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MAKING HOTEL STAYS MORE ECO-FRIENDLY

→ Other companies have launched imaginative initiatives to get employees on board. Scandic, the largest hotel operator in the Nordic market, has involved staff in its sustainability endeavours since 1993, when a team member’s “hang up your towel” policy became standard practice worldwide. Last year, it wanted to “add a fun spin” to its efforts, according to Vanessa Butani, Scandic’s director of sustainable business, with 18,000 team members participating in a “sustainability hackathon”. Staff submitted 400 social and environmental ideas, which were voted on before facing a jury.

Turn off the Tap, the winning environmental idea, will pilot this summer in Norway. Guests are advised to switch off the tap when brushing their teeth, aiming to save more than 200 million litres of water per year.

Accor similarly engages staff through its Acting Here app for employees, which launched in April last year. The app includes both educational and activity elements, allowing staff to receive rewards for publishing selfies of their sustainable actions, or doing quizzes to boost their knowledge.

CUTTING FOOD WASTE

While sustainable initiatives may seem altruistic, there is a financial incentive, too. Accor’s food and beverage accounts for half of its waste, 40 per cent of its global water consumption, and is the second-largest contributor to its carbon footprint.

In fact, one-third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted. To address this, chains such as Accor and IHG have partnered with Winnow, a company using smart meter technology to record and analyse food waste. Winnow’s co-founder, Marc Zornes, says: “Although the scale of the problem is enormous, it presents a huge opportunity for businesses to recover value and become more efficient.” Through Winnow’s real-time reports, “businesses and chefs can adjust their food purchasing decisions accordingly, reduce their spending and tackle a fundamental problem of food waste: overproduction”.

Accor’s Sofitel Bangkok Sukhumvit piloted the system in 2015, resulting in a 50 per cent reduction in food waste within four months, and estimated annual savings of more than US$60,000. In fact, charity WRAP and the World Resources Institute found that a typical food manufacturing, retail or hospitality business could achieve a 14:1 return on investment by reducing food waste. Such technology will prove useful in helping Accor to achieve its aim of reducing food waste by 30 per cent by next year.

Scandic is working with digital platforms Karma and Too Good to Go to sell leftover food at half the cost price. Last year the group saved more than 125,000 portions of unsold food using such digital platforms.

It’s not all about technology. Accor’s Novotel Nantes Carquefou creates puddings from breakfast pastries, while the Pullman Auckland uses peel from juiced oranges to make marmalade. Through a combination of behavioural changes, technology and creativity, it is entirely possible to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, the reduction of global food waste by 50 per cent by 2030.

Cooperation between companies will be crucial in meeting targets. “Fully aware of our environmental footprint, we are convinced that eco-responsible hotel management is a collective concern,” says Accor’s Herrmann. Its Planet 21 online platform shares studies, research and best-practice analyses regarding sustainable development in the hotel industry. IHG, meanwhile, is a founding member of the International Tourism Partnership, which brings hotel companies together for collective action on social and environmental responsibilities.

And in the meantime, there’s plenty of small steps you can take yourself to travel more sustainably – see Smart Traveller, page 88, for more tips.