Family-owned multi-national brewer and pub operator Wells & Co. joins expanding Zero Carbon Forum member roster
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Read Time: 5 mins
17th September 2024: Wells & Co., the Bedfordshire based, family-owned brewery, which operates 200 pubs across England and France, is the latest member to join Zero Carbon Forum, a not-for-profit organisation that supports the brewing and hospitality industry on their net zero journey.
Mark Chapman, founder and CEO at Zero Carbon Forum said: “Wells & Co. is a fantastic operator that has already shown great progress in taking credible climate action. We are excited to work with the team to help implement all the necessary measures from their dedicated climate action plan with nearly 190 energy-saving initiatives that reduce negative impacts and improve business. The Wells & Co. team will also benefit from sharing best practice with other forum members and a robust calendar of events, masterclasses, workshops, action groups and CEO roundtables to measure, plan and reduce their carbon footprint, at pace.”
Established in 1876 by founder Charles Wells, the fifth-generation business is now led by CEO, Peter Wells.
Ed Robinson, also a family member, is responsible for heading up the brand’s evolution towards net zero as the organisation’s first ever Sustainability Manager, whilst working towards an MSc in Sustainability at Cranfield University.
Ed says: “At Wells & Co., we are committed to being a net force for good in the communities and natural environment we inhabit. Operating a sustainable and resilient business is at the heart of everything we do. We want to give the next generation a business that we are proud of, and one they can grow and enjoy for years to come.
“The Zero Carbon Forum can measure our efforts accurately, benchmark them against the rest of the industry, and advise us on how to improve sustainability across the whole estate. Working with all our managed and tenanted pub partners to complete their carbon footprint is the first step on our journey.”
Wells & Co. has made substantial changes across its estate to reduce emissions, reviewing and transforming the key areas of waste and energy. Initiatives have included food waste audits and partnerships with Refood, producers of renewable energy from food waste, Too Good to Go, the surplus food marketplace, and its own ‘Beepoint’ project at their Bedford HQ, Brewpoint, to transform land around the brewery into a biodiverse space featuring several beehives. Most recently the grain from Brewpoint has been sent to anaerobic digestion.
Ed continues: “We are fully invested in decarbonising operations on our course to net zero. Our goal is to understand more about where we are on our net zero journey. We’ve joined Zero Carbon Forum as a like-minded and credible third-party organisation to access industry expertise and insights, a dashboard of data to track our progress, and tools and initiatives to help us get where we need to be faster.”
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For further information please contact: Jo McConnell/Callum Gable at HeadOn PR
T: 01242 335 246
Zero Carbon Forum’s virtual newsroom is available to access here, for assets including:
- A copy of this news release
- Headshot of Mark Chapman, Founder of Zero Carbon Forum
- Headshot of Ed Robinson, Sustainability Manager at Wells & Co.
Notes to editor:
About Zero Carbon Forum
Zero Carbon Forum is a non-profit organisation which builds on over 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.
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. Forum members, which represent over 35% of the sector’s outlets, pledge to work collaboratively, by sharing carbon reduction plans and initiatives.
In October 2021 Zero Carbon Forum published its publicly available roadmap for hospitality to achieve net zero carbon. The sector is working towards targets as set out in the roadmap of net zero emissions by 2030 on their own operations and 2040 across their supply chain.
This was followed by the launch of its Overnight Energy programme, a simple and impactful two-stage ‘10-minute’ shutdown process, combined with analytics from members’ energy smart meters to achieve substantial cost reductions and reduce emissions.
In April 2022 the forum launched a Carbon Calculator and Toolkit, developed in collaboration with UKHospitality, BBPA, and powered by Sky and the Brewer’s company, which enables hospitality operators and brewers to calculate their carbon footprint and identify achievable key actions to reduce emissions.
In March 2024 the forum launched Marketplace, a new directory to connect and showcase innovative sustainable suppliers to hospitality and brewing operators.
Zero Carbon Forum is backed by trade associations UKHospitality, The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) and The British Institute of Innkeeping (BII). Forum members include leading UK and global Brewing and Hospitality organisations.
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Editors notes
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.
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.
Its members, which represent over 30% of the sector’s outlets, pledge to work collaboratively, by sharing carbon reduction plans and initiatives to make a commitment to net zero emissions by 2030 on their own operations and 2040 across their supply chain.
In October 2021 the Zero Carbon Forum published its publicly available roadmap for hospitality to achieve net zero carbon, closely followed by the launch of its Overnight Energy programme, a simple and impactful two-stage ‘10-minute’ shutdown process, combined with analytics from members’ energy smart meters to achieve substantial cost reductions and reduce emissions.
In April 2022 the forum launched a Carbon Calculator and Toolkit, developed in collaboration with UKHospitality, BBPA, and powered by Sky, which enables hospitality operators and brewers to calculate their carbon footprint and identify achievable key actions to reduce emissions.
In July 2023 the forum announced the launch of Marketplace,a new directory to connect and showcase innovative sustainable suppliers to hospitality and brewing operators.
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 Brewdog, Burger King UK, Côte Restaurant Group, Greene King, InterContinental Hotels (IHG) Hotels & Resorts, KFC, Nando's UK and IRE, Pizza Express and Revolution Bars.
https://zerocarbonforum.com/
