How Accor Is Turning Procurement Into a Force for Sustainable Change

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

For any organization pursuing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), setting clear commitments is just the starting point. For Accor, sustainability is ultimately about helping hotels turn those commitments into everyday operational practices that make them a reality. And because hotel operations depend on thousands of products and services every day, procurement — through Astore, Accor’s group purchasing organization — is where CSR ambitions are translated into concrete, measurable actions at the property level.

“Without a responsible and forward-thinking procurement function, delivering meaningful change and achieving genuine sustainability transformation is significantly more challenging — or maybe even impossible,” said Caroline Tissot, chief procurement officer at Accor.

Accor Procurement’s approach relies on two complementary levers: evolving the product and service offer to make sustainable operations accessible and scalable for hotels, and elevating supply-chain practices so that environmental, social, and ethical standards progress in line with Accor’s ambitions. 

SkiftX spoke with Tissot about how procurement is accelerating Accor’s sustainability transition. 

Procurement Translates Accor’s Sustainability Goals Into Concrete Actions

At Accor, sustainability commitments are not just statements of intent — they are embedded into every purchasing choice. Turning vision into reality means integrating environmental and social criteria into supplier selection, product design, and contract negotiation. This includes initiatives such as eliminating single-use plastics, supported by a two-year collaboration with suppliers that removed more than 50 items from the guest experience across nearly 90 percent of hotels — a shift that has since encouraged other suppliers to introduce eco-friendly alternatives of their own.

“This progress would not have been possible without the sustained efforts of Accor’s procurement teams, who helped seamlessly introduce plastic-free alternatives without compromising the guest experience,” Tissot said. 

The shift away from single-use plastics marked the true acceleration of Accor’s procurement evolution, broadening the offer to include solutions that support the company’s goal of achieving third-party eco-certifications across all hotels, contribute to the target of a 60% reduction in food waste by 2030, and help suppliers transition toward more sustainable food options.

By ensuring that sustainable alternatives are both operationally effective and competitive, procurement enables corporate goals to be translated into tangible property-level solutions, helping hotels adapt smoothly to rapidly evolving environmental expectations.

Lifting the Supply Chain: Compliance, Decarbonization, and Collective Action 

Accor’s sustainability ambitions extend beyond the products and services it offers. Procurement also plays a central role in raising environmental, social, and ethical standards across the supply chain. 

With Accor’s CSR goals front and center, alignment with these values is a prerequisite for any new supplier seeking to work with Astore. All suppliers must sign on to Astore’s Responsible Procurement Charter, a foundational commitment that ensures a shared baseline of responsible practices.

“The Responsible Procurement Charter reinforces the importance of ethical, social, and environmental responsibility throughout the supply chain,” Tissot said. By signing, suppliers commit to upholding standardized best practices in fundamental human rights, fair working conditions, ethics, health and safety, and environmental protections, not only within their own operations but also across their entire upstream supply chains.

But meaningful progress requires more than shared principles. Astore works closely with suppliers throughout the contract lifetime to:

• Identify compliance risks through supplier control plans and third-party assessments.
• Lower emissions through an ambitious and structured supply chain decarbonization program.
• Support industry-wide transformation through initiatives such as the Hospitality Alliance for Responsible Procurement (HARP), an industry platform that aims to align sustainability standards across hospitality suppliers.

“What makes our decarbonization program truly exemplary is the way it was built,” Tissot said. “We didn’t wait for suppliers to mature; we chose to act and help drive that maturity. Because nothing existed at this scale, we created everything ourselves: the methodology, the tools, the training. And by working as one global team, we onboarded 1,000 suppliers — representing 75% of our volumes — in less than a year.”

Strengthening Business Resilience Through Sustainable Procurement

Astore’s sustainability-driven approach also strengthens Accor’s operational resilience. In today’s volatile global context, this shift in procurement from a cost-control function to a risk-mitigation and business-enabling tool helps reduce exposure to fluctuating prices, material availability, and geopolitical changes.

“With global markets and supply chains becoming increasingly complex and prone to significant disruption, procurement functions are now more important than ever,” Tissot said. 

“The ability to actively manage supplier relationships, react to shocks, and secure easy access to crucial inputs is essential to delivering business performance for both Accor and hotel owners,” Tissot said. “Most importantly, it reinforces Accor’s position as a trusted partner for owners, helping hotels transition to more sustainable operations and strengthening their long-term resilience and competitiveness as guests are increasingly looking for sustainable stays.”

For more information about Astore, Accor’s global procurement organization, click here.

This content was created collaboratively by Accor and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.