The Chief Sustainability Officer reminds us of the 3 key issues to put sustainable development at the heart of the business model of a company as big as Accor. At first, a prerequisite : sustainability has to be in the center of all negotiations within the company, with a dedicated professional within the various comex.

Three major principles are essential today to implement sustainability in the business strategy of a company: 

1. the necessity to share a common diagnostic, based on scientific facts rather than preconceived opinions;
2. the accountability: it takes into account the alignment of financial and non-financial performance indicators, and implies a total transparency and the honest share of available data;
3. the radicality: sustainability mustn’t be seen in a negative prism but a way to offer a different experience.

At Accor, our hotels are more than hotels! We hope to transform them in coworking spaces, hosting places for women victims of violences… We are changing the functionality of these places to participate in the transformation of a neighborhood.

- Brune Poirson, Chief Sustainability Officer (Accor)  

To conclude, Brune Poirson comes back on the importance of social responsibility. According to her, there isn’t enough importance given to its issues as it seems of lesser importance than climate change. “We need to integrate society at the start of the recruitment process” she adds.

We are in a social volcano in an unpredictable world. If a company wishes to continue working in the best conditions, it needs to participate in social progress as these issues can’t only be the responsibility of our governance.

- Brune Poirson, Chief Sustainability Officer (Accor)  

Social problematics figures in high place for Accor, Brune Poirson insists on the necessity to work with public services to be able to measure in France more social indicators. She also mentioned the importance of biodiversity as part of the carbon issue. Like social issues, all companies should place biodiversity in the heart of their business model.