AccorHotels has unveiled the results of Planet 21, its sustainable development programme, and renews its commitments looking to 2020.
“The commitment and energy demonstrated by our teams in deploying Planet 21 worldwide are both valuable levers for our sustainable performance,” said group chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin. “After five years, the results of the first phase of the plan are very encouraging.
“Today, we want to scale up our ambitions by banking on innovation and accountability. Planet 21 Season 2 must enable us to create wealth sustainably and curb our negative impacts through the mobilisation of our employees, guests, partners and local communities.
“Our vision is to drive the change towards positive, more responsible and inventive hospitality, wherever we are.”
The group achieved solid results regarding the actions taken over the 2011-2015 period. In five years, it has delivered two-thirds of the programme’s 21 objectives and over 90 percent of its hotels have embarked on a continuous-improvement drive.
Planet 21 allowed the group to unite its teams and engage its guests and partners in a structured approach which is recognised by several ethical stock market indices.
It has made significant progress, in particular with regards to well-being in the workplace, child protection, biodiversity, and water and energy consumption management.
In five years, water consumption has been cut by nearly 9 percent, energy consumption by 5.3 percent and carbon emissions by 6.2 percent. At the end of 2015, all its hotels were committed to protecting children from abuse (in-house awareness programme, WATCH) and more than 4.5 million trees had been planted worldwide since 2009.
Planet 21 [2016-2020] is structured into four areas of action enlisting its employees, customers, partners and local communities, and two priorities, namely food and beverage, and buildings.
A survey aimed at measuring changes in guests’ behaviours and current awareness of sustainable development showed:
* Globally, eight out of 10 hotel guests declare they are sensitive to sustainable development.
* Guests want hotels to show commitment to concrete, daily aspects of sustainable development: water, energy, waste and child protection.
* One out of three guests considers that citizens are first and foremost responsible in terms of sustainable development. Guests seem aware of their impact in terms of social, corporate and environmental responsibility. Governments and companies are also considered to have a critical responsibility.
* Hotel guests declare they are ready to act and change their behaviour. Virtually unknown 20 years ago, sustainable development is now often taken into consideration by one in two guests when choosing a hotel. This criterion still has a significant growth rate but should progress considerably due to guests’ evolving expectations and the sector’s increasingly numerous initiatives.
Accor’s Planet 21 initiative a success
