Speaker
Description
The hotel industry is an indispensable driver of Ghana’s tourism sector, contributing significantly to the national economic growth. Nonetheless, hotel buildings are resource - intensive and consumes large amount amount of energy and water as well generating a lots of waste and emissions. Globally, sustainable building practices have emerged as a strategies for curtailing the environmental impact of the hospitality facilities however, the extent of their adoption in developing economies remains unclear. The aim of this study is to asses the current state of sustainable building practices in Ghana’s hotel industry by examining the extent of adoption of sustainable practices in hotel building in Ghana, identifying the most common sustainability measures currently implemented by hotels, explore variations in sustainability adoption based on hotel category and establish a baseline of current practices that can guide policy makers, industry practitioners and researchers. A quantitative method of research was used through a questionnaire survey to hotel managers or supervisors or owners, building professionals and regulators. The study evaluates practices in areas such as energy efficiency, water management, material selection, waste management and indoor environmental quality. The findings reveals that while some sustainability measures such as energy -efficient lighting and separation of waste are adopted, measure are largely driven by cost savings motives instead of long term sustainability goals. Implementation of sustainable building practices also remains fragmented. The study provides a baseline understanding of the Ghana’s hotel sustainability practices, identifies the critical gaps and offers insight for building professionals and regulators and hoteliers to advance sustainable building transitions in the hospitality sector.
Keywords: Sustainable practices, hotel buildings, hospitality facilities,