With a 15-year focus on sustainable development, Accor has released findings from its environmental impact assessment. “Our goal is to build sustainable development into the core of our group’s performance and embark it on a continuous improvement drive to reinvent hospitality for the long term,” says Accor CEO Denis Hennequin.
Key findings and actionable items from the study, which encompasses energy and water consumption, water pollution, and waste generation, includes:
1. Optimizing site management to reduce carbon footprint. Accor consumes about 18 billion kW/h of energy, as much as a European city with 386,000 inhabitants. According to the report, “Group hotels have made considerable progress curbing their impacts but this finding is prompting us to continue to work on this front. Using resources smartly, enhancing energy efficiency, and using renewable sources of energy are three of the options we have to continue to harness in order to stem our impacts and stay one step ahead of increasingly stringent regulatory requirements.
2. Working on water consumption at restaurants. The study indicates that Accor’s main impact on water comes from the food. Water used in bathrooms, kitchens, sprinklers, and leaks account for 10 percent of water consumption, while the water used all the way up and down the food production chain accounts for about 86 percent. To combat these effects, the company plans to do more farm-to-table cuisine and set up new channels with suppliers.
3. Managing construction and renovation sites more efficiently. The bulk of waste generated does not come from running hotels but rather building and revamping them. Besides reducing waste at source and working on economic packaging, “a clearer understanding of waste treatment and recycling channels in each country will gradually shrink costs and impacts on this front,” the report indicates.