Enterprise Inns is a FTSE100 company whose core is a leased and tenanted pub business. It has around 7,700 outlets across England and Wales which are all run as individual businesses. Enterprise Inns employs 300 plus office-based staff who all work from the Solihull, Birmingham headquarters and around 300 field-based staff who all operate from home-based offices.

Russell Burton is Head of Property for Enterprise Inns Plc, a position he has held for the last ten years with responsibility for the group's £5.3billion property assets and a wide range of property and facilities management services, including Corporate Social Responsibility and health and safety.

"I have been employed in property management for 25 years working for a wide range of multi-site retail operations, including next plc, Dixons Store Group and European Leisure PLC and for 6 years I was Director of my own property management company overseeing the property interests of various clients," Russell says.

What are the biggest carbon reduction challenges you face in your role and how do you deal with them?

"The biggest challenge for Enterprise Inns is in influencing and leading the pub operators (retailers) to adopt responsible working practices in the reduction of carbon.

"We deal with them by explaining the business benefits to the pub retailers in terms of energy savings and therefore the cost benefits for the individual operator. We also use our quarterly magazine to promote best practice identified in our pubs.

"With regards to employees, Enterprise Inns are leading by example, as we have recently invested heavily in carbon reduction measures at our head office with a target of 10 per cent energy savings and this has been promoted throughout our building so all staff are aware of what Enterprise Inns are doing."

What has been your most successful low carbon initiative and what made it so?

"Five years ago we rolled out a fully comprehensive service for planned, preventative maintenance of cellar cooling equipment to all of our operators. Within this contract we replace 10 per cent of all equipment year-on-year with high-efficiency and ECA compliant equipment. To date, 4,500 operators enjoy this service.

"It is successful in that it ensures that this business-essential kit is maintained properly and that when replaced it is with the most low energy kit available on the market, reducing carbon and assisting retailers to reduce energy consumption.

"In addition, the Group continues to be supported by the Carbon Trust and LowC to implement a range of measures focused on our most energy intensive activities."

Are there any particular pitfalls you've encountered?

"Operator apathy can sometimes be an issue: not all buy into what we advise and offer."

Which emerging low carbon technology trends might be applicable to Enterprise Inns?

"We are currently looking at high efficiency boilers and low energy lighting schemes. Development in areas of ground source and air source heat pumps, combined heat and power, will also be investigated over the next 12 months."

How will the current economic climate affect the push to reduce carbon emissions?

"The business benefits of reducing carbon emissions and energy usage thus minimising electricity and gas bills for our operators may well assist in this area. The key challenge is in the initial funding of capital costs of work to reduce carbon for our operators."

How could government further encourage best company practice?

"Through the better promotion of funding availability and interest-free loans for assisting operators in funding the capital costs, along with promotion of best practice relevant to the pub industry."

In what way do you encourage publicans to become carbon conscious?

"We promote identified best practice through our quarterly magazine EagleEye. We also promote energy saving specifications through our own investment activity in terms of ECA compliant boilers, insulation, new carbon reduction technologies and the like."

What are you working on right now?

"Enterprise Inns are currently pulling together steering groups and champions for further development and promotion to our people and pub retailers in the area of carbon reduction and energy savings.

"Pilot schemes for low energy lighting and boiler replacement project are underway. There's also the further development and promotion of minimum specifications for investment activity and a push towards improving awareness with our retailers and Energy Performance Certifications. (EPC's).

"The focus for 2008 is to capitalise on the substantial carbon saving opportunities identified in 2007, and to explore in detail the possibility of introducing an 'on-site' renewable energy programme to further reduce our direct business carbon impacts."

What advice would you give to someone taking on a role similar to yours?

"The size of this task can seem quite daunting. Break it down into key areas of focus and objectives and keep focus on delivery of these before moving on to the next area. A responsible approach in this area of activity just makes good business sense for Enterprise Inns and the pub retailers."

Towards The City Of The Future

Apart from their names the cities of Manchester in the UK, Malmo in Sweden, and Murcia in Spain appear to have little in common. Regional capital Murcia has roots in agriculture, Malmo was once a global force in shipbuilding, and Manchester was among of the first industrialised cities in the world.

But all are participants in an EU project that aims to show how business and local authorities can work together to create the “low carbon city”, a community that is both economically prosperous and environmentally sound.

Running from January 2008 to June 2010 the ‘Partnership Energy Planning as a tool for realising European Sustainable Energy Communities’ (PEPESEC) project draws together cities in the UK, Spain, Sweden, Poland, Italy, and Greece. The aim is to develop new methodologies for planning energy sources, and parcel these into best practice guidance that can be used across the EU. Manchester is well-placed to lead this effort, given its history of innovation in new technology, particularly computing, and its task of moving beyond roots in traditional manufacturing and textiles. Engaging the business community will be a key part of the PEPESEC project, and here too Manchester has valuable experience.

Gold, silver, and bronze

Manchester City Council has a track record of working with businesses as part of “clean up” campaigns across the city. “It started very much at a grassroots level, and was originally about improving the look of businesses, helping them and their neighbourhoods to look clean,” says Environmental Awareness Manager Helena Davison. So it made sense to build on ‘Challenge Manchester - 100 days to a clean city’, the annual initiative to tackle a range of environmental issues including litter, graffiti, fly-tipping that has been running since 2004.

Relaunched in 2008 with a new emphasis on green issues, the initiative is a useful focus for the city’s pledge scheme for business. Badged as gold, silver or bronze, the pledge scheme is designed to be easy to join, but once on board companies are encouraged to deepen their commitment to cutting carbon emissions. The basic Bronze level pledge requires companies only to show how they are fulfilling their obligations under existing environmental legislation; and considering their environmental footprint in daily operations. The Silver pledge requires evidence of recycling, and efforts to reduce consumption of water, gas and electricity. It is a more bespoke commitment, focusing on the most energy intensive aspects of a company's business.

The Gold pledge specifies nine criteria, of which a minimum of four must be adopted. These can include providing detailed reports of minimising waste and recycling over a period of 12 months; implementing environmentally responsible procurement policies; or introducing schemes to appoint ‘green champions’, or to promote car-sharing, for example. Gold candidates may also opt to implement an Environmental Management system, says Davison. “It's not quite up to ISO standards, but it could be a useful step on the way there,” she says.

The Bronze level is implemented by the council's own environmental staff, most of whom spend their working day out in the community and so are well-placed to engage small retailers, for example. Parts of the Silver and Gold pledges require companies to work with council partner Groundwork, an independent environmental consultancy. The council reaches larger companies through industry bodies and trade associations. “We encourage them to sign, to give an expression of interest,” she says. Some 1,300 Manchester companies have signed up, of which around 430 are at Bronze level. “Even if they decide not to go for Silver we have still got them on our books, and we’ll get them in the end,” Davison. “The beauty of the pledge is that it’s very generic, applicable to small newsagents, or McDonald’s, Harvey Nichols, or Selfridges,” says Davison.

Grassroots to green capital

Manchester isn’t alone. In 2007 Bristol launched its Green Capital challenge, aiming to tackle climate change, improve the environment, and support sustainable communities and regeneration. To achieve its aim of cutting CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 Bristol’s local strategic partnership also operates a similar pledge scheme. As in Manchester, it is designed with low barriers to entry.

“The idea is to provide an opportunity no matter what size an organisation is, or what resources it has,” says Alex Minshull, Environment and Sustainability Unit Manager at Bristol City Council. “We found that organisations were at very different places,” he says. Typically, companies need some reassurance before signing the pledge, says Minshull. “Carbon reduction is a very broad topic and they’ll typically say ‘What do you want us to do?’. They often want to know if they can pick one area to work on. Many are nervous about being seen to fail,” he says.

The Bristol strategy encourages businesses to raise awareness of the pledge within their own communities. “We have identified a number of sectors, and organisations that could lead conversations in them. Business leaders aren’t going to listen to what I have to say compared with what other leaders say. We are going to use peer networks,” he says.

The pledge is just one part of a long-term plan to position Bristol as a leader in the emerging low carbon economy, says Minshull. “One of our goals is supporting the environmental technology sector here. As far as possible we want the technology to be provided out of Bristol, and we also want to create wealth in the city that doesn’t have an environmental impact. We are well-placed to exploit the opportunities, with our background in marine technology, advanced engineering, and aerospace,” he says.

A difficulty for planning a citywide carbon initiative is its inherent complexity, says Minshull. “Many issues are interconnected, with indirect relationships between things. For example, sourcing more food locally isn’t obviously connected, but one of the effects could be lower emissions from food transport,” Minshull says.

Another major task is to work out how all these grassroots activities will add up to progress towards Bristol’s emissions target for 2050. In their planning role, local authorities are familiar with some aspects of this work – assessing long-term housing and transport needs and their impact on the environment, for example – but carbon reduction efforts will be more complex. “We have commissioned universities and other researchers to help us with this. You need to model it – you can’t do it just by scratching your head,” he says.

Bristol’s findings will help to shape work by the Climate Change working group of the English Core Cities, which includes Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield as well as Manchester and Bristol. “We’re going to share this, we’re not competing with each other,” says Minshull.

Key questions:

• What community-wide schemes are operating in our area?
• Are our own emission reduction efforts publicised well enough?
• What are the business benefits of joining a scheme?