Village recognises that an essential part of being a responsible business is caring for the environment. Work around environmental issues is led by the Executive Management and their role is to encourage each hotel to reduce their impact on the environment and carbon footprint, and create a clear and transparent path to Net-Zero.

Village has policies and practices in place to focus on specific operations and how Village's current impact on the environment can be mitigated.

The strategy for 2022 was to create a new ESG Steering Committee, comprised of many of the Executive Team, who meet regularly to establish Village's ESG goals, as well as the measures they will implement within the Business to meet these. This has in turn led to the creation of the Sustainability Stars programme, team members from each hotel that are influential, and can feed in valuable additional ideas to promote our ESG agenda and lead the implementation of new initiatives on the ground.

Village has instigated several new initiatives in 2022 and beyond as part of its commitment to Net-Zero. These include trialling pool/energy monitoring at one of its hotels, reviewing external recycling bins in all hotels to segregate recycling from landfill and internal bins at head office to encourage waste segmentation.

One of the most impactful decisions was to change energy providers to 100% renewable electricity and a ‘green gas’ tariff, to be fully implemented in 2023. In line with this decision Village has launched a fully electric car scheme for employees.

Village continues to engage a third party environmental consultant, to incorporate monitoring systems onto its Building Management Systems (BMS) to evaluate energy usage and advise on actions to be taken to reduce energy consumption. In 2022 Village made significant financial investment into the BMS to ensure data was accurate and could be relied upon.

An e-learning module on the staff training platform is also in development to ensure all staff are aware of energy usage and the impact of their actions and workflows, including regular communications with employees.

Village's Streamlined Energy and Carbon Report can be found within the Director's report.

New development hotels

Village continues to improve its model for new built hotels. For new build hotels that are being developed, Village's aim is to achieve a Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) rating of “Very Good” on all hotels built from 2015 onwards. On 31 December 2022 five properties in Village's portfolio had BREEAM ratings, three very good and three good.

Waste disposal and recycling

Village is registered with Recycle Pak, a National Compliance Scheme registered to serve companies under the Packaging Waste Regulations. Village aims to divert the maximum amount of waste possible from landfill.

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting Framework Regulations (SECR)

Village recognises that an essential part of being a responsible business is caring for the environment. A third party energy consultant continues to be engaged by Village and 2022 saw the introduction of hotel level targets for consumption on energy and waste with the overall intention of reducing annual energy consumption and greenhouse emissions for utilities and vehicles.

Energy consumption and reporting is gathered through the use of smart building hardware and data analytics to highlight opportunities to reduce energy consumption and this smart building hardware is introduced to every new Village Hotel.

Village’s 2022 strategy was to establish a clear leadership team focussed on ESG, with particular focus on reducing Village's carbon emissions, and with a longer term view to setting a Science Based Target to Net Zero for Village. This ESG Steering Committee meets regularly and implements a number of initiatives focused on carbon reduction within the year.

Social Impacts

We believe, linked to our environmental principles, that in order to achieve our aim to become a more sustainable business, we must consider the wider community of each hotel we operate. We believe that as a growing business we have a duty to benefit our local communities, employees, members and customers.

With the help of our employees, members and customers we can support and strengthen our local communities and work to improve the lives of many.

Village has focused on local charitable initiatives and has held numerous charity events in addition it has a new national relationship with the charity ‘Sense’.

The continued successful operation of Village Green throughout our portfolio has ensured that we are fully engaged with our employees, members, guests, and customers.

Governance Impacts

At Village, we are committed to ensuring that corporate governance is considered throughout the business and affairs of the Group. The Executive Team directs and determines the direction of the business and are ultimately responsible for the long-term success of the Group.