Essendi cuts emissions by 20% as it completes its first sustainability roadmap

Paris — Essendi today publishes its 2025 Sustainability Report, marking the completion of its first five-year sustainability roadmap and highlighting measurable progress delivered through hotel-level execution, operational discipline and team engagement. 2025 also marks a defining year for the Group, with the adoption of its new identity and the positioning of Positive Hospitality at the heart of the way Essendi creates long-term value for its business, assets, teams and the communities around them.

A Five-Year Roadmap Translated into Measurable Progress

Between 2021 and 2025, Essendi embedded sustainability more deeply into the way it operates, invests and manages its portfolio. The Group completed the first phase of its carbon roadmap, focused on no- and low-capex actions, contributing to a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2019 and 2025. This first phase relied on practical levers: upskilling teams, improving day-to-day operational efficiency, deploying technical audits, and carrying out significant work on data governance to improve the quality, consistency and monitoring of environmental performance data across the portfolio. On a like-for-like perimeter, these efforts also contributed to a 3% reduction in energy consumption in 2025.

The Group also continued to expand its environmental certification strategy, with 64% of hotels Green Key certified and 72% of gross asset value certified BREEAM In-Use. For Essendi, certifications are a practical way to turn ambition into action: they help structure progress, improve data, raise operational standards and make sustainability performance more visible across the portfolio. This dual approach reflects the Group's business model, combining Green Key for hotel operations and BREEAM In-Use for real estate assets to drive progress both in the way hotels are operated and in the environmental performance of the assets themselves.

Food Waste Reduction as a Proof Point of Positive Hospitality in Action

Food waste reduction is one of the clearest illustrations of Essendi's operating model in action. Since 2023, the Group has rolled out a food waste reduction programme across hotels equipped with AI-powered smart scales such as Winnow and Orbisk. These tools provide detailed reporting by type and origin of waste, helping hotel teams better understand where losses occur and identify the most effective corrective actions. In 2025, more than 80 hotels were equipped with AI-powered smart scales, including 36 newly onboarded during the year. Across these 36 hotels, Essendi observed an average 26% reduction in food waste per meal.

Building on that experience, Essendi also launched an early-stage pilot of its own internal food waste measurement module, developed in close collaboration with Chefs and Food & Beverage Managers. The tool was designed with operational relevance in mind, allowing teams to track losses by hour, service and day, calculate a baseline, set reduction targets and monitor performance over time through a dedicated dashboard. In 2025, seven internal modules were deployed as part of this pilot. This two-track approach shows how Essendi combines AI-enabled insight, internal innovation and on-the-ground team ownership to reduce food waste over time.

Stronger External Recognition for Essendi's Sustainability Trajectory

In 2025, Essendi's progress was also reflected in its external benchmarks. The Group achieved a GRESB score of 88/100 and secured a fourth star, improving its score by seven points year on year and moving above peer group averages. Essendi was also awarded an A- score in the 2025 CDP Climate assessment. These results underline the robustness, consistency and growing maturity of Essendi's sustainability strategy.

Building on Solid Foundations

As it completes this first sustainability cycle, Essendi enters a new chapter under its new identity, with Positive Hospitality as the compass guiding the way it operates, invests and creates long-term value. Building on the foundations laid since 2021, the Group will continue to advance this model with the same focus on operational excellence, responsible investment and empowered teams.

Over the past five years, Essendi has translated its sustainability commitments into measurable results. The progress reflected in this report is the outcome of a disciplined approach, combining operational execution, team engagement and continuous improvement across our portfolio. It confirms that sustainability is fully embedded in the way we operate, invest and create long-term value.

Gilles Clavié, CEO of Essendi

Download the 2025 Sustainability Report.

Key Factsheet

2025: A Defining Year

• 2025 marks the final year of Essendi's first sustainability roadmap, launched in 2021.

• 2025 also marks the adoption of the Essendi identity, with Positive Hospitality positioned as the Group's long-term approach to value creation.

Group Scale

• 535 hotels across 20 countries

• 87,000 rooms

• 19,000 employees

• €7.5bn in gross asset value

• €3.4bn in revenue

• €82 RevPAR

Governance Supporting Responsible Growth

• 79% of operations reviewed against ESG criteria and presented to the Investment Committee

• 5% of purchases made with suppliers selected on ESG criteria

• 890 HQ employees and hotel General Managers trained on anti-bribery

• 0 confirmed corruption or bribery cases

Teams at the Heart of the Model

• 65,273 training hours delivered in 2025

• 9/10 employee engagement score

• 45% women in management positions

• 2,800+ employees trained in DEI practices

Tangible Environmental Performance

• -20% greenhouse gas emissions vs. 2019

• -3.2% like-for-like energy consumption in 2025

• -2.43% like-for-like water consumption vs. 2024

• 4 litres per guest night; -4% like-for-like water use per guest night

• 64% of hotels Green Key certified and 72% of GAV certified BREEAM In-Use

• 80+ hotels in the food waste programme; -26% average food waste per meal across the 36 hotels onboarded in 2025

A Hospitality Model Rooted in Its Ecosystem

• 82% guest satisfaction score

• 320+ hotels with a local solidarity initiative

• 349 volunteering hours generated

Recognition from Leading Market Benchmarks

• 88/100 GRESB score in 2025; 4th GRESB star achieved in 2025, with +7 points year on year

• A- CDP Climate score