Greening of the Economy Through Partnerships: Issues and Impacts on Skills Development

Abstract

The importance of transitioning toward a greener economy, which is part of the sustainable development agenda, has been recognized throughout the world. This chapter analyzes greening initiatives at the regional, government, and industry levels to understand the current and desirable role of partnerships for pushing the greening of economies to a new level. Intergovernmental collaboration between ASEAN countries that deal with environmental issues and countries’ initiatives illustrate the ways challenges have been addressed individually and through coordinated efforts. At the industry level, greening measures are also adopted driven by CSR policies and targets to decrease cost of running operations.

The chapter suggests conceptualization of current and future actions for greening hotels in Hong Kong through a shareholders’ value framework that enables a clarification of strategies required for improvement in a systematic manner as well as identifying ways in which partnerships between TVET and the hotel industry can contribute to innovations for greening. It is a useful tool that allows hotels to focus attention on current and future actions that can bring green development for a company. Although this set of actions has been formulated in the context of Hong Kong, they can provide useful guidelines for the hotel industry throughout the Asia-Pacific region.