Airelles' commitments
A responsible luxury. Responsibility is at the heart of our business. We are responsible for the wellbeing of our clients and employees, as well as for looking after our environment. In essence, our hotels are already symbols of durability, because of their history, their iconic locations, their importance to their locality, and the exceptional service offered to our clients.
The group wants to go further, to align their success with the evolution of our world, and to coherently bring together the world of luxury and that of eco responsibility. At Airelles we are enthusiastic and positive about Responsabilité Sociétale des Enterprises (Social Responsibility for Businesses). For us it triggers a deep feeling of emotion and belonging.
We take action quickly rather than simply talking about it, and we help our teams to do the same every day. We also encourage them, because our talents are developing, to think about the crucial challenges, and the importance of the proposition. The new generation is looking for answers and for engagement, and we want to give it to them in their professional life, both environmentally, socially and societally.
ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE
1% of carbon emission worldwide come from the hotel industry. We have a responsibility to do what we can to limit our carbon footprint, and to protect our environment. Firstly, because our hotels are historic buildings set in exceptional natural sites and secondly, because we subscribe to a more global environmental duty.
We’ve got rid of single-use plastic
• PET plastic bottles have disappeared from our properties and been replace by glass, and in 2023, by 100% recyclable aluminium bottles and made in France. Airelles will be the first hotel group in France to do this.
• In the bathrooms and bedrooms, our amenities are wrapped in rice paper and our toiletries are in refillable pumps.
• Most of our team are given reusable water bottles, 100% made in France from durable and recyclable materials.
We’re reducing the amount of waste
• In 2022, Airelles started a collaboration with Pandobac via one of its main suppliers of fruit and vegetables, Maison Colom. Wooden crates have disappeared from our winter hotels and been replaced by reusable containers. This allows us to reduce the waste created by our hotels but also to take part in a global effort towards environmental responsibility, prioritising the reusable over the disposable.
Our waste is sorted, recycled and reused where possible
• At Airelles we want to go further than simply our legal obligation, and opt for recycling and reuse of our waste where possible, according to what can be done at each hotel’s location.
• Where possible, all the waste, from food and soap to plastic, paper, coffee capsules and even cigarette butts is sorted, collected by ethical businesses and recycled via traceable means in France.
• In the mountains, all of our hotels are pioneers of recycling food waste, which is collected and composted, before being returned to the ground. The company who does this, ELISE Alpes, is largely staffed by people with disabilities.
• And when it comes to other people’s rubbish…our teams help clear it up, as part of a team-building rubbish collection and cleaning event.
Our soaps are recycled by Unisoap
• For all these essential reasons, and because we want to be a socially responsible business, Airelles has a partnership with Unisoap, the Lyon-based charity which collects single-use soaps from our hotels. The soap is then recycled at a centre in Lyon which is staffed by people with disabilities. The recycled soaps are, in turn, given to local and national partners who distribute them to vulnerable people.
We practise responsible cleaning
• For the comfort of our clients and the protection of the planet, our housekeeping teams use drycleaning equipment or stabilised ozone water, as well as eco cleaning products.
We practise sustainable gastronomy
• Homemade food is by its nature eco-friendly! In all our restaurants, our Chefs and their teams prioritise low food miles by using local products, prepare them in ways which avoid waste, and use organic fruit and vegetables where available.
We economise on water and energy
• Whenever possible we use geothermal energy, a closed circulation system of water, as well as collecting and reusing rainwater and grey water, which we store in tanks and treat to reuse for irrigation.
• In our mountain hotels, we use the outdoor air to chill water and for air-conditioning in the kitchens and some bedrooms.
• Our hotels use LED lighting, even the period tassled lamps at Le Grand Contrôle!
• Bedlinen changes are at the discretion of the client: unless they say otherwise, our staff will limit the frequency.
• We are gradually equipping all our hotels with electric cars and golf buggies, as well as chargers.
• Finally, we educate our staff in this area, with targeted training sessions run by third parties or our specialist service providers at the start of the season.
CORPORATE SOCIAL PERFORMANCE
Quality of life at work is one of the main preoccupations of the Airelles group. The human resources and social responsibility departments work hard to makes the day-to-day life of our teams pleasant, and to educate them on subjects such as equality and inclusion at work.
Disability
We have three objectives: to raise awareness, to educate and to train our staff around the issue of disability at work, both employees and clients. For us it isn’t taboo, but a subject of exchange and communication. Airelles champions the difference, which we consider a positive.
Some figures which we take into consideration:
- One person in six will be affected by disability personally, or of someone close during their lives
- 80% of disabilities are invisible
- Companies which employ more than 20 people should legally employ at least 6% with a disability
We welcome clients with a disability
• If our properties are to be fully accessible, we need to know the right language, to understand everyone’s needs and to offer an unsurpassable personal service. We help our teams achieve this by organising training sessions given by professionals with disabilities.
• Through dialogue and role play, in groups of staff from all levels, we strive for intense understanding and empathy. Every year we organise an internal campaign in all our hotels offering an external and confidential support service. The results are conclusive, with many calls and referrals to the body for workers with a disability Reconnaissance de la Qualité de Travailleur Handicapé (RQTH), which helps facilitate adjustments in working life where necessary.
We strive to meet the needs of people with disabilities better
• Every year we take part in the national event DUODAY which offers a day’s work experience to people with a disability.
• Finally, the Airelles Group often calls on Enterprises Adaptés (Accessible Businesses) or Travailleurs Indépendants Handicapés (Independent Workers with Disabilities) for adhoc services such as training, as well as on-going projects such as recycling and publishing our newsletter.
• On this theme, our close partnership with Linklusion, the outsourcing website for people with disabilities, is useful and inspiring.
• The Airelles group goes beyond our legal obligations when it comes to employing people with disabilities. To this end, we have put several schemes in place.
• Firstly, whenever we advertise a post we make it clear that accessibility in our hotels and employing people with disabilities are very important to us.
Equality between men and women
• The Airelles group places great importance on non-discrimination in employment, on equality and, more widely, respect of the rights of women. To this end, we work on a programme which fights against occupational inequalities, with the Fondation des Femmes (Women’s Foundation), France’s body for the rights and freedom of women which offers financial, legal and material support in conjunction with charities throughout the country.
• We have also put in wellbeing schemes for our female hotel employees, with events dedicated to this during the year and a ‘Sorority Box’ which encourages donations to help fight against period poverty.
Quality of life at work
• Airelles places great important on offering its employees, its ‘internal clients’, a comfortable and practical quality of life: accommodation close to the ski slopes and the centre of the resorts in the Alps, in Provencal farmhouses with pools and BBQs in the Luberon and in the heart of the ‘Seasonal Workers’ Village’ in Saint-Tropez.
• There are plenty of events throughout the seasons to encourage bonding both within the teams and the business: birthdays, employee of the month elections, parties for the beginning and end of the season. The onboarding of new team members includes friendly integration meetings and several training sessions. Airelles also offers courses and cross-training options in its various hotels. Finally, Airelles rewards loyalty in its teams, offering internal promotion opportunities and mobility between its different departments.
Pledges for employees
• Both as a national hospitality organisation and at a local level, Airelles takes responsibility for contributing to making life better for all. Societal engagement is about creating a sense of belonging within the business, pride in it and its ethics. This is demonstrated as respect towards its employees, its stakeholders, and by paying attention to the care it affords to society at large.
• In 2021, the LOV group started a partnership with the social media start-up VENDREDI, a platform on which hundreds of charities can post voluntary work. Airelles offers each of its employees four days per year, during their working hours, to take on these opportunities.
• They can do this alone or as a team, for one or several causes, for a few minutes a week, a few hours a month or a few days per year, and choose a task allied to their usual work or not, on site or remotely, as they wish.
Pledges for suppliers and service providers
• Where possible, the hotels choose to work with social enterprises such as the NGO Unisoap for recycling soap, the Enterprise Adaptée ELISE, HASC, Les Papillons de Jour which employs people with disabilities, and also Lemon Tri, a recycling company dedicated to social inclusion.
• We also strive to work with suppliers who employ sustainable practices, such as Mason Colom and Pandobac.
Sponsorship and donations
A strong partnership with Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque
• In April 2021, Airelles staff held sporting events to raise funds for a child to have a heart operation. Over the month, the team walked, ran, cycled, practiced yoga and weight-training, meditated and gardened, registering their activities on their smartphones. The 126 participants covered more than 18,000 km, the equivalent of going from Saint-Tropez to Paris via Courcheval, Val d’Isère, Estoublon, Annecy and Lyon – to the hotels as well as the offices. Their efforts were rewarded by a successful operation for Mariam Soubounou, a two-year-old girl from Mali, operated on in Strasbourg in May to repair a Tetralogy of Fallot. She is now in good health and back with her family in Mali. The challenge will take place again in 2023.
• • Meanwhile, some of our sportier staff also took on other challenges for Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque, such as the Paris Ecotrail and the prestigious Trophée du Coeur au Golf de St Nom la Bretèche.
• Our hotels donate valuable prizes to various raffles and auctions organised by the charity and some of our employees donate their skills, such as at the Christmas Sale 2021 at Floral de Vincennes Park.
An involvement in local life
• Cultural sponsorship, donations of hotel equipment, goodie bags for charity events and sponsorship of celebrations: each of our hotels takes part in local life in their own way to encourage diversity and good relations between the hotel and the community.
In conclusion
We know that the journey towards a virtuous circle is long and difficult. Airelles builds on its responsibility strategy bit by bit with practical action, and with pledges and inspiration for its clients and its employees.
We have made a lot of progress, and we’ve put in place strategies to continuously evaluate and improve our performance. On this theme, our Business Responsibility committee includes several general managers.
The manager of this committee has developed strategies to assure that appropriate actions are put in place and followed, and that the teams work together towards a sole objective: responsible and durable luxury.