Over time, more and more hotels have begun to include sustainability policies into their operations management. Hotels go green for a variety of reasons, including cost savings, public funding, staff commitment, public scrutiny, investor relations, and general societal good. However, one of the primary motivations for hotels to go green is to respond to rising consumer awareness of environmental issues. Indeed, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of hotels’ environmental impact and seem to appreciate hoteliers’ efforts towards sustainability, enhancing customer satisfaction and contributing to the formation of positive behavioral intentions and indirectly increasing firms’ competitiveness. By reason of that situation, many hotels started to introduce green practices in a proactive manner, with the double goal to involve green consumers and to improve their economic performance. Third-party verified eco-labels ensure that hotels meet environmental performance criteria and provide reliable communication to their customers in this context. We propose a conceptual framework to investigate whether green practices implemented by Italian “Legambiente Turismo” certified hotels contribute significantly to the formation of guests’ positive behavioral intention toward green hotels and the importance of green communication on guest attitude and behavior, starting with a review of the literature on eco-labelled hotels. To test the hypotheses, a survey of visitors from two Italian hotels with the ecolabel was undertaken, and Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used. The PLS-SEM analysis leads to accepting eight out of the eleven hypotheses tested. Results from the model testing show the role played by guest environmental concern in influencing guests’ perception of hotels’ green communication and the role of the latter in influencing guest perception of hotel green practices. The findings of the study are useful for hotel managers and decision-makers because they clarify the relevance of environmental communication and guest environmental awareness in visitor recognition of hotels’ environmental efforts. The study also confirms the link between green practices implementation and increased market awareness and loyalty to green hotels.

Tourism has a key role in the global economy, and it is a significant contributor to environmental degradation and climate change. Concurrently, it is one of the most exposed businesses to the deterioration of environmental quality. Inside the tourism sector, the hospitality industry accounts for nearly 30% of emissions and in recent years has begun to introduce voluntary tools to manage the environmental impacts of its operations. Among these instruments, ecolabels ensure compliance with specific environmental performance criteria and reliable communication. In Italy, Legambiente Turismo is the most widespread tourism ecolabel that awards over 300 hotels. Previous investigations have shown that firms implementing environmental sustainability practices may gain economic advantages in terms of savings thanks to increased efficiency and reduced waste. At the same time, when evaluating firms’ performance, it is relevant to explore how customers perceive the actions implemented by the accommodation industry to minimize the environmental impact of its activities. Through a survey addressed to the customers of an eco-labeled hotel, this paper investigates if green practices form a specific dimension of service quality and if these green practices are considered by hotel guests as excitement factors among hotel service quality attributes. Results show that customers identify environmental practices as a specific dimension of eco-labeled hotels. Moreover, applying the three-factors theory of customer satisfaction, findings identify hotel green practices as delighting guests if properly delivered and communicated. Findings have significant implications both from a theoretical and managerial viewpoint, as they show that customers positively recognize the hotel’s commitment toward the natural environment, representing a significant differentiation strategy on the market.

Energy efficiency is a pillar for the energy system transition and for reaching the Sustainable Development Goals. In the light of the “energy efficiency first!” principle, European member states enforce policies to spread energy saving throughout the whole energy chain involving both citizens and industries. In this context, information and training campaigns arise as valuable support tools to disseminate energy efficiency and, therefore, for reducing energy consumption. Although various studies have evaluated the impact of information campaigns targeted to citizens, there is a lack of investigations that assess the impact of campaigns dedicated to industry sectors. This study discusses the results of a survey targeted at energy-intensive Italian companies, with a sample of 300 responses. Starting from the analysis of drivers that trigger the implementation of energy efficiency measures, the paper proposes an approach to evaluate the amount of energy savings linked to the Italian information and training program targeted to industries carried out by the Italian Energy Efficiency Agency. Results show that although information campaigns are not a crucial driver for companies, they are recognized as a factor that contributes to the implementation of energy efficiency practices. Findings show that roughly 1.4% of energy savings noted by interviewed companies to the Italian Energy Efficiency Agency are a direct effect of the information and training program. This outcome has significant implications, especially for decision-makers, giving evidence of the efficacy of information campaigns on industries, which have great potential for the transition to low carbon production systems.