Environmental award winning pub giant Scottish & Newcastle Retail (S&NR) has signed up all its 1,400 outlets nationwide to the Hotel & Catering International Management Association’s (HCIMA’s) Government-backed Hospitable Climates energy-efficiency programme. At the same time, S&NR’s project technical services manager Angus Peters agreed to become the first ever Hospitable Climates pub champion – responsible for promoting the free-of-charge advisory scheme to other organisations and individual businesses in the pub and licensed retail sector.

The news coincided with the launch of the Hospitable Climates programme to the pub and licensed retail sector – supported by the HCIMA, the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) and the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) – at the House of Commons last week.

S&NR is the very first pub operator to win the coveted ‘National Green Champion of the Year’ award in the National Green Apple Awards – organised by the Green Organisation with support from the Institute of Waste Management, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, and the Municipal Journal – for best environmental practice in the leisure and services category.

The pub giant places enormous importance on environmental issues. In fact, S&NR received the same National Green Apple Award for a second year running in 2002, when the company also won the ’most effective implementation of a campaign’ category in the Major Energy Users Council (MEUC) awards, whilst being named runner-up in the MEUC’s ‘Best Use of Gas’ category.

"I am honoured to have been asked to be Hospitable Climates’ first ever pub champion," said Angus Peters, "and I look forward to working with the Hospitable Climates management team to ensure the programme’s energy-saving measures reach the widest possible audience in the pub and licensed retail sector. And I hope that in time Hospitable Climates will deliver substantial cost savings for both individual and multi-site operations.

"Indeed, Hospitable Climates has provided us at S&NR with a very exciting opportunity, because our environmental aims and objectives, as a company, dovetail so well with the approach adopted by the scheme – the result of an unique partnership agreement between the HCIMA and the UK Government.

"Hospitable Climates will play a key role in keeping environmental issues firmly in the eyes of our management and staff – revitalising and reinforcing energy consumption reduction messages to our employees on a regular basis, in an appropriate and meaningful manner. It is an excellent, free-of-charge advisory programme for keeping our 1,400 outlets strongly focused on energy and money saving measures."

Rosemary Morrison FHCIMA, director of HCIMA special projects – Hospitable Climates, said: "We are delighted that such a leading organisation as S&NR has signed up to the scheme, and we hope very much that many more pub and licensed retail operators will follow suit over the coming months.

"We are also very pleased that Angus Peters has agreed to be our first ever pub champion, and are deeply grateful to him, the BII, and the BBPA for all their advice, support and help in rolling out the Hospitable Climates programme for the pub and the licensed retail sector."