Port Sunlight is a village in Wirral built 130 years ago by industrialist William Hesketh Lever and now the trust that runs it has unveiled a new green strategy. Tony McDonough reports

An historic Liverpool city region village has used the backdrop of the COP26 climate change summit to unveil its new sustainability strategy.

Port Sunlight is a village in Wirral built 130 years ago on former marshland by industrialist William Hesketh Lever to house his workers from his soap factory and their families. It comprises 900 Grade II-listed buildings within 130 acres of parkland.

Now Port Sunlight Village Trust is launching its first environmental sustainability strategy

following hot on the heels of its recent Green Flag Accreditation. The 10-year plan aims to reduce the impact of the organisation’s activities on the environment and play its part in combatting climate change.

The new strategy has been developed by The Environment Partnership and part-funded by Museum Development North West. Based on the UN’s Sustainability Goals, the strategy sets out PSVT’s vision for environmental sustainability and describes key actions for improvement in six areas.

They are energy, water, waste, transportation, business and ‘greening’ the village.  A new working group has been formed within the organisation to lead the strategy’s implementation. More information will be released in due course. The village landscaping team is already using a fleet of electric vehicles.

Lin Whalley, director of operations at PSVT, said: “As custodians of this heritage site with a diverse set of stakeholders, PSVT has an important and exciting role to play in changing attitudes and behaviours as well as driving technological innovation in a historic environment.

“We’re excited to play our part in tackling climate change and supporting others to do same.”

In October PSVT brought in urban design experts from Planit-IE and tasked them with creating a new public realm strategy. The brief was developed in partnership with Wirral Council who have a shared responsibility for the village’s public realm.

Click here to see a video on PSVT’s new sustainability strategy