EXCLUSIVE: Resource efficiency essential as consumption costs set to rocket says Accor

Ensuring resources are used efficiently has become a necessity for businesses as global energy costs continue to rise and water scarcity increases, says Accor's executive vice president of sustainable development Sophie Flak.


“If you take energy, the cost rise in Europe that we face is 3-4% per year, while in some other countries in the Middle East or India for example it can be 10-15%, up to 20%,” says Flak.

Global hotel operator Accor has been working on reducing consumption for over 20 years and this has been vital for the company’s bottom line.

Energy, water and waste is costing the company a staggering €400m (£345m) per year, which, without a progressive strategy to resource efficiency, will only increase.

“We have two sides [to dealing with consumption costs] – one side is to minimise our consumption as much as we can. It is a mix of new equipment, new practices and training our teams annually.

“Secondly, we monitor consumption. So energy and water, we monitor in quantity and in euros,” says Flak.

Looking at water, the company’s initiative, at the end of 2012, has seen 96% of Accor’s hotels monitoring and analysing water consumption on a monthly basis.

It also reported that 93% of hotels had installed flow regulators on showers and faucets, while 189 hotels were equipped with rainwater recovery systems.

Read the full interview ‘Reducing consumption: Accor’s long-term solution for a short-term stay’

Leigh Stringer

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