmental-audit-report.pdf
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