Accor North America Hosts Earth Day Initiatives

A Corporate Responsibility to Mother Earth
DALLAS--(Business Wire)--
In honor of international Earth Day on April 22, Accor North
America, which operates more than 950 upscale and economy hotels, will
launch Accor Earth Guest Week from April 21-25. During this unique
week, each Accor North America property will focus efforts in two
sectors: Eco (involving ecological and environmental conservation) and
Ego (encompassing volunteer outreach in each community). Eco and
Ego-focused activities are led and put into action in local
communities by Accor North America's four brands and 950 properties -
Sofitel, Novotel, Studio 6 and Motel 6 in the U.S. and Canada.

The Accor North America Earth Guest Week efforts are designed to
maximize Accor employee involvement in beautifying Mother Earth,
educating and helping the community and implementing their own Earth
Guest initiatives. To promote the Eco focus, Accor North America has
partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to plant 15,000 trees in areas
in need of reforestation. Each tree represents one of ANA's 15,000
employees. Also, the posting of 65-point, tri-lingual environmental
check list posters throughout Accor North America's properties and
corporate headquarters conveys to employees pro-environmental actions
including training, consumption reduction, monitoring and analysis.
This check list enables Accor's employees to reach the ultimate goal
of reducing their collective environmental footprint.

As part of the Ego focus, Accor North America supports education
and the development of a strong community as the best devices to
protect and maintain the earth's resources. To demonstrate their
support, ANA has partnered with the United Way to benefit the
organization's Success by 6 Program, which promotes early childhood
education for economically disadvantaged children. In addition to
making a company donation of $10,000, each Motel 6, Studio 6 and
corporate location will conduct a book and school supply drive, and
employees will be encouraged to make their own donations to the
Success by 6 Program.

Other initiatives include offering of organic food on the hotel
restaurant menus, tree planting in local communities, the creation of
employee mini organic herb gardens, offering battery recycling
locations at select hotels and the corporate headquarters, and hybrid
automobile displays.

On an ongoing basis, Accor North America monitors all properties
to ensure everyone is doing their part to protect the fragile
environment. Here are a few key conservation and earth-friendly
elements Accor operates year-round:

-- Yearly publication of results of sustainable development
initiatives and energy and water consumption per brand in
annual report.

-- Participation in energy and water conservation programs
including creation of a monthly energy / water consumption
report to inform each hotel of their month to date progress in
regards to consumption savings, taking into consideration
variables such as weather and hotel activity levels (all
Sofitel and Novotel hotels since 2004)

-- Florescent bulb and battery recycling in all 670 plus
corporate-owned Motel 6 and Studio 6 properties, making Motel
6 the first national hotel brand to implement a chain-wide
fluorescent light bulb and battery recycling program in the
hospitality industry

-- Water saving shower heads and faucet aerators (all brands)

-- Ozone machines were installed on laundry washers; these
machines allow the hotel to wash linen and towels with cold
water instead of hot and reduce the use of soap/detergent (all
Sofitel hotels with laundry)

-- Using environmentally sensitive Ecolab(TM) laundry products
(all Motel 6 and Studio 6 locations)

-- Purchase of wind-generated power by all Sofitel hotels in the
U.S., making Sofitel the first hotel chain to become an EPA
Green Power Partner

-- Technologically advanced heating and cooling systems to reduce
consumption of power (all brands)

-- Corporate office recycling program

-- Use of ecological paper, including printing 5 million brand
directories on recycled paper using Soy ink (all Motel 6 and
Studio 6 directories)

-- Ongoing extensive retrofitting of fluorescent lighting, which
consumes 75% less energy than conventional bulbs (all brands)

-- Motel 6 and Studio 6 recognized by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) as an Energy Star Leader. Energy star
Leaders are recognized as part of the EPA's Energy Star
Building Challenge, a program encouraging building owners and
managers to reduce energy use by 10 percent or more.

About Accor North America

Headquartered in Dallas (Carrollton), Texas, Accor North America
operates more than 950 upscale and economy properties including
nationwide economy leaders Studio 6 and Motel 6 and the upper-upscale
Sofitel and upscale Novotel hotel locations in the U.S. and Canada.
For more information, visit http://www.accor-na.com/.

About Accor Worldwide

Accor, the European leader and a major global group in hotels, the
global leader in services to corporate clients and public
institutions, operates in nearly 100 countries with 170,000 employees.
It offers to its clients over 40 years of expertise in its two core
businesses:

-- Hotels, with the Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure,
Suitehotel, Ibis, All Seasons, Etap Hotel, Formule 1, Studio 6
and Motel 6 brands, representing more than 4,000 hotels and
nearly 500,000 rooms in 90 countries, as well as strategically
related activities, such as Lenotre.

-- Services, with 23 million people in nearly 40 countries
benefiting from Accor Services products in human resources,
marketing services and expense management.

Corporate
Accor North America
Janice Maragakis / Laura Rojo-Eddy
Tel: 972-360-5958 / 972-360-5970
jmaragakis@accor-na.com
lrojo@accor-na.com
or
Sofitel
Lou Hammond & Associates
Nicole Hernandez / Jami Coon / Lisa Herbst
Tel: 212-308-8880
nicoleh@lhammond.com
jamic@lhammond.com
lisah@lhammond.com
or
Novotel
Accor North America
Laura Rojo-Eddy
Tel: 972-360-5970
jmaragakis@accor-na.com
lrojo@accor-na.com
or
Motel 6 & Studio 6
Elmore Public Relations
Jennie Roberts / Benny Ross / KC Sharnberg
Tel: 713-524-0661
jennie@elmorepr.com
benny@elmorepr.com
kc@elmorepr.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008