SUSTAINABILITY

In 2021 I made a commitment to work towards being as sustainable and efficient - or carbon neutral - as we could possibly be. This isn’t an easy task - as a pub/bar company we are what I call an ‘end user’. We don’t make much ourselves, we buy it. We don’t own our buildings either - meaning doing things such as sticking solar panels on roofs isn’t as easy as just making the decision to do so (and in one case, our landlord said no). I’ve set a target of 2025 (or sooner!) to get the business into a position where I can say we’re carbon neutral. It’s a challenge, but one I - and my teams - firmly believe in. It’s also not cheap to do sometimes, being green means spending the greens… But it’s that or we won’t be around to continue spending on anything if we don’t take some action now.

So how do we become as efficient as we can be? The first step for us is simple, it involves a conscious decision by the whole team to get on board with being more green. Turning lights off, making sure we recycle properly, minimising waste and working with other businesses that share our values too.

This page is updated on an ad-hoc basis as things change / happen. I won’t delete the original targets or date I set in 2021, but I will be honest if we miss them or have to extend them.


CURRENT STEPS:

  • Our supplier choices - the first thing we have made a conscious decision to do is to work with suppliers that share our values. A lot of this work is already in place, however, over the 12 months (by the end of 2023) we are aiming to be in a position where can say that all of our wine and spirit suppliers work in a sustainable fashion or give something back. By the end of 2025 I am hoping we will be able to say the same about the breweries we work with too - many already are, but this one I acknowledge is trickier. The same goes for our wholesalers - we will encourage, engage and work with them to be better and where we can, make a conscious decision over the next 12 months to work with those that are matching our own values and ambitions.
    Spring 2024 update: We’re now only making new listings for wine & spirits based on their eco-credentials. Some legacy products remain and are either old stock or are being phased out. I acknowledge breweries and some wholesalers will be harder - the more I dig into this the more I realise how many aren’t ready for this yet. The start of 2025 will involve some interesting / difficult conversations!

  • Energy - from April 2023 we will be powered by renewable energy. Whilst we can’t take ourselves off-grid very easily (although it is a conversation we will keep pushing) we can purchase our power in the best manner possible.

  • Recycling - we work with Lili Waste who share our commitment toward reducing waste to landfill. We recycle everything we possibly can, from cans, plastics and glass, to paper and card. We even save our ‘soft plastics’ (crisp packets etc) in a seperate bin which we take over the road to the supermarket so it can also be recycled properly. We actively avoid ‘one way’ plastic kegs - trying to only buy in kegs that are part of the ‘one-circle’ family - meaning they too get recycled and turned into new kegs, ready to be filled with more tasty beer. Anything we can’t recycle is used for energy generation - so nothing goes to landfill. We also return old corks to Recorked and will happily collect and return from our customers too.

  • Minimising waste - we have actively encouraged our local suppliers to switch to refillable packaging where they can. Currently, some of our most popular Gin’s from our local distilleries are supplied in bulk containers - meaning we reuse the bottle over and over. This reduces the number of deliveries we need, the weight of the delivery (glass is heavy) and moreover, where we can’t send the container back to the distillery, the packaging it does come in is easier to recycle than glass.

  • Paper - we use recycled paper for our menus, which in turn, is then recycled.

  • Less plastic - We’ve switched to plant based clingfilm in our kitchen. It’s 4 times the cost of the plastic derived stuff, but it means no plastic. We recycle what we can’t reuse and where we can, encourage suppliers to use alternatives.

  • Less glass - it’s heavy. It uses more fuel to transport, is worse for the planet to make. So where we can, we’ll work with those who package in alternative formats, such as Artisan Drinks who supply our tonic waters in can format.

  • Less energy - we’ve installed sensors where we can for lights, we’ve a little left to do, but we’re 90% there. We use LED where we can too and aim to minimise energy use through the day, especially when quiet and we’re looking in to timers for non-essential equipment too.

  • Awareness - all our teams go through environmental awareness training through an e-learning course and we make it part of our inductions and day to day. Signage is located around the buildings to remind people to switch lights off and consider when and what they use.



NEXT STEPS AND GOALS:

  • Some suppliers we can’t change. Our business model is such that we need our suppliers to import beer - and sustainability isn’t just the planet, it means the business too - we aren’t going to bite our nose off to spite our face over whether we get some of our favourite beers imported from Europe for example. What we can and will do is engage with them and encourage them to be more green in their own practices.

  • Any new suppliers (outside breweries) that we do list must be working in a sustainable/good fashion, or won’t be listing them.

  • Educate and network. We’ll work with other groups and businesses to achieve our goals and support those around us to be better too.

  • Building and renovating. We’ll aim to reuse, make good, repurpose and be conscious of the impact any future building work has on the environment. We already have multiple items that are seconds - for example, our bar tops are taken out of Schools - they’re old laboratory desks. Lots of our lighting is very much used (they call it vintage) and we continue to reuse and repurpose kit where we can.

  • Use existing learnings and methods in the pub, at the shop (90% are already in place where they can be).

  • Work with our team to see how they themselves can reduce their own footprint and encourage more active travel within the business to and from work.

  • By the end of 2023 2024 work out where we are really at in terms of our carbon footprint and use this to formulate the final plan to get us carbon neutral. If we can, we’ll also work out what we’ve saved over the past 2 years of working toward toward our goal. (We were aiming for 2023, but the work involved is bigger than we imagined, so whilst we’re still doing everything we can, we’re not in the position this year to assess things properly, so it will happen in 2024 instead and we’ll continue making decisions that help to positively impact the outcome)

  • Look at options and methods of offsetting what we have left. Generate costings and budget and plan in to future budgets for the business from 2025 onwards (or sooner).

  • During Spring/Summer 2024 we will be working with Net Zero Now to calculate our carbon footprint, giving us an opportunity to start to understand the issues we have and how to start to reduce and remove.



KEY SUPPLIERS AND PARTNERSHIPS:

This is not an extensive list, but it’s the ones we’re currently most proud of/making the most difference.

  • From April 2023 - Pozitive Energy will supply our Electricity (we don’t have any Gas). All future contracts will be on renewables (or better). Now we’re in to 2024, we have moved over to Opus Energy, on a similar renewables tariff.

  • We are a founding member of Amplifi.tw - a business focussed network and community trying to make a difference and to encourage change locally. We have also started hosting ‘People Planet Pint’ - a networking group designed to promote and discuss sustainability (over a pint of course!)

  • Our house Gin and Vodka is supplied by Sapling Spirits. They plant a tree for every bottle sold, work in a sustainable, carbon neutral way and their Gin is actually Carbon Negative - meaning it takes carbon out of the atmosphere. They also supply us in refillable bottles.

  • Our local spirits suppliers supply us in bulk containers. We refill bottles in house. Less waste, less transport. These are Anno, Greensand Ridge and Jonomade. They also have some strong sustainability credentials too.

  • We try to minimise food waste and where we can, donate food to Charlies Angels - a local not-for-profit kitchen that solely uses donated food that would otherwise be wasted.

  • We act as a collection point for corks from our customers and send them all back to Recorked, along with our own.

  • Suppliers we work with regularly who work in a sustainable way include Sapling Spirits (Carbon Negative), Greensand Ridge Distillery (Carbon Neutral), Salcombe Distillery, Maidstone Distillery, Sipsmith Distillery (B Corp), Fairfields Crisps, Two Drifters Rum (Carbon Negative), Toti Rums (Conservation, saving turtles), Bruichladdich (Conservation and Sustainable across multiple projects), Salcombe Distillery, Brixton Gin (Conservation, saving the bees), Chase Distillery, Brewery Huyghe (Aiming to be Belgiums most sustainable brewery), Utopian (Aiming to be carbon neutral, only uses UK malt & hops), Haalve Man / Brugse Zot (Sustainable with some incredible initiatives), Pleasant Land Distillery, Gun Brewery, Pentire, Wonky Coffee Co, Ascension Cider.


If you’re able to help us along the way or have feedback on any of this, please feel free to get in touch with me here. I’m open to ideas, suggestions and anything to help us achieve these goals.


Alex Greig
Founder
Fuggles Beer Cafe
Last updated May 2024



DEFINITIONS:

  • Sustainable - by sustainable I mean working in a way that either removes or reduces the damage caused from producing said product. This could be being carbon neutral or doing everything they can to be as sustainable as possible.

  • Giving something back - being fully sustainable is hard - we champion and support small independent businesses a lot of the time and they, like us, don’t always have the means at first to meet the standard. However, in a lot of cases they are able to give something back - be it supporting conservation, charities or making a firm commitment (like we are).

  • Suppliers - these are everyone from breweries and distillers to our waste company, phone company, energy company and all the people in between. It’s all encompassing.