Sustainability at Greene King

We're committed to making a positive impact – in our pubs, in our communities and for the planet we share.  Greene King for Good is our environmental, social and inclusivity programme. It's how we embed sustainability in everything we do, guiding our choices and shaping the future of our business.

Our overall business purpose guides Greene King for Good:  'Pouring happiness into lives'.  When Greene King for Good is inherent in everything we do, we're adding value, creating opportunities and making a real difference for our people, partners and customers. Greene King for Good ties in with Greene King's overall sustainability ambition: "Building a positive future together: integrating sustainability as a guiding principle of our organisational culture."

To achieve this goal, we all need to take responsibility for our actions whilst making it easy for our customers, colleagues and communities to make sustainable choices.  By building sustainability into our everyday decisions, we're strengthening Greene King for the long term and creating a positive future together.

Environment

We are committed to operating in a long term sustainable way, reducing our impact on the environment so that it is protected for generations to come. So, in 2022 we committed to setting near term greenhouse gas reduction targets and a carbon net zero target of 2040. Our near term target to halve our emissions across our own operations as well as those outside of our direct control – such as the goods we bring into the business – were validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative.

We’re now focussed on reaching those targets in lots of ways, including:

• Phasing out natural gas from our business and switching to air source heat pumps and all electric kitchens
• By looking to procure and generate renewable electricity in the next few years
• By reducing our energy usage through greater efficiency
• By working collaboratively with our suppliers and partners to reduce carbon emissions and create circular solutions, protect and enhance bio diversity and minimise our water usage

Our customers always come first and so we’re also busy making changes to our business to help our customers make more sustainable choices.

From the food and drinks we serve to our pub environments we putting environment and social considerations at the heart of every decision. We’re introducing electric vehicle charging stations in our pub car parks, adding greater bio diversity into our garden spaces, reducing our packaging and phasing out single use plastics.

As a signatory of the Courtauld Commitment to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030, we distribute good quality food to foodbanks and via Too Good to Go, recycling remaining food waste into energy that feeds back into the national grid.

There’s much more to do to protect our planet for the future, but we can do this together with our people, customers, communities, partners and suppliers – because it matters to us all.

Social 

The pub has been a quintessential part of British life for generations; the very centre piece of community life – a welcome retreat, a place to laugh, to celebrate and to just be. Where old friendships blossom and new ones are made; where ideas spring and camaraderie is fostered; where relationships bond and communities grow.

At Greene King we believe in supporting our people and our communities by giving millions of people better lives and by providing good work for everyone.

Governance

Our third pillar, Governance, focuses in enhancing transparency in our reporting and responsibility into our business. In 2022 we established our ESG & Sustainability function, adding a ESG board and governance structure, which can be found in our Annual Review 2022.

Responsible Sourcing

Greene King is committed to sourcing as sustainably as possible. We prioritise resource conservation as a fundamental principle.

Greene King is committed to sourcing as sustainably as possible we prioritise resource conservation as a fundamental principle. We are committed to minimising resource consumption, including water, energy, raw materials, and natural resources, throughout our operations and our value chain.

As part of our Net Zero targets and our near-term Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) commitments, which received approval in 2023, Greene King also committed in October 2024 to no deforestation across its primary deforestation-linked commodities with a target date of December 31, 2025. Our target is to meet the timeline requirements of the SBTi which has a cut-off date of 2020 and implementation date of 31 December 2025. We are also committed to meeting the upcoming UK Forest Risk Commodities Regulations. Our commitment applies to our high priority commodities:

• Soya
• Beef
• Palm Oil
• Wood
• Cocoa
• Coffee
• Rubber

To support this commitment Greene King has a commitment to only use Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified palm oil and ensuring that we use deforestation and conversion free soy across our operations. Additionally in line with EU legislation Greene King is committed to ensuring that no genetically modified (GM) soya is used in our food products.

Responsible Retailing

We encourage customers to visit our Enjoy Responsibly page for information and advice on responsible drinking and Greene King’s actions for responsible retailing. We follow the ‘Challenge 21’ scheme or ‘Challenge 25’ in our pubs and our tills remind our team members behind the bar to check. What’s more, all of our new bar team members have to complete our training before they can serve alcohol, so that they understand their legal responsibilities and obligations, as well as the impact of alcohol on children.

We operate the Ask Angela scheme across our managed pub estate supporting our teams with training to help customers if they find themselves in vulnerable situations.

Operating safe pubs is a priority so we are proud to share that in 2023 our managed pubs were accredited by Home office based Best Bar None scheme.

Allergens And Gluten

In September 2023, we strengthened our resolve in helping customers with food allergies and became the first UK pub company and brewer to form a strategic partnership with the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation (NARF).

NARF is focussed on medical research, law and policies, education and raising allergy awareness to bring about positive change for people with food allergies.

We want our guests with allergies and intolerances to feel comfortable in our pubs and restaurants and trust our food, and we have strong procedures and menu information about allergens in place across our pubs, restaurants and hotels to help protect those will allergies and help our customers to make informed meal choices.

We’re also proud of our expanding non-gluten range, which is bigger than ever before.

Healthy Eating

Our aim is to serve great-tasting, quality food and to give customers a choice of a wide range of menu options that support a healthy balanced diet. Many of our menus now offer at least 10 dishes that are under 500 calories.

We want to help parents feed their children healthy meals. Our kids’ menus offer fresh fruit, salad and fresh vegetables, in line with the five-a-day government strategy on dealing with obesity. We are also signed up to eight pledges in the Government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal.