As global concerns over water scarcity and quality continue to escalate, Accor has reaffirmed its commitment to drive water stewardship with a comprehensive suite of initiatives aimed at preserving the resource.
The company’s water stewardship efforts focus on three key areas:
Water quantity & quality: Accor is committed to reducing water consumption through efficiency and sufficiency measures, and improving water quality through avoiding chemical-based products in its operations and fighting micro-plastic pollution. Initiatives such as the deployment of Accor’s Water Plan to optimize water use in operations and source sustainable solutions have already yielded promising results. As an example, Mövenpick Petra converted 90% of hotel rooms from bathtubs to walk-in showers, aiming for a 15% reduction in room water consumption by 2025. This has led to a decrease in water usage from 45,000 cubic meters (11.9 million gallons) in 2019 to 27,000 cubic meters (7.1 million gallons) in 2023.
Food & beverage value chain: Recognizing the significant water footprint of the food & beverage sector, Accor is prioritizing initiatives and actions on its food & beverage offers to reduce its water footprint. The first issue to tackle is food waste, given that 53% of the waste generated in a hotel comes from food. Then, strategies include promoting sustainable sourcing practices and offering guests alternative dining experiences that embed sustainability at the core. Moreover, Accor has just signed a strategic partnership with BE WTR, a premium sustainable water brand, to eliminate single-use plastic water bottles from its properties by 2025. Through BE WTR’s innovative refillable glass bottling plants, Accor hotels worldwide will offer guests a sustainable hydration solution that aligns with the company’s commitment to reducing plastic waste.
Guest engagement: Accor is empowering guests to contribute to water conservation efforts through initiatives such as the “Skip the Clean” project, which encourages guests to forgo daily room cleaning to conserve water and energy while earning loyalty points. By fostering awareness and changing behaviors, Accor aims to amplify the impact of its sustainability initiatives. If all multi-night guests would opt out of daily cleaning of their room (except every third day), it’s estimated that up to 4% of Accor Group’s direct water consumption could be saved. For an average hotel, it is the equivalent of 6,500 showers that could be saved each year.
Foster collaboration to amplify water stewardship
Accor’s commitment to water stewardship extends beyond its own operations. Accor plays an active role in international coalitions that foster the emergence of shared solutions to environmental and social challenges and push to redefine and set new standards for the industry.
In addition of being part of the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (SHA) and having launched the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement, Sébastien Bazin, Accor’s chairman/CEO, revealed at Change Now Summit 2024 (the largest event of solutions for the planet) that the company has signed the CEO Water Mandate, an initiative created by the United Nations in 2007 that gathers 256 committed companies on water issues. Joining the coalition, Accor is committed to continual progress along six areas of water stewardship: direct operations, supply chain & watershed, collective action, public policy, community engagement and transparency. Accor will forge partnerships that will strengthen its ability to address urgent water issues listed above and accelerate collective positive water impact in 100 priority basins by 2030.
“When at least 50% of the world’s population live under highly water-stressed conditions for at least one month of the year, we cannot operate hotels as we did before,” said Brune Poirson, chief sustainability officer, Accor. “Water is a vital resource that underpins our operations, our value chain and the well-being of the communities we serve. Therefore, Accor is dedicated to pioneering sustainable solutions and experiences that make every stay a contribution to the society and the environment. To do so, we foster collaboration over competition to set new standards and drive water stewardship actions in all territories where we operate.”
