As 4,600 hospitality firms close in a year due to soaring energy costs, operators recover £1.43m in lost profits and 1243 CO2 tonnes
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From Zero Carbon Forum’s Save While You Sleep campaign
11th May 2023: As 4,600 hospitality operators close in a year due to soaring energy and food costs, with warnings from hospitality leaders that many more will fold, the non-profit Zero Carbon Forum, announces collective savings of £1.43 million and 1243 CO2 tonnes in energy since the launch of its campaign, Save While You Sleep. This is the equivalent to the emissions of 4.5m car miles and has the same carbon savings as taking 565 cars off the road.
Since the Government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme ended on 1 April this year the hospitality sector is reportedly facing costs of £7.3 billion in increased energy bills. The Scheme was replaced with the Energy Bill Discount Scheme which has seen support cut to £5.5 billion until April 2024, leaving many operators in financial crisis. Energy costs currently account for 11.4% of business turnover, up from 3.4% before the crisis.
Now the forum, a non-profit organisation, empowering hospitality to reach sustainability targets with speed, efficiency, and profit, is continuing its mission to support members through these challenging times while reaching net zero at pace. Its campaign, Save While You Sleep (SWYS) helps hospitality reduce costs, recover lost profits and cut carbon overnight. With some of the biggest hospitality brands, including Burger King and Fridays now part of SWYS, the programme has already helped forum members save up to £12,000 per outlet, per year since the programme was launched last year.
The programme works by combining energy and carbon analytics with operational training and ongoing coaching. Operators’ existing energy smart meter data is run through the SWYS proprietary intelligence platform, to identify overnight energy wastage. Dedicated ‘Carbon Coaches’ provide analysis, insight coaching and training and on and off-site support to report high overnight wastage sites, identify key causes, help with remedial actions, and benchmark performance. Operations teams are supported to achieve their ‘best ever’ usage every night, and demand for the programme continues to grow.
James Taylor, ex- Head of Sustainability and Environmental Purchasing at The Restaurant Group (TRG), who sits on the Operations Board of the Zero Carbon Forum, will help further drive and lead the programme as Carbon Reduction Specialist, to help operators and members accelerate their transition to net zero. He will share his 16 years of industry insight, best practise and learnings through expert guidance and counsel and the delivery of an industry playbook on Scopes 1 and 2.
Mark Chapman, CEO and founder of Zero Carbon Forum said: “It’s the forums’ mission to help operators save on cost and carbon, and we’re here to help hospitality during the energy crisis. The cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use and Save While You Sleep helps operators identify and make changes that make a business-critical difference on cost and carbon.
“Making simple but effective behavioural changes has proven that costs and carbon can be reduced, and we urge the sector to act, with savings already achieved of £1.43m and 1243 CO2 tonnes in energy.”
James added: “Having worked closely with Mark and Zero Carbon Forum since its inception, and as a passionate and fellow advocate of collaboration for change, I am delighted to help further drive and lead the Save While You Sleep programme. I want to share my experience to help more operators save more energy, achieve sustainable growth and reach their net zero targets, working together at pace.”
Mark concluded “We are thrilled to have James with us on our journey to help the hospitality industry reach net zero faster and achieve radical sector change. His experience, knowledge and passion will be invaluable to members and operators alike and we can’t wait to get started.”
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Editors notes
About the Zero Carbon Forum
The Zero Carbon Forum is a non-profit organisation which builds on 10 years of carbon reduction collaboration in the UK’s hospitality and Brewing sector. It enables members to reach their decarbonisation targets faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively than acting alone.
The Zero Carbon Forum published its publicly available roadmap to achieve net zero carbon ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) in November 2021.
Members pledge to work collaboratively, by sharing carbon reduction plans and initiatives. By combining expertise and resources the forum helps to identify all possible actions to decarbonise operations across tens of thousands of outlets and their supply chains.
The Zero Carbon Forum is endorsed by government and backed by trade associations UK Hospitality and the British Beer and Pub Association. Members include leading UK and global hospitality organisations, including Adnams, Azzurri Group, Boparan Restaurants, Brewdog, Burger King UK, Côte Restaurant Group, Fuller’s, Greene King, Honest Burgers, InterContinental Hotels (IHG) Hotels & Resorts, JD Wetherspoon, KFC, Marston's PLC, McDonald’s UK and Ireland, McMullen’s Brewery, Mitchells & Butlers PLC (MAB), Nando's UK and IRE, Pizza Express, Pizza Hut Restaurants UK, Revolution Bars, Shepherd-Neame Ltd, St. Austell, Stonegate, The Restaurant Group (including Wagamama), Wadworth Brewery, WSH, and Young & Co. Brewery, PLC.
