Leadership Roles for Sustainable Development: The Case of a Malaysian Green Hotel

The leadership roles of green hotels are essential for sustainable development because of their contribution to reducing carbon emission, supplying safe food, and managing water resources. However, sustainability education has not adequately integrated entrepreneurial skills to promote green hotel practices towards sustainable development. Therefore, this study explored the leadership roles of the Frangipani Hotel in Langkawi, Malaysia, because it adopted a circular economy in line with the zero-waste concept to develop the environmental and socio-economic condition of the locality. Extensive literature reviews were conducted to explore the transformational leadership roles of the Frangipani hotel for green practices. Interviews with the managing director, general manager, and the head of 10 operating branches of Frangipani also provided information about the green hotel practices to support its leadership roles. Similarly, interviews with the public, private, business, and community stakeholders also supported the transformational leadership roles of Frangipani to integrated green hotel practices with effective multi-stakeholder collaboration for quality control and quality assurance of its green practices. The patience of Frangipani and its roles as a liaison among government, non-government, business, and private and community sectors have been very effective in promoting green practices in the hospitability industry via training and knowledge-sharing. However, the monitoring and evaluation of these green practices are essential, and they can be completed via developing a special key performance index for the effective promotion of green hotels.