Elveden: Center Parcs retains Carbon Trust Standard accreditation for cutting emissions
A Center Parcs holiday village - Credit: Archant
Holiday villages company Center Parcs has been recertified to the Carbon Trust Standard across its four UK sites, including Elveden Forest in Suffolk.
The company has continued to reduce its carbon emissions since its original accreditation, with a 5% cut over the last two years.
This places Center Parcs among the top 10% in the Performance League Table of all organisations taking part in the UK Government’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.
It also means that Center Parcs, whose four villages span around 1,600 acres of forest, remains on track to reduce its emissions by 20% per cent by 2020.
The company’s sustainability strategy includes a commitment to invest more than £300,000 in energy initiatives across its four villages each year, in addition to initiatives such as a financial bonus to staff based on carbon savings and a £2million investment to replace the boilers for the pools complexes at Whinfell Forest and Elveden Forest with a more efficient heating system and a combined heat and power unit.
Darran Messem, managing director for certification at the Carbon Trust, said: “By taking action to reduce its own footprint, and by having this independently certified, Center Parcs is demonstrating that it is not just commiting to a target to reduce its emissions; it is well on the way to achieving it.
“Beyond this Center Parcs is setting an example for its 1.6million annual guests and 6,000 staff, encouraging them to introduce energy efficiency into their everyday lives.”
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Chris Brooks, sustainability manager at Center Parcs, said: “The Carbon Trust Standard is testament to the hard work and commitment of our 6,000 employees over the last two years.
“At the end of last year we took this one step further and introduced our Home Energy Savers scheme to encourage and reward our staff to reduce carbon emissions at home as well as in the workplace.”
The reduction in carbon emissions comes at a time when Center Parcs is undertaking a significant building programme for its new village in Bedfordshire. Due to open in spring 2014, Woburn Forest will set a new benchmark with carbon emissions 25% below the average of the four existing villages.
