Sustainable Development of Coastal Food Services

Abstract

Coastal food services are an important segment within ‘sea and sun’ tourism. They have a direct impact on the environment from liquid and solid waste generation, air contamination, and excessive energy and water consumption. Mass tourism and the contemporary threat of climate change enhance the anthropogenic intrusion, especially in vulnerable coastal zones. To prevent overexploitation of the coastal zones, the adaptation of the sustainable principles by coastal stakeholders is an urgent matter. Thus, this study aims to design a model of sustainable development for restaurants and to examine the level of its adoption by seaside restaurant owners in two touristic beach areas of Cadiz province, Spain. A questionnaire was performed during the high summer season in 2018. The obtained data was analysed by IBM SPSS software. The survey results showed that the model of sustainable development has been poorly adopted by restaurant managers. Foreign managers of international restaurants are less involved in the adoption of the sustainable model in comparison to Spanish restaurant owners. Moreover, restaurants that have been opened more than 10–20 years provide a more sustainable way of business operation in comparison with newly established food service organizations.

A phenomenological exploration into sustainability in the foodservice industry in the MEA region

“…Well, I do not believe that going green will help me to increase the profit, but I think when you replace mainstream lighting with LED, you can save a bit of money, but not that much, as here in Lebanon, we also need to pay an electricity generator; you know with the corruption, even normal things such as having a reliable electricity provider is not that common here. (Interview P 7) Therefore, in contrast to prior works that underscored the importance of profit as a pillar of sustainability in the foodservice industry, which implies the adoption of green, lowcarbon, circular economies alongside profitable business activities (Iamkovaia et al, 2019), our results show that in the Lebanese context, the dimension of profit is hardly understood and barely connected with the implementation of sustainable activities. The owners of traditional and modern restaurants find it challenging to connect profits and sustainability and limit their actions to control food waste and energy.…”

“…Nevertheless, Iamkovaia et al (2019) proposed the following comprehensive framework of sustainable restaurants based on the integration of the European Union (EU) guidelines for sustainable development in the restaurant sector:…”

“….] (Interview P 22) Yet, while the owners of these different restaurants (modern, traditional and fast-food) acknowledged the importance of environmental sustainability through the cleaning or greening tasks, the activities remain very limited compared to the various actions implemented in the Western context as identified by Iamkovaia et al (2019). The results show that both traditional and modern restaurants in Lebanon do not implement activities related to protecting the country's natural heritage, efficiently using resources, participating in environmental programs and advancing waste management.…”

Sustainable Development Model for the Automotive Industry

“…This reporting of sustainability is not required by law, but many times, the OS practices approach is imposed by stakeholders (mainly business partners and customers) [18][19][20][21][22][23]. Organizational practices differ from one domain to another, from one organization to another, depending on the ability to transfer knowledge [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30].…”

“…Iamkovaia et al, 2019 [30] Stakeholders share their influences on putting the OS into operation in two large categories: direct, from the inside of the company and indirect, from the outside the company.…”