Sustainable Living: Creating Eco-Friendly Retirement Villages
Eco groups at retirement villages offer numerous benefits for both residents and the environment. Groups focussing on sustainability and the environment can form a sense of community and purpose among residents, enhancing social interactions and overall well-being.
Engaging in eco-friendly activities, such as gardening, recycling, and conservation projects also provide physical exercise and mental stimulation proving not only great for the environment but for the individual too.
By promoting environmental awareness and sustainable practices in adopting green initiatives, retirement villages can reduce their ecological footprint, conserve resources, and contribute to a healthier planet.
Stoke Gifford’s Eco Corner has proven popular.
At ExtraCare villages eco groups have become increasingly prevalent with teams currently in five locations and the principal to roll this out across all villages. With residents involved in activities like creating recycling areas and advocating for energy-efficient solutions the charity is ensuring it moves towards an eco-friendly future.
Locations such as Stoke Gifford Village in Bristol are paving the way for others having created an Eco Corner which serves as a collection point for residents, staff, and visitors to deposit items that would typically end up in general waste. Residents have enthusiastically embraced this opportunity to contribute, depositing used stamps, spectacles, and bras—items directed towards supporting charitable causes such as RNIB, Lions International, and Against Breast Cancer.
The waste reduction initiative now includes the correct disposal of vapes, batteries, spectacles, stamps, bras, and expired or surplus medications as part of a ‘Show Me Your Meds’ project. Over a period of 6 weeks 10.3kg in weight of unpacked medicines had been collected at the Eco Corner and disposed of.
In ExtraCare’s Milton Keynes Village Shenley Wood Resident Brian is part of a resident led group hoping to make their own difference. The group recently created a recycling area at their location. Brian offers, “Project Recycle is a resident driven project to assist with the eco friendly target aspirations set by ExtraCare, plus it’s the residents’ attempt to save our planet for generations to come with conscientious efforts to contribute responsibly to recycling.”
Residents Rita and Brian at Shenley Wood recycling station.
It’s not just within location that the Charity is considering eco-friendly options, it’s now being considered at build stage too. At New Oscott Village in Birmingham a newly completed refurbishment has introduced environmentally conscious nature measures to improve bio-diversity with the creation of bee and butterfly watering stations, wooden insect hotels, a bat house and wooden hedgehog houses in landscaped areas. With the new measures it is hoped they will create a significant benefit for nature at locations and for those who come to live at ExtraCare communities.
New Oscott Village is now home to wooden insect hotels.
Continuing to strive for environmentally conscious initiatives the Charity aims to appoint an Environment and Sustainability Officer. In this newly created role, there will be a unique chance to spearhead the charity’s efforts to become a carbon-neutral organisation, ensure compliance and reduce energy consumption.
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