Continuing from my last post, Sustainable hospitality in France, I now examine the different organizations promoting sustainibility practices in the hotel industry.
Later, in the last part of this study on environmental practices, I will analyze the gap between consumers’ good intentions and actions, partly due to the complexity of labels out there… It is not always easy to find oneself through the maze of associations, certifications, global and regional labels, voluntary based, goverment regulated… The diversity of environmental labels available today can give both hotel owners / operators, and consumers an impression of complexity, to say the least!
In order to make the navigation a bit more sustainable, I will try to summarize on the most important labels used in the French hotel business today.
Let’s start with the big one :
Represents 30 properties in France, and based on 3 levels, based on length of membership :
Green Globe, Green Globe Gold (5 years) and Green Globe Platinum (10 years).
Main standards are based on 4 criteria :
- Sustainable management
- Cultural heritage
- Environment
- Eco and social responsibility
Their process is articulated around environmental operating standards, which are regularly audited in order to obtain certification.
The set of standards, includes 44 core criteria and 380 compliance indicators -which are reviewed and updated twice yearly-, a guarantee that only seriously committed organisations will be qualified.
A good example in France, is the Hotel Martinez in Cannes (recently renovated and rebranded Hyatt), which has been certified since 2010.
Their main contributions to Corporate Social Responsibility :
Waste sorting
Responsible seafood purchasing
Just after closing prior to their refurbishment, they auctionned used furniture, and collected € 80’000 for a local association helping children in difficulty.
On a corporate level, ClubMed’s strategy has been to get certification for all their villages, at the moment 75% of their 68 resorts worldwide are certified. 13 all inclusive villages in France are currently certified.
Ecolabel is a EU quality label. According to many studies, its logo and name are rather well known, although most respondents have a hard time defining what it exactly represents…
Nevertheless, its growth has been quite strong and steady over the last 10 years, 300 hotels are now certified in France alone.
Main criteria are :
- Water and energy reduction
- Waste segregation
- Organic F&B offers
- Ecological cleaning products
La Clef Verte (Green Key) is represented in 53 countries, and also features 300 hotels in France. Their focus is similar to EcoLabel’s, with specific efforts on educational activities for sustainibility practices, such as responsible purchasing and waste management.
Gîtes (holiday homes for rent, 130’000 units) and chambres d’hôtes (61’000 rooms) are very popular in France, and have their own environmental labels : Gîte Panda and Eco Gîte.
Nature protection related, Gîte Panda‘s focuses mainly on ecotourism, whilst Ecogîte is more concerned with the protection of environment.
Other labels worth mentioning are ATR (Act for a Responsible Tourism) which is an association mostly helping Online Travel Agencies, and Trip Advisor’s GreenLeaders label.
Next post I will be focusing on corporate examples, such as Accor’s Planet 21 program, a great example of combining environmental policies with visible actions which really work.
