Sustainability
At Mitchells & Butler's our purpose is to be the host of life's memorable moments and, we are committed to making every moments matter by operating in a more sustainable way.
In 2019 we set a new sustainability strategy designed to address the key environmental issues facing our planet and to enhance our contribution to society, the details of the development of our strategy can be found in the 2019 Annual Report.
In 2022 we reassessed our ambitions and, conscious of the urgency for change to address the current climate crisis, have set even more challenging targets in our key focus areas.
Our sustainability targets are:
- Net zero emissions by 2040
- Zero waste to landfill by 2030
- 50% reduction in food waste by 2030
Our revised targets bring us even closer alignment with the 9 UN Sustainable Development Goals which we developed our sustainability strategy around in 2019. The identification of the UN SDG’s were the result of detailed materiality assessment to ensure that we focus on key areas of risk and opportunity which enable us to most effectively contribute to global priorities.
Given the importance and scale of the work we have built a governance structure around the strategy to support the change needed, including a Board level committee.
Our objective and key actions against these three pillars are shown below:
Planet
Objective
Reduce the use of natural resources and find opportunities to contribute to the development of a circular economy
Key actions
- Founding member of the Zero Carbon Forum which aims to develop a roadmap for hospitality to achieve net zero emissions by 2040
- Greenhouse gas emission baseline completed on FY 2019, including scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
- Strategic initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions part of Ignite 3 programme
- Focus on reducing waste and increasing rate of recycling
- Identification of opportunities within the capital programme to enhance sustainability of buildings
Offers
Objective
Reduce the negative impact of our food and drink supply chain on greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and deforestation
Key actions
- Participation in the World Resources Institute's Cool Food Pledge initiative which aims to reduce emissions of food supply chain with trials in two brands to being in FY 2022
- BBFAW tier 2 rating maintained and remains a key focus
- Supplier agreements set out sustainability expectations and standards supported by annual supplier conferences
- All direct palm oil from RFA approved sources, working with supplier on embedded soy
Communities
Objective
Increase the positive effect on people impacted by the business, be they employees, guests or the wider community
Key actions
- Strategic partnerships with charities developed, including Shelter and Social Bite
- Enhanced employee wellbeing strategy and improved resources and tools available to employees
- Brand-driven relationships with local organisations and charities
- Modern Day Slavery policies enhanced following review performed by Stop the Traffik
Drinkaware
We're a major funder of Drinkaware. The Trust's aim is to promote responsible drinking by finding innovative ways to challenge the national drinking culture.