The 1990s highlighted the creation of new business dynamics focused on environmental responsibility. In the tourism sector, hotels have incorporated this concept in an attempt to improve the efficiency of natural resource use and quality of life. As a result, sustainable technologies and practices became part of the management strategies of many companies and new legal obligations and business incentive programs have arisen. Through interdisciplinary analysis, this study analyzed environmental management in hotels through the incorporation of sustainable technologies and practices and considering guests’ requirement of social and environmental responsibility. By means of questionnaires answered by hotel owners/managers and guests, the study assessed environmental management in hotels using a sustainability index. The overall level of sustainability in hotel management in João Pessoa, Brazil was considered intermediary and guests’ requirements regarding environmental matters were high.

In Santa Rosa de Lima - SC - Brazil, a small municipality in South Region mainly covered by Atlantic Rain Forest, there is an effort to promote agroecology as socio-ecological improvement for family farmers. Part of this effort was conducted with young farmers in a debate about their land-use practices and the consequences of diversifying their activities. This study describes the process of a participatory modeling approach carried out in a workshop with young farmers to co-design conceptual models for land use practices. As results, a system dynamics model was built to represent their reality. The results of the workshop were embedded in a model to simulate a typical local property and provide insights into the consequences of diversifying their agricultural production by using the agroecological practices. Finally, the work presents the designed model and the first outcomes of scenario simulation, discussing the use of system thinking approaches in participatory modeling.