Hall & Woodhouse (H&W), the south-east-based brewer and pub company, has revealed it achieved a 12% reduction in gas and 7% reduction in electricity usage across its managed house estate in 2024.
This equates to 360 tonnes of CO2e savings, the Dorset-based company has aims to achieve net zero scope 1 and 2 energy emissions by 2027.
It has also exceed its own target to achieve a 10% year-on-year energy reduction through behavioural changes in 2024.
During last year, H&W implemented a variety of successful initiatives in order to reduce energy usage across its managed house estate.
So far throughout this year, the company has committed £1m to further its sustainability efforts.
Critical importance
Hall & Woodhouse innovation manager Jon Mead said: “Being a sustainable business is woven into our purpose of making people’s day and enriching our communities from generation to generation.
“We recognise the critical importance that people and planet play in our long-term success and are committed to taking action now.
“We have set ourselves ambitious targets to reduce energy emissions. We’ve seen superb results, coming from a standing start in February 2024 when we launched our behaviour change project.
“The level of engagement from our team in embracing our energy saving focus has been extremely impressive.
“They have fully demonstrated their commitment to living our company values, thereby reducing the energy consumption and carbon impact of our business.”
H&W has reported they have largely achieved energy reduction through behavioural change.
Other improvements
Behavioural change measures included the implementation of strict temperature controls at 19 to 21°C in winter, as well as seasonal heating adjustments and mandatory overnight shutdown procedures for both ventilation systems and kitchen equipment.
The company has also piloted many technical improvements including the implementation of smart cellar cooling, smart kitchen ventilation, voltage optimisation, and free-air cellar cooling.
All with the ultimate aim of embedding significant additional reductions in energy consumption.
The company has also installed solar panels in five of its pubs and brewery, one of these panels being installed in 2024.
It has also introduced insulation and draught exclusion measures across its managed house estate.
H&W’s £1m investment into green initiatives this year includes further roll out of existing technological improvements.
Committed to taking action now.
It will also see work undertaken to increase the number of fully electric kitchens (within its managed house estate) from nine to 23 by the end of this year.
Head of legal and sustainability Marianne Jarvis said: “We have already proactively identified, tested and budgeted to implement significant technology-driven reductions in 2025.
“These investments will help us to achieve our mission to fully electrify our kitchens by 2027 and be well on our way to removing gas entirely from our managed houses.
“We recognise sustainability is everyone’s responsibility, and as a future-thinking business we have the opportunity to lead by example.”
In addition to significantly reducing energy consumption, H&W has also made investments in the last year to decrease overall waste across its managed houses, letting rooms and it’s brewery.
With aims of reducing energy consumption further, the company has encouraged more team engagement with the implementation of monetary incentives for the best-performing pubs and regions.
Achievements are rewarded, with a focus on best sales per kWh and highest reduction in electricity use.
The Morning Advertiser heard exclusively from Hall & Woodhouse innovation manager Jon Mead, to understand why sustainability is important to the brand, and what they actions they are taking to move forward with sustainable practices in future.
He said: “Achieving these levels of reduced electricity and gas consumption through behaviour change has been an exciting and rewarding journey.
“From the outset, we provided our teams with regular, easy to digest information around the results that their small changes were having, and this was critical to the success of the initiative...we even had one team using a currency of ‘number of penguins saved’.
“We exist to make people’s day and enrich our communities, from generation to generation. Being a sustainable business is woven into our purpose and, as such, we have committed ourselves to taking industry-leading action. As such, we have set ourselves the following goals:
“Net zero on scope 1 & 2 by 2027 - emissions from energy we directly use do not add greenhouse gases to the Earth’s atmosphere
“Net zero on scope 3 by 2040 - emissions from all areas of our business, including suppliers and product lifecycles, do not add greenhouse gases to the Earth’s atmosphere.”
Mead explained the company has two key areas of focus when moving forward with future sustainability plans. Outlining the next steps for the company in their sustainability journey.
He added: “We have identified and agreed our next steps to continue with our decarbonisation – these generally fall into two key areas:
- Continuing to invest in our people and pubs to reduce energy consumption through behaviours and technology – we have already committed a further £1m for sustainable initiatives in 2025
- Reducing and removing carbon impact from our supply chain through the suppliers we use and the products we buy.”
