A Hotel General Manager Is a Hotelier. Not a Sustainability Expert. Stop Expecting Them to Be Both!

I have spent nearly 30 years in the international hotel industry, and there is one thing I know very well: running a hotel is already a full-time responsibility. A General Manager must deal with budgets, payroll, demanding guests, staffing challenges, maintenance, commercial performance, owners, investors and the unexpected situations that occur every single day. And now, on top of everything else, we expect that same General Manager to become an expert in carbon accounting, energy efficiency, waste management, circular economy, sustainability certification, ESG reporting and European legislation.

Why? A Hotel General Manager is a Hotelier! Not a sustainability expert. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Let us remember something fundamental. Your hotel is a business. It is not a charitable institution, nor is it a non-profit organisation. It must generate revenue, control expenditure, remain competitive, comply with applicable legislation and deliver the financial performance expected by its owners and investors. Sustainability is part of that responsibility, but it should not become another administrative burden that distracts management from running the hotel. The challenge is not to choose between profitability and responsibility, but to find the right balance between the two.

No romance. No fairy tales. No nonsense.

Sustainability Should Improve Your Hotel Business, Not Complicate It

Over the years, I have seen hotels spending considerable amounts of money on sustainability initiatives without first understanding their actual operational performance. Expensive equipment, ambitious environmental targets, attractive sustainability reports and certificates displayed at reception. But when I ask relatively simple questions about energy consumption per occupied room, water costs, waste management or the financial return on their investments, the answers are frequently incomplete or unavailable. This is not necessarily a failure of the General Manager. It is often a failure of the approach.

Too many sustainability programmes start by telling hotels what they should do, rather than first understanding how the hotel operates. A hotel is a complex operational environment. A five-star luxury property, a conference hotel, a resort and a small independent hotel have different operational requirements, guest expectations, staffing structures and financial realities. Even two hotels belonging to the same group can have completely different consumption patterns and opportunities for improvement.

If your sustainability adviser does not understand hotel operations, how can that person realistically advise you on improving them?

I have encountered sustainability consultants who understand environmental theory exceptionally well but have little practical understanding of hotel operations. They can explain carbon emissions, but do they understand what happens in a hotel kitchen during breakfast service? Do they understand the relationship between occupancy, guest comfort, HVAC systems and energy consumption? Can they explain to an owner why a proposed investment makes financial sense? Technical knowledge is important, of course, but without operational understanding, recommendations can quickly become expensive exercises with limited practical value.

And this is precisely where I believe we need to change our approach. We should stop expecting General Managers to become sustainability specialists and start expecting sustainability specialists to understand the hotel business.

Stop Turning General Managers into Sustainability Administrators

The responsibility for sustainability cannot simply be transferred to the General Manager’s desk, accompanied by another spreadsheet, another questionnaire and another reporting deadline. Of course, the General Manager must remain accountable for the hotel’s performance, legal compliance and strategic decisions within their responsibilities. That accountability cannot simply be outsourced. But accountability is not the same as technical expertise.

We do not expect a General Manager to personally design the hotel’s electrical installation, conduct a financial audit or interpret every technical requirement of fire safety legislation. We appoint competent specialists, establish clear responsibilities and verify that the work has been carried out correctly. Why should sustainability be treated differently?

A good sustainability specialist should reduce the workload of the General Manager, not increase it.

The specialist should understand the operation, identify financial and compliance risks, develop realistic improvement opportunities, coordinate implementation and demonstrate measurable results. The hotel’s management team should be involved where operational decisions are required, not transformed into a department of sustainability consultants. And when an adviser delivers a report containing dozens of recommendations without financial calculations, operational priorities or an implementation methodology, I would encourage every General Manager to ask a simple question: what exactly am I supposed to do with this report, and how will it improve my hotel’s performance?

Unfortunately, I see this situation far too often. Hotels receive extensive sustainability reports, impressive presentations and ambitious action plans, but the practical responsibility for turning all those recommendations into results is left entirely with the General Manager and the operational team. The consultant has completed the assignment, but the hotel is left with additional work, additional pressure and, frequently, little clarity about the financial benefits.

That is not how professional sustainability consultancy should work.

First Understand. Then Optimise. Only Then Invest.

At Green Partner, our philosophy is based on a straightforward principle: understand the hotel business before recommending changes. A hotel should not be encouraged to spend money on new technology, equipment or certification without first establishing whether the investment is necessary, financially justified and appropriate for the property.

The starting point is always to understand the hotel’s actual performance. How much energy and water does the property consume? What are the associated costs? How is waste managed? Which operational procedures are in place? Are responsibilities clearly defined? Is the hotel meeting its applicable legal obligations? And, perhaps most importantly, where is money being wasted without anyone noticing?

Without a reliable operational and financial baseline, there is no credible way to demonstrate improvement. You cannot manage what you do not understand, and you certainly cannot justify an investment if you do not know what you are trying to improve.

Once the baseline is established, the next step is not necessarily to invest. In fact, quite the opposite. My experience tells me that hotels frequently have considerable opportunities to improve performance simply by optimising what they already have. Better equipment controls, more appropriate operating schedules, improved maintenance practices, sensible temperature settings, staff awareness and clear operational procedures can produce measurable savings without significant capital expenditure.

Why replace equipment before confirming that the existing equipment is being operated efficiently? Why invest in expensive technology when a relatively simple adjustment to an operational procedure could already reduce consumption? These are questions that every hotelier should be asking before approving expenditure.

Naturally, some improvements will require investment, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, every proposed investment should be supported by a credible business case. Expected savings, payback periods, operational risks and the potential impact on guest comfort must be evaluated before recommendations are presented to owners or investors. Sustainability investments should be assessed with the same financial discipline applied to any other hotel investment.

And the responsibility of a competent adviser should not end when the action plan is delivered. Implementation, staff training, performance monitoring and verification are equally important. If a consultant recommends an improvement and promises savings, the hotel should be entitled to know how those savings will be measured and whether the expected results have actually been achieved.

This is where I believe many sustainability initiatives lose their credibility. Recommendations are made, investments are approved, reports are produced, but nobody returns to verify whether the improvements have delivered the promised results. Without measurement, follow-up and corrective action, sustainability risks becoming an exercise in good intentions rather than professional management.

Understand the baseline, optimise the operation, invest where justified, verify the results and only then communicate the achievements.

That is not a complicated sustainability philosophy. It is simply good hotel management.

Your Reputation Is Also a Business Asset

There is another important aspect that General Managers and hotel owners cannot afford to overlook: the credibility of their environmental claims.

With the application of the European Union’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive, commonly known as EmpCo, from 27 September 2026, hotels face stricter requirements concerning environmental claims and sustainability labels. The days when a hotel could casually describe itself as green, environmentally friendly or sustainable without carefully considering the supporting evidence and legal implications are coming to an end.

This does not mean that hotels should stop communicating their environmental achievements. Quite the opposite. Hotels that are genuinely improving their performance should be able to communicate those achievements with confidence. But the information must be accurate, appropriately substantiated and consistent with the actual scope of the improvements.

Independent certification can play an important role, provided the certification scheme is credible, the verification process is sufficiently robust, and the claims made by the hotel are consistent with what has actually been assessed. A certificate displayed at reception does not automatically substantiate every sustainability statement published on the hotel’s website.

Once again, should we expect the General Manager to become an expert in European consumer protection legislation, certification methodologies, accreditation requirements and environmental claims? Of course not. That is precisely why competent specialist support is necessary.

A hotelier should be able to rely on professional advice that protects the business, rather than exposes it to unnecessary legal and reputational risks. After all, a hotel’s reputation is not an abstract sustainability concept. It is a commercial asset built over years of operational performance, guest satisfaction and trust.

Choose Hotel Specialists, Not Just Sustainability Specialists

When selecting a sustainability consultant, I would encourage General Managers and hotel owners to look beyond environmental qualifications, attractive presentations and impressive terminology. Technical competence is essential, but understanding the practical realities of hotel operations is equally important.

And there is another distinction that I believe deserves particular attention. Having audited hotels does not automatically mean that a consultant understands the hotel business. Conducting sustainability audits, checking compliance against certification criteria and reviewing documentation are entirely different from managing a hotel, controlling departmental budgets, dealing with payroll, maintaining guest satisfaction and being accountable for the property’s financial performance.

Of course, there are exceptions. Some auditors and sustainability consultants have genuine operational hotel experience and understand both sides of the business. However, in my experience, professionals who combine strong technical sustainability competence with substantial hands-on hotel management experience are surprisingly difficult to find.

Knowing how to audit a hotel is not the same as knowing how to run one. And knowing how to identify a nonconformity does not necessarily mean knowing how to resolve it in a practical, financially viable way without compromising the guest experience.

This is precisely why hotel owners and General Managers should look beyond the number of hotels a consultant has audited or the certificates they hold. The real question is whether that consultant understands the operational and commercial consequences of the recommendations being made. Because ultimately, it is the hotelier, not the consultant, who must live with those consequences.

A consultant advising a hotel should understand the relationship between occupancy and resource consumption, the pressures faced by housekeeping and food and beverage departments, the importance of guest comfort, the financial constraints of maintenance budgets and the expectations of owners and investors. Recommendations must work within those realities, not against them.

A good sustainability adviser should be capable of sitting at the same table as the General Manager, Financial Controller, Chief Engineer and hotel owner, speaking a language that everyone understands. That language is operational performance, financial return, risk management and legal compliance.

The real value of a specialist is not measured by the number of recommendations produced or the thickness of a sustainability report. It is measured by the quality of the improvements delivered, the costs avoided, the risks reduced and the results that can be demonstrated.

And let us be clear: involving specialists does not mean removing sustainability from the hotel’s management agenda. It means ensuring that the right people are doing the right work. The General Manager sets priorities, approves decisions and maintains oversight. The specialists provide the technical competence, methodology, implementation support and verification necessary to turn those decisions into measurable outcomes.

That is how an effective professional relationship should function.

General Managers, You Have a Hotel to Run!

There is already enough pressure on the shoulders of hotel management. Rising operating costs, labour shortages, changing guest expectations, increasingly complex regulations and continuous demands from owners and investors are not going away. Adding sustainability responsibilities without providing the necessary expertise and operational support is not a solution.

The objective should be to make your hotel more efficient, reduce unnecessary expenditure, manage compliance risks, protect its reputation and strengthen its long-term competitiveness. Sustainability should support those objectives, not compete with them.

I firmly believe that sustainability, when approached correctly, is one of the most effective opportunities available to hotels to improve operational performance. But achieving those improvements requires more than environmental enthusiasm. It requires an understanding of hotel operations, financial discipline, technical competence and the ability to translate recommendations into practical results.

To my fellow Hoteliers: do what you do best. Run your hotel, look after your guests, lead your team and deliver results for your owners.

Do not allow sustainability to become another administrative burden or another reason to spend money without understanding the expected return. Demand professional advice, measurable improvements and clear accountability from the specialists you appoint.

At Green Partner, we believe that sustainability must work for the hotel business, not the other way around. Our role is to understand your operation, identify opportunities, support implementation, verify improvements and help protect your business from unnecessary costs and compliance risks.

You were trained to run hotels. Let specialists who understand hotels take care of the technical complexity.