Zeal Hotels has won the award for Green Building Project of the Year at the edie Net Zero Awards 2025, for the voco Zeal Exeter Science Park. The edie Net Zero Awards are the UK’s only industry-wide awards scheme recognising and rewarding the individuals and organisations spearheading the transition towards a net-zero carbon economy.
Zeal Hotels was competing in a group of nine finalists, including the British Land headquarters in Marylebone and Lloyds Banking Group’s 33 Old Broad Street project.
Tim Wheeldon, founding director, Zeal Hotels, said: “We are thrilled to have been named as Green Building Project of the Year at these prestigious awards, particularly against such a strong set of high-profile projects.
“It is a testament to our fantastic team and our brilliant partners, RED Construction and SolarEdge Technologies, that we are able to compete at such a high level. At Zeal Hotels we have created hope to not only a repeatable sustainable prototype model, and hope but to inspire the hotel sector and lead by example. Awards are fantastic, and we’re just getting started.”
The hotel is targeting being the first in Western Europe to achieve a BREEAM Outstanding rating in recognition of its sustainable approach to design, construction and overall fit out. The 142-room hotel achieved the BREEAM Outstanding rating at the design stage.
The voco Zeal Exeter Science Park has received a number of awards in recent months, most-recently Gold in three categories at the Food Drive Devon awards: Sustainability Pioneer, Hospitality Restaurant and Hospitality Hotel Restaurant.
The hotel has also achieved a Gold accreditation from world-leading sustainable tourism accreditation, Green Tourism.
The Gold level of accreditation is awarded to a business that achieves the highest standards of sustainability, has a strong and broad environmental ethos and can provide excellent examples of best practice throughout the three pillars of People, Places and Planet.
The group is currently looking at sites for further expansion around the UK.
