Accor to grow its own vegetables

AccorHotels will plant vegetable gardens at many of its hotels as part of a plan to cut food waste by a third.
The company, which includes the Pullman, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis chains, intends to “reduce food waste by 30 percent, in particular by sourcing food locally”, chief executive Sebastien Bazin said.
The group, which generates 25-30 percent of its revenue by serving 150 million meals a year, will first work out how much food it is wasting. Its restaurants will be required to weigh and record food that is thrown away in order to best determine how to cut waste.
Amir Nahai, who leads Accor’s food operations, said that menus currently offering up to 40 main courses would be slimmed down. “In the future we’re going to have menus with 10, 15 or 20 main courses, with more local products,” he said.
The group intends to plant vegetable gardens in many of its 3,900 hotels. “We are also going to support urban agriculture with the creation of 1,000 vegetable gardens in our hotels by 2020,” said Nahai.
AccorHotels also aims to improve the energy efficiency in its buildings with the ultimate target of making them carbon neutral.
In its previous five-year environmental plan, AccorHotels said it cut water consumption by nearly 9 percent, energy consumption by 5.3 percent and carbon emissions by 6.2 percent.