IHG Hotels & Resorts has opened voco Zeal Exeter Science Park in partnership with Zeal Hotels and Valor Hospitality.

Located in Exeter, a city in southwest England, it is the hospitality company’s first branded net zero* carbon hotel and has been designed to operate entirely on renewable and solar energy.

As with all voco branded hotels, the design of the 142-room voco Zeal Exeter Science Park uses relaxing, neutral tones and contemporary features throughout the guestrooms and public spaces. Other amenities include a mini gym, gardens, a versatile meeting space and 12 EV charging points. The hotel’s onsite restaurant and bar, ISCA, emphasizes the use of locally-sourced ingredients, collaborating with regional farms and producers to offer fresh, responsible dining options.

The voco Zeal Exeter Science Park’s sustainable design has earned it a BREAAM Outstanding rating, a renowned sustainable buildings certification. It is the first building in the UK that has utilized the Solarlab vertical photovoltaic panels as a rainscreen cladding system. It also follows the Passivhaus standard for ultra-low energy buildings and uses adiabatic cooling and heat reversible heat pumps to reduce energy usage.

In line with voco’s commitment to innovation and sustainability, voco Zeal Exeter Science Park was constructed using materials chosen for their sustainable characteristics and assembled innovatively to achieve best-in-class results. For example, they have used Ecocrete during construction, a low carbon concrete with up to 85% less CO2 than CEM1 (100% cement).

“Together with Zeal Hotels, voco Zeal Exeter Science Park helps set the standards for net zero carbon hotels and marks a pivotal step towards a more sustainable future in hospitality, aligned with IHG’s Journey to Tomorrow responsible business plan. By inspiring both industry leaders and our guests, we are demonstrating how comfort and sustainability can successfully coexist, benefiting both the environment and the communities we serve,” said Joanna Kurowska, vice-president, managing director UK & Ireland at IHG Hotels & Resorts.

Tim Wheeldon, founding director, Zeal Hotels, commented: “I am incredibly proud of the team behind the voco Zeal Exeter Science Park, who have worked hard to bring the Zeal Hotels vision to fruition. Our partnerships with IHG Hotels & Resorts and Valor Hospitality have been crucial throughout the development process and we are excited to launch this new sustainable hotel.

“It has been more than a decade since we founded Zeal Hotels, with the intention of helping the hotel sector be net zero carbon by 2050.

“The decision to build our net zero hotel reflects our commitment to combating climate change and reducing our carbon footprint. By harnessing renewable energy sources, implementing energy-efficient designs, and utilising innovative technology, we have created a space that not only provides comfort and luxury but also prioritizes environmental responsibility. We are looking forward to sharing our knowledge with others to help accelerate the net zero carbon process across the sector.”

About voco Zeal Exeter’s net-zero carbon construction

* voco Zeal Exeter Science Park has been designed to reach net-zero operational and embodied carbon.

Various measures and techniques have been used to achieve net-zero carbon construction, including:

• The building has been designed to minimize operational energy use and should achieve an EUI (Energy Use Intensity) of less than 60kWh/m2, one of the lowest known in the UK. This has been done by following the Passivhaus building standard to ensure that the building requires less energy for heating and cooling as well as using heat recovery, adiabatic cooling for guestrooms and reversible heat pumps for balanced load sharing.
• Refrigerant emissions have also been minimized by using CO₂ heat pumps, with a Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 1, for domestic hot water – a significant reduction in environmental impact compared to conventional refrigerants.
• It is designed to operate entirely on renewable energy and maximize on site renewable electricity generation through vertical photovoltaic panels.
• The embodied carbon used in the construction of the hotel was reduced through sustainable material choices including the use of 60% Ground Granulated Blast-furnace Slag (GGBS) in the concrete mix for the building frame (GGBS is a by-product from the blast-furnaces used to make iron). The remaining embodied carbon will be offset.