Green Restaurant in Practice: Employee Attitude and Behavior Towards Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Environmental sustainability initiatives are needed in restaurants because restaurants generate great amounts of waste, use a large amount of energy, and deplete natural resources to operate (Barclay, 2012; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2010). Restaurant employees have a large impact on the success of the environmental sustainability initiatives implemented by restaurants (Checkley-Layton, 1997). At this point in time there is a gap in research on the impact of environmentalism on restaurant employees' attitude and behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to explore the reaction of restaurant employees' towards environmental sustainability initiatives.This descriptive study uses a case study approach including two restaurants in the Mid-Western region of the United States. The data collected includes documents about environmentalism, observations at the restaurants, and semi-structured interviews with 29 restaurant employees including Management, Front of House (FOH), and Back of House (BOH). Data analysis included investigator triangulation through three investigators independently conducting a thematic analysis of the data. Validity of the thematic analysis was assessed by an external auditor. The key findings include the employees exhibiting a high level of environmental awareness, satisfaction, pride, and loyalty to the restaurant because of the sustainability initiatives. The results indicated the sustainability initiatives motivated the employees to practice environmentalism in their personal lives and encouraged the employees to promote the restaurant outside of their employment. The employees mentioned that the sustainability initiatives were perceived as easy to follow and that they perceived the customers as very appreciative of the initiatives. The current findings of the study add to a growing body of literature on environmentalism and employee attitude and behavior in the restaurant industry. The findings of this study have a number of implications for the restaurant industry including: presenting successful restaurants with green practices and exhibiting how the green practices impact customers and employees positively and their benefit to the restaurants. Limitations of the study include generalization issues and researcher, sampling, and measurement bias. Future research should include replication of the study, a comparison of employees in green and non-green restaurants, and exploring the impact of specific green practices.