Here on the Suffolk coast, we are aware of the impact of extreme weather. In the past we’ve lost towns to the waves. We are determined to reduce our carbon emissions and our impact on natural resources, to help fight climate change and to protect our coastal home for the future. We were the first UK brewery to complete a full carbon life-cycle assessment of our beer range. We work with our suppliers too; because we’re all in this together.

If we could harness the enthusiasm of our teams, we could power a town like Southwold. That’s not an option, so we work hard to reduce our consumption; and the energy we do use is from a renewable source. We began procuring our UK-based zero carbon energy back in 2012 and in 2017 we switched the entire business to a 100% certified renewable electricity supply. It heats water in our brewery and distillery, as well as the shower in your hotel room. It keeps our shops delivering and it beckons you to our pubs in the evening.

The It’s hard to make drinks without water, so we wanted to really dive in. It’s about more than just finding efficiencies. We wanted to understand how water flowed across the lifecycle of our products, so we could plan in mitigation from the start. We were the first UK brewery to complete a full water life-cycle assessment, to understand and influence the broader impact of our products. We have won the Edie Sustainability Leaders Award for Water Management twice, and more recently we were recognised for our work around reducing consumption, with a Footprint Award for Energy Efficiency.

We identified that the distillery produced a high temperature water waste stream and realised a valuable was going down the drain. All that heat and water is now captured and reused. A closed loop recovery system uses heat exchangers to redirect that resource to another use. This technology has decreased water use in the distillery and reduced our energy bills. Our brewery recovers more than 90% of the steam it produces 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.

Trash, or treasure? We always look for a positive and regard our waste as a potential resource. Years ago, our it 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 local pigs to our excess yeast. Anything we can't reuse is sent for anaerobic digestion to be turned into energy.

We are continually improving our packaging, having previously light-weighted our glass bottles by 38%. We have created cardboard-only multipacks that can be sent without outer packaging and new products are only developed in cardboard. We have committed to removing shrink wrap from seasonal and limited releases like our collaboration can cases. This is removing 18 tonnes of plastic from use each year. Find our more about our efforts to shrink our shrink wrap use here.