Novotel announces ocean protection partnership with WWF

For years, Novotel has been committed to supporting its guests' desire for balance in their lives. Novotel's three-year agreement with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) promotes the protection and restoration of the oceans, the planet's source of balance, through science-based actions and conservation projects.

Novotel, brand of Accor, has announced the launch of an international partnership with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature). Novotel will work to protect and restore the ocean through scientific actions and conservation projects. WWF is a global leader in building a sustainable future for people and the planet.

Under the three-year agreement, from 2024 to 2027, WWF France will provide technical expertise to Novotel to help its 580 hotels worldwide make a positive impact on the ocean, challenging and guiding the brand and hotels on many aspects of its operations. Through the partnership, Novotel will also sponsor several key WWF ocean conservation projects around the world.

Balance has long been at the heart of the Novotel brand, both in its business fundamentals and in its commitment to guests' work-life experience. The brand's focus on the ocean, the world's largest carbon sink and greatest source of planetary balance, regulating the climate and protecting habitats and wildlife, is a continuation of this purposeful commitment to balance.

Novotel will develop a three-year scientific action plan based on three United Nations ocean-related priority actions, namely: reducing marine pollution and ocean acidification, especially from land-based activities; combating overfishing and promoting sustainable fishing models; and increasing scientific knowledge and research on ocean health.

Based on these priorities, Novotel's action plan will aim to rebalance its impact on the planet, defining short- and long-term initiatives on four pillars that make up Novotel's Positive Impact Plan:

1. Reduce impact on plastic, water and carbon footprint -. Enable Novotel hotels to implement positive impact action plans to reduce pressure on natural resources, with a strong focus on plastics, water and energy consumption;
2. Making sustainable food choices - reducing meat, fish and waste within Novotel's food and beverage operations and further developing sustainable seafood policies;
3. Improve education & ocean awareness - Educate guests, hotel teams and local communities about the need for ocean conservation and how to make a positive contribution;
4. Contributing to research and innovation - Working with NGOs and investing in sustainable innovation. 

The partnership with WWF will help Novotel drive operational change and action for the greater good of the ocean and implement the Positive Impact Plan.

With a specific focus on the ocean, the collaboration with WWF has four main goals:

To support Novotel's work, WWF makes extensive visits to Novotel hotels to understand property-level activities and practices, review procurement data and make recommendations. WWF provides a dedicated steering committee to review the progress of Novotel's commitments during the collaboration.

Novotel supports essential WWF France conservation projects around the world, including:

Karelle Lamouche, Chief Commercial Officer, Premium, Midscale & Economy Division, Accor, said of the collaboration with Novotel WWF:

"We are delighted to announce that Novotel is embarking on an exciting new chapter. Novotel, Accor's founding brand, is a powerful brand and market leader in the mid-range segment in most of the world. Today, we are embarking on a bold new ambition - to champion sustainability globally. 

"Novotel has traditionally been committed to innovation and balance and we are now going one step further by choosing to help the greatest source of balance on our planet: the ocean.

"To realise this ambition, we are proud to unveil a groundbreaking partnership with WWF - the World Wildlife Fund. Together with our partners, teams and guests, Novotel will lead the way towards a sustainable future for our oceans, usher in a new era of environmental management in our hotels and drive change in the industry.

"There is a major imbalance in the way the ocean is treated. Globally, overexploitation and pollution deplete the ocean's resources, while only a small portion of climate finance is spent on conservation. The health of the ocean concerns us all and our collective actions have a big impact. We will rebalance our handling of the ocean, our use of resources and our investments in its protection and restoration. As a mainly land-based brand, Novotel has a unique opportunity to raise awareness of the impact everyone, everywhere, has on the ocean and inspire positive change for the ocean's future."

Yann Laurans, WWF France nature conservation director: “WWF aims to restore healthy oceans for the benefit of people and nature. The oceans are a vital source of biodiversity that must be protected. WWF is committed to strategic and innovative partnerships with the world's leading international and national companies to help them concretely reduce their ecological footprint and make a positive contribution to the environment. We are confident that our world-renowned technical and scientific expertise will help Novotel drive operational change for the benefit of their business and the ocean."

Accor, the parent company of Novotel, has an established reputation for developing sustainable solutions and innovations in the maritime sector. Accor has supported Energy Observer since 2017 and recently worked with the Fondation de la Mer in 2022 to adopt the Ocean Framework, to assess the impact of its business activities on ocean wildlife. The Group bans endangered fish species, promotes responsible fishing and was the first hospitality group to commit to phasing out single-use plastic items from their guest experiences to combat ocean pollution. These Accor commitments are in line and consistent with the Group's commitment to contribute to global carbon neutrality by 2050 and to remove all single-use plastic items from the guest experience.

Brune Poirson, chief sustainability officer at Accor, Says: "Novotel's commitment and investment in ocean conservation, together with WWF, marks an important turning point in its history. It demonstrates the determination of the brand and Accor Group to act decisively in favour of biodiversity and climate change and inspires the entire industry. Tourism has a major impact on marine resources. But it is also highly dependent on them. It is not only our responsibility to reduce this impact, but also to come up with effective solutions to help the sector adapt to climate change and its consequences. So our ambition is to support our owners in turning social and environmental challenges into sources of opportunity, for their assets and for the societies in which they operate."

Novotel, founded in France in 1967, is the founding brand of Accor. It now has more than 580 hotels in 65 countries, with 42,000 Novotel "Heartists" looking after more than 30 million guests a year.