Pub group green teams save £75,000 on energy in one year
Kay Smith, energy and contracts manager at Lisini Pubs Company, arrives for a meeting with ten other staff at Dalziel Park Hotel in Motherwell. But instead of discussing budgets or kitchen supplies, they spend an hour bouncing around ideas for how to reduce carbon emissions. This is a gathering of one of five ‘green teams’ – one per venue – that champion sustainability across the business.
It’s one of several inspiring and creative approaches to encouraging climate action at work that Kay shared with us when she attended the Climate Springboard net-zero programme in 2022.
The growing urgency of the climate emergency motivated the company, which employs over 300 staff at five hospitality venues in Lanarkshire, to set up their first green team in 2015.
Their focus so far has been reducing energy and water use. What has made it successful, explains Kay, was introducing competition. Each venue competes for a yearly £1000 cash prize, awarded to whichever team cuts their gas and electricity consumption the most. There are similar prizes up for grabs each quarter.
“Some staff are interested in sustainability, others are motivated by the prize and targets to meet, but when they start coming to the meetings you can see them all getting really into it.” Kay Smith
Most changes were small, but together had a big effect on emissions. Getting people to turn off power-hungry equipment when not in use, such as coffee machines, lights and hot lamps, was surprisingly impactful.
It paid off: between 2019 and 2023, Lisini Pubs Co saw their electricity use fall by 163,000 kWh and their gas by 323,000 kWh (enough for a three-bedroom home for 28 years). Their smallest venue alone – Castle Rooms in Uddingston – cut gas consumption by 52%. In total, the company saved just under £75,000!
Kay has also noticed a knock-on effect on company culture. Staff have started to proactively question wasteful practices and suggest more sustainable ways of working.
Top tips from Lisini Pub Co:
- Speak to people face-to-face. Emails and posters aren’t enough to motivate people to volunteer for a green team.
- Provide incentives. If our Green Teams hadn’t been set up as a competition, it’s unlikely we would have got so many people involved.
- Be persistent. People very easily fall back into old habits and need consistent reminders and challenges to make lasting behaviour change
- Involve every department. You can’t do everything yourself, so get buy-in from managers who are responsible for different parts of your business.
Learn more
Sign up for Climate Springboard, a free business support programme by Edinburgh Climate Change Institute. It’s designed to equip SMEs in Scotland with the knowledge and tools to start out on their journey to net zero.
It lasts just over a month and is completely free. At the end, attendees leave with a company carbon footprint, a template for a long-term net-zero strategy, and a tailored list of quick ways to lower emissions and costs.