Identifying and assessing environmental awareness of hotel and restaurant employees’ attitudes in the Amasra District of Bartin Cengiz Yucedag & Latif Gurkan Kaya & Mehmet Cetin Received: 17 November 2017 /Accepted: 28 December 2017 # Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract Environmental damage occurring on individ- ual, institutional, and societal levels is one of the major problems in the world and results from mostly uncon- scious human behavior. This damage poses serious threats to human health and other habitats. The aim of this study is to determine the level of environmental awareness of hotel and restaurant employees in the Amasra District of Bartin, Turkey. For this purpose, a descriptive survey method is used to measure 16 items with a 5-point Likert scale. Data are obtained from 200 employees in the hotels and restaurants as of 2015. The reliability coefficient is found to be 0.74. This data reveals that only 43% of hotels and 72% of restaurants in Amasra have recycling bins. Males and Bachelor’ s degree holders have more environmental awareness. Enterprises established after 2011 follow popular journals related to environment more than those before 2011. As a result, it is essential to organize educational meetings and seminars related to environmental aware- ness for hotel and restaurant employees in order to improve the tourism industry’ s environmental impact. The results show that the legislation has resulted in general environmental awareness and that the organizations are willing to change their business pro- cesses and environmental strategies. Nevertheless, de- spite their actions, there is little awareness of the benefits that can result from cost reductions resulting from envi- ronmentally friendly practices. Those affected by their suppliers act to reduce waste but do not deploy formal environmental management systems or use environ- mental messages to market their goods or services. Keywords Environmental attitudes . Environmental management practices . Sustainability . Hospitality . Collaborative learning Introduction Environmental damage occurring on individual, institu- tional, and societal level is one of the major problems in the world and results from mostly unconscious human behavior. This damage poses serious threats to human health and other habitats. As the tourism industry has been a growing source of human-induced environmen- tal problems in recent years, it is of the utmost impor- tance that workers especially in the tourism sector have a greater awareness and sensitivity on environmental issues. Natural resources are vital to human life. Especially in the last century, the irresponsible use of natural re- sources has become one of the most alarming problems threatening nature and the environment. Therefore, global warming, climate change, air pollution, the irre- sponsible use of water resources, and the sustainable use Environ Monit Assess (2018) 190:60 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-6456-7 C. Yucedag : L. G. Kaya Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Mehmet Akif Ersoy University, Istiklal Campus, 15030 Burdur, Turkey M. Cetin (*) Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture, Kastamonu University, Kuzeykent Campus, 37150 Kastamonu, Turkey e-mail: mcetin@kastamonu.edu.tr