Earth Guest Day in South Africa took place on 15 April 2009 to accommodate the national election that took place on 22 April 2009. Accor Services employees were introduced to the Environmental Charter and t-shirts with the Earth Guest Day logo as well as badges with the Earth Guest Day logo were handed out.

Accor Services South Africa joined forces with Accor Hospitality and made a whole day outing to Lory Park Sanctuary with 50 children from a local township. All the children were given Earth Guest Day t-shirts and badges as well as a 500ml water bottle with the Earth Guest day logo.

Lory Park Sanctuary cares for animals that have been confiscated by the court, however, it was not the animals that were the focus of the day, but the water purification system that the sanctuary uses to keep the water clean.

By filtering dirty, faeces-infested water through a filter system (made up of gravel and porous bricks), and using the natural pressure of the water coming into the system to push the clean water through to be recycled, Lory Park Sanctuary has succeeded in re-using the same water for four months! This has saved thousands of litres of water, as clean, fresh water is usually used to replace dirty water in big watering holes up to twice a week! And for a bit of fun - Lory Park don't use chemicals to test the water - they keep fish swimming in the ponds. As fish are incredibly sensitive to dirty water, it will become immediately apparent if the water was not acceptably fresh after recycling. By finding non-chemical, sustainable methods to recycle water, thousands of litres more can be saved in countries across the world.

After explaining the water purification system to the children, they were given the opportunity to express what water means for them by painting pictures. And the five pictures that had the greatest impact were chosen as winners and received a prize of watercolour painting materials. While the children were painting, Accor employees also set to work planting trees at Lory Park and painting a wall mural depicting the water condensation process next to the water purification system.

It was a very successful day, and it is certain that neither the children nor the Accor employees will forget the benefits of recycling and saving water any time soon!