AccorHotels won first prize in the Trophí©e de la RSE (CSR Trophy) at the Grand Prix de l’AG 2015. On this occasion the Group is sharing on its PLANET 21 Research platform the findings of two surveys that assess the benefits of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives on its business performance: one was conducted by Accenture and the other was verified by EY aacording from a press release issued by the chain.
“AccorHotels’s decision to invest in sustainability programmes has a positive impact on its carbon footprint but also contributes to the business performance of the company” says Cí©dric Vatier managing director Accenture Strategy.
Increased guest satisfaction
The survey conducted by Accenture in 2015 demonstrates a strong link between sustainable development initiatives and guest satisfaction. In fact obtaining the ISO 14001 certification the internationally recognised standard for environmental management in addition to a higher achievement of the objectives set by the
Charter 21 AccorHotels’s internal sustainability management system leads to greater guest satisfaction.
Improved business performance
As well as having a positive impact on guest satisfaction hotels with a higher Charter 21 level are also more profitable.
The Charter 21 which relies on a system of levels (Bronze Silver Gold and Platinum) recommends 65 actions that hotels can implement to reduce their environmental footprint: the more a hotel invests in these actions the more positive its paybacks are both in terms of reducing costs (water energy waste) and increasing revenues (EBIT).
The Accenture survey thus proves that the Group has a benefit in uniting its employees and partners behind objectives that meet sustainable development requirements while generating business value for the company.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) an increasingly important criterion for AccorHotels’s key and strategic BtoB customers
A growing number of BtoB customers consider CSR an additional criterion when selecting their supplier. In fact an internal survey verified by EY reveals that 70% of them communicate their CSR requirements during the RFP process as well as during day-to-day business relationships.
AccorHotels’s CSR commitments therefore give the group preferred partners status for its BtoB customers and enable it to generate additional turnover.
AccorHotel’s Sustainable Development Director Arnaud Herrmann explains:
“We have been committed to sustainable development for over 20 years and always believed
that as well as being essential to preserve our ecosystem sustainability initiatives are also a competitive advantage for the company. That’s why we decided to collect additional empirical evidence to prove this. This positive impact on both hotel business performance and guest satisfaction is a great encouragement to continue our CSR policy while our PLANET 21 program is nearing completion with promising results.”
Methodologies
The BtoB survey dated May 2015 assesses the corporate social responsibility expectations of AccorHotel’s BtoB customers. 45 of the group’s most important accounts located on the five continents where the group is active answered an online questionnaire between December 2014 and January 2015. The results confirmed the trends already identified in a survey conducted in 2012. These two surveys were both verified externally by EY.
The Accenture survey concerned a sample of over 1200 hotels out of the more than 3600 AccorHotels establishments. The survey excluded countries with fewer than 20 hotels. The survey provides a statistical analysis of the influence of several sustainable development indicators (certification year and level etc.) on profitability and guest satisfaction.
