St Austell Brewery has released its first impact report demonstrating the family-owned business’ commitment to sustainability and its efforts to have a positive impact on people and the planet.
The report includes some ambitious targets, including the goal to reach net zero by 2040.
With more than 160 pubs across the South West, two breweries, a drinks wholesale business and six distribution centres, St Austell Brewery is one of the region’s largest businesses.
Sustainability has long been at the heart of St Austell Brewery’s mission. Since 2002, the company has partnered with Cornish farmers to source local barley, continuing to reduce food miles by building a strong South West supply chain and supporting local businesses, as well as backing good causes through its Charitable Trust.
The impact report, which highlights the company’s sustainability efforts over the past three years, details initiatives aimed at tackling its carbon footprint. These include reducing emissions from the drays which transport beer across the country by updating the lorries to Euro 6 engines, and its partnership with a food waste platform to redistribute leftover food from managed pubs to local communities.
St Austell Brewery’s Chief Executive, Kevin Georgel, said: “Our priority is to build a company that will continue thriving for generations to come. This means investing in resilient, regenerative practices that not only support our operations, but also create lasting, positive impacts for our people, the places we cherish and operate in, and through our important local communities.
“We are a very proud regional employer and, as one of the largest private-sector companies in the South West, we recognise the significant role our people have in our ambition, but also the scale of our responsibility. From equality, diversity and inclusion to leadership and development training, we are continuing to invest in a number of people initiatives across the business to establish ourselves as a leading employer in the South West.”
Georgel added: “Whilst we are making progress in many areas, from investing in renewable energy and advanced water treatment technologies to reducing waste, we outline future focus areas in the impact report. Our ambitious roadmap will help us eliminate the largest sources of carbon emissions and reach our net zero goal by 2040. We are also strengthening our supply chains, working closely with food suppliers and barley farmers to promote nature-first farming.”
A focus for St Austell Brewery going forward is investing in regeneration projects. In 2023, the company’s iconic Pier House pub in Charlestown reopened after a devastating fire the previous year. The refurbishment marked the business’s first circular economy pub refurbishment project.
Working with the University of Exeter, the company reused, recycled, and donated materials to minimise waste and restore the building with as little environmental impact as possible. This model will serve as the blueprint for future St Austell Brewery pub refurbishments.
In recent years, St Austell Brewery has made other sustainable changes, including switching to a 100% renewable CO2 supply at both of its production sites. The business also continues to reduce water consumption in its brewing process.
Since 2022, both breweries – St Austell and Hare – have sent 3,433 tonnes of spent grain from brewing back to local farmers for use as high-protein, high-fibre animal feed. Yeast produced during the beer fermentation process is also reused by local farmers as natural fertiliser.
In addition, the business has invested in a new state-of-the-art canning line at Hare Brewery, its second brewing site in Warmley, near Bristol, helping to reduce plastic packaging and overall production waste.
In late 2023, the business partnered with the local sharing app Olio, which helps reduce food waste by redistributing surplus food from a selection of its pubs to nearby residents. As of October 2024, 1,504 food items had been diverted from waste and shared with the community.
To further its renewable energy focus, the company has already installed solar panels at Hare Brewery in Bath, St Austell Brewery, and its Central Distribution Centre (CDC) in St Columb.
As a result of these ongoing efforts, the business was shortlisted for Best Sustainability Pub Company at the 2024 Publican Awards.
Other key focus areas for the company going forward include rolling out EV charging points across its entire pub estate by 2028, with plans to install at least 400 additional chargers to improve EV accessibility across the rural South West. The company also plans to expand its solar energy initiatives by adding more solar panels at its St Austell and Hare Brewery sites.
Emily Coon, St Austell Brewery’s Sustainability Manager, said: “Sustainability has always been a core part of our business. We work closely with the natural world and prioritise locality and seasonality in everything we do, from sourcing barley from local farmers for our beers to curating a menu that showcases South West produce and suppliers.
“Now, we are formalising our sustainability strategy to provide a solid foundation for it to thrive. This includes focusing more on reporting and improving our data collection. We’re committed to expanding the data we capture and improving transparency in our decision-making.”
To further enhance its sustainability efforts, the business will soon be installing steam and electricity submeters, which will help identify energy-saving opportunities across the business.
