Originally created as an Association loi de 1901 not-for-profit organisation by former resistance fighter and Olympic medallist Gérard Blitz at a time when Europe had barely recovered from the Second World War, Club Méditerranée has always built its growth on a number of essential values, principles and practices based on what is now referred to as sustainable development:

“Living together”

Clients, host countries, employees… Club Med’s philosophy of “living together” is based on a very special concept of tolerance and mutual interest involving people from very different backgrounds, religions, nationalities and walks of life. And already in 1978 Club Med created the Club Méditerranée Foundation, one of the pioneers of its kind, with a view to promoting the voluntary involvement of its employees in solidarity initiatives near Club Med Villages and office…

Moreover, a very long-standing culture of quality and of “taking pleasure in giving pleasure”, illustrated among other things by the introduction of one of the very first customer satisfaction surveys from the early 1950s, bears witness to the Club’s respect of “GMs” (clients) and of its commitment towards them.

Enjoying the natural world

The appreciation of the natural world and its benefits goes back to the very beginnings of Club Méditerranée, and is reflected even in its name… Protecting nature is part of its DNA. It has always paid close attention to the way its Villages are integrated into the landscape, the use of local architectural styles and materials, and the conservation of native species, as well as energy efficiency and the responsible use of water. Since many of its Villages are in isolated locations without significant infrastructures, very early on Club Med understood the need to provide its own water and energy and treat its own wastewater; hence its long-standing expertise in water treatment techniques and impressive track record of recycling and saving resources.

Finally, responsibility, because the Club Med villages, which seek the collective well-being, could not have been accepted nor integrated as harmoniously and durably in countries with such varied cultures had they not been set up based on a profound respect for and commitment of responsibility towards the host countries, and in particular with an ever-present commitment to contribute to local development; this attitude is illustrated by the opening of the first permanent Village in Agadir, which had just been devastated by an earthquake and needed support in order to rebuild itself.

 To know more about sustainable development at Club Med: Longstanding values and practices

Since both human and environmental concerns were becoming increasingly crucial, in 2005 Club Med decided to create a Sustainable Development Division to organise and group its actions.

Its guidelines involve:

• promoting concrete results and in-depth work
• extending its actions to all of its activities
• ensuring its actions are long-lasting.

Thus the Club promoted not high-profile short-term actions, but those that changed approaches lastingly and in depth.

To that end, the stakes were analysed, by identifying and sharing across the company the positive and negative impacts of tourism. For such sensitive and complex issues, where individual perception and/or media pressure can rapidly influence choices, it was deemed important to base our priorities on objective analyses. Thus in 2006, in addition to public surveys (IPSOS), a requested non-financial rating (BMJ Ratings), an environmental self-diagnosis, and lastly the first lifecycle assessment (LCA) for a holiday village by Bio Intelligence Service with the backing of Ademe, the French Environment and Energy Management Agency.

Two key avenues were identified on the environmental, social and societal planes, which have since regularly been updated, leading to the current policy described on this website.