26th April 2023, by Parkdean Resorts

Parkdean Resorts, the UK’s largest holiday park operator, has introduced a number of infrastructure trials across its parks, designed to reduce carbon emissions and energy usage. The holiday park operator has committed to achieving a 25% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2025, and is in the process of preparing its first ESG report to outline progress against its commitments and provide detailed carbon performance data via its upcoming 2022 SECR report.

The business has introduced a number of key initiatives, including switching a large portion of its LPG to Calor Futuria Liquid Gas, a co-product of biodiesel production made from a blend of waste, residues and sustainably sourced materials, which now makes up at least 15% of the business’ total LPG supply.

Also amongst the trials is the introduction of solar panels at Warmwell and Sandford Holiday Parks, both in Dorset. Over 1,200 solar panels were installed late last year on top of the main complex roofing at the two Sustainable Parks of the Future, allowing the parks to start generating their own energy. A total 78,110 kWh of electricity has been generated from the solar panels at Warmwell and Sandford since December 2022, which is equivalent to the monthly electricity usage of 323 British homes.

As part of Parkdean Resorts’ commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and to help its holidaymakers and holiday home owners do the same, electric car charging facilities have also been introduced at eight of the business’ holiday parks across the UK. As well as Sandford and Warmwell, Cayton Bay, near Scarborough, Fallbarrow, in the Lake District, Lizard Point and Newquay, both in Cornwall, Southview, in Lincolnshire, and Trecco Bay, in Porthcawl, have all benefitted from the new charging points, which will be trialled throughout the next year to help the business understand their potential environmental and economic impact.

Electric vehicles and LED lighting

The holiday park operator is also replacing a total of 25 diesel vans with electric vehicles as part of the trial. The vans, which are used by maintenance teams on park, are being trialled at Warmwell, Sandford and Trecco Bay Holiday Parks, and have been in use since the end of last year. The introduction of the electric vans is expected to save approximately 21.5 tonnes of carbon at the parks per year which is the equivalent to planting over 85 trees.

The vast majority of Parkdean Resorts’ 65 parks across the UK have now switched to LED lighting, which is 75% more efficient than standard lighting, with almost 30,000 bulbs changed across the estate to date. An internal Switch It Off campaign and the deployment of the Utilities Portal – an internal platform showing energy usage - have driven behavioural change throughout the business, encouraging teams to take accountability for their energy-saving habits and switch off all lights and equipment when they aren’t in use. As a result of this activity, overall annual electricity consumption was reduced by 9% in 2022 vs 2019 across the whole of Parkdean’s estate.

Sandford and Warmwell Holiday Parks have also seen swimming pool efficiency covers introduced, which support heat retention in the pool meaning less energy is required for heating, while both parks have benefitted from Voltage Optimisation, which is predicted to save 8% of the parks’ total electricity costs year-on-year. Sandford has also seen efficient pool fan motors introduced, which means less energy is needed to condition the air, as well as smart hot water tanks, which optimise heating the water tank so that less gas is required.

Additional initiatives have been introduced at a number of parks as part of the trials, most notably an automated gas cylinder telematics system being installed at Cayton Bay and Lizard Point, as well as Sandy Bay, in Northumberland, which will help the parks to more efficiently and more accurately manage their gas supplies. Parkdean Resorts is also actively investigating additional smart technologies which will help to further reduce electricity and gas usage, such as smart thermostats, smart plug sockets and smart meters.

"clearly having a real impact"

Jane Bates, Director of Procurement and Sustainability, Parkdean Resorts, said: “Reducing our carbon emissions is one of our central goals at Parkdean Resorts, and we’re delighted with the progress we’ve made so far. We’ve introduced a number of initiatives across our parks that are clearly having a real impact, and we’ll continue to monitor our progress to ensure we meet our target of reducing our emissions by 25% by 2025.

“Our teams have worked really hard to implement these changes and we know we have a huge responsibility as a business to ensure we are putting sustainability first, so we’re striving to do all that we can to continue with this brilliant progress.”

Caring for its Parks, People, and Planet

Parkdean Resorts is committed to caring for its people, parks and planet, and with 3,500 acres of land in some of the UK’s finest beauty spots, the business is dedicated to protecting these areas of outstanding natural beauty. Last year, a number of the business’ holiday parks participated in the Great British Beach Clean, a week-long event run by the Marine Conservation Society to aid conservation work and help keep our seas clean, with volunteers coming together to pick up litter found along the coast. An impressive 422kg of litter was collected across all participating beaches in total.

The holiday park operator planted 3,000 trees and shrubs on 1.9 hectares of former farmland at White Acres Holiday Park, near Newquay, last year, as part of its commitment to caring for its parks, people and planet. The team worked with The Woodland Trust and tree-planting consultants to map the land and existing biodiversity, creating a plan that enhances the area with a wide range of habitats to attract the greatest variety of wildlife species to the area.