Awareness of the Implemented ISO 14001 Environmental Management System and Selected Manifestations of Sustainable Consumption among Hotel Guests
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15611/pn.2026.1.03Keywords:
sustainable consumption, pro-environmental behaviors, environmental management systems, hotel industry, hotel guestsAbstract
Aim: The aim of the article is to show the importance of ISO 14001 environmental management systems for pro-environmental behavior, as a manifestation of sustainable consumption, among hotel guests.
Methodology: The main research method was a diagnostic survey – a survey technique. The research tool was a questionnaire addressed to hotel guests. The research included a total of six hotels located in four large cities: Warsaw – 1, Krakow – 1, Wroclaw – 3 and Opole – 1. A total of 1317 hotel guests were surveyed, including 835 (63%) women and 482 (37%) men.
Results: Among the surveyed hotel guests, weak or very weak and multidirectional correlations were noted between the frequency of pro-environmental behaviors and the fact that the hotel had or did not have an environmental management system. The implementation of standardized environmental management systems in a hotel was associated with an average higher frequency of the following behaviors by guests: limiting the use of plastic, giving up using a private car, saving water, requesting towels and bed linen to be changed only when they are really dirty, using public transport, separating waste, preferring electronic versions of documents, and taking a shower instead of a bathtub.
Implications and recommendations: Environmental management systems can be an effective tool for modeling manifestations of sustainable consumption in hotel guests. However, their effectiveness should be strengthened by the use of tools directly addressed to guests, i.e.: environmental messages and appeals, or awards and gifts for demonstrating manifestations of sustainable consumption.
Originality/value: The issue of the relationship between the adoption of pro-environmental behaviors by hotel guests and the fact that the hotel has an environmental management system has rarely been addressed so far.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Daniel Puciato
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2025-12-08
Published 2026-03-31
