Earth Guest day 2009 Report

Southern Europe
France
Sofitel biodiversity
The Sofitel hotels in Paris, Strasbourg, Dijon, Biarritz and Quiberon promoted organic products
through special menus in their restaurants. At Sofitel Paris la Défense, for each glass of organic wine
sold, 1 Euro was donated to the association “Planète”.
The Sofitel hotels of Lyon Bellecour, Marseille and Paris Champs-Elysées cleaned up nearby areas
such as parks or roads. As far as the Sofitel Lyon Aéroport is concerned, its employees took part in a
training day about waste sorting and visited a waste treatment plant.
Moreover, the Sofitel Worldwide and Sofitel South Europe teams participated in this day by:
- planting ten trees near the Vanoise building in Evry
- participating in a organic picnic
The two Sofitel Thalassa Quiberon raised their guests’ awareness on the environment and biodiversity
issues:
- Discovery of a variety of vegetables, fruit, shellfish and aromatic garden (local products)
- Exhibition of seaweeds and derived products in the thalassotherapy institute
- Promotion of bike instead of more polluting means of transports
- Broadcasting of a film about oyster farming all day
- Discovery of an oyster park
- Treasure hunt organized for children. They also took this opportunity to plant a native tree
(Céanothe)
- Discovery of the local biodiversity
Pullman biodiversity
Each of the 13 Pullman hotels sponsors a beehive located
in one of the apiaries supported the association Bee my
Friend, and held by a professional beekeeper. Bee my
Friend commits to maintain the beehives for 2 years. The
employees were invited to visit the beekeepers in
Burgundy.
During one week, to raise guest awareness, honey jars
were served at breakfast along with a flyer explaining
Pullman’s commitment, there was honey sweets from the
beehives in the meeting rooms or at reception, and VIP guests received some honey related gifts:
honey spoon, a small honey pot …
Novotel water
The French Novotel hotels were engaged on the water issue. Every Novotel hotel organized staff
meetings in order to explain to their employees what is at stake in the water issue and what could be
done at their level in their hotels.
Mercure local development
Mercure hotels proposed fair trade coffee for breakfast every day. This action lasted three weeks.
Suitehotel waste
For Earth Guest day 2009, Suitehotel France organized an operation with the
association “Bouchons d’amour”, from April 20 th to April 26 th , in every French
Suitehotel.
Hotels proposed to their guests to give back caps from plastic bottles (water, milk,
fruit juice, drinks, etc.) in a box placed at reception. The caps recycling generated
money that helped the association to buy new equipments for handicapped people.
The brand relies on this action to push forward its engagement for handicapped
people. In fact, since 2007, the Suitehotel hotels have installed necessary
Sustainable development Department – July 2009
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