Getting from Queenstown to Auckland in three days with just ten bucks in your pocket sounds tough. But when teams participating in the annual Novotel $10 Challenge to Cure Kids stop at one of their hotel rest spots for the night, they’re reminded they haven’t got it so bad.

Ambassadors for Cure Kids, the charity the fundraising event supports, share their stories with the competitors about living with life-threatening medical conditions; any moans from competitors about their day’s ordeals are quickly silenced as children describe their daily battles with illnesses like cancer, heart disease and cystic fibrosis.

“There’s nothing more powerful than hearing the children’s stories and some of the things they’ve gone through,” says Vicki Lee, chief executive of Cure Kids, which has been funding medical research into life-threatening childhood illnesses for 30 years. “It puts things into perspective — ‘oh my goodness, I actually haven’t got a problem in the world have I?’”

Through its Novotel hotel brand, Accor Hospitality is title sponsor of the event — one of a number of initiatives that link the company to the charity. The relationship began in 2003 and both parties say it’s the direct contact between the company’s staff and the people they’re working to help that has made it so successful.

“It’s very much a part of our fabric and who we are,” says Lucy Acott, Accor’s director of marketing for New Zealand and Fiji. “They can see that difference that they’re making in people’s lives. That’s really powerful.”

The company, which has 29 hotels across seven hotel brands in New Zealand, began its relationship with Cure Kids seven years ago after researching a number of charities through which it could cement its commitment to social sustainability. Last year Accor was named a finalist in the Community section of the inaugural Sustainable 60 Series — an Unlimited and PricewaterhouseCoopers programme highlighting successful sustainable business practices among Kiwi companies — for its entry showcasing its Cure Kids partnership.

Accor has raised more than $2 million for the charity over the years. The company enters a number of teams, which raise a minimum $7000 to enter, in the $10 Challenge, and donates room nights to all competitors and crew. Other events include the likes of Sofitel Art in the Mountains, where renowned artists auction their works to raise funds, and a bike race where Accor managers cycled from Wellington to Auckland.

As well as funds, Lee says Accor’s ability to offer room nights and staff time is incredibly valuable. For the annual Ticket to Hope event, for example, a group of children with life threatening illnesses and their parents get an expenses-paid holiday at an Accor property, usually in Queenstown.

Some events are led from head office; others, like Pyjama Parties where sick children and their families gather for a break at a hotel, are organised by individual properties. “It comes from the bottom and it comes from the top,” says Lee of the company’s support of the charity. “It’s right throughout the whole culture of Accor in New Zealand.” Lee notes that Accor now also fundraises for Cure Kids in Fiji, where the company has a number of properties, raising money for research and life-saving medical equipment.

Globally, Accor has more than 4000 hotels and it formalised its commitment to sustainability in 2006, when it created its Earth Guest Programme. As part of the programme, each hotel must work towards complying with a 65-point environmental charter; Acott says New Zealand is ahead of the game, on track to comply with 45 points in 2010. Sustainability — environmental and social — is embedded in the company’s strategy, she says, with sustainable development goals part of performance criteria for staff.

Accor topped a report produced last year by international sustainability consultancy Two Tomorrows, which ranked the sustainability performance of the world’s top 10 largest hotel groups. Accor has 171,000 employees worldwide, says Acott, but given the nature of its business, it has the ability to drive the sustainability message to an even greater audience.

“You can’t stay at one of our hotels,” says Acott, “and not realise how important it is to us as a business.”