Villages Nature, France

A community applying the One Planet principles

Euro Disney and Groupe Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs are creating a new vacation destination – Les Villages Nature de Val d’Europe, or Villages Nature. In both design and operation Villages Nature aims to be a unique model of sustainable development for tourism.

Villages Nature will be 6 km south of Disneyland Paris and could span up to 500 hectares with 90% retained as green space. The entire resort will be developed around its iconic 3,500m² geothermal lagoon and the adjacent water park which will be the largest in Europe. The first phase will be comprised of 175 hectares and could open in 2015, with the remainder of the site being developed over the subsequent 15 years. This first phase will include 1,730 apartments or cottages in three villages around the lake and in the forest.

Villages Nature is a resort designed to appeal to European consumers, offering them a unique experience based on connecting with nature with activities centring on: gardening, boating, hiking, horse riding, visiting an organic farm, walking along discovery paths and enjoying seasonal festivals and culinary events.

BioRegional worked with the team to develop the original sustainability strategy for Village Nature, which is based on the 10 One Planet Principles with measurable targets aimed at reducing the destination’s ecological footprint, ensuring social responsibility, and developing synergies with the local communities. For example:

• the destination’s overall heating needs will be provided by geothermal energy;
• 4,500 jobs will be created – 1,600 of which will be direct.

Subsequently BioRegional have undertaken ecological footprint modelling of different scenarios to assess the impact of the proposed strategies and identify further areas that need to be tackled to enable visitors to reduce their impact down to a One Planet level.

Visit the Villages Nature website for more information.