FAQ
Costs and benefits of sustainable development
- What is the cost of sustainable development?
Having a sustainable development policy doesn’t always mean investments and new costs.It also leads to new savings: for instance, between 2006 and 2009, Accor has reduced its energy consumption by 7.8% in owned and leased hotels!
Obviously, other actions will need investments: for instance, equipping more than 150 hotels with solar thermal panels over 4 years represents a substantial investment, with a payback time that is still quite long. However, promoting renewable energies is a critical choice for hotels and we want to make these technologies more affordable and profitable, for instance by finding innovative ways of implementing them.
In other areas of sustainable development, making responsible choices will always cost more, for instance when we think of social practices: accompanying suppliers in a responsible process towards men and women necessarily means to spend more resources in terms of time and money.
Last point to consider: the regulatory environment, which changes more or less rapidly depending on the subjects. If we pull ahead with our own policies, we can limit the cost of last-time compliance!
- Is sustainable development a marketing tool?
We also set up sustainable policies to satisfy our clients, of course! We also try to rally them to the initiatives we have set up for the last years, and to promote awareness and good practices.
- What is the budget for sustainable development at Accor?
The Sustainable Development Department has a working budget to fund various operations and projects. However, we do not have a consolidated amount of the sum dedicated to sustainable development (or saved thanks to it) through the projects carried out by all the Departments.