Our planet is everyone’s responsibility. We must all make a collective effort to protect it, and Accor is committed to limiting its environmental impact with the involvement of our employees, brands, and guests. For World Earth Day, let’s take a look at the Group’s flagship initiatives over the past two years.
If the Covid-19 pandemic has made us aware of one thing, it’s that our planet is precious and its resources are finite. More than ever, every step toward protecting the environment counts.
Accor, a pioneer of sustainable development in the hotel industry, has worked for over 50 years to turn its positive hospitality vision—hospitality that respects the environment and communities in which the Group operates—into a reality, particularly through its dedicated “Planet 21” program. Launched in 2016, it is built around 6 action areas: employees, customers, partners, communities, food, and buildings, to limit the Group’s negative impacts. Accor hotels have a “Planet 21 In Action” roadmap which sets out 10 mandatory benchmark actions according to the CSR. To date, 93% of hotels have implemented these benchmarks which have helped achieve very encouraging results, including: 1,882 Accor hotels who have rolled out a program to combat food waste; 1,2182 urban vegetable gardens within the Group, a 57% reduction in hotel operating waste, and “The Plant for The Planet” collaborative program, which has funded the planting of 7.2 million trees since its inception.
Despite the exceptional circumstances in 2020, the Group has maintained its sustainability trajectory so far thanks to the commitment of hoteliers and the robustness of the Planet 21 program. The Group went even further and gave new impetus to the program by making sustainable development one of the four fundamental strategic challenges for the coming years.
World Earth Day—also known at Accor as “Planet 21 Day” as tribute to the Group’s signature program—also allows us highlight our commitment by reviewing our latest key initiatives in the area of sustainable development.
At the beginning of March, Accor and Expedia Group, the global travel platform, in conjunction with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), have joined forces to promote environmental sustainability and sustainable tourism around the world. This strategic tripartite agreement will see 3,358 global Accor hotels make an even greater commitment to sustainable practices. As such, the parties will be able to establish themselves as examples of outstanding green practices and forces for positive change in their communities.
The climate science is clear: the world has a carbon problem. Globally we must rapidly reduce emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The hotel sector is responsible for 1% of global emissions and must act.
In December 2019, the Group joined the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) – and committed to set carbon reduction targets in line with the Paris Climate Agreement. Accor’s targets have now been validated and published by the SBTi. This means Accor will be actively working to reduce absolute emissions 46% by 2030 compared to the 2019 baseline. Accor is also the first international hotel group to make a long-term commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Group is thus aligning itself with the most ambitious objective of the Paris Agreement, namely to limit global warming to 1.5ºC.
Each year millions of single-use plastic items are used throughout the Group’s hotels: shampoo; shower gel; water bottles; cotton swabs; plastic cups; straws; laundry bags; individual food packaging; etc. In January 2020, Accor announced its commitment to eliminate all guest-related, single-use plastic items from its hotels by the end of 2022. This target was set as part of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization, in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
At the end of 2020, 99% of Accor hotels had already removed plastic straws, stirrers, and cotton swabs, and 62% had introduced alternatives to plastic water bottles.
Fairmont is a global leader in sustainability, thanks to its “Green Partnership Program” launched in 1991. The project has grown throughout the brand’s locations and is now part of the Group’s global Planet 21 program. With the goal of improving the overall well-being of local communities where Fairmont resides, it focuses on key areas to achieve change including economic, environmental, and social programming. The brand’s environmental platform has been described by National Geographic Traveler as “the most comprehensive environmental program in the North American hotel industry”. Fairmont is also committed to protecting bees with its Fairmont Bee Sustainable program and its digital platform featuring live hive monitoring and in-depth honey analysis.
Looking for inspiration for your responsible initiatives? The brand has outlined all its best practices and advice for sustainable luxury hotels in several editions of its “Green Partnership Guide”. The key to success according to Fairmont: combining operational efforts with forward-thinking and innovative programs.
Other brands—among many others—that deserve to be mentioned for their exemplary sustainability: greet, with its locally engaged hotels and circular economy approach; Swissôtel, which has the strictest sustainable development standards in the sector; and Mercure, with its “Local Garden” program, that encourages hotels to create vegetable gardens to promote short supply chains and support local producers.
Throughout the world, our hotels have been committed for many years to a process of continuous improvement relating to sustainable development. In Spain, the United Kingdom, Austria, Portugal and Brazil: discover some of their CSR best practices – real sources of inspiration for our network.
The Group has already been strongly committed to an important environmental approach for many years and is carrying out various actions to go even further (eliminating all single-use plastics from the guest experience by 2022, aiming for carbon neutrality for our buildings by 2050…). Our hotels also regularly launch their own CSR initiatives! Exemplary properties of which Accor can be proud, and from which other hotels can draw inspiration to contribute on their own scale towards limiting the negative impacts of the hotel industry on the planet.
Discover the initiatives of ibis Wien Mariahilf (Austria), Sofitel Guarujá Jequitimar (Brazil), ibis Barcelona Montmelo Granollers (Spain), Mercure Porto Centro Aliados (Portugal) and Pullman London St Pancras (United Kingdom) which are committed day in day out, as are many other hotels.
ibis Wien Mariahilf, Austria
In Vienna, ibis Wien Mariahilf (Austria) multiplies its actions to protect the planet. But it is the catering side which makes the hotel stand out in particular, with beehives on its roof to fight against the disappearance of bees, and enabling it to produce its own honey. Once a year, a beekeeper comes to collect the honey in front of the hotel guests to make them aware of this cause. The hosts then have the pleasure of finding this honey at the buffet breakfast. And that’s not all: the catering areas are free of single-use plastics, the kitchens use local produce and waste is of course recycled. The result? A gourmet experience that respects the environment!
Sofitel Guarujá Jequitimar (Brazil)
Sofitel Guarujá Jequitimar (Brazil) has set up a circular economy system to reuse treated wastewater thus enabling it to address the challenges of water management and even making the water drinkable. This best practice has already been recognized with the Braztoa Prize for sustainability in the “Hotels” category in 2017 and the first prize of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in the “Water” category in 2018. The hotel is also committed in many other areas, such as the use of herbs and vegetables in the kitchen from its own vegetable garden, and it even runs awareness campaigns on environmental issues for everyone (employees, guests, local communities) including specific actions to conserve nature and wildlife very close to the hotel… All these measures allow it to save water, energy and resources, but also to draw attention to these new challenges that can no longer be ignored.
ibis Barcelona Montmelo Granollers, Spain
ibis Barcelona Montmelo Granollers (Spain) opened in 2005. When the hotel was renovated in 2017, it donated its furniture to the Apadis association. The NGO was therefore able to furnish the solidarity restaurant El Gato Verde, which promotes the professional integration of people with disabilities. In 2018, ibis Barcelona Montmelo Granollers was also awarded Biosphere certification by the Responsible Tourism Institute – guaranteeing the economic, socio-cultural and environmental balance of tourist establishments, by implementing various actions including that of green energy. Through Accor Solidarity, the Group’s endowment fund, the hotel also supports the REIR Foundation to promote the professional integration of young people through orientation sessions (delivered virtually since the start of the health crisis).
Pullman London St Pancras, United Kingdom
In the capital city of London, Pullman London St Pancras is taking steps in particular to avoid food and energy waste. For instance, the hotel has implemented a smart building management control system to save energy. The air conditioning and heating are adapted according to the occupancy rate of the hotel and the flow of people in certain areas through the use of movement detectors. Similar to ibis Wien Mariahilf, Pullman London St Pancras also has its own beehives on the roof! The honey produced there is sent directly to the hotel’s kitchens much to the delight of the guests, alongside the herbs grown on site and carefully selected local produce. The hotel also actively cooperates with food banks and local businesses to limit food waste.
Mercure Porto Centro Aliados, Portugal
Energy and carbon are key areas which our Group can lever to lower its environmental impacts. To reduce the consumption of its hotels, Accor is also working to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and to regulate energy consumption during off-peak and peak hours. In Portugal, Mercure Porto Centro Aliados has implemented many solutions to this end: closing floors during periods of low occupancy, lowering light intensity depending on the time of day, turning off the heating & air conditioning system when rooms are not occupied… But the greatest asset of this hotel remains its solar panels on the roof whose energy allows to heat the building, its water and its pool. A green energy nicely implemented!
