Novotel Century Hong Kong - Family & Business trip hotel - AccorHotels Launches Give a Tree campaign in Greater China

Four-month-long online fundraising and PR initiative to support the Group’s reforestation program

Following the successful implementation in France, Romania, Senegal, Indonesia and Peru, AccorHotels is pleased to announce that Give a Tree campaign will commence in Greater China. Starting from September 6 until December 31 2018, over 100 AccorHotels’ properties across the region will participate in the online fundraising initiative to support Plant for the Planet, the group’s global reforestation program. Underscoring the mandate of ‘Give a Tree, Make a Difference’, the campaign encourages people to purchase a tree as a precious and sustainable gift for loved ones.

Throughout the four-month drive, each hotel team will create various ideas and initiatives to promote the campaign among guests, employees, partners and local community to raise funds. Priced at CNY25 for each tree, all proceeds generated from the campaign will go towards China Zigen, AccorHotels’ NGO partner for Plant for the Planet in Greater China. The funds will be used to develop agricultural landscape for fruit and herbal tree plantation in under-utilised and degraded land in Qinglong County, Hebei Province, transforming them into fertile land with economic benefits for the farmers.

Cory Winter, Corporate Social Responsibility, AccorHotels Greater China said: “With this campaign, we would like to inspire all stakeholders to join us towards change, engagement and respect for our planet. The Give a Tree campaign is in line with our Plant for the Planet program, AccorHotels’ unique reforestation initiative that supports local communities. The program diversifies villagers’ incomes by developing local sales techniques, empowering villagers through organic farming practices. Villages eventually become self-sustainable.”

One of the highlights of the Give a Tree campaign to increase public awareness will be the Run for the Planet event that will take place on October 20 at Dasendian Village, Qinglong County. It is a celebration of Dasendian Village’s remarkable achievement of becoming a self-sufficient place directly through the Plant for the Planet; program over the past five years. The program has helped 1,200 farmers to raise their income and improve their standard of living. The farmers also had the opportunity to learn about organic farming practices and the importance of environmental protection. The initiative has helped transform over 60 hectares of wasteland into orchards with up to 40,000 trees planted. Participants from AccorHotels, partners and guests will join a 5 Km, 10 Km or 15 Km run that covers the surrounding countryside around Dasendian Village during the harvesting season. To date, corporate sponsors for this event include ACTION, Air Aroma, ATHENA Hotelware, BOSE, Coca Cola, Diversey, Guangzhou East Kitchenware, Hansgrohe, HEGRACE Healthcare, International Hotel Supply Company, Ming Fai Group, Musicstyling, Protect A bed, Standard Textile, Samsung and Yaean Design.

Plant for the Planet was launched by AccorHotels in 2009 as a unique reforestation project designed to protect biodiversity. Its underlying core message is to offer guests the option of reusing towels that, in turn, allocates the respective saved laundry costs to tree planting projects. More than five million trees have been planted since the program started. In Greater China, AccorHotels launched the program in 2013 and has since raised more than CNY1.2 million, with more than 67,000 trees planted in the region.