All ten brands within the group – Carluccio’s, Caffè Carluccio’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Slim Chickens UK, The Cinnamon Collection (including The Cinnamon Club), FishWorks, Ed’s Easy Diner, Giraffe, Rebel Vegan and the umbrella BRG brand – have been using green energy from renewable sources since 2019 and have now been certified as carbon neutral by Carbon Neutral Britain after offsetting all of their direct emissions.
It is the latest in a series of announcements from casual operators about their sustainability achievements, with Nando’s declaring it had become carbon neutral across its scope one, two and three emissions back in November; and Hawksmoor announcing its intention to become carbon neutral in 2022, with a goal to become a net zero company by 2030.
BRG says this certification sees the group actively helping to fund renewable energy; woodland preservation; and tree planting projects around the world, regulated by the Verra Verified Carbon Standard, Gold Standard Voluntary Emission Reductions, and the United Nations Certified Emission Reductions programmes.
“Group-wide carbon neutrality certification is a proud moment for us, but there is still a lot of work to be done," says Satnam Leihal, CEO of BRG.
"This is an early step in our sustainability journey and our ultimate aim is to achieve true net zero across all our brands, and we continue to seek and implement scientific methods to get there.
“Offsetting is not a complete solution, but understanding our carbon use and supporting so many brilliant projects worldwide does negate the direct emissions created by our business today, bringing immediate benefit to the environment while we work towards bigger change.
“We are focussed on listening really hard to our customers and colleagues and are acutely aware of how important building sustainable brands is to them. As one of the UK’s largest hospitality groups, we have a responsibility to set an example and demonstrate that we are proactively taking our commitment to the planet seriously.”
Brand-specific sustainability initiatives – such as Carluccio’s partnership with The Rainforest Alliance which sees every coffee bought preserving 33m2 of rainforest – will continue alongside wider group initiatives.
