Best Sustainable Pub Company sponsored by Sky - Peach Pubs

Now a 20-strong group of quality gastropubs around the Midlands and the South East, that ethos remains embedded in one of the company’s three core principles with the words “We Love Our Planet”.

While among the 10 promises that define its mission are serving more free-range meat and plant-based dishes, sourcing sustainable fish, conserving natural resources, focusing on food waste and reducing, reusing and recycling wherever possible.

Reducing waste focus

Those values are impressed on candidates at the very beginning of the recruitment process, so all members of staff are on board, and each site now has a ‘Planet Hero’ among the team, specially trained and charged with keeping the company on track to reach its sustainability goals.

Reducing food waste has been a major focus for Peach over the past year. The menu has been slimmed down, half the dishes are now plant-based, and chefs work closely with suppliers to ensure, for instance, a ‘balanced carcass’ for meats, meaning no part of a chicken is wasted, while vegetables are used ‘root-to-tip’, including making crisps out of the peelings.

Sustainability awards

Soups and creative specials help make sure as little produce as possible goes to waste, and pubs served charity Christmas dinners last December to use up leftovers. Coffee grounds are offered to guests to bag up for compost at the door of the pub.

Plastic use has been reduced thanks to refillable condiment bottles while the company has persuaded suppliers to switch from cardboard delivery boxes to reusable plastic.

Peach was recently awarded a three-star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association, and, as part of the Race to Net Zero collaboration with other hospitality operators and suppliers, aims to hit that target by 2023.