AccorHotels celebrates sustainability achievements

AccorHotels, which is present in 1700 cities worldwide, is celebrating the latest achievements of its Planet 21 sustainable development program, comprising a series of goals for 2020 based around four strategic priorities: work with its employees, involve its customers, innovate with its partners and work with local communities.

Urban farming

Part of the program involves a commitment to developing urban farming and to planting 1000 vegetable gardens by 2020. Over 500 vegetable gardens have already been planted since the commitment was announced just a few months ago, from Bangkok to Rome and Sao Paulo to Kinshasa. The Sebel Kirkton Park Hunter Valley, for example, now sources up to 30% of its menu from the hotel’s 28 ha grounds and vegetable garden, with a further 50% from local partners.

The Sebel Kirkton Park seeks to create menus that are ever changing to reflect the season’s produce. The hotel’s executive chef regularly runs education tours of the vegetable garden for guests, providing an opportunity for guests to engage in a full sensory experience, picking their own dinner ingredients and building their understanding of nose-to-tail cooking and the steps from paddock to plate.

Less food waste

Thirty-eight hotels in 13 countries have committed to fight food waste in their kitchens and restaurants, in an initiative that has already cut food waste by nearly 60% in the pilot hotels’ kitchens. That’s a total of $772,000 in estimated annual savings.

Novotel Brisbane has partnered with LeanPath to install a connected solution in its kitchen that weighs food before it is put in the bin. After using the device for a month, the hotel has reduced its food waste by 50% and saving up to $400 a week. In 2017, AccorHotels plans to launch the wide-scale deployment of these devices and implement a system to monitor the results obtained in all its hotels worldwide.

Targeting food waste that can’t be avoided, 12 Australian hotels made donations to OzHarvest in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. During 2016, 6390 kg of food — equal to 19,170 meals — were donated by the hotels. A number of hotels also supported OzHarvest activities by providing access to their commercial dishwashers to clean food collection containers that are distributed to donors.

Carbon-neutral buildings

In 2016, AccorHotels cut its energy consumption by 2.4% and CO₂ emissions by 3%, despite facing unfavourable world weather conditions which saw demand for heating and air conditioning increase more than 4%. This year will see the construction of the JO&JOE Paris establishment in September, said to be the first low-carbon labelled hotel.

In the same vein, the new Sofitel Sydney Darling Harbour, part of the International Convention Centre precinct, will target a Green Star Sustainability Rating. Australian hotels generally have been expanding their use of solar photovoltaic systems, with AccorHotels installing more than 2 MW of solar in 2016.

For more information on AccorHotels’ sustainability commitments, visit www.accorhotels.group/en/commitment.