"As guests of the Earth, it deserves the same respect and care as our own guests receive from us," says Philippe Trapp, MD of Accor Hospitality Southern Africa. "This year the focus of our attention will be on water, our most precious resource, with 170 000 of our employees from 90 countries participating in various programmes around the world." In South Africa, 520 stakeholders within the Mercure and Hotel Formula 1 brands were engaged in the following around the country yesterday:
Environmental awareness: Formula 1 and Mercure employees were involved in planting trees, cleaning beaches and conducting classes for their employees, designed to increase water-usage awareness.
Environmental education : Classes on being water-wise and reaching out to children and adults around the country to improve understanding about water usage.
Community awareness and service: On Earth Guest day, outreach to communities included the distribution of water-wise pamphlets to all guests and a competition encouraging the guests to suggest new ways to improve water conservation; providing taps to schools that do not currently have any. "The Earth Guest concept enables us to leverage our presence on six continents and regular contact with 120 million customers to help spread the principles of sustainable development around the world," said Trapp.
"In South Africa, water and electricity are dwindling commodities and it is incumbent upon any corporate citizen to do its part as well as encourage its customers to do the same."
Improvements since 2006: After Accor's carbon footprint audit in 2006 it initiated the following in its 24 Formula1 and four Mercure hotels where possible: water-flow regulators; long-life compact fluorescent lights; biodegradable soaps; recycling; compost heaps and only plant indigenous plants.
Each hotel is in partnership with Eskom to educate guests about conserving electricity and each has committed to a Hotel Environment Charter. The company plans to do another carbon footprint audit in 2010 to measure the impact and further the efficiency of these initiatives.
"To further ensure sustainable ecologies, we are committed to planting 20 000 trees in aid of reforestation projects across the globe. During this week alone our South African employees will plant 10 trees at various sites," said Trapp.
