Malaysia Necessitates Appropriate Green Practices To Deal With Environmental Problems From The Growth Of Events
Introduction
Events have become one of the tourism products that attract visitors in destinations around the world. It is same with Malaysia as there is a growing demand in organizing events in the country. However, the growth of events can cause potential negative impacts to the environment, especially the local community, if sustainability is not properly managed by event companies. This report argues how the development of event adversely affect tourist destinations and suggest strategies that event organizer can incorporate to resolve this problem and realize event sustainability.
Selected Literature
Yee, N. W., 2017. Factors influencing event organizers to adopt green practices for business events in Malaysia: A proposed framework. ASEAN Tourism Research Association Conference (ATRC) 2017
This paper discusses the factors that influence event organizers in adopting those practices and framework that can be tested in events. With the rise of environmental concerns from events, some companies began to take event greening into account and implement green practices. The government plays an important role in creating and incorporating new initiatives to encourage the implementation of green practices among event organizers.
Key Findings
The author mentions that the growth of events generates several environmental problems because of the usage of papers, name tags, plastic disposable cutleries and banners during events. Some key factors that encourage event organizers to incorporate green practices are found in the paper. Firstly, event organizers need to be equipped with adequate knowledge of event greening to behave in an eco-friendly manner. Secondly, event companies also need to consider internal and external perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR). While internal CSR refers to guiding policies practiced by event companies, external CSR mentions policies conducted customers. CSR is a driving force that motivates event companies to search for green practices. Thirdly, competitive advantage can be also an important factor for companies to embark on green practices. Finally, consumer demand (or hygiene factor) functions as a factor that provides basic conditions for satisfaction, leading to green practices.
Ramely, A., Chiu, L. K. and Kayat, K. 2014. Predicting hotelier’s intention in practicing event greening: an examination of personal belief, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control from managerial perspectives.
This paper introduces reasons why companies avoid practicing green and impacts of event greening practice, and delineates the influence of some variables on green practice intention among event organizers to predict the green practices (derive managerial implications for the event industry). Due to the higher importance of green practices, the number of event organizers which practice green has increased. Event greening can be practiced through every process of events including pre-event, during event until post-event.
Key Findings
The growth of events has various negative impacts towards local community such as damaged lands. carbon dioxide emissions and climate change, traffic congestion, leading to excessive usage and waste of electricity. However, these negative environmental impacts of events can be curbed through practicing green.Although event companies tend to avoid adopting green practices because of lack of management skills and lack of commitment, benefits of event greening need to be considered to determine if it worths practicing or not. Events will be more beneficial if event organizers try to practice green and realize event sustainability in a socially responsible manner. Moreover, noice, waste and traffic congestion can be minimized through event greening practices. Then, event green practices will yield cost savings and a better monetary return with eco-efficiencies. Additionally, resources will be saved thorough utilizing recycled materials, reusing items and reducing materials used in event greening, reducing environmental problems from the growth of events. Finally, event greening will give event organizers competitive advantage as it puts them step forward in the industry.The intention of event greening can be affected by three variables, the attitude toward behavior (AB), subjective norms concerning the behavior (SN) and perceived behavioral control (PBC), as proposed by Theory of Planned Behavior.
Martinho, G., Gomes, A., Ramos, M., Santos, P., Gonçalves, G., Fonseca, M. and Pires, A. 2017. Solid waste prevention and management at green festivals: A case study of the Andanças Festival, Portugal.
This paper focuses on analyzing waste prevention and reduction and management measures at green festivals which can be applied to other events. Some problems are given to foster prevention and reduction of wastes generated from events. The authors emphasize the need to develop methods for monitoring waste prevention measures in order to minimize the waste generation from events.
Key Findings
An event is one of activities that generate waste left by both event organizers and participants and the waste from events is one of the most significant impacts of events. In order to deal with this problem, dematerialization can be a key strategy to achieve event sustainability,However, it is challenging to realize dematerializing of events as it necessitates the waste hierarchy principle, known as the zero-waste approach. Other challenge of dematerialization is that more knowledge and understanding of waste generation and management is needed to reduce the environmental impacts from waste of events. Then, event organizers need to monitor the waste prevention and management of events and systematically compare different waste prevention measures of events. Therefore, to extend and deepen knowledge of festival waste management, event organizers should understand how waste is generated and managed at events and identify the perceptions of the event stakeholders regarding waste prevention and management measures, by using indicators. In addition, event organizers have to develop low-cost procedures such as waste quantification schemes, characterization campaigns, and data collection to characterize waste steams generated from events.
Jin, S.and Liu, T. Study on tourist carrying capacity of sustainable tourism – by taking Qingliang Mountain in the south-eastern china as an example.
This paper argues conflicts between tourism exploration and environmental protection which lead to worsening environments. The contradiction among economic development, resource use and environmental protection has limited economic progress. Several key factors and measures are proposed in order to lesson environmental impacts of events.
Key Findings
As tourism develops, environmental problems including the resource shortage, environmental pollution and ecological imbalance arise which have influenced sustainable development of tourism. There are some reasons why these occur. The first reasons is regional inequalities from excessive concentration on a certain type of tourism. Then, degradation and reduction of tourist attractiveness because of overexploitation of natural and structured environments is another reason. Finally, the environmental perspective of events is underestimated or ignored in researches. There are some factors behind these tourism issues. Level of service provided by tourism areas has a lot to do with sustainability of events. Other than the factor, sanctions, route planning, whether condition will also have an important influence on event greening.Hence, event organizers have to reconsider the relationship between tourism development and environmental conservation. As solutions, environment-friendly products should be developed combining and pollution prevention with strict pollution restraints need to be practices to realize event sustainability.
Conclusion
Based on all the papers mentioned above, Malaysia, like other counties, need to incorporate and practice event greening in oder to minimize the negative impacts from the growth of events including carbon dioxide and traffic congestion. These problems have affected stakeholders, especially local community in terms of health damage, noise, and the environmental destruction.In order to overcome the problem, event organizers in Malaysia should discuss, set and practice clear strategies and guidelines of event greening, cooperating with the government, tourism organizers and other countries. In addition, they are encouraged to keep looking for state-of-the-art technologies that help them think of new ideas on event greening.
