Environmental sustainability in hotels, theoretical and methodological contribution

Abstract

The environmental sustainability is a multidisciplinary subject and its scope has attracted the attention of researchers from various fields of knowledge. In this perspective, there is the environmental management in the hotel industry, by two aspects, first the economic importance of the hotels that are a key element of the tourism sector, and secondly, the activity generates environmental impacts that need to be managed. Thus, it is understood that it is to investigate the subject is treated in academia. In this sense, the objective of this research, exploratory and descriptive in nature, consists of mapping the theme of sustainability management in hotels, according to the delimitations posed by researchers. To accomplish this purpose, we used the Knowledge Development Process process - Constructivist (ProKnow-C). At the end of the survey, were identified 13 articles published in international journals aligned with the boundaries placed by the researchers. When installing the Bibliographical Portfolio (PB) is evidenced by: (i) aspects of relevance and adherence to the theme of the articles; (Ii) proposals and results obtained in the research; (Iii) theoretical and methodological contribution of the research published in the PB items. The results show that the topic is relevant and current, which lacks structured process to evaluate the environmental management in order to support management decisions.