AccorHotels announces the successful conclusion of its four month long Give a Tree online fundraising and awareness campaign. Spanning between September to December 2018, more than 100 hotels and resorts within the group participated in the campaign across Greater China.
An initiative to support Plant for the Planet, the group’s global agroforestry project under the sustainable development program Planet 21, Give a Tree was designed to encourage people to grow a tree as a unique and sustainable gift for loved ones while raising funds for the charity. During the campaign’s four month duration, 100 hotels participated with more than CNY630,000 raised to support China Zigen, AccorHotels’ NGO partner for Plant for the Planet in Greater China. The campaign touched 27 million audience across various media and social media channels throughout Greater China. During the annual AccorHotels Solidarity Week 2018, approximately 25,000 staff members across properties in the region were mobilized to raise funds for the campaign.
Give a Tree became a catalyst for many innovative and creative ideas that involved stakeholders across all levels: the local community, hotel owners, partners, guests and staff members. Teams of Fairmont Yangcheng Lake, Sofitel Xian on Renmin Square, Pullman Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, and Novotel Xian SCPG organized charity runs to promote awareness of the campaign within their local communities. Pullman, Novotel and Mercure Hefei cluster hotels partnered with the local school and encouraged hearing impaired children to create drawings towards a charity auction. Pullman Taiyuan staff members baked cookies towards a local charity sale. In addition, a number of hotels incorporated Give a Tree elements in their Christmas light décor or year end appreciation events, including Raffles Hainan, Fairmont Peace Hotel, Sofitel Guangzhou Sunrich, Pullman Oceanview Sanya Bay Resort & Spa, Swissôtel Foshan, Grand Mercure Beijing Central, and Novotel Suzhou SIP, just to name a few.
“I am impressed by the creativity and truly appreciate the efforts initiated by Greater Chinese hotels towards the campaign,” said Gary Rosen, Chairman and Chief Operating Officer, AccorHotels Greater China. “The outstanding results are thanks to joint efforts from each and every member who was involved in the project. As a leader in CSR, Plant for the Planet is our unique and meaningful agroforestry project that empowers local communities through development of organic and sustainable farming practices to encourage village members to become self-sustainable.”
In the past five years, Plant for the Planet has helped 1,200 farmers residing in Dasendian village Qinglong county in Hebei province improve living standards and monthly incomes. At the same time, the farmers had opportunity to learn about organic farming practices and the importance of environmental protection. The initiative helped transform more than 60 hectares of disused land into fruit orchards with 40,000 newly planted trees. AccorHotels will continue its partnership with China Zigen to support local communities through Plant for the Planet. Shuiquan village Qinglong county in Hebei province will be the next beneficiary site. Nestled within 67 hectares of land, the village will be converted into orchards through the joint efforts of China Zigen and AccorHotels Greater China, with 50,000 trees and crops as the target to be planted in the coming three years.
AccorHotels launched Plant for the Planet in 2009 as a unique agroforestry project designed to protect biodiversity under Planet 21, the group’s sustainable development program. Its core message is to offer guests the option of reusing towels that, in turn, allocates the corresponding laundry bill to tree planting projects. More than five million trees have been planted since the program began a decade ago globally. In Greater China, AccorHotels launched the program in 2013 and has since raised more than CNY 2 million, over one third of the result was generated from 2018.