Drivers, barriers and key practices of corporate sustainability strategy implementation in hotels.

This paper analyzes the implementation of corporate sustainability strategies (CSS) in hotels, identifying key factors and practices as perceived by middle-managers. Using qualitative methods, we conducted initial and in-depth interviews with owners, top-managers, and 37 middle-managers from various departments of a hotel chain in the Canary Islands. An existing literature-informed CSS implementation framework guided our analysis, revealing nine key factors that act as drivers, barriers, or both to CSS implementation. We identified crucial practices including paper-use reduction, employee well-being, plastic-use reduction, energy efficiency, recycling, water management, air quality, social contribution, food waste management, and green chemicals, noting varying relevancies across departments. Particularly, work-wellbeing, plastic-use reduction, and energy efficiency showed the highest alignment with CSS. Our findings offer insights into the practical application of CSS, underscoring the importance of tailoring department-specific practices to overarching sustainability goals to bolster organizational sustainability strategies. • Corporate sustainability strategy (CSS) drivers and practices are strongly related to Human Resource Management. • Key drivers for CSS implementation include communication and training, work environment, and corporate commitment and support. • Key barriers of CSS implementation include guest behavior and external issues such as the pandemic crisis. • Relevance and alignment of key practices vary among departments, which need tailored strategies based on their attributes. • Paper-use reduction emerges as the main key practice of CSS, followed by work wellbeing and plastic-use reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]