Accor brings back former procurement lead to replace Chief Sustainability Officer

Hospitality multinational Accor is bringing back its former Chief Procurement Officer Coline Pont to replace Brune Poirson as Chief Sustainability Officer from July 1.

Pont is a seasoned procurement professional currently working as Group Chief Procurement Officer for insurance group AXA. She previously served as CPO for Accor from 2016 to 2023, and will soon rejoin the firm in her first sustainability-led role.

From July 1, 2025, Pont will become Accor’s Chief Sustainability Officer, succeeding Brune Poirson in the position, a company spokesperson has confirmed to CSO Futures.

Brune Poirson leaving Accor Group

Poirson announced her departure from the hotel chain last week on Linkedin, after four years leading sustainability at the hospitality giant, which posted €5.6 billion of revenue in 2024.

“Thank you to [CEO] Sébastien Bazin for trusting me over the past four years to build this trajectory. For turning the sustainable transition into a driver of performance and operational excellence for the group. Hotel owners’ and travellers’ expectations are very high. And there is no doubt that – even in a context of economic and political headwinds – climate and social considerations will allow the group to maintain its headstart,” Poirson wrote (in French).

Now based in New York, she did not reveal details about her new position, except for saying she would support the emergence of new technologies and new working methodologies amid the current “killer tornado for the environment”. 

She previously worked as France’s Secretary of State for the Ecological Transition Ministry, from 2017 to 2020.

Accor sustainability goals and progress

Accor is currently working to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 46% and Scope 3 emissions by 28% by 2030. It also has a target to cut food waste by 60% by 2030 and eliminate single-use plastics from its operations by 2025.

In 2023, the company reported an 11.6% growth in Scope 1 and 2 emissions compared to 2022. “This rise was mainly due to an increase in energy consumption, which was itself linked to the growth of the hotel portfolio,” Accor said in its sustainability report.

The lack of progress towards Accor’s decarbonisation targets reflects the difficulty in implementing sustainability strategies across a growing portfolio of hotels owned by franchisees.

In February 2025, IHG’s Chief Sustainability Officer Catherine Dolton warned that the firm is unlikely to achieve its 2030 climate target, highlighting that capital expenditure budgets are controlled by the hotel owners themselves, not the group.