Sustainability by Raffles
For more than a century, Raffles Hotels & Resorts has been at the heart of each of our global destinations. Our focus has always been to preserve cultural and natural heritage and to support local communities. Today, this approach includes reducing the environmental impacts associated with our operations.
We believe hospitality can play an important role in supporting resilient destinations and thriving communities. Through ongoing action and continuous improvement, we aim to create meaningful experiences for our guests while contributing to the long-term vitality of the places where we operate.
At Raffles, we are dedicated to Accor's 2030 sustainability strategy, Hosting Change, believing that a shared vision for acting responsibly holds the greatest chance of success. As part of a hospitality business of global reach, we have a responsibility to undertake bold moves and extra initiatives to help lead our industry forward.
Preserving local, natural and historical heritage is in our DNA, a springboard for embracing sustainable practices throughout our sphere of influence. Today, right across our business, from development to daily operations, we are decarbonising our activities and reducing and optimising resource consumption.
More responsible hospitality starts with empowering our people. We uphold the fundamental human right to work in a safe, fair and dignified environment. At every level, we equip our colleagues with knowledge and tools to contribute to our sustainable transformation. Our social elevator programmes create unique opportunities for training and employment in our communities.
By reimagining the guest experience, we believe we can shift traditional expectations of luxury, bringing a more positive exploration of the world to our guests, and more meaningful human encounters. From transforming our culinary offerings with more sustainable choices to obtaining respected eco-certifications, we are answering the expectations of both our guests and the travel industry.
Hosting Change extends beyond Accor. We mobilise those around us – producers, suppliers, partners, local communities – to turn common values into collective action, creating inclusive environments that are a source of delight and enchantment for our guests.
Transcending hospitality, Raffles strives to create a world of beauty, wonder and inspiration for its guests, employees and communities – all those whose lives we touch. It is loved by generations past, present and future.
In 1887, at the dawn of the Golden Age of Travel, four entrepreneurial Persian-Armenian brothers, the Sarkies, opened a modest 10-room hotel in Singapore. They named it after the founder of modern Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, a distinguished British diplomat and pioneering botanist. With such a resonant name, Raffles Hotel caught the imagination of a new generation of well-heeled globetrotters, beginning to discover for themselves the allure of the exotic East.
As the hotel grew to be the splendid Victorian-colonial landmark we know today, it attracted a glorious cavalcade of guests. Writers such as Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward came for inspiration – and returned for more; while Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy found a rare place whose refinement mirrored their own elegance and glamour. With grace and generosity embodied by its impeccable butlers, the Raffles name became the stuff of legend, known to connoisseurs worldwide for its unique blend of British etiquette, tropical magnificence and Asian grace.
In time, the birthplace of stories and legends became also the birthplace of a family of elegant and culturally well-connected landmark addresses, all of them evoking the timeless old-world glamour, literary heritage and enchantment of the original. All share a unified aspiration to honour the Raffles name. Beyond hospitality, today Raffles strives to create a world of beauty, wonder and inspiration for its guests, employees and communities – wherever in the world it is found. It is loved by generations past, present and future.