Creating a sustainable future for retirement communities

Inspired Villages - Environment and Energy Strategy

Inspired Villages set out to do more than just create communities that offer over-65s a better way to age. They wanted their 34 retirement villages to have a transformative environmental and energy strategy and reached out to our team to help.

We conducted a sustainability deep dive to help Inspired Villages better understand their environmental and sustainability impacts and where they could realistically influence change. This process included establishing important baselines—such as tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions (tC02e)—and assessing the environmental and financial benefits of investing in a range of improvements, from fabric-first building design principles to electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Additionally, we helped Inspired Villages develop social value and biodiversity initiatives.

For the sites themselves, we looked at ground conditions, access, drainage, foundation and structural design, and grid connectivity. We advised on potential revenue streams and investment impacts relating to their energy and climate agenda. Our team also assessed opportunities for biodiversity net gain, alternative options for energy generation and storage, social impact, and potential long-term climate risks.

In addition to our analyses and assessments, Inspired Villages engaged our buildings engineers to provide design services for their Blendworth Hills development in Horndean, Hampshire, from concept to a detailed RIBA Stage 4i. They adopted our design as blueprint moving forward as the standard required on all other village developments.

By 2030, Inspired Villages has committed that their villages will achieve operational net zero carbon, including regulated and unregulated energy, and outlined plans as a business to achieve a 42 percent reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions from the established baseline.