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A year ago, AccorHotels unveiled its new, ambitious CSR commitments for 2020. The group’s sustainable development program, Planet 21, focuses on four fields of action, namely employees, guests, partners and local communities, as well as two priority issues, food and sustainable buildings.

Over 500 urban vegetable gardens

AccorHotels, which is present in 1,700 cities worldwide has committed to developing urban farming and to planting 1,000 vegetable gardens by 2020. Through the initiative, the hotel provides its guests with healthy and fresh produce which is grown organically and in-house. This initiative allows the hotel to provide guests with the best gastronomical experience, while also fulfilling responsibilities towards environmental conservation.

All the produce generated is scientifically cultivated using natural farming techniques with no use of artificial chemicals and pesticides. To sensitise the guests about the initiative and create awareness about the importance of environmental protection and sustainable agricultural practices, the hotel encourages guests to try their hand at farming as well.

Less Food Waste

38 hotels in 13 countries are already using connected solutions to fight food waste in their kitchens and restaurants. The initiative has cut food waste by nearly 60% in the pilot hotels’ kitchens. That’s a total of €540,000 in estimated savings.

To minimise wastage of food, ibis and Novotel Bengaluru Techpark and Pullman and Novotel New Delhi Aerocity have installed an Organic Waste Composter within the hotel premises. With the help of this composter, spoiled and leftover food scraps are composted which in turn provide nutrition to the soil and enhance its quality.

One of Planet 21’s two priorities is to achieve carbon neutral buildings. In 2016, the Group cut its energy consumption by 2.4% and CO2 emissions by three percent. These results are even more encouraging because they were achieved despite particularly unfavourable world weather conditions in 2016 compared with 2015 since demand for heating and air-conditioning increased more than four percent.

Sоurсе: travelnewsdigest.in