A global hotel group has set its sights on being a standard bearer for corporate social responsibility and sustainable practices in the hotel and meetings industry – and it is willing to share the knowledge it has built.
One initiative in a growing catalogue of CSR programmes across Accor’s operating regions is the Empowerment Builds the Future (EBTF), a three-year scheme to help communities in China trying to overcome the impact of Aids.
To mark events leading up to World Aids Day, EBTF bags made in those communities were given to regular users of the hotel group and available for purchase. Proceeds will go towards developing job skills and raising awareness of the plight of people living with HIV in China. Accor has also contributed to information on sustainability available to the industry with a ‘world-first global survey’. Earth Guest Research was conducted by an independent research institute across six countries and comprised nearly 7,000 respondents. It found that sustainability is increasingly influencing the choice of hotel.
“Our role is to drive change and lead the tourism industry in this field,” says Denis Hennequin, Accor chairman and CEO.
“We need to leverage sustainable development concerns to develop new, more sustainable products and services that will eventually lead to a whole new approach to the hotel experience.”
On the environmental front, Accor’s Plant for the Planet is a project that looks not only at re-introducing trees into Indonesia, but also, getting the wider community involved.
The group’s Asia Pacific spokesman, Evan Lewis, says guests at the group's network of hotels in Indonesia are invited to re-use towels, for instance, so that they can contribute towards the planting of a tree in Indonesia. Cost savings derived from the re-use of towels are then transferred to the employment of the poor to plant trees.
The scheme is being rolled out to other territories in Asia such as Singapore and Malaysia.