In 2012, Fairmont Beijing started purchasing organic produce from tiny farms near Te Ao Farm, a commune that employs intellectually disabled individuals as assistants to farmers and laborers at orchards. Roughly 70% of the hotel's fruits and vegetables come from the farms. Fairmont Beijing struck an agreement with the commune to employ one or more Te Ao Farm students, and the hotel pays the farms roughly 3% above the market rate. Writing of Fairmont Beijing, University of Exeter lecturer Fu Jia and his coauthors Jonathan Gosling and Morgan Witzel said in a 2017 Routledge-published book that "uniquely for any hotel in China" it has three workers who have learning disabilities.
