Environmental and Social Responsibility

how we build

We think sustainability is as important as being a good neighbour. It's on our mind from the moment we pick a building or conversion site.

Green buildings (in terms of design, construction and operation) can significantly reduce a business' environmental impact. They are not only better for the planet, they are healthier for our employees and guests too. 

Let's get into some industry speak. We require all our new-build hotels to achieve at least BREEAM-NC Excellent (ideally – Outstanding) accreditation or LEED-BD+C Gold (ideally – Platinum) rating. For our redevelopments or existing buildings, we aim for BREEAM-NC Very Good and LEED-BD+C Silver (at least).

Curious what these accreditations mean? Here's where you can dive into BREEAM assessments, or read all about the LEED rating system.

what we do

Talking is good, but doing is better! Here are a few things we are proud of:

- 100% of our hotel electricity comes from renewable energy sources
- our energy, emissions waste and water consumption has been third party assured - to make sure our figures are right
- we have set ourselves a single-use plastic's goal
- we stopped putting plastic water bottles in guest rooms and societyM meeting rooms – our efforts mean we avoided using 1.7 million plastic bottles per year from our hotels
- we prioritise LED lights, from the bedrooms to the kitchens
- being tech-savvy really pays off – once a guest checks out, the lights in their room switch off automatically. Goodbye, illuminated empty rooms!
- all areas of the hotels have individual light and temperature controls
- we track our waste and recycling rates in every hotel
- together with our partners, we reduced our dinner and lunch food waste with intelligent portioning and packaging
- bye bye, leftovers! We signed up to the TooGoodToGo app to sell our breakfast buffet leftovers which would otherwise go to waste
- when guests staying two nights or more say ‘no’ to room cleaning, citizenM donates 3 euros on their behalf to our charity, citizenMovement – over 1.8 million euros have been raised so far
- twice a year we carry out employee satisfaction surveys
- we have an active diversity committee with representatives from across the company.

good neighbours

We may be disrupting the traditional hospitality model with our 'affordable luxury' philosophy, but we don't believe in disrupting our neighbourhoods. Wherever we go, we are guests – and we act like good guests should. We already told you about our sustainable buildings, but that's just the beginning. In every citizenM hotel, you'll find walls packed with art by local artists we seek out.

The art is outside too – our Paris, Miami, Chicago and other hotels feature stunning facade pieces. In all our canteenMs (24/7 food-and-drink havens) we look after the early conscious traveller with a comforting meal and vegetarian and vegan options. Our local picks include funky beers you won't find anywhere else. Beyond the hotel, we find small-business partners in every city and we promote their services in our app – everything from restaurants to bike rentals.

ESG reports and policies

reports

Read more about our approach to ESG in our reports, click the links below:

2019 - ESG Report and GRI Report

2020 - ESG Report and GRI Report

2021 - ESG Report and GRI Report

2022 - ESG Report and GRI Report

policies, principles and statements