Village Hotels
We helped this hotel group save £1.9 million and cut 6,600 tonnes of carbon emissions.
Driving sustainable business in the hotel and leisure sector.
saved in the programme since the start of 2017
tonnes of carbon saved in the programme
Uncovering energy saving opportunities
Village Hotels is a national group that owns and operates 31 large hotels across the UK. The group has a growing portfolio of properties, all of which have restaurants, bars, business hubs, and leisure facilities. As a result, they have increased energy demands and high energy bills, which average £8 million per year. During ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme) Phase One, Carbon Intelligence performed energy audits at a number of Village Hotel sites. These audits uncovered energy-saving opportunities that would help reduce their growing energy costs while also increasing customer comfort. These opportunities focused on two areas:
- Optimising the performance of kit including Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning.
- Engaging employees around energy use.
A strategy for smarter buildings
Carbon Intelligence formulated a strategy that would enable Village Hotels to realise substantial energy savings by focusing on both people and data. This plan included the implementation of our Smart Building Optimisation Programme and a portfolio-wide employee engagement programme across all of the 31 Village sites. Since the programme’s inception, the annualised savings target has risen from £500,000 to £800,000, thanks to continued site optimisation and site engagement.
Engaging with employees
A core part of the strategy for reducing energy usage was to engage employees at all levels of the business. We identified the key stakeholders and the best way in which to engage them. This entailed the creation of a governance structure, which had strong leadership buy-in, and a reporting framework to ensure all stakeholders were kept aware of progress. To engage the wider population of employees we created an Energy Management e-Learning module which provides an overview of all energy-saving behaviours, and tips on gaining insight from monthly performance reports and our ADAPT portal.
Key highlights
STRONG EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
INNOVATIVE E-LEARNING
EMBRACING DATA INSIGHTS
Data at the heart of the solution
To optimise the performance of energy equipment and the Building Management Systems we focused on data. Our Smart Building Optimisation Programme provides an end-to-end energy optimisation solution from diagnostic and implementation to ongoing performance monitoring to ensure sustained benefits. Smart Building Optimisation Programme helps Maintenance Managers and General Managers to understand how to best manage their hotel’s energy usage and encourages shared learnings between similar hotels to promote best practice.
Visualising data for new insights
Our ADAPT platform enables the Village Hotels team to see visualisations of the energy performance of specific pieces of kit, individual hotels or their entire portfolio. This helps sites to identify actionable insights and drive impact. The team can share actions with BMS contractors as soon as issues are identified so that they can be rectified during service visits. This information continues to drive collaboration between us and Village and delivers savings on an ongoing basis. We have over 850 million rows of data stored for Village Hotels in ADAPT, collecting half hourly data for gas and electricity across all main meters in the 31 hotels, with a process for sites to input meter readings on a monthly basis. In 2019 alone, we sent 2,400 energy reports to help visualise savings and energy consumption to Village Hotels staff.
Driving savings through engagement
To encourage sustainable behaviours, our in-house design team has created a variety of materials, including a range of eye-catching posters and stickers to remind staff and guests to use energy responsibly. Impact infographics and quarterly newsletters have also been created to share on staff notice boards.
Green Tourism Awards
In 2019, we supported Village Hotels through certification for the Green Tourism Awards, from which all 31 hotels gained a Bronze Level Certification. The awards are acknowledged worldwide as an indicator of good environmentally-friendly practice as well as acting as a hallmark of ‘green quality’ in the hospitality sector. This recognises the achievements of the programme to date as well as identifying further opportunities for sustainability improvements within the portfolio.