2025 - an update: Where are we at now? We’ve done ok - we’re far from where I’d like to be, but I think we’ve made some great progress.

The original version of our sustainability goals can be found here (from 2021) - a lot has changed since I originally set out some thoughts and goals, so it’s time to review and rework where we are at!

In 2021 when we committed to working toward being as sustainable and efficient as possible it was very much a statement designed to push us to really think about everything we do and tie in back in with the impact that has on the planet. And if truth be told, I didn’t know anywhere near what I know now. I always said we’d be honest and open about our journey and how we were getting on and the truth is, the original target of trying to hit net zero in 2025 isn’t going to happen - and I’m fine with that.

But why? When I mentioned this target to professionals within the climate sector, most said it was wildly ambitious. The reality is that as a small business we can only do so much - we have to have the bigger systems in place to make it happen and we’re not big enough to create the system. I’ve also spent a lot of time over the last couple of years talking to others trying to do their bit - which has helped to rethink how we work as a business in terms of our sustainability goals. Ultimately, sustainability isn’t just about being ‘green’ - it’s also about being financially stable too, being a half decent employer and giving back to the local community where we can too.

Knowing what I now know, I’d be surprised if we can hit it by 2030 without either a lot of carbon offsetting (which isn’t perfect in itself and has a lot of issues surrounding it, not just the cost of doing so). Hopefully government policy and the systems we need will be in place by this point, there is already a lot happening in that space so I’m hopeful, if not convinced! I actually believe that whilst Net Zero is a completely worthwhile and admirable target, we wouldn’t need it if we didn’t keep using products & services that are bad for the planet. If there was just a little bit more of that maybe we wouldn’t need to have this discussion in the first place?! If recycling was better, if single use wasn’t such a thing, if industry and power was greener, if the water companies invested properly (and the list goes on… you get my drift!)

There’s even some issues around calculating our footprint - trying to dial it in to our specifics is really hard (especially when you work is as many different producers and suppliers as we do). This is made even harder as a lot of the suppliers we do use are doing really great things around sustainability, so using industry benchmarks to calculate our footprint isn’t really fair (and would likely lead to a higher footprint, which in turn, leads to a much bigger cost in offsetting). I gave it a go, but the time and resource involved in doing it was sadly completely impractical for us as a small business and the result wouldn’t have even been close to accurate I don’t think. So I have chosen to refocus slightly.

In my original post around sustainability I commented: “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)”.

With this in mind, one of my main goals over the past year or two has been to look at what we do with what we purchase, how much ends up in the bin, how much gets recycled (don’t get me started on this complex minefield, it’s so hard to do it properly!) I have ultimately come to the conclusion that it’s better to buy something that is either easy to recycle (aluminium for example) or is part of a circular economy (a bottle return scheme for example). We’ve done so much elsewhere to reduce what we can control that we’re running out of ideas. I’ve included a snapshot of this further down this page…

One of the areas that’s been beyond frustrating is where we’ve tried to reduce or remove as much single use packaging (plastics mainly) from the business as possible. We buy - at a much higher cost - items like plastic-free clingfilm, vac pack pouches and similar. They come with seemingly great ‘green credentials’ such as ‘compostable’ and ‘plant based’. Great stuff. Until you try to deal with their end of life process. They can’t go into your plastic recycling, because they’re not plastic. They can’t go into the soft plastics bin with the crisp packets etc either, because again, they’re not plastic! And I can tell you’re thinking, surely, just put them in the food waste - they’re compostable right? Well yes and no. The issue here is that these plastic-free alternatives take around 6 months to compost. Which is far longer than food does. This can cause massive issues for the facilities that compost our food waste (which by the way has only recently become a lot more accessible to small businesses, in part, due to government legislation changes). Due to this, these facilities won’t actually accept these products which means the only option we have for them is to put them into our general waste and send them off to be burnt for energy (which isn’t great is it and in part defeats the object of using them). This is still an area I’m working on - there are some solutions for the problem but they are not cheap and not particularly user friendly for us either (we’ve already got 7 different waste streams in the business and space is tight). That said, I’m confident we’ll find a way to get these where they need to be in the coming months. I’m already committed to removing as much single use plastic as we can from the business, despite the cost, so the next project is working out what we do it after it’s been used.

Where we have had some great success is with glass. Did you know that transport and packaging accounts for around 2/3 of the carbon footprint of a bottle of wine? We’ve partnered up with a new wine supplier who are all about the circular economy. They bring the wine over in bulk containers and then fill the bottles in London. Bottles are delivered to us, mostly in reusable crates and once you’ve drunk the wine, we send them back for refilling and the loop continues. It’s great and it’s reduced the footprint of our wine list by around 25% overall, including factoring in the waste element. We could go even further and remove the glass entirely by pouring our wines on tap.. But we tried that several years ago and it didn’t really work (people didn’t really get it, maybe we’ll try again one day).

In fact, decisions like the above across lots of our products have reduced our glass recycling by about 50% since 2023***. Out of all the recyclables, glass is the worst one. It’s heavy to move and incredibly energy intensive to recycle and turn into new glass. I believe this figure overall will be higher, much closer to 65% or thereabouts once we have a full year of working with our new wine supplier under our belt at the end of 2025.

Essentially, where we had a vision of achieving Net Zero by 2025 (and to be fair, I still have that as a goal) the main focus is a bit simpler and more importantly, achievable. We are committed to doing whatever we can to reduce our impact on the environment. We’ll always try to make decisions based on the following criteria moving forward:

1. Is is sustainable for the planet?
2. Is it sustainable for the business?
3. Is it the best product / service / solution?

If it meets those 3 criteria, we’re good to go! Sadly, 1 and 2 don’t always go in hand so whilst some options may seem better, they might not be finanically viable for a business like ours. And don’t get me started on half of the eco-credentials that we read about that aren’t actually that eco at all!

I think if we can focus our energy on those 3 areas when making decisions we will not only reduce our impact and help not just the planet but communities and organisations too (sustainability isn’t just about being green) but it will also help to make sure the business is sustainable and the product and service you get, is also great too!

As always, I’d love any feedback or thoughts. We regularly host a Sustainability Meetup here at Fuggles called with People Planet Pint (you can find details on our events page) if you’d like to chat in person, or just drop me an email.

Alex Greig
Founder
Fuggles Beer Cafe
Last updated March 2025

*Source: Sustainable Wine Solutions
**Source: Sustainable Restaurant Association
***Based on comparing weight of glass bins from our waste collector over comparable periods (in this case 1st Jan > 2nd May). Across the business our weights were as follows:
2023: 1754kg 2024: 1829kg 2025: 725kg

AN UPDATE ON OUR ORIGINAL STEPS & GOALS:

• 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!
  
  2025 update: This is still an on-going project (and to a point, always will be). We changed suppliers to harness the benefits of the circular economy. We’ve delisted and reworked our products lists, trialled new products and continue to badger and nag suppliers. This year we will make some further decisions on some of our oldest suppliers too…
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: Glad to say we are still powered by renewables!
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: Our waste contract is up for tender this year, so we’ll review the best options. Alongside this, we’re going to work on what goes into our general waste. If there is a way of recycling it, we’ll do our best to use it. I’d love for us to be able to reduce our general waste stream this year by around 50%. We have actually have some success with one way plastic kegs and these are now, after a 12 month hiatus, back as part of the circle they are meant to be a part of (long story, however, I can say that even whilst we had no proper way of these kegs being returned over the last year or so we have now got a solution in place and we didn’t have to send any of the plastic kegs into other facilities).
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: Lots on this below. It’s been the main focus over the past 12-24 months as it’s one of the most obvious areas to tackle in a business like ours. This year we’ll finally be able to compost our food waste (although we have a very small amount). This has also got us thinking about other areas of what I call ‘pointless waste’. Part of this is dehydrating fruit in house - meaning we no longer chop fruit and a couple of days later, bin it when it hasn’t been used (ask any busy bar how much fruit they waste and you’ll be shocked!) We’re also removing any pointless bits of garnish from our serves, like Juniper berries. Absolute waste of time quite frankly, so when we’ve got through the existing stocks we’ll no longer be using things like this unless they genuinely add some value (eg flavour) to the drink!

  We also try to reduce our food waste by offering over-stocks or bits we can’t use to our friends at Charlie’s Kitchen. Whether this is the ends of our sourdough loaves that are too small for toasted sandwiches or just the last few jars of a condiment we no longer need - we know it’s getting used!

  We’ve also looked at our menu and continue to do so. What’s left on the plate? For example, last year we took the decision to stop putting pickles on every toastie - and instead, ask if the customer wanted it. The result? Yep, 50% less in the bin!
  

• Paper - we use recycled paper for our menus, which in turn, is then recycled.
  
  2025 update: Late last year I made the decision to get proper menus for the pubs, supplied by the lovely folk at Westmalle Abbey. This has reduced the amount of paper we print by around 50% across the business as we aren’t having to print food, wine & spirits menus as often as we once were.
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: I’ve briefly mentioned the issues around this, but we’re still committed to this and where we can find other plastic-free alternatives (such as vac packs) we will use them too and we will work on a solution over this year to get them properly composted, not burned for energy.
  

• 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.
  

  2025 update: We’re still working with Artisan and we’ve gone even further by encouraging (where we can) suppliers to offer us refillable packaging. Alongside our 2 most popular gins, our house Rum, Tequila and Vodka are all delivered in bulk for us to refill the bottles. With several other producers we operate a bottle return scheme. And I’ve mentioned the impact changing our wine supplier has had already. We’ll continue to apply this logic to everything we get in glass - if we can get it in something that is easier and less carbon intensive to produce and recycle we will (for example, switching our Apple Juice from single serve bottles to easily recyclable 1 ltr packs).
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: Nothing to update here really, we’d already done the work although there is always a requirement to push and remind our team about being energy efficient.
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: See above!

• 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.
  
  2025 update: This is still an on-going discussion with suppliers. That said, it’s becoming easier as our suppliers do their bit too.

• Any new suppliers (outside breweries) that we do list must be working in a sustainable/good fashion, or won’t be listing them.
  
  2025 update: Still the same policy in place. I think toward the end of the year we may make some bigger decisions around this but it is a fine balance with ensuring we’re also commercially viable and offering the products we know you want.
  

• Educate and network. We’ll work with other groups and businesses to achieve our goals and support those around us to be better too.
  
  2025 update: 100% still into this. I currently head up a group locally supporting businesses around sustainability (Amplifi) and also co-host a networking event called People Planet Pint here at Fuggles. And alongside this I have become a bit of a sustainability bore at times, which I like. Hopefully I’ll be able to influence and drive others to make good decisions around how they do things within their business 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.
  
  2025 update: This is still a concept, where we can afford it to be. I’ll be honest and say we haven’t always been able to do this. However, where we can, we will. I think one of the main frustrations here is that repairing is often more expensive than replacing. I hate that. It’s why I hoard broken equipment - so I can repair it myself! (Case in point, our hot water heaters for tea/coffee have a habit of failing. The cost of an engineer to come out and repair is usually more than the machine itself once you’ve factored in parts too!)
  
  Some recent improvements to the pubs, for example, new tables, were all fashioned out of reclaimed wood and made by The Wood Store in Brighton.
  

• Use existing learnings and methods in the pub, at the shop (90% are already in place where they can be).
  
  2025 update: A bad example of sustainability here as the business itself wasn’t sustainable and we had to close it. However, the good news is that we managed to sell pretty much everything in there and even the wood we used for shelving etc was sold and has been given a new lease of life.
  

• 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.
  
  2025 update: An on-going project and definitely one we need to work on more. One of the biggest challenges here is staff turnover, which is sadly quite high (not just for us, as an industry) which makes it harder to have impact. I think we’ll start with our management team and filter it down. I think that this is something we will work on much harder next year once we’ve got some of the areas I can control a little easier first.
  

• 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)
  
  2025 update: I’ve already mentioned that this proved to be impossible for me sadly. Partly due to results not being accurate enough (caused by not wanting to use industry benchmarks and having a very high number of suppliers, particularly small and independent suppliers who also don’t know their footprint) but also due to the resource required to do it - it’s a lot of work to calculate properly and I’m in an unfortunate position where I don’t have the time to be able to do it.
  
  This leads into the next point a little too, but essentially my thought process is that I’d rather spend that time focussing on making better decisions and supplier choices that directly impact our carbon footprint. We’ll assess it at some point in the future I’m sure, but right now I’d rather spend my time and energy on doing everything I can to reduce the footprint full stop.
  

• 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.
  

  So, an average pub emits around 13 tonnes of co2 a year**. And of course, you can offset this with various programmes. However, there is a lot of discourse around this - for example the project really happening? Are there adverse knock-on effects of the project itself that perhaps negates the good intention? Whilst it’s not wildly expensive to do you have to find and fund the right scheme. Once we’re in a position to properly calculate our footprint we’ll look to do this and start to offset properly but for now the priority is on reducing our footprint and we don’t need to calculate to get to that point.

• 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. It is also not just about being 'green’ and focussing solely on the environment. The business needs to be financially sustainable too.

  • 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.