Undergraduate Thesis proposal

Resistance & Pathways to Sustainability in Business

Hospitality Industry Case Study

Michelle RogatSustainability Studies and Economics Undergraduate

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

12/18/2013

Table of Contents

1. Abstract 22. Overview 2

2.1. Aims 22.2. Field Sites 32.3. Intellectual Merit 42.4. Researcher Profile – Michelle Rogat 4

3. Background 43.1. Hegemonic Backdrops 53.2. Literature Review 5

3.2.1. “Greening” the Country Club 53.2.2. Research Design 63.2.3. Cultural Resistance 7

3.3. Paradigm Shifts and Current State 73.4. Broader Impacts 8

4. Methodology 84.1. Conceptual Framework 8

4.1.1. Case Study at The Country Club of Troy 84.1.2. Branching Out Phenomenological Research 8

4.2. Study Components 94.2.1. Guiding Research Questions 94.2.2. Interview Questions 94.2.3. Data Analysis 10

4.3. Schedule of Activities 104.4. Site Justification 114.5. Research Ethics 11

5. Preparation and Pilot Research 125.1. Field Site Approval 125.2. Pilot Interviews 13

5.2.1. Audubon International 135.2.2. Empire Zero 13

5.3. Seminar Hearings 135.3.1. Joellen Lampman 13

5.4. Funding Research 135.4.1. Grant Proposal 135.4.2. NYSERDA 14

5.5. Dissemination 145.5.1. Publications 145.5.2. Presentation to the Country Club of Troy’s Board Committee 145.5.3. Cross-Expertise Dialogue 14

Bibliography 15-16Appendices 17

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1. Abstract The aim of this study is to provide insight and advice for businesses to implement sustainable practices and

decrease their impact on the environment. The hospitality industry and its resources will be analyzed using the business ecology model, where the different participants are the different nodes within a country club’s business network. This is composed of the club’s members, customers, other hospitality businesses, surrounding businesses that provide daily services to those hospitality businesses, and environmental and sustainable consultants and organizations. Appendix A is a map of the potential field sites for the project, showing how the research will branch out from the primary site to secondary field sites in the club’s network. This research strives to understand what contributes to the application, failures, and success of sustainable practices of businesses within its network.

The data needed to achieve this will be collected through qualitative research methods including literature review, phenomenological research through interviews, ethnographic research on the hospitality industry and on sustainability, and an immersive case study at a country club involving sustainability projects. The case study will be undertaken at the primary field site, a country club, and then the secondary field sites will branch out from the work done there. The phenomenological research will be carried out through interviews with the secondary field sites, such as environmental organizations and professionals, and other businesses in the hospitality industry.

Expected results include the reoccurring advice that will emerge from the research such as the importance of community stakeholder involvement, studying up the role of elites in sustainability, overcoming misconceptions, and changing cultural resistance for the success of sustainable projects. As of right now, pilot research has suggested at these results, but more research is needed to confirm this. The results from this research should provide useful for businesses that wish to become sustainable, and will highlight the significance of including the elite of society in the environmental movement.

All results will be shared with the professional world of hospitality, through their respective magazines and newsletters, in hopes of gaining recognition for sustainability, persuading more businesses to take up sustainable practices, and inspiring cross-expertise dialogue to increase the success of sustainability. The significance of this research in particular is that there hasn't been much research published on the real life attempts to make a business sustainable. Sure, there is a lot that can be learned in the classroom, but what about the situations like failures in the real professional world that nobody wants to talk about. That is the information I am after, the experiences outside of the classroom so that the sustainability community and businesses can learn from others' trials, tribulations, and failures that seem to get hushed and swept under the rug.

2. Overview Climate change is accelerated by the impacts and demands society makes on the environment, and businesses

are a large influence on societal norms. There already exists extensive research on how to make a business sustainable, but the research does not cover the failures of and resistance to sustainability, creating a knowledge gap that is stalling the progress of the environmental sustainability movement. The literature review states that society has stalled into an “analysis paralysis” pattern, where society is stuck focusing on sustainable answers and is not moving to the actual implementation phase. Therefore, there is a need to analyze how businesses decide to and become successful at practicing sustainability in order to achieve a societal shift toward environmental sustainability and adaption to climate change.

2.1 AimsThe study aims to increase the acceptance, uptake, and success of sustainability in businesses by analyzing the

separate businesses and hospitality industry as a whole for issues and opportunities concerning sustainability. Data will be obtained through an immersive case study that will allow me to observe the process of implementing sustainable

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projects from start to however successful the business is with meeting their goals. Since the case study is located at a country club, I will studying up the members of the club to understand the influence they have in the club’s practices of sustainability. From interviews with them I hope to gain new understanding of the influence the elite has on society’s transition to sustainable practices. The case study will branch out to secondary field sites of other hospitality businesses and environmental professionals that I will interview for data to be used in a phenomenological analysis on sustainability projects and the resources that contribute to their failures and success. The hierarchy of research questions that will be used to guide the analysis of the data obtained in this study is: Why is there resistance to sustainability in business?

o What role does our culture and background have in the potential for and success of sustainability at a business?

o Are there misconceptions about being sustainable that hinder the acceptance and uptake of these practices?

Why and how do businesses decide to become sustainable? What is their motive?o How is the decision making process done? Could anything influence that process so as to persuade

businesses to become more sustainable?o Do businesses think sustainability can be profitable? Or do they feel it's always at a cost?

What causes the success or failure of sustainability projects/initiatives?o What role does stakeholder and community education and involvement play?o Does the organizational structure of a business or work relationships affect the success of these practices?o What issues come up when implementing these practices and why? How can a business overcome those

problems? What resources are available to advise and guide a business in becoming sustainable?

o Does the successful implementation of sustainable practices into a business require a championing person within the business?

o What characteristics are required of a person/employee to be able to make sustainability within a business successful?

This should result in an understanding of: a) the resources available that contribute to sustainable projects; b) themes among issues that hinder sustainable initiatives, and why they occur; c) how businesses overcome those issues; d) how the organizational structure of and within a business influences sustainable initiatives; e) the role our culture and backgrounds have in the success of sustainability in business; and f) how important the elite class is in shaping society’s practices of sustainability.

2.2 Field Sites (See Appendix A for Field Site Map)The primary field site is the Country Club of Troy where the immersive case study is located. I will be working

alongside and interviewing all stakeholders of the country club about their views on and role in sustainability, including the staff, management, members, and business associates.

Secondary Sites will branch out from the country club to other businesses and professionals located in its regional network. This includes other hospitality businesses, businesses in the country clubs network that provide them with services, environmental organizations and professionals that could considered as a resource for the club in becoming sustainable. A reason for the sites to be within the club’s network is to gain an understanding of how becoming sustainable is for a business in the real world that is limited to working with the network and resources available to them. I will be interviewing other businesses, such as restaurants, golf courses, hotels, etc., that are in the process of or have already attempted to become sustainable in order to learn information from their experiences. In the

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same manner I will be interviewing environmental consulting professionals because these are people who have had a lot of experience dealing with challenges to sustainability, and much could be learned from them as well.

2.3 Intellectual MeritThis research will record the previously undocumented accounts of how to achieve sustainability in the real

world, outside of a classroom. Businesses do not like to provide their failures for research because they see it as bad publicity. However, when those events are swept under the rug, the knowledge that could have been gained is hidden with it. Elites in society make decisions that influence the views and actions of society often made behind closed doors, or more often out on the golf course. By seeking that overlooked, guarded, and hidden knowledge, this research will add understanding to environmental sustainability that will ease the transition for businesses adapting sustainable practices. This study will also be one of the few that studies up, and could lend advice and guidance to future researchers planning to do so. This study is important because of the ongoing crises of climate change and the need for humans to decrease their impact and demands on the environment. As Schendler points out in his novel, the information and answers are there, society just needs to start taking action.

2.4 Researcher Profile – Michelle Rogat Rogat is an Undergraduate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, set to graduate after the Fall of 2014 with a Dual

Bachelors of Science in Sustainability Studies and Economics. She got her Associates in Science from Dutchess Community College in 2012 in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Proving of central importance to this research, Rogat has been employed at the Country Club of Troy for two years. This provides her with insight and access to the club unattainable by others, and has grown connections with many people and organizations that will be useful for this research such as the Audubon International, Morgan Linen Service, Brickman’s Food Distributor, and more. The shaded field sites in Appendix A are where Rogat has taken initiative to gain research approval and access.

Her previous experience in field research was under the guidance of Professor Abby Kinchy, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, on the regional food system in Troy. Not only is this research experience beneficial, but the research topic of the region’s food system and distribution will contribute to the restaurant section of this proposed research.

Rogat has, coincidentally, gained the perfect positions in both her education and work to be able to carry out this research comprehensively. She has been working at the club as a waitress since June 2012 and as Administrative Assistant since June 2013, gaining insight into the business and establishing work relationships to enable her to understand what goes on and how it relates to sustainability within the business. Through the country club and her education in sustainability, she has grown connections to environmental professionals and to businesses surrounding the hospitality industry that I will reach out to as research participants.

3. BackgroundThe grounds for the structure of my research as an analogy of an ecological system as well as applying concepts

of industrial ecology where the different nodes are the different businesses and professionals surrounding hospitality businesses that influence its potential for becoming sustainable. The sustainability movement hasn't been making headway due to an "analysis paralysis" effect, so the issues and resistance to sustainability need to be addressed so that sustainability movement can make progress. This research proposal focuses on the hospitality industry specifically because it is considered "low hanging fruit" because of its luxurious and wasteful image, and because I have access to carry out research at a country club, which is within the hospitality industry, but is very much a business none-the-less.

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3.1 Hegemonic Backdrops There is this image many people have of country clubs and golfing clubs from the outside looking in that is pretty

negative. Their impression is that the members of those places are rich, usually pompous, are ignorant, can be uncaring, and live in a bubble detached from reality. This isn't always the case because a country club is founded by a community of people that care about each other; want to spend time with each other at leisure which means they intrinsically care about that community of people and the success of the country club. These views of that community of people can be a disadvantage for the sustainable community because these people could potentially be a supporter. In addition to that, this view of them could make them oppose the sustainable movement.22

The perception of golf courses’ impact on the environment usually depends on whether the person is actively involved in golf or not; golfers mostly think that a golf course is beneficial for the environment, whereas most non-golfers disagree12. This suggests there could be a negative view of golf courses from the outside public of non- golfers. This can be applied to the hospitality industry as well, because people who don't buy into or live that life of luxury probably view luxury as being wasteful, which might not be the case for people like the elite of society who do.

Many businesses and economists believe that doing good by the environment means more costs and losing profit somewhere, but that simply isn't true. It doesn't have to be business and profits versus the environment. After all, the the p's of sustainability are people, PROFIT, and PLANET and the 3 e's are ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT, and equality. However, this also paints a rosy picture that sustainability is this easy thing, but it isn't. It's usually hard, but more efficient and worth it in the end. The term sustainability and green also have many different connotations to them to start with, that these terms have, some think, become terms for "sustainababble".3.2 Literature Review3.2.1 “Greening” the Country Club

It is estimated that there are more than 25,000 golf courses worldwide. There are 15,000 of those golf courses in the US alone, with 350 new courses being built in the US each year18. This shows the potential for golf courses to make a broad impact on the environment. With increasing environmental awareness and sustainable practices, golf courses have been looked at more and more recently as the "bad guys"18. The perceptions on whether golf courses have a positive or negative impact on the environment usually depend on whether the person is actively involved in golf or not. Golfers tend to think that courses are good for the environment, whereas most non-golfers do not agree. This shows the potential for negative attitudes towards the golf industry from the outside general public12. However, it is understood among the US Golf Association that a healthy environment is good for golf, and in turn golf can play a vital role in enhancing the environment29. This data helped me to see the potential for my research to be located at the Country Club of Troy, and supported what I had already observed working at the club that hegemonic views are involved with how people view the role of golf courses in the environment.

I was then approached with information on the local organization called Audubon International, and came up with the idea to have the club try to certify its golf course as “green” through them. That way I would be able to observe the club’s certification process. Not only would Audubon International give advice and guidance through a checklist1, but there were many other resources available to the club. The club has the ability to reach out to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for incentives to improve environmental performance, the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) for an environmental performance audit to evaluate current management practices, and to the Environmental Institute for Golf (EIFG) to educate their superintendent with seminars17. Therefore, the Country Club of Troy had the resources available to them to become “Certified Green”, and I could reach out to those organizations to interview them on their experiences with helping golf courses become environmentally sustainable.

To prepare myself to pitch this idea for the club and my research proposal to the country club, I read literature on how superintendents pitched environmentally sustainable ideas to their own clubs and golf courses. When pitching the idea of becoming “Certified Green”, I had to list all the potential benefits and costs to the club. Potential benefits

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include improved overall environmental performance, prevent pollution, save money on landscape maintenance, energy and materials, enhanced existing compliance, reduced risks and liabilities, increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved club image, and possibly qualify for recognition or incentives programs like the EPA Performance Track Program. Potential costs include investment of resources and employee time, training costs, consulting assistance, technical resources, and bad publicity for failing to achieve goals9. An article by Dodson explained how the Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses under Audubon International was started and initially funded by the USGA. The guy that proposed the whole program was a golfer himself that just happened to go to school for biology and the environment as well5. This was interesting because it is probably assumed that the program was invented by an environmentalist when it wasn't, and being invented by a golfer the program might be more readily accepted by club members and golfers. I used this information when I presented Audubon's Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses to educate and gain support from the Club's House Committee, which allows my research once the club agreed to pursue "green certification".

Once I do begin my research at the country club, I plan on observing the challenges and issues that come up for the club during the certification process. The literature review suggests that challenges to managing golf courses sustainably include the difficulty managing an existing course sustainably compared to building a new course with the local ecology in mind. Another challenge was educating the golfers and members so they understood and wanted the same thing. Otherwise, when management or the members' committee changes, so does the environmental practices being carried out. This also falls under managerial and planning problems along with education and communication. Another potential challenge is criticism from members and golfers that do not understand what is really going on with a project because they are not being informed enough12. These are the kinds of challenges I hope to be able to observe and draw information from when working on sustainable projects at the club. General Managers and members have been with their club for years, therefore there is a higher probability of clubs being able to succeed in projects over other businesses. This is because a private club has longer lasting stakeholders that are in it for the long haul and truly care about the progress of their club. This directly relates to whether a sustainability project will succeed with long lasting support from club members or might fail due to a turnover in the board committee or management27. Since the club’s golf course is located in New England, Heine’s article provide regional information on golf courses and sustainable practices, it might prove useful to compare the data I get with what is already know for golf courses in the region 14.

3.2.2 Research Design A review of the literature proved very helpful in structuring this research project. Gusterson helped me design

how the research was going to branch out to other field sites with his appraisal of “multi-site ethnography”11. The multiple sites will provide me with well-rounded information that isn’t grounded to one site. By researching on environmental sustainability in the network of resources surrounding the business of the club, I am able to study an important part of the environmental movement that provides for the local variability and human networking of the world system we live in. The author points out that we need to search for ways to study a global system, and that only makes sense since globalization has changed the research field. I would describe my thesis as a "polymorphous engagement" because I am studying across multiple field sites, conducting interviews, networking at public events for potential research participants, keeping up with news on sustainable practices in local businesses and laws affecting them, and I continue to educate myself on the matter through literature review and attending seminars. So not only am I doing a participant-observation case study where I am working with the club, I am also doing research across many sites to gather information from a variety of resources within the club's possible network.

Studying the elite is another aspect of this research project. Studying up hasn't happened much before because it can make the research uneasy and it is easier to study down because of access to subjects. This relates to the thesis by supporting the argument that there aren't many studies that include studying up, and I'm in a position where I feel

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comfortable enough to do it. Womack claims that a challenge of studying up is how hard it can be for the researcher to distance their own emotions from the subjects. Also it seems the author is saying that there is a fine line to walk to ensure the research is getting done properly but to also keep research approval and access to the subjects31. Womack makes a point to distinguish having money and fame as separate from having power, but either could establish the people as high-status31. Similar to views on athletes, club members hold the social role of being viewed with contempt as pompous or uncaring to other social classes like they don't understand the value of their money and the bad guys for the environment. At the country club there are different hierarchies to categorize the members that affects how they view each other and others view them. Like how long they have been members for, the member category they are in, the amount of money they make, how old they are, if they follow the social rules and dress codes of the club, the social circles they are in and their influence through them, and whether they are on the board committee or not. The essential questions of "Who are you and what do you think you are doing?', proved to be the most valuable and true to this author's own studies, even in a complex and familiar environment. I will have to remember this when I start my own interviews with the members at the club so I include some of these basic questions.

3.2.3 Cultural Resistance Change resistance is "the tendency for a system to continue its current behavior, despite the application of force

to change that behavior…” and “it is impossible to solve the proper coupling part of a social problem without first solving the change resistance part."13 Therefore, it is the resistance to change that is holding back the environmental movement and the uptake of sustainability in society. Harich felt that the root cause behind this change resistance was the deceptive idea that economic growth was important above all else. Another issue behind it is the notion that “I” can’t possibly have that big of an effect on the environment and this promotes the resistance to sustainability. "This hesitation on the part of the course leadership to address environmental issues is due to their failure to clearly understand the problems, the belief that their course really is not much of a threat to the environment, and the fear that any action might invite closer scrutiny from outsiders."19

3.3 Paradigm Shifts & Current StateSustainability Movement Overall

The main focus of the environmental movement is now on the actual answers to cleaner energy and better efficiency, the actual projects, but it should have its main focus on the process itself, the actual process of getting to those projects, implementing them, and how to get everyone involved on board and why there are failures in this movement."Green Sustainababble”

Green has a lot of definitions from being untamed and wild to symbolizing money. Nowadays green also symbolizes being environmentally sound and sustainable. What going green used to mean and what it means now - get more from "Truth about Green Business", "The Necessary Revolution", and other texts read from previous classes.Sustainability in Business

Used to just mean to be able to stay open and running and being successful in the long run, long run for most businesses being 10 years into the future. Now sustainability has an environmental definition and includes the corporate social responsibility and reducing environmental impact while still being a successful business. - get more from textsA Shift in the Term "Resistance"

The environmental movement used to be described as "direct action resistance" to how society was being run at the time28. However, when I use the term resistance it is in describing the problems that are holding back the sustainability and environmental movement as a whole. I think this is because I have grown up in a later time with teachings that sustainability is needed for our future so it is inevitability that we are trying to work towards as best and

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as fast as we can. So there's been a shift in the thought that environmental sustainability is this radical thing that has to be fought for, to now when environmental sustainability is a change that will be happening in our culture, the only variable about it is how fast and smoothly we'll get there.

3.4 Broader ImpactsThe broader aim of this study is to increase environmentally sustainable practices in businesses in order to

decrease society’s impact and demand on the environment as an adaptive solution to climate change. By showing and helping a local country club to become more sustainable there will be an impact on the local economy through the people and businesses involved in their network. Once other businesses in the region see what their local country club can do, they will be more open and inclined to sustainable practices themselves. It’s important to include the elite in environmental sustainability because viewing them as the “bad guys” could be detrimental to the movement. Include the elite instead, and use them to leverage sustainability by impacting them enough that their own business practices take the environment into consideration. Then environmentally sustainable practices will grow through the members’ affluence as well as regional businesses in the hospitality industry.

4. Methodology4.1 Conceptual Framework

The literature review emphasizes the importance of cultural backgrounds of decision makers and grunt workers, the organizational structure of a business, “studying up” the elites’ role in shaping sustainability in society, and of collaboration among stakeholders. That and my experience at the Country Club of Troy led to the following research proposal.

4.1.1 Case Study at The Country Club of TroyAn immersive case study of the discussion and implementation of sustainable practices and projects at the

Country Club of Troy serves as the primary field site and focal point for the research to develop and branch out from. The objectives are to observe and analyze the process and experience of implementing sustainable practices through working alongside the club’s employees on projects. The sustainable initiatives will start with the club’s golf course, involving my working alongside the club’s superintendent to get the golf course certified as sustainable or “green”, and will move on to the club’s house and restaurant. Potential projects for the club include separating out food waste, recycling, sustainable food and product sourcing, rainwater harvesting, and an energy audit to improve energy efficiency.

My focus is on analyzing the process of implementing projects like these, not on the actual projects themselves. The study is designed for cooperation between the researcher and the field site by allowing the club’s board committee to be in control of all aspects of the sustainable projects as they naturally would be. The researcher is just along for the ride to observe and provide research guidance wherever possible.

4.1.2 Branching Out Phenomenological Research As the club moves through the different sections of its building and services, so will my research to related

businesses that provide the club with daily services and to environmental professionals that are available to provide guidance to the club. Appendix A is a map of the club’s different sections that gives examples of the businesses and professionals Rogat may come to include as field sites in the research. Most of these potential field sites already have an established connection to her or the club. All the businesses and professionals will be from within the region so the research reflects on what resources are available within a business’s network and region.

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When the research branches out, I will interview other businesses and people across the hospitality industry and environmental field that have previously worked on sustainable projects. In order to gain information for the club on sustainable land management for golf courses, I already interviewed Audubon International which is coincidentally located in Troy. From there, I will interview another golf course in the Capitol Region, Schuyler Meadows, because they have already succeeded in implementing sustainable management of their course and become certified, whereas the Country Club of Troy is right at the beginning.

4.2 Study Components 4.2.1 Guiding Research Questions

•What is the current status of waste and environmental sustainability in the hospitality industry?•What are the views of sustainability from the hospitality industry overall? Do the separate parts such as hotels, restaurants, etc.have different views and does that affect the ability to become sustainable?•What are the resources available to these businesses to be more sustainable?•How can the services that are needed daily by these businesses be more sustainable and contribute to improving the business' impact on the environment?•Are there obstacles or hurdles that stand in the way of the hospitality industry becoming sustainable?•Are there reoccurring issues or advice that stem from the analysis of varying sustainability projects in this industry?•Do the organization and management styles within a business affect the success of a sustainability project?•Is over-indulgence and waste necessary to feel the luxury of being doted on? (is a certain extra waste necessary for hospitality?

4.2.2 Interview QuestionsRogat will continue to research secondary field sites such as these that relate directly to improving, advising, and

comparing the practices at the Country Club of Troy that their goals are focused on. If and when the Board Members of the Club decides to implement sustainable practices in the restaurant, then Rogat will research and interview sustainable opportunities for the club, resources in the region for the club’s restaurant to become sustainable, and will find and interview another restaurant in the region that has already attempted sustainability. Appendix A is a small example of what a concept map of this project’s field sites would look like because field sites included have already been chosen as such, but there are many more possibilities readily available. These interviews, with businesses and people across the hospitality industry and environmental consulting field that have worked on sustainable projects, should help to reveal patterns in issues and opportunities for sustainability. Interviews will be both open-ended, asking about environmental and business views, as well as to the point with questions on past project experiences. Once many the interviews are obtained then phenomenological research methods will be used to discover patterns in the experiences explored. Patterns with issues and success factors will provide new knowledge on how to achieve societal change towards sustainability. Here is a sample of interview questions that cover broad topics and specific experiences that could be applied to almost any interviewee included in this research:

What compelled you to go into this career or field? How do you define sustainability? In what terms? Do you think sustainability is profitable and could be a competitive advantage? Do you continue to educate yourself on new information in your field and transfer that knowledge to your job? What kind of philosophy or rules do you follow in your career? Do you tend to prefer a specific practice or style? Describe your experiences advising or helping a business become sustainable.

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What was the most frustrating sustainability initiative you’ve experienced? And why was it so? Were you involved in projects that struggled or failed to be environmentally sustainable? What were the factors involved in the outcome? Do you know of any businesses in the region currently working on becoming sustainable?

4.2.3 Data AnalysisThroughout the case study I will be documenting the process and information I observe through a log or journal.

I will analyze the entries for instances where challenges arose and how they were handled by the country club. The interviews I conduct will be recorded with notes or audio recording and will be transcribed and coded to analyze the data. All of this information will be uploaded to a website or backed on a personal hard drive.

With the resulting information I will most likely want to present it in different formats to gain another perspective and to make it easier to share the information with others.

4.3 Schedule of Activities September - December, 2013 - Fall Semester - Sustainability Research Design, taught by Kim Fortun, RPI

Define thesis research Conduct literature review Design structure of thesis project Network for research participants Obtain primary field site approval Attend informational seminars Set up pilot interviews Conduct and analyze pilot interviews Start chapter summaries for book Draft a grant proposal Write up Thesis Proposal

Winter Break, December 2013 - January 2014 Start case study at country club Network for more research participants Continue literature review Finish transcribing pilot interviews

January - April, 2014 - Spring Semester - Senior Projects, taught by Nate Fisk, RPI Network for more participants Set up and conduct interviews for secondary field sites Submit proposal for funding for Summer 2014 Undergraduate Research Project Obtain survey results from Audubon International Conduct interviews with club management and members Conduct interviews with secondary field sites Finish green certification project at country club Transcribe and analyze interviews for reoccurring themes in advice, challenges, and factors for success in

sustainability projects Analyze all the data from the different perspectives and scales

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Design formats to display and relate the compiled information Finish up course work pertaining to thesis Continue drafting chapters for book Propose restaurant project to and obtain approval for summer research from country club house committee

April - June, 2014 - Summer Break - Undergraduate Research Project Continue and finish case study at country club Finish conducting and transcribing interviews Finishing analyzing and compiling data into other formats Finish and publish book Present findings to Country Club House Committee, suggest their future progress with EMS and mission

statement Share findings with industry newsletters and research participants Submit undergraduate thesis early for graduation from RPI after the Fall 2014 semester

The Country Club of Troy shuts down for a month from mid-February to mid-March, so any projects that would severely interfere with business the Board Committee would schedule at that time.

4.4 Site JustificationThe hospitality industry was chosen for its luxury and purposefully having the image of being wasteful and

sparing no expense, so there is a lot of potential to increase the practice of sustainability. Businesses in the hospitality industry are also very interconnected by buying services through each other, providing a wide range of businesses for secondary field sites. Since the country club is the primary site, then businesses in the region that would potentially interact with the club were chosen as secondary sites as a way of understanding what resources are available in the natural business network. The secondary field sites will also include environmental and sustainability professionals and organizations because they have knowledge and experience working with businesses that attempt to become sustainable. These people are also the ‘champions of sustainability’, which will prove useful to in discovering any shared characteristics that contribute to the success of sustainability.

The Country Club of Troy was chosen as the primary field site because Rogat saw the opportunity to utilize her position at the club to advance this research. My employment at the country club provides her with unique insight and understanding that other researchers might never reach with unfamiliar field sites. Working at the club also puts Rogat in close proximity with the research and allows her access to information and materials others might not have such as open communication with the members. The members run and own the club and are considered the elite of society, many of them business owners themselves, putting Rogat in connection with a good deal of “elite” to include in the research.

4.5 Research EthicsThe fact that low-hanging fruit can only be plucked once does not mean we should stop at that. It would be

unethical, I feel, just to let the results of this research only reach the hospitality industry, but it should also reach to businesses in general, wherever it might prove useful. Also don't want the message to be that it's okay to stop at reforming our worst environmental offenders or wherever it's easiest to change practices, it should go on to apply to everyone.

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Each interviewee will be asked to fill out a consent form asking of any privacy requests and for permission to record interviews with audio and notes. Since the Country Club of Troy is private with elite members of the local region, special privacy concerns will be agreed upon between Rogat and the Board Committee.

I have worked for a year and a half at the country club where I will be working alongside the superintendent and other co-workers for the research. That means that I will be doing research with people I already have a standing work relationship with. This will influence how the sustainability projects will be carried out, no matter how hard I will try to make sure that their relationships with me don't affect their views and thoughts on the projects at the club. When making observations about the projects at the club and the environment that is contributing to its (hopefully) success, I will have to try to put myself in a different perspective and set myself apart from the feelings I already have towards my coworkers and my job position at the country club. I will have to make sure to not be biased or prejudiced so as not to affect what I notice how I interpret the notes and observations.

However, be that as it may, because I have worked at the country club for so long and already have an understanding of how the club and its employees work and the relationships between the differently positioned employees, I will have the advantage of knowing the home field. I should be able to provide insight into issues going on with a project that a professional environmental and sustainability consultant might not be capable of.

Since this is a private country club and golf course I plan on sitting down with the House and Board Committees to lay out any privacy terms that I will have to abide by such as if I can publish the club's name. If I can't publish the club's name then does that mean I have to anonymize all the information and interviews used from its members as well? I will be laying all of this out in a consent form in which I and a governing member of the club will sign.

I am choosing a wide variety of members to interview at the club based on helpful previous knowledge I have of them, such as their support of certain political views, they are avid golfers, don't like playing golf, are bird enthusiasts, are older, are younger, single, head of a family, etc. When choosing members to interview I will also have to take into consideration whether or not they generally get along with me, the members that I know particularly dislike me I will make sure to stay away from because their bias towards me would likely affect their responses in interviews and how open and valuable the information they would share.

Because of the nature of my job at the country club, being a server and an administrative assistant puts me in close communication with the members I will have to plan ahead of time how I will respond when members ask me about my senior thesis. How much should I share with them? I think I will respond as though I were holding a position within the club as an environmental sustainability adviser, such as what the club is hoping to achieve and what we are doing at the moment to get there, etc. I will leave everything about my thesis focus out of conversation so I don't make anyone feel uncomfortable or have them feel they have to act a certain way which could skew the results of the research.

All of the people and organizations involved were chosen because of their connection to the country club, either being in its business network or is considered a resource available in the region. Therefore they are all relevant, but they could also be considered as chosen on a convenience basis. That usually means that the group will be similarly biased in some way and could jeopardize the research data. For example, all of the field sites are going to be located in the New England, and will have consistency in regional views, such as being progressive in environmentalism.

5. Preparation & Pilot Research 5.1 Field Site Approval

The Board Committee of the Country Club of Troy has approved Rogat to carry out this research using the club as the primary site. She has already met with the Grounds Superintendent and made plans for their golf course to become “Certified Green” through Audubon International. I have discussed ideas with the club’s management and

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restaurant staff for future sustainable projects that are of interest for the next phase of research at the club. My research alongside the superintendent starts soon after the holidays.

5.2 Pilot Interviews5.2.1 Audubon International

Audubon International was chosen for an interview because they are a well-established organization located nearby that will be guiding the country club through the “green” certification process for golf courses. They are an educational organization that teaches landowners integrated and sustainable proper land management. The interview proved successful in establishing communication between the Country Club of Troy and Audubon for future work together, allowing for this research. The interview also validated the need for this research because the interviewee confirmed that there are misconceptions about organizations like theirs that hurt the views and motivations towards sustainability in business.1

5.2.2 Empire Zero, Tyler HollowayWhen brainstorming ideas for the Country Club of Troy’s restaurant to reduce the impact of its waste on the

environment, separating out food waste from the garbage stream was proposed. In follow up research Rogat discovered Empire Zero, a food waste hauling company located in Albany. This is an example of how the case study research will branch out for interviews with local businesses that could be resourceful in becoming sustainable. From the interview with Empire Zero Rogat was able to learn of a great opportunity for the country club to reduce its impact on the environment and possibly save money on garbage removal in the process. However, the owner mentioned that problems with providing their service occur because it is hard for employees in the kitchen to change their habits like throwing their handler’s gloves in with the food waste. The way they are able to continue to provide and even enhance their services through training their customers’ employees is an impeccable example of the kind of data this study examines. From my pilot interview with him I was able to gain some insight into the business market for a food waste hauling company. They don't advertise but never have a shortage of clients because institutions like to be able to brag about this green practice and it saves money. There is a law pending to be implemented that within the next couple of years will ban food waste from landfills, so this will be a growing business market.

5.3 Seminar Hearings5.3.1 Joellen Lampan

Lampman recently worked at Audubon International, came to one of my classes to discuss her career path and work experience. What I found most intriguing was her reasoning for choosing to work with Cornell over her other job prospect. I have this theory that the people who work in environmental sustainability must share certain characteristics or personality traits. I have thought about this before when I made the decision to study sustainability, it was because I knew I was smart and could be successful at many things, but what would I enjoy and what would help to improve the world the most? My main deciding factor in going into this field was that I wanted to make an impact on the world for the better and that many solutions to societies' problems could be found in sustainability. Years ago when discussing with my friend's mother about my choice of study and her reply was that you will need a passion for it because it will be very discouraging. So I have this theory that people in my field feel they have a higher calling to help better society, that they feel they must make a difference, they must be resilient and persevering in some ways, or something alike. They must share a personality or character trait, and I believe Lampman is the first to help me discover that.

5.4 Funding Research 5.4.1 Grant Proposal

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For a separate class at RPI called Sustainability Careers I had to write a grant proposal, so I took it as an opportunity to research what funding was available for my research. There is an NSF Grant that was under Multidisciplinary Economics that seemed it would fit quite well for my research. Since this goal of this research project is to increase sustainable practices in business and is set at a local country club, then this project has the potential to seriously boost the local economy. The budget for the research is only to fund my research hours, so there wouldn’t be any problems with a public source funding a private business.

5.4.2 NYSERDAAnother avenue for funding would be a roundabout way, if I could find funding for projects at the country club

then I would have more projects, and possibly more complex projects to study. NYSERDA has the Existing Facilities Program that would be a great way to help the country club pursue a sustainable project. This would coincide well with the research design because it follows the natural way a business would have to find their own funding.

6. Dissemination 6.1 Publications

Research results will be kept on record as Rogat’s published thesis at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Library and, for environmental reasons, will be published as an e-book only. 6.2 Presentation to the Country Club of Troy Board Committee

Upon completion of the research, Rogat will present to the Country Club of Troy’s Board Committee how the club’s involvement in the research benefitted them, reduced impacts on the environment, and contributed to the knowledge on sustainability. WHAT GOALS WILL I HAVE FOR THIS PRESENTATION6.3 Cross-Expertise Dialogue

The results will be shared with the hospitality industry and the community of environmental consultants to inspire cross-expertise dialogue and spread any new understanding of achieving sustainability. All copies of this thesis will be sent to industries involved and their newsletters such as GCSA, GMAA, and At Your Service, as well as to all of the people and organizations involved in the research. Some cross-expertise dialogue has already occurred through the interviews. For example, when interviewing Audubon International they stated how they were confused by having more and more of their clubs asking them to educate and explain the information they teach to the clubs’ members. I was able to explain to them that it made sense to explain the projects to the members because out of everyone at the club, including management, they are there the longest and will be able to ensure the project’s success. This is the kind of open communication and dialogue I hope to inspire with the dissemination of my findings through the industry and study participants.

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Bibliography

1. Audubon International. (1991). Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses: Fact Sheet. Troy, NY. Retrieved from www.auduboninternational.org

2. Botkin, D., Mcphee, J., & Margulis, L. (2000). Forces of Change: A new View of Nature (pp. 15–19). National Geographic Society.

3. Country Club of Troy. (n.d.). About the Club | The Country Club of Troy. Retrieved December 17, 2013, from http://countrycluboftroy.com/?page_id=8

4. Crowell, S., Crowell, T., Deyoe, E., Edwards, J., Flood, K., Gleason, M., … Anderson, J. S. (n.d.). Energy.5. Dodson, R. (2011). The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program Turns 20! A milestone for a unique

environmental partnership. Green Section Record, 49, 24–25.6. Duckworth, A. L. (2013). The key to success? Grit. TED Talk. Retrieved from

http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit.html7. Dunphy, D., Benn, S., & Griffiths, A. (2003). Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability.pdf.8. Fletcher, K., & Audubon International. (2004). The benefits of the ACSP for Golf Courses: Examples in Practice.

The Premier Club Services. The Premier Club Services, Club Managers Association of America. doi:Vol. 12 No. 19. Fletcher, K., & Carrow, R. (2007). Environmental Management Systems. USGA Green Section Record, 23–27.10. Friend, G. (2009). The Truth About Green Business (Google eBook) (p. 240). Que Publishing. Retrieved from

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GSZSiopJgk0C&pgis=111. Gusterson, H. (1997). Studying up revisited. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology …, (1992). Retrieved from

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/pol.1997.20.1.114/full12. Hammond, R. a., & Hudson, M. D. (2007). Environmental management of UK golf courses for biodiversity—

attitudes and actions. Landscape and Urban Planning, 83(2-3), 127–136. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2007.03.00413. Harich, J. (2010). Change resistance as the crux of the environmental sustainability problem. System Dynamics

Review, 26(1), 35–72. doi:10.1002/sdr.43114. Heine, R. D., GCSAA, & Environmental Institute for Golf. (2007). Golf Course Environmental Profile. GCSAA, I, 40.15. Lampman, J., & Rogat, M. (2013). Audio of Interview with Audubon Employee - Joellen Lampman. Troy, NY.16. Lappé, F. M. (2011). EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want (p. 288). New York:

Nation Books.17. MacKay, J. (2006). Golf and the Environment Around the World: Concern for the environment is becoming an

industry standard everywhere. USGA Green Section Record, (September-October), 33–34. Retrieved from http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/2000s/2006/060933.pdf

18. McCartney, D. M. (2003). Auditing non-hazardous wastes from golf course operations: moving from a waste to a sustainability framework. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 37(4), 283–300. doi:10.1016/S0921-3449(02)00077-0

19. Moore, F. (1996). Environmental Common Sense A Sample “ In-House ” Audit. USGA Green Section Record, (January/February).

20. O’Neill, D., & Dietz, R. (2012). Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources (p. 256). Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

21. Rammel, C., & van den Bergh, J. C. J. M. (2003). Evolutionary policies for sustainable development: adaptive flexibility and risk minimising. Ecological Economics, 47(2-3), 121–133. doi:10.1016/S0921-8009(03)00193-9

22. Schendler, A. (2009). Getting green done: Hard truths from the front lines of the sustainability revolution (p. 304). PublicAffairs.

23. Schwartz, B. (2009). The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less: How the culutre of abundance mobs us of satisfaction. HarperCollins.

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24. Senge, P. M., Smith, B., Kruschwitz, N., Laur, J., & Schley, S. (2008). The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World (p. 432). Crown Publishing Group.

25. Serfass, P., & American Biogass Council. (2013, July). Vermont, now Connecticut, Models for Diverting Organics | Biomassmagazine.com. Biomass Magazine. Retrieved from http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/9153/vermont-now-connecticut-models-for-diverting-organics

26. Sherwood, J. H. (2004). Talk About Country Clubs: Ideology and the Reproduction of Privilege. North Carolina State University. Retrieved from http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/3016/1/etd.pdf

27. Singerling, J., Robert, C., & Ninemeier, J. (1997). Success Factors in Private Clubs. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly.

28. The Worldwatch Institute, Assadourian, E., Prugh, T., Adamson, R., & Starke, L. (2013). State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible? Washington, DC [etc.] : Island Press. doi:10.5822/978-1-61091-458-1

29. USGA - Green Section, & National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. (2006). Wildlife Links Program: Improving Golf’s Environmental Game. USGA. Retrieved from http://www.usga.org/course_care/environmental_programs/wild_links_program/Wild-Links-Program/

30. Werbach, A. (2009). Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto (p. 226). Harvard Business Press. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?id=-8IdGJ20XzEC&pgis=1

31. Womack, M. (1995). Studying Up and the Issue of Cultural Relativism. NAPA Bulletin, 48–57. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/napa.1995.16.1.48/abstract

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Appendices

Appendix A – Potential Map of Field Sites

This is a map of the potential field sites that would be included in this research project. The primary field site is the Country Club of Troy and the secondary field sites, represented in the squares, would branch out from the case study process. The shaded green sites represent the field sites that I have already gained approval to do research at or to interview. This map will be small in comparison with what the map of the actual field sites will look like by the end of this research.

Appendix B – Country Club Business Structure

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Above is a diagram of the business structure of the Country Club of Troy. This is important to the research because I will be observing if having a business model with so much open communication between the trench workers and the owners/members/customers of the club factors in with how successful a sustainable project could be.

Appendix C - Book Structure

Above is a mock book cover depicting a well-manicured hand picking the low-hanging fruit, which is the Earth in the shape of an apple.

1. About the Author - my education and background that led me to this, My positioning being the perfect - the insight and opportunities it offers as well as the ethical conundrums it brings like having a strong bias in some things, but then again, any professional in their line of expertise is going to have a bias in a study that involves their expertise - it is still valuable, just have to take where I'm coming from into consideration. Mention my intentions for the information and how I wanted to give back to that the research allowed me to pay appreciation and give back to the country club.

2. Introduction - 1. focus - Analyze the business ecology structure of the hospitality industry for the circumstances that

provide opportunities and difficulties for businesses to shift to sustainability.2. structure of book - is to 1st address the sustainability movement and the lack of forward progress as a

way to relate the chapters and importance of the book back to it's role in environmental sustainability. Then the book is going to go through the business ecology around the hospitality industry such as the business - in this case the country club, the services it contracts out and the opportunities there to be sustainable, and the environmental and sustainability consultants that they could go to for advise on

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their business, this ecology for the country club in particular also includes it's members and the elite of society.

3. conclusion - From these chapters will be advice for business owners and the hospitality industry that there is strong inter-dependencies between them and the separate parts of the business ecology that they participate in, that can either create opportunities or be disadvantaging. These businesses live within the community around it, so doesn't just fall on the club to be sustainable, but on the whole business ecology. So everything doesn't just fall on one business in the ecology, and one business can affect many others. Then there is advice on becoming sustainable that each node of the business ecology had to offer.

3. The environmental and sustainability movement - give background on how it's not progressing as it probably could - use this section to give context to the follwoing sections, so that the information on sustainability in the hospitality industry is relevant to the readers

1. go into analysis paralysis and use that to explain the need to have a paradigm focus shift from the answers for becoming susatinable to the successful ways to implement those answers into society and business, there's a need to focus on the failures of sustainability and learn from those mistakes and analyze how we overcame those obstacles.

2. Resistance to change in society and in businesses3. pathway dependency and organizational structure

4. Hospitality industry 1. as low hanging fruit - go into the different businesses and information on the energy and materials use

and waste2. how it's important to introduce sustainability into the hospitality industry as a good strategy for making

sustainability look sexy and have it be demanded - once te rich and elite are seen going to places that brag about their sustainable practices, then other members of society will want it as well - just like the strategy of the IkoToilet - to bring the toilet into cities first and then into the slums to trick them into wanting it

3. they don't exist in a vaccum, but within the market of what is available to them and surrounds them in their environment, describe the organization of the business ecology surrounding a the hospitality industry, there are these nodes in the business ecology of the hospitality industry

1. the business, like the hotel or the country club2. the businesses around that central business that provide services like garbage removal, product

sourcing, laundry and other cleaning services3. environmental and sustainability consultants and consulting firms4. the members/ customers themselves - a majority of which are the elite of society

5. Importance of studying and influencing the elite in the sustainability movement - will be able to cover this more thoroughly once I've read through the thesis by J. Sherwood

6. the country club setting - go into using the describing organizations and place memos1. how the country club is a community of its own within the region's community2. go into facts on number of golf courses in US and the world, on their waste production and energy and

resource use3. explain its organizational structure and how it is a unique business structure with stakeholder

involvement4. the elite that go to country clubs - and how the club is an elite culture of its own

7. greening the CC of XXXX

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1. the view of country clubs and their impact on the environment overall - USE HEGEMONIC BACKDROP (as of now focus on golf courses in particular unless I get more info making a restaurant sustainable too)

2. go into the actual environmental impacts of GC's and then on the number of GC's on the US - get an idea of overall impact and the broad impact this research could make on that

3. golf course - go over the research process done at the CC and it's golf course - the process to getting it certified, the issues that came up, how they were averted or fixed

4. go over a snapshot of SM golf course and it's certification process - what were the end results for them, are they happy with it? - will use interview and news-article research

5. implementing other sustainability projects in the facility, on the grounds, practices in the restaurant ? food waste? (could be a lead into the next topic on sustainability service companies... food waste hauling)

8. environmental and sustainability consultants such as Audubon, PM, SP, ? 1. use the describing people memo - the attitudes in which these professionals have to go about their

work, the amount of optimism and open-mindedness it requires2. their experiences with their clients attempts towards sustainability

1. examples and reasons for success and failures3. any overarching advice that they seem to come to each time

9. service companies surrounding the hospitality industry that are sustainable and can help with becoming sustainable

1. food service hauling companies - to deal with food waste and offer back organic compost for gardens and landscaping needs of client

2. local food distributors - sourcing from locals first like Brickman does (HADN'T THOUGHT OF USING THIS BEFORE, BUT MY OLD RESEARCH MIGHT APPLY TO THIS PAPER ALSO - ON THE RESTAURANTS FOOD SOURCING)

3. energy companies? NYSERDA?4. what other services are fulfilled by other companies in the hospitality industry? linen? is there a way to

sustainable there? (probably, WILL NEED TO RESEARCH THIS MORE)10. Results - reoccurring themes and advice

1. stakeholder involvement - so any sustainability efforts will have longstanding backing from the community that it involves and effects and not just a person in a position in charge of the project

2. powerplays and work relationships/ work politics play a role3. will have more info

11. conclusion and future work 1. how the concepts researched here could be applied across sectors so that society could become

sustainable as a whole2. biggest leverage being the golfing community and the elite members of the club3. give my own thoughts - hone in on the importance of cross-expertise dialogue4. my future work

Appendix D – Annotations

Long Annotations

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Gusterson, H. (1997). Studying up revisited. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology …, (1992). Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/pol.1997.20.1.114/full

"In this article I want to assess the progress we have made since the late 1960's in developing a critical repatriated anthropology, pointing out lacunae as well as advances, then discuss the methodological and writing problems inherent in studying up. The article draws in part on my own experience writing ethnography of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory — the nuclear weapons laboratory in California where such weapons as the MX and the neutron bomb were designed."

The author points out the issue of access and methodology involved with studying the elite. Usually the elite are behind guarded closed doors and locked gates, so in most cases participant-observation isn't an option. Unless, as he points out, the researcher somehow first becomes an insider, as I am to an extent. I went to work for the club without any intentions of studying the club and not having a clue about what my thesis was even going to be. Now, I work two positions at the country club which provides me with access for my research.

A major difference with studying up is that the subjects will most likely read the results of the research and have the chance and capability to reply to it. This could be bad if the researcher weren't fair in their study, but if they are it could be a great way to promote cross-expertise dialogue and make transparent a once hidden part of society. The results will also be released to a society that may already have formed opinions on the matter, so studying up also makes the researcher more vulnerable to critique, but also to collaboration.

Great quote to help explain why studying up is so important, "The cultural invisibility of the rich and powerful is as much a part of their privilege as their wealth and power, and a democratic anthropology should be working to reverse this invisibility." A democratic and transparent society helps sustainability prosper and grow, and studying up will increase the transparency and bring the shapers of society into the light.

This idea of "multi-site ethnography" supports the structure I made for the research where there are many secondary field sites that branch out as a network from the primary site. By researching on environmental sustainability in the network of resources surrounding the business of the club, I am able to study an important part of the environmental movement that provides for the local variability and human networking of the world system we live in. The author points out that we need to search for ways to study a global system, and that only makes sense since globalization has changed the research field. I would describe my thesis as a "polymorphous engagement" because I am studying across multiple field sites, conducting interviews, networking at public events for potential research participants, keeping up with news on sustainable practices in local businesses and laws affecting them, and I continue to educate myself on the matter through literature review and attending seminars. So not only am I doing a participant-observation case study where I am working with the club, I am also doing research across many sites to gather information from a variety of resources within the club's possible network.

Hammond, R. a., & Hudson, M. D. (2007). Environmental management of UK golf courses for biodiversity—attitudes and actions. Landscape and Urban Planning, 83(2-3), 127–136. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2007.03.004

This study assessed the attitudes of golf course managers towards the environment and sustainability, and evaluated the role issues of environmental sustainability took in course management. This article relates to the hegemonies around golfers and the environment. The perceptions of whether golf courses have a positive or negative impact on the environment usually depend on whether the person is actively involved in golf or not. Golfers tend to

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think that courses are good for the environment, whereas most non-golfers do not agree. This shows the potential for negative attitudes towards the golf industry from the outside general public.

Challenges to managing golf courses sustainably include: it might be harder to manage an existing course sustainably compared to building a new course with the local ecology in mind. Another challenge was educating the golfers and members so they understood and wanted the same thing. Otherwise, when management or the members' committee changes, so does the environmental practices being carried out. This also falls under managerial and planning problems along with education and communication. Another potential challenge is criticism from members and golfers that do not understand what is really going on with a project because they are not being informed enough.

Good quote for a challenge and an example of the type of information I hope to gain from my research, just with a broader interviewee sample to represent the hospitality industry and resources available to a business within it. "All too often it is the uninformed members who stifle forward thinking and prevent pro-active habitat management (Brennan, 1996). The subject of membership education was a recurring theme in the interviews."

This study was very useful for providing and inspiring ideas for interview questions with people involved with the golf course such as: are environmental concerns relevant in decisions regarding the course, is it relevant to the course and it's golfers, how aware are the golfers to the environment and it's wildlife, does the course practice an 'passive practices', etc. The text also provided advice on how and when to ask certain questions, like being open ended by asking anything else and tell me more about that.

Potential projects for the country club include: implementing a program where members sponsor nesting boxes for indigenous birds or bats, developing a policy and an environmental plan for the club that represents long term commitment (this would be good to suggest to the committee once the golf course is certified in order to address which project it might want to move on to next), keep wildlife logs in the locker rooms and restaurant.

Good quote on the role golf courses have in environmental sustainability, "...society needs to seek innovative solutions to address biodiversity loss. This study highlights the untapped potential of golf courses to make a significant and large-scale contribution, and demonstrates the willingness of many course managers to promote good environmental practices."

Harich, J. (2010). Change resistance as the crux of the environmental sustainability problem. System Dynamics Review, 26(1), 35–72. doi:10.1002/sdr.431

This paper falls under the literature section of resistance to sustainability because it addresses change resistance as a main issue holding back the environmental movement and the progress of society from becoming more sustainable. The author sees the need for a paradigm shift in focusing the movement on change resistance as a new way to approach the issue of proper coupling of sustainability practices throughout society.

Definition of change resistance is "the tendency for a system to continue its current behavior, despite the application of force to change that behavior."

The following explains the need for a paradigm shift as a way to break down the problem to first addressing the resistance to change caused by the answers in order to the focus on implementing those sustainable solutions. "There’s a simple reason this decomposition works so well: change resistance is usually what makes social problems difficult. In fact, regardless of whether change resistance is high or low, it is impossible to solve the proper coupling part of a social problem without first solving the change resistance part."

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"In business, change resistance has long been known as resistance to change, organizational momentum, or inertia. ...the resistance is a response by the system, trying to maintain an implicit system goal. Until this goal is recognized, the change effort is doomed to failure. This applies to the sustainability problem. Until the “implicit system goal” causing systemic change resistance is found and resolved, change efforts to solve the proper coupling part of the sustainability problem are, as Senge argues, 'doomed to failure'." The author quotes Peter Senge to support his claim that there is always going to be resistance in the system until the overall goal and plan of the system addresses or includes environmental sustainability in its mission statement or goals. This could be a contributing factor to a business's success in its endeavors to become more sustainable, whether or not the business decides to change its set of goals.

The paper then goes into feedback loops of resistance and of change that are confusing for me to understand. If I find my research fixed on a specific problem involving resistance in a system I will try to take a better look and understand it.

The author addresses a possible root cause for systemic change resistance as the deceiving idea that economic growth is needed above all else and that it seems to be the economy pitted against the environment. He believes that an answer for society to overcome this deception is for education on detecting fallacies. I disagree with him here and believe the answer will lie in getting the shapers of society, businesses and the elite, on board with the environmental movement.

This explains my reasoning for this thesis research and for the need for a paradigm shift in the focus of the environmental movement: "Change resistance versus proper coupling allows a crucial distinction. Society is aware of the proper practices required to live sustainably and the need to do so. But society has a strong aversion to adopting these practices. As a result, problem solvers have created thousands of effective (and often ingenious) proper practices. But they are stymied in their attempts to have them taken up by enough of the system to solve the problem because an “implicit system goal” is causing insurmountable change resistance. Therefore systemic change resistance is the crux of the problem and must be solved first."

Heine, R. D., GCSAA, & Environmental Institute for Golf. (2007). Golf Course Environmental Profile. GCSAA, I, 40.

This is the first report of many in its collection that help give a snapshot of the US Golf Industry's current environmental performance, what they are doing to improve, and what the future of the environment looks like in the golf industry, and all the data collected from surveys are being used to develop a national Golf Course Environmental Profile. Depending on how I want to look at the information I gather, I may want to look into the stats and data from these reports to gain a better understanding of the current environmental trends of specifically golf courses in America. To obtain regional information on golf courses in the Northeast, the tables provide varying information from the number of courses and what they are made of to the percentages of them that carry out certain practices. These might be helpful for comparing New England golf courses to other regions in the US as well.

For future possible project ideas for the club's golf course might want to look into literature source 2 on page 24 depending on what Mr. Mack, and other bird enthusiasts are interested in for the club. Table 22 on page 40 lists other improvements that golf courses have previously undertaken.

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McCartney, D. M. (2003). Auditing non-hazardous wastes from golf course operations: moving from a waste to a sustainability framework. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 37(4), 283–300. doi:10.1016/S0921-3449(02)00077-0

This paper includes a case study of the Clear Lake Golf Course (CLGC) located in Manitoba, Canada. They are an amazing example of the sustainable practices a golf club could achieve. Its aim is to provide guidelines and an example for a non-hazardous solid waste audit and record the data for golf facilities.

With increasing environmental awareness and sustainable practices, golf courses have been looked at more and more recently as the "bad guys". They have a huge potential to either positively or negatively impact the environment. There are laws that require Environmental Impact Assessments to be completed when designing and building a golf course, but there isn't much legislation in the way of existing golf courses. This information supports that there is a need for my research in order to show what existing golf courses can do because they can make a big impact on the environment, singularly and in the large numbers of courses there are in the US and the world.

Good stats - estimated more than 25,000 golf courses worldwide, with 15,000 in the US alone and 350 new courses being built in the US each year. This can be used to show the potential for golf courses to make a broad impact.

This paper also provided a good source to look into for four general areas for analyzing sustainability that might be potential factors for the success and failure of sustainable projects and practices. - Walter GR, Wilkerson O. Community sustainability auditing. J Environ Plann Manag 1998;41:673?-91.

Sherwood, J. H. (2004). Talk About Country Clubs: Ideology and the Reproduction of Privilege. North Carolina State University. Retrieved from http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/bitstream/1840.16/3016/1/etd.pdf

"This dissertation reports on interviews with members of five exclusive country clubs in the Northeastern United States.... This research describes the perspective of wealthy white people, and critiques it as inadequate to a full understanding of the consequences of their actions. It shows how country club members talk and act in ways that help preserve their privileges, and the reasons why they do so."

This thesis paper will provide insight into the social structure of the country club, especially since it is based on country clubs in Northeastern America. This will also be helpful in guiding my own research techniques for studying up the members at the Country Club. I haven't been able to finish reading this yet, but am making progress.

This is a thesis that analyzes the elite class of country clubs, how they talk and act in order to preserve and reproduce their class privileges. This is proving to be very good for providing information on hegemonic backgrounds and demographics on country clubs. While I'm reading this a lot of my own experiences working at the country club keeps coming to mind that pertains to my research as well. Sherwood also brings up good reasons as to why it’s important to study the elite.

Singerling, J., Robert, C., & Ninemeier, J. (1997). Success Factors in Private Clubs. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly.

This study compares the opinions of club managers, board members, and club members regarding the success factors for private clubs. This is useful by showing the different perceptions of the stakeholders involved at a private club. I like this study because it parallels my own interest in studying the failures of a plan/project/etc. and this paper aimed to contribute to the lack of research on what factors are involved with a private club failing, just like with research

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on the failures of sustainability. A challenge I face with my research at the club is the members being afraid that information released might be counterproductive to their goals and afraid of sending the wrong message.

General Managers and members have been with their club for years, therefore there is a higher probability of clubs being able to succeed in projects over other businesses. This is because a private club has longer lasting stakeholders that are in it for the long haul and truly care about the progress of their club. This directly relates to whether a sustainability project will succeed with long lasting support from club members or might fail due to a turnover in the board committee or management.

The harmony of opinions of all stakeholders on what is important to the success of a private club is astonishing, and can't really be found in other industries. So it seems that as long as there are a small amount of people in a club that would like to see something happen, there are good chances that the rest of the club is along the same thinking. This could bode very well for sustainability depending on the members' views of the environment. The tables included in this article are of the success factors for a private club by the members, board members, and management.

USGA - Green Section, & National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. (2006). Wildlife Links Program: Improving Golf’s Environmental Game. USGA. Retrieved from http://www.usga.org/course_care/environmental_programs/wild_links_program/Wild-Links-Program/

This text is an overview of the Wildlife Links program that is a joint venture between the USGA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. It goes through all of the different wildlife aspects of a golf course and opportunities for the golf course to take part in helping conserve the natural environment and help species populations.

Quotes: "I am inspired by the growing environmental conservation ethic within the golfing industry, which has embraced what has been intuitively understood all along - that a healthy environment is good for golf, and that golf can play a vital role in enhancing the natural environment."

"Environmental stewardship covers a wide variety of topics, from water conservation and water quality management to numerous other practices designed to keep weeds in check, playing surfaces thriving and wildlife habitats healthy. One of the best ways to get started is to develop an environmental plan."

This is great to show me where to start will addressing wildlife issues at the country club, and it provides places where to get more info and help. This article brings up the hegemonic view that there's always been this notion, at-least within the golfing community, which the environment was vital to golf and golf can be vital to the environment.

Womack, M. (1995). Studying Up and the Issue of Cultural Relativism. NAPA Bulletin, 48–57. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/napa.1995.16.1.48/abstract

This paper comments on Laura Nader's challenge (1974) for anthropologists to "study up" and study the people in power in a society instead of just studying down the poor. Nader asked if there were different ethics and methods for studying up than the ones for studying down, and Womack believes that it has a lot to do with cultural relativism. Womack claims that cultural relativism is used by anthropologists when they are studying down as a way to counteract the power they have over their study subjects. She then asks if the same technique should be applied when studying up since the subjects of study have society's upper hand or power.

Studying up hasn't happened much before because it can make the research uneasy and it is easier to study down because of access to subjects. This relates to the thesis by supporting the argument that there aren't many studies that include studying up, and I'm in a position where I feel comfortable enough to do it. Womack claims that a challenge

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of studying up is how hard it can be for the researcher to distance their own emotions from the subjects. Also it seems the author is saying that there is a fine line to walk to ensure the research is getting done properly but to also keep research approval and access to the subjects.

From this paper I conclude that cultural relativism should only ever apply as a methodology and nothing more. If it is applied as a value method then it claims to know which culture is the standard to base others off of, it prescribes them value over one another and in this way is ethnocentric. In my opinion it would be unethical to use cultural relativism as a value method and should only be used as a methodology. Therefore, it should apply in any kind of research and would be useful when "studying up".

I need to consider how I would define and categorize the members at the country club as a high-status group that allows for studying up. The author makes a point to distinguish having money and fame as separate from having power, but either could establish the people as high-status. Similar to views on athletes, club members hold the social role of being viewed with contempt as pompous or uncaring to other social classes like they don't understand the value of their money and the bad guys for the environment. At the country club there are different hierarchies to categorize the members that affects how they view each other and others view them. Like how long they have been members for, the member category they are in, the amount of money they make, how old they are, if they follow the social rules and dress codes of the club, the social circles they are in and their influence through them, and whether they are on the board committee or not.

Sticking to the basic questions an anthropologist would ask seemed to work well for Womack. Questions like what are the group's demographics, how does it define oneself, and what does it consider important. The essential questions of ‘Who are you and what do you think you are doing?’ proved to be the most valuable and true to this author's own studies, even in a complex and familiar environment. I will have to remember this when I start my own interviews with the members at the club so I include some of these basic questions. I believe it will prove wrong some of the hegemonies that exist about the members and the country club.

Short Annotations

Audubon International. (1991). Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses: Fact Sheet. Troy, NY. Retrieved from www.auduboninternational.org

This is a fact sheet by Audubon International on its Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses. It goes over the different environmental components involved that golf courses would have to cover in the program. This is the certification program in which the Country Club will be pursuing the "Green Certification" for its golf course. I gave a copy of this to the House Committee member to show them a project the club could work towards that I would be able to analyze for my research. This project should be perfect for me to observe and analyze for my research project because it says "it challenges our 'status quo' by directing our thoughts and actions toward environmental awareness and changes our definitions of responsibility." Those are the kinds of challenges I hope to observe and draw information from. I also used the contact info on this sheet to get an interview with Audubon.

Botkin, D., Mcphee, J., & Margulis, L. (2000). Forces of Change: A new View of Nature (pp. 15–19). National Geographic Society.

Botkin explains that part of the resistance to the environmental movement is our resistance to changing our views of nature. We like to think of nature as this entity that balances itself, will always provide for us, and will never change. He explains that what society has to accept is that the nature of nature is change.

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Botkin then explains that the transition society is going through today regarding nature and ecology is analogous to the transition society went through in the 17th and 18th centuries regarding the cosmos. Then society learned that it was natural for planets to move and change, but that the cosmos abides by rules. He explains that today the transition to understanding nature is likely harder because of the complexity of natural systems that we lack a set of rules for, and maybe we never will because it changes so.

Dodson, R. (2011). The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program Turns 20! A milestone for a unique environmental partnership. Green Section Record, 49, 24–25.

This article explains how the golf course program under Audubon International was started and initially funded by the USGA. The guy that proposed the whole program was a golfer himself that just happened to go to school for biology and the environment as well. This is interesting because it is probably assumed that the program was invented by an environmentalist when it wasn't, and being invented by a golfer the program might be more readily accepted by club members and golfers. I used this information when I presented Audubon's Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses to educate and gain support from the Club's House Committee, which allows my research once the club agreed to pursue "green certification".

Fletcher, K., & Carrow, R. (2007). Environmental Management Systems. USGA Green Section Record, 23–27.

This article by the USGA Green Section Record is on the history and current status of environmental management systems (EMSs) in the golf industry. The significant factors for the success of an EMS are management, policy issues, training, and communication. These factors will be good examples of what to look for in my research that contributes to the success and failure of sustainable projects. An EMS is going to affect a club's whole facility, so it's important that everyone involved at the club understands it.

Historical context - The surge of the environmental movement in the 1960's brought new legal and social demands to businesses. The CWA of (year?) resulted later in the "Best Management Practices" (BMPs) and in "Integrated Pest Management" (IPM). The International Standards Organization (ISO), made in 1996, and revised in 2004 the standard for environmental management called "ISO 14001 Environmental Management System".

Later on in the research process when I want to approach the Country Club about moving on to other sustainable projects, I might suggest an EMS or EMP. If and when I do that I will need to convince the Board Members that it is a good idea by listing the potential benefits and costs to the business. Potential benefits include: improved overall environmental performance, prevent pollution, save money on landscape maintenance, energy and materials, enhanced existing compliance, reduced risks and liabilities, increased efficiency, reduced costs, improved club image, and possibly qualify for recognition or incentives programs like the EPA Performance Track Program. Potential costs include: investment of resources and employee time, training costs, consulting assistance, technical resources, and failure to achieve goals. The reason why I think it would be a good idea for the Country Club is because an EMS would cover the whole facility and grounds. However, that also means that upper management and club wide commitment would be needed for it to succeed. These are things that could be considered as factors that contribute to its failure or success.

MacKay, J. (2006). Golf and the Environment Around the World: Concern for the environment is becoming an industry standard everywhere. USGA Green Section Record, (September-October), 33–34. Retrieved from http://gsr.lib.msu.edu/2000s/2006/060933.pdf

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This article shows the resources of associations and organizations available to help the golf industry to become more sustainable. This is useful by showing me where the golf course can go to for advice and guidance, and where they can go to get awarded for being sustainable. This will prove useful later on if the house committee seems to get dissuaded from pursuing Audubon certification by showing them why it would be beneficial for the club to continue with the sustainable practices through profits, awards, publicity, and an improved image.

These might be useful for the projects at the Country Club:

o EPA will provide incentives to help golf courses improve environmental performanceo Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) offers an environmental performance audit to help

evaluate current management practiceso Environmental Institute for Golf (EIFG) offers educational seminars for superintendentso GCSAA also manages EDGE, a database for golf courses to go to on environmental issues related to

golf facilities

Moore, F. (1996). Environmental Common Sense A Sample “ In-House ” Audit. USGA Green Section Record, (January/February).

This provides an example of how a superintendent of a golf course would bring up environmental concerns and opportunities to their house committee, provides an outline of concerns, options, and then recommendations. Through this the golf superintendent (or whoever is proposing this to the committee) then goes on to suggest an environmental consultant, introduces the works of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses. When he does give recommendations he really does his homework by looking into the price of options with local businesses and checks with local authorities that everything is up to code properly.

Misconceptions and change resistance quotes: "This hesitation on the part of the course leadership to address environmental issues is due to their failure to clearly understand the problems, the belief that their course really is not much of a threat to the environment, and the fear that any action might invite closer scrutiny from outsiders."

Provided my first suggestion to propose to the Country Club - "Our first step should be to enroll in the Cooperative Sanctuary Program developed through a joint effort of the USGA and the Audubon Society of New York State."

Advice - It is important that he includes the negatives of a situation so that when it comes up they are already prepared to deal with it and it makes him look more credible. For example, some golfers will not appreciate the un-kept look, and this is an example of resistance that will have to be addressed with the House Committee and take notes on their reactions and thoughts.

Education/Training - An educational effort is needed to let everyone know what's going on and the importance of the changes being done. This can help prevent resistance and complaints, and will help to educate on sustainability at the club's golf course.

Serfass, P., & American Biogass Council. (2013, July). Vermont, now Connecticut, Models for Diverting Organics | Biomassmagazine.com. Biomass Magazine. Retrieved from http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/9153/vermont-now-connecticut-models-for-diverting-organics

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Connecticut started working to pass these laws "in October 2011 with the passage of Public Act 11-217, which required large commercial waste generators (more than 104 tons per year) to divert food waste if they were within 20 miles of a licensed facility."

"With the June 20 (2013) signing of Connecticut’s Public Act 13-285, An Act Concerning Recycling and Jobs, the Constitution State will start to divert organics to organics recycling facilities next year." (implemented on Jan 1, 2014)

" Vermont signed into law Act 148, An Act Relating to Establishing Universal Recycling of Solid Waste, which borrowed the Connecticut model of applying the law to large generators, but took it a couple steps further by gradually ratcheting down the threshold from 104 tons per year of food residuals all the way down to all food residuals in 2020. Vermont also required a recycling facility to be within 20 miles of the waste generator for the law to activate. "

"Connecticut returned the favor this year in Public Act 13-285, which keeps the 104-ton- per-year starting point for commercial generators, reducing to 52 tons per year in 2020."

"Since Connecticut’s law doesn’t get activated until Jan. 1, 2014, and Vermont’s— although passed the year before—doesn’t activate until July 1, 2014, in many ways, it’s too early to claim success."

The point of this magazine article is to show that there are laws soon coming into effect that require the diversion of organic waste (food waste) from landfill through organics recycling facilities. However, these laws are only activated for those commercial waste generators that are within 20 miles of such a facility. That way it won't be an excessive burden on some businesses, but does give the incentive for new facilities to develop, because they would be guaranteed business.

This relates to my research because food waste is the next potential target for a project at the Country Club that I had briefly discussed with their Chef. Tyler Holloway from Empire Zero, the food waste hauling company, mentioned in his interview that these laws are coming into effect soon and it should only be a couple of years until these laws come to New York State and businesses will have to comply then anyway.

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