Simone 1Carbon Neutral Beer Anyone?
February 4th 2008 02:12
Licensee of Sydney’s Agincourt Hotel Matthew Jones is passionate about making a difference. He saw a business opportunity in making his pub carbon neutral and also wanted to pass down a better environment to his three children.
The Agincourt Hotel has been on the Sydney hotel circuit for over 100 years, and caters for a range of patrons. A multi-level venue, with a club, bar and function centre, the pub also has a restaurant boasting tasty cuisine, classic pub food and light snacks.
“As soon as I heard that too many people believed that not enough was being done about global warming I knew I had to get involved,” Mr Jones said.
“I immediately sought to calculate the impact the pub had on Australia’s environment in terms of total carbon dioxide greenhouse emissions.”
He did this with the help of the Carbon Reduction Institute who offer businesses the opportunity to become ‘carbon neutral’ through their “NoCO2” certification system.
Interested venues undergo a site assessment by an institute representative who will calculate the amount of the site’s emitted carbon dioxide greenhouse gas. According to Mr jones this included everything from the production of the beer to the mode of transport his staff used to get to work.
“Carbon credits” are then purchased, with each credit equal to one ton of greenhouse gas emissions. The money used to purchase each credit then goes towards funding projects like renewableenergy resources and tree planting. Once the amount of credits a venue has matches the amount of carbon it emits, it can claim to be carbon neutral.
Jones was adimant not to run his pub at a loss so worked out that he would need to charge an extra 2.5 cents per drink in order to cover the additional overhead. Customers lapped this up, so to speak, and Jones still boasts the cheapest beers in the area.
The Agincourt is currently undergoing $1.2 million AUS renovation, including replacing the bar with Recyled Tasmanian Wood, Intorducing water tanks and even water free urinals.
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