We use cookies Find out more about cookies and change your cookie settings using the options below Accept Settings Menu Our responsibility We know how important it is to behave in a responsible, caring and sustainable way. It matters to our customers, our team members, our neighbours, and it also matters to us. That’s why we are fully committed to our corporate responsibility programme. We have four areas of focus: our communities, our people, our environment and our customers. OUR COMMUNITIES Pubs are part of communities. They’re the place where everyone comes together to relax and enjoy the time with family and friends. We want to play a role in supporting our communities and maintaining their strength. Macmillan Cancer Support In May 2012, we launched our first national charity partnership, committing to raise £1m over three years for Macmillan Cancer Support. Thanks to the hard work, dedication and creativity of our team members together with the generosity of our guests, we’re delighted to announce that we’ve raised £6m! “We are proud of how our team members have worked tirelessly with real passion and enthusiasm to raise much needed funds to support people with cancer.” Our pubs and team members have raised more than £6m for Macmillan Cancer Support Focus 12 We support Focus 12, a charity based near our headquarters and brewery in Bury St. Edmunds. Focus 12 provides treatment for those with drug and alcohol dependencies and offers guidance and counselling for family members. Pub is the Hub We’re big supporters of Pub is the Hub. Our funding goes towards its Community Services Fund, to help rural pubs that want to branch out and offer new services for the benefit of their communities – opening a library or butcher’s shop for example. Prostate Cancer UK All of our Spirit Pubs got behind Prostate Cancer UK during the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and raised more than £70,000. OUR PEOPLE It’s the people at Greene King who make us who and what we are. We want to be a first-class employer and we believe that looking after our 39,000-strong team is central to our success. We want our people to have the opportunity to develop in their careers and, of course, we want to attract and retain the best people too. Training and development We encourage and support our people to build their careers in the direction that they would like to. Our dedicated training programmes are specific for each of our business areas so that our team members get the development they need. Apprenticeships We are really proud of our apprenticeship programme, and think it’s a great way to support young people starting out in their careers. “In 2011 we signed up to the Government’s apprenticeship scheme and since then we’ve supported 7,400 apprentices through their qualifications. What’s more, we’ve pledged to take on another 10,000 apprentices over the next three years. That means by 2019 we’ll have supported more than 17,000 apprentices!” Employee engagement Our people enjoy working at Greene King. We achieved an employee engagement score of 70% in our most recent Employee Engagement questionnaire. We’re also pleased that 89% of our team members said that they’d recommend Greene King as a great place to work to others. Supporting our tenants We’ve been helping people run their own pubs for more than 200 years. We know that the support we provide is one of the reasons that we’re a preferred partner for the best licensees. That’s why we continue giving our tenants and licensees the advice and guidance they need. OUR ENVIRONMENT Reducing our environmental impact is key to the long-term sustainability of our business. We are currently focused on reducing our consumption of energy, water and waste. Energy We understand the value of investing in new technology. In our Bury St. Edmunds brewery, we’ve converted the brewery boilers to gas from the previous light fuel oil, which has significantly reduced emissions. We’ve also continued to convert the lighting in our pubs, restaurants and hotels to low energy LED bulbs. In fact, we’ve already installed LED lighting in 740 of our Spirit pubs. And we’ve upgraded our boilers and heating control systems in many sites too. We’re proud that our Spirit sites are supplied with 100% renewable electricity. All the power for the pubs, restaurants and hotels are is generated from wind, biomass and hydro sources. In association with Total Gas & Power and Ineco, our Spirit business won an ‘Energy Efficiency Award’ at the 2015 Footprint Foodservice Awards for the progress we’ve made through our energy initiatives! In fact, Spirit has reduced its electricity consumption by 11% over the last two years, making excellent progress towards creating a whole range of technologies and actions that can be implemented across the estate. Water We observe our water usage in 200 sites. This helps us set benchmarks for the rest of our estate and know when to investigate if there’s high usage. We also work with 20 water companies that supply us nationally, to help us implement ways of making further savings as well as investigate water leaks. Our Spirit business won ‘Water efficient project of the year’ at The Energy Awards 2015. The award recognised the impact of our water strategy which, in collaboration with Waterscan, has helped us reduce our water consumption by 12% in the last three years. We’ve saved so much water by finding internal and external leaks, fixing leaky water and storage tanks and replacing faulty taps! “We’re proud that our ex-Spirit sites are supplied with 100% renewable electricity.” Waste We continue to work hard at reducing waste across the business. More than 570 of our Greene King sites divert more than 80% of their waste from landfill. And our ex-Spirit pubs now divert 96% of their waste from landfill – last year that included 1m litres of used cooking oil; 2,520 tonnes of food waste; 8,527 tonnes of glass; 1,870 tonnes of cardboard; 122 tonnes of plastic and 19 tonnes of tin! We’re also a signatory on the Food and Service Hospitality Agreement and work with WRAP to reduce our food waste, optimise package and increase our recycling rates. Environmental impact We’re proud that our Spirit business won the 2015 award for ‘Environmental Improvement’ at the European Supply Chain Excellence Awards. The prize recognised the work we’ve carried out within Spirit’s Supply Chain and the way in which we’ve collaborated with our suppliers and partners to minimise our environmental impact on local communities. Environmental policy Greene King’s activities and products, including and associated with brewing, packaging and distribution of beers and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks from the Bury St Edmunds sites are certified to the international standard for Environmental Management Systems (ISO 14001). As part of this standard we have an Environmental Policy that sets out our commitments in relation to managing environmental impacts and ensuring continual improvement. Please click here to view our Environmental Policy. Our Guests We take seriously our responsibility to provide a safe, affordable and convenient experience for our guests every time they visit us. Food safety standards Food safety in our kitchens and within our supply chain is of vital importance to us. That’s why we insist that all of our suppliers either have a British Retail Consortium or a Safe and Local Supplier Approval accreditation. We require that all food products supplied to us meet our strict labelling requirements, and that our suppliers can demonstrate full traceability of all their products, too. We are committed to delivering excellent food and kitchen standards. In our Pub Company business, we carry out training and external audits, and we work with local authorities on the issue. Both of our breweries also hold a grade A rating with the British Retail Consortium’s food safety standards. “We provide full allergen information in all our pubs, restaurants and hotels, so that our guests can make more informed meal choices.” Chef & Brewer's fresh and delicious Mango, Mozzarella & Asparagus Salad “Many of our menus now offer at least ten dishes that are under 500 calories.” Allergens and gluten We want our guests with allergies and intolerances to feel comfortable in our pubs and restaurants, and trust our food. We’ve trained our team members to help them better understand allergens. We also provide full allergen information in all our pubs, restaurants and hotels, so that our customers can make more informed meal choices. We’re proud of our expanding non-gluten range – it’s bigger than ever before! Responsible retailing We encourage our guests to visit our Enjoy Responsibly website. The site gives lots of information and advice about responsible drinking, the impact of alcohol on health, and offers useful resources such as a unit calculator. We follow as a minimum, 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. “If you’re lucky to look young enough, you can expect to be asked to prove your age in our pubs. We follow as a minimum, the ‘Challenge 21’ scheme, or ‘Challenge 25’ in our pubs.” 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 ten 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 have also been signed up to eight pledges in the Government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal. For a number of years, we have shown commitment to taking voluntary action to improve public health! Our company Our history Understanding our business COVID Stories Our responsibility Stepping Up Report Our management team Policies and statements Annual Reports CALLING TIME ON RACISM Our response to Covid-19 Greene King Westgate Brewery Bury St Edmunds Suffolk IP33 1QT Time Well Spent Greene King is the country’s leading pub retailer and brewer, running over 2,700 pubs, restaurants and hotels in towns, villages and city-centre high streets across England, Wales and Scotland. With a rich heritage of over 200 years, we brew award-winning beers and operate managed, tenanted, leased and franchised pubs from our headquarters in Bury St. Edmunds.