Sustainability

We have always worked towards elements of sustainability, either consciously or because they are the right thing to do

There are so many elements, both large and small, that make up our approach to sustainability.

By opening up about what we do, and how we do it, we are hoping to start a conversation about ongoing improvements and change. We genuinely want feedback, good or bad, we want new ideas and implementations, we want to know how other bars throughout the world are tackling these issues.

Below is a list of our current approaches and process to improve our carbon footprint and sustainability

Cleaning:

We use fabric hand towels in our toilets and these are washed in house. Washing these in house also cuts carbon emissions from transportation
We limit our use of blue roll, instead we have various fabric clothes that are used for different tasks. These are washed each night on site, on as low a temp as we are able. We do not use bleach or other similar washing products.
Where possible we use eco friendly cleaning products like Eco-cover or Clean Living (we aren’t fully able to change as there are EHO requirements, and some eco friendly items have previously damaged our concrete bar top)

Sundries:

We make our own soap for hand washing, so we are able to reduce shipping and packaging costs and carbon emissions. This accounts for over 100 bottles of soap, and an additional 50kg of glass, without taking into account the environmental costs of transport or logistics
Our toilet roll is make from Bamboo instead of wood pulp, and Who Gives a Crap are working to provide toilets to poorer countries
Our candles were, for 4 years, liquid oil refills, so there was very little waste, the bottles are recyclable, and no little metal parts that can’t be recycled because they are full of wax
From 2022 we moved to rechargeable LED candles to remove even this from our carbon footprint
We have used Ethyl since the bar opened, reducing the need for printed spec sheets or notebooks. All of our kitchen reporting and documentation is now stored there as well. So we no longer need print outs to record things like fridge temps or monthly reports. Daily, weekly and deep clean checklists are also stored in Ethyl, removing any need for paper in the bar.
We don’t print card receipts, since we moved to Square over a year ago we don’t offer guests the option, instead if they need we can email it to them
We also don’t print a cash off receipt from the till, as we keep only digital records of transactions now

Stock:

For 4 years we bought our Gin and Vodka in 20L metal kegs from Victory, so we massively reduce glass waste, transport costs, packaging and material issues. These are returnable and reusable. So far we have cut 1250 glass bottles from the supply chain, over a tonne of glass itself, and saved over 4 tonnes of CO2
Since the beginning of 2022 we moved even our Gin and Vodka production in house. Deciding to buy Grain Neutral Spirit in reusable and recyclable Jerry Cans. This we then use to make our house spirits. This takes out an extra element from what we a previously sustainable model, and comes from the same supplier as our other spirits to avoid unnecessary transport issues.
Where we can we distill our own spirits in house, to save on buying smaller bottles, for example if we wanted a ginger spirit, we could just buy fresh ginger and distill a vodka, rather than buying a spirit from Italy for example. Where we can do this we also try to create concentrate items so we can save on the energy used to make them.
Our vermouths come from Londinio in 10L card boxes so we can reduce transport emission and bottle waste, since they started supplying us we have already saved over 200kg glass
Our other vermouths we make in house, removing the need for shipping and bottling entirely. Our house Negroni is an example of us creating 5 years of vermouths
We are in direct talks with people at LVMH to bulk purchase Volcan Tequila in alternative containers rather than glass. We are looking to buy 3-400L of tequila for a year, to be shipped by freight, in 20L Jerry Cans that we can then reuse in the bar. This would singly remove between a quarter to half a tonne of glass from being shipped from Mexico to the UK, per year.
We made the difficult decision to remove our beer chiller and lines, to reduce our energy usage and to allow us to move 100% to cans which we can fully recycle

Produce:

We buy produce at its seasonal peak, and use techniques like fermentation, salt/sugar preservation, distillation and clarification, we we are able to freeze or keep ingredients for months instead of purchasing from overseas
We use very little citrus fruits, our house cocktail list contains at most 1 item out of 15+ with fresh citrus, instead opting for alternative acidity. This reduces the environmental impact shipping fruits has on the world
When we buy dry goods we try our best to buy them in bulk to cut down on packaging and transport costs. For example we buy sugar in 25kg recyclable sacks, citric and malic acids in 2.5-5kg containers
We work closely with the kitchen to ensure that where possible we don’t waste ingredients, like making mayonnaise from the egg yolks after separating the whites.
We reuse the trim from our garnishes in various ways, for example the off cuts of Kiwi fruits are frozen until we have enough to distill as the vodka for the kiwi gimlet
The kitchen process food waste in a similar way, the trim from a pollock fillet is used to make a whipped brandade, trim from potatoes for chips goes into a smoked potato dip
We keep our citrus husks, waste garnishes and trim in salt, preserving them and we distill this into a vodka for super citrus martinis
With citrus juice that we don’t use, the kitchen keep a portion for making dressings and cooking, and the remainder goes into a lactic acid cordial that we use in our Super Collins and French 75
We have wall mounted herb planters outside on our back wall so we are able to grow garnish herbs to reduce the need to ship them in

Recycling:

We recycle everything possible, including once a week glass and food waste collection, mixed plastic and card recycling. For us its important that its not a daily collection as this reduces transport emissions
We have never used straws, which should go without saying
Our beverage napkins are compostable and designed to be used for the duration of a guests visit, they stand up well and very rarely need replacing
We don’t print card receipts, since we moved to Square over a year ago we dont offer guests the option, instead if they need we can email it to them
We also don’t print a cash off receipt from the till, as we keep only digital records of transactions now
All of our gift boxes, bottled cocktail packaging and shipping boxes are fully recycled, and fully recyclable

Other:

Our lighting is all LED based and is all high quality low watt so it has a longer life span
Most of our staff live within a 10 minute walk of the bar, rather than having to travel far, and the few that do cycle where possible
We take advantage of having a beer chiller and run out filtered water supply through it so we can serve chilled water without using additional ice
We no longer (for 2.5 years now) use printed menus, we have moved to a fully digital menu system, and whilst we miss physical menus, the savings on printing/paper and shipping far outweigh the benefits
We have never used straws, which should go without saying
We added auto timers to a lot of our refrigeration so things like freezers, fridges, ice machines all turn off over night, and when we are closed, to reduce our energy usage. It changes our energy draw by about 33%
We have also opened up to the industry about what we do, publishing a clear guide to our processes and asking for open feedback

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