Adnams Sustainability Story

We leave our footprints in the sand, not on the planet.

Sustainability is fundamental to the longevity and success of our business. Our company values are rooted in making great products without costing the earth. From selecting the suppliers that we work with, through to the ingredients we use in our beers and spirits and the services we offer in our stores, pubs and hotels, we look at all the elements, to make sure we’re doing the right thing. We will continue to make our success sustainable and make a positive difference, because we believe business should be a force for good.

Biodiversity

We have our very own beekeeper, Steve, who looks after around a million bees at our environmentally-friendly distribution centre at Reydon. We’ve encouraged wildflowers to grow, and the bees enjoy feeding from the sedum flowers growing on our green roof. Their Reydon home forms part of a beer corridor along the Suffolk coast, where our bees can stop off at points along the route. The honey is produced is used in The Crown Hotel in Southwold.

We produce grain-to-glass beers and spirits using locally grown natural ingredients. The majority of our barley is grown for us by the Holkham Estate in North Norfolk. Our rye is grown by our Chairman, Jonathan Adnams, on his farm just up the road in Reydon. Our beers and spirits taste so good thanks the East Anglian soil and climate, which produces top quality grains.

With the launch of our sustainable collaboration brew, Nevermore, we made a commitment to increase our use of English hop varieties in our beers. As well as providing some amazing flavours and aromas, they have a lower carbon footprint for us and require less irrigation. Find out more here.

Our distribution centre site is home to

1,000,000

rehomed honey bees.

Energy

Positioned on the Suffolk coastline, we are aware of the impact of extreme weather conditions. We are determined to reduce our carbon emissions and our impact on natural resources to help fight climate change and to protect out coastal home for future generations. We use many tools to help us take action. We were the first UK brewery to complete a full carbon life-cycle assessment on our beer range. We don’t just look at our own emissions - we work with suppliers too to help reduce our carbon footprint every year.

Reducing our energy consumption has always been a priority, and the energy we do use is from a renewable source. We first began procuring our UK-based zero carbon energy back in 2012 by actively working with our energy provider to buy from suppliers who used higher than average renewables in the fuel mix. This increased over the years and in 2017, we switched the entire business, including our offices, stores, managed pubs and distribution centre, to a 100% certified renewable energy supply.

Carbon emissions down by

48%

since 2008.

Water

The Adnams approach is not just about pushing for the highest water efficiencies. It is about understanding how water is used across the lifecycle of our products and planning in mitigation at the start of projects. We were the first UK brewery to complete a full water life-cycle assessment to understand and influence the broader impact of our products. Adnams has twice won the Edie Sustainability Leaders Award for Water Management and more recently was recognised for our work around reducing resource consumptions by winning a Footprint Award for Energy Efficiency.

We identified that the distillery produced a high temperature water waste stream and realised it was a valuable resource. Rather than wasting this heat and water, we capture it and reuse it. We use a closed loop recovery system which uses heat exchangers to divert resources. This technology has decreased our water use in the distillery and reduced our energy bills. Our brewery recovers more than 90% of the steam it produces during brewing and converts it back into heat for the next batch. These projects are beginning to have an impact, and we expect to save 2 million litres of water this year.

Our sustainable distribution centre continues to give back. Its rainwater harvesting system saves around 1 million litres each year. Recycled rainwater is used to wash our trucks and flush our toilets. When it opened in 2006, it won a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Assessment Method) Award for excellence. The thermally efficient and locally grown hemp and lime walls reduce our electricity use, helping reduce our carbon emissions.

We save over

1 million litres

of water per year from our green roof.

WASTE

We regard our waste as a potential resource. Many years ago, our waste went to the brewery’s pig farm. They feasted under a banner that declared ‘Adnams pigs are happy pigs.' Today, we feed equally happy herds of cows with our spent grain and still treat some local pigs to our excess yeast. Anything we can't reuse is sent for anaerobic digestion to be turned into energy, making us zero to landfill in our brewery and distillery.

We are working on packaging improvements, having previous light-weighted our glass bottles by -38%. We have created cardboard only multipacks and all new products are only developed in cardboard packing. We have also committed to removing shrink wrap from new seasonal or limited-edition products like our collaboration can cases. This is removing 18 tonnes of plastic from our beer cases each year. Find our more about our efforts to shrink our shrink wrap use here.

In our stores, we reuse cardboard boxes for packing customer purchases and in our warehouse, excess cardboard is shredded for packing online purchases prior to despatch.

We send

zero

to landfill.

Social and Community Responsibility

CHAMPIONING OUR COMMUNITY

Our local community is very important to us and we donate 1% of our profits every year to fund worthy causes via The Adnams Community Trust. To date, the Trust has awarded over 1,500 grants to organisations within 25 miles of Southwold. It has supported projects in health and social welfare, education, recreation, conservation, and community facilities. You can find out more about the Adnams Community Trust and the great work it is supporting here.

Every November, we organise the Adnams 10k Run which raises additional funds for the Trust and raises money for charities across the region. You can find out more about the run here.

In partnership with the Marine Conservation Society, we operate three beach cleans every year, with the support of local residents and staff volunteers. We collect data about the volume and type of litter found on 'our stretch,' which runs from Gun Hill to Southwold Harbour. Learn how to take part in our beach cleans here.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Our commitment to sustainability sees us put our principles into practice, looking beyond ourselves. We want to do the right thing, the right way, across all we do; even when no one is looking. This is especially true in our commitment to sustainability, equality, diversity, and social justice.

We’re lucky that we have a beautiful beach on our doorstep, so getting out for a walk at lunchtimes is rarely a chore. We’ve developed a range of low alcohol beers and wines which can be enjoyed as part of a healthy lifestyle - remember, you can have too much of a good thing!

Adnams is a founding member of ‘Open to Everyone, Closed to Racism.’ We share our hometown with its founder, Jessica Gregson, so we were proud to get involved with this scheme. It aims to assist businesses in visibly promoting inclusivity front-of-house, while supporting them with expertise and education behind the scenes. Find our more about our involvement here.

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