Sustainability 18 Jan 2024

Sustainability photography competition shows progress on biodiversity in retirement communities

At RVG sustainability runs through everything we do like a golden thread. We have laid down big sustainability targets and we aim to live up to them. We do this by ensuring everyone in our communities, residents and staff alike, do their utmost to meet them. Alongside our sustainability advisor, Horle Lea, we’ve made big strides this year and we wanted to recognise this with a competition open to all.

Maximising biodiversity

Work in our community grounds by the teams and residents have been having a huge impact on the biodiversity across all our retirement communities. We put on a photography competition asking residents and staff to showcase our communities in their very best light. With two categories to enter everyone was able to take part.

The categories were flora; with images to show the amazing gardens, flowers, trees, and allotments we have on offer, fauna; asking entrants to capture images of insects, birds, and wildlife on our community grounds. Whether it’s the allotments at Elmbridge Village, the rabbits in the meadow at Moat Park, or the palm garden in Roseland Parc, our teams were spoilt for choice in what to snap for an entry.

Photography competition

We wanted the competition to be as easy to enter as possible, so invited residents and staff members to send entries into one central place. The judging panel was made up of RVG experts, a resident champion, and members of the Hoare Lea team, who sponsored the competition.

Images had to be taken in the community grounds, at any time in the calendar year and could be entered into either category. As the images started to pour in it was great to see the variety of insect, bird, and general wildlife across the communities. We also received images of rare and unusual flowers that had sprung up in lots of places.

Tim Seddon, Chief Property Officer and a key advocate for the group's sustainability drive and commitment commented,

The efforts made by everyone to improve biodiversity and ensure sustainability remains front of mind have been tremendous. I’m delighted to see how this work is beginning to pay off with such a wealth of biodiversity in our villages as showcased by the photography competition.

Some of the exciting photo entries

We had entries from a number of different communities including Elmbridge Village, Charters Village, The Priory, Lime Tree Village and Thamesfield. Every community is unique and has its own characteristics and grounds, which gave a huge diversity to the entries we received.

Competition was tough in both categories, you can see some of the runner up entries here.

Halloween At Avonpark Retirement Village

Winning Photographs

Choosing the winning photograph was tough, with so many excellent entries and lots of great photographers amongst our residents and staff members. One chose one for each category from the residents and the staff members, so had four overall winners. These included:

Residents Flora Photo - The Lily Pond at Castle Village by Neil Dickens
Residents Fauna Photo - Buff Tailed Bumble Bee at Elmbridge Village by John Richardson
Staff Flora Photo - Lichen & Moss at Roseland Parc by Rob Mehen
Staff Fauna Photo - Pipistrellus Bat at Charters Village by David Trigwell

The Hoare Lea Later Living team comprising Robert Winch, Ryan Horder and Mark Wilkinson, commented,

Through our sponsorship of this wildlife photography competition we have had the pleasure of sharing a joint passion for wildlife with RVG’s staff and residents. Nature offers us both tangible and intangible benefits, this competition has helped capture and bring these to life. We look forward to seeing both the diversity and number of species increasing across RVG’s Retirement Communities as its Sustainability Strategy is delivered.

Building a better future

We believe our retirement communities are building a better future for retirees across the UK. Each individual retirement community is unique in its characteristics. As an owner-operator, we are invested in building communities that will last now and for the future. We believe our sustainability strategy keeps us ahead of the game and ensures this will be the case.

If you, or a loved one, is considering a move why not join us on an open day, where we throw our doors open to everyone to experience what community living is all about. We have a wide selection of retirement properties to buy and to rent, so you can be assured of a wide choice and expert advice tailored to suit you.