Once a year around Earth Day (22nd April), AccorHotels organises “Planet 21 Day”, an important event in which the hotel chains and their teams become fully involved in a particular initiative.

It is the perfect opportunity for Accor staff all around the world to proudly showcase their commitment to sustainable development. In 2017, AccorHotels launched the Green Stars campaign to promote sustainable food - a main priority of the Planet 21 programme.

The campaign was developed to challenge their teams from around the world to share their best “green” actions to fight food waste within their respective industries.

The hotels were asked to arrange a project and or activity focusing on one of the 3 topics – healthy food, vegetable gardens or food waste. Since September 2018, Mercure Hotels Randburg have been sending their food waste to a composting depot via Earth Probiotic. Earth Probiotic have an organic product which Mercure Hotel Randburg uses and adds to the hotels food waste which breaks down the food.

On the 3rd May 2019, the hotel chain collected 100kg of compost from Earth Probiotic which had been developed utilising the food waste and donated it to the Mother of Peace organization in North Riding, Johannesburg.

The organisation has an existing vegetable garden however their soil is of poor quality as they are close to a river and in a valley. Together with Earth Probiotic, Mercure Randburg will share some tips with Mother of Peace employee, Lucky who takes care of the vegetable garden whilst continuing to donate compost and seeds to help develop the veggie garden.

On the initiative, General Manager of Mercure Randburg, Michelle Cross said: “As the GM for Mercure Hotel based in Randburg, we are proud to have been associated with the Planet 21 Initiative.

The leadership and staff of Mercure Randburg are driven and geared to support all campaigns or visionary efforts that ensures the long-term sustainability of our plant and the environment. We pledge nil tolerance to environmental pollution.

At Mercure, we attempt to recycle, reuse and sustain all our waste with a vision for “zero waste to landfill. Hence our commitment to Planet 21 and the production of compost from our kitchen waste.

We hope that fellow organizations in all sectors follow suit and we do believe that there is a fortune that we can create from our waste.

The deeply dedicated staff at Mercure Randburg are custodians of this statement. I am proud of the efforts made by my staff and honoured to be associated to the initiatives of Planet 21”.

Globally, the Green Stars campaign was a phenomenal success! Hotels from all over the world got involved and showed their creative side.