St Austell Brewery is launching a major campaign to improve on its already impressive environmental record with the aim of becoming one of the UK's greenest brewing and pub companies.

The Brewery already works to a wide-ranging environmental policy but wants to go much further by cutting its carbon footprint by a third in the next five years.

Announcing the move, James Staughton, Managing Director, showed his determination to lead from the front - by handing in the keys to his company Mercedes and taking delivery of a new eco-friendly Smart car in Brewery colours.

James said: "As a family company with a long and proud history in Cornwall, St Austell Brewery is committed to taking a pro-active approach to minimising the environmental impact of our business.

"We already go to great lengths to be environmentally efficient but we've taken the decision to go even further, reducing as much as possible our carbon use in every area of the business with an overall target of a 30 per cent cut in five years.

"We're proud to be doing our part in protecting the unique and beautiful environment of this part of the world and we hope others will join us in making this extra effort."

The Brewery's environmental policy already covers its activities from beer brewing to transport, energy use and recycling and the operation of its 168 pubs, hotels and restaurants in the South West, and the Brewery is a major supporter of the Clean Cornwall campaign.

Environmental efficiency will now become even more important, forming an integral part of the Brewery's business strategy and meaning boardroom decisions on all future developments will be taken only after considering the environmental impact. Further environmental initiatives include:

• Building in new heat recovery and energy saving systems in addition to those already in operation in the brewing process. St Austell Ales are brewed using water from its own private well. Used malt and hops are recycled for animal feed and waste water is treated in the Brewery's own water cleaning plant.
• Further developing the Brewery's successful local sourcing policy for brewing ingredients and produce used in pubs.
• As the South West's largest wholesale distributor of beer, wines and spirits transport is a key issue. The majority of the Brewery's delivery drays run on bio-diesel and this will be extended to include the entire fleet.
• A company-wide "Switch, Flick and Turn" Energy Campaign will encourage staff to turn off lights, power and water when not needed.
• Reduce paper consumption by 10 per cent in 2008 and use only recycled and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) accredited paper.
• Actively choosing environmentally preferable materials as well as suppliers who share the Brewery's commitment to protecting the environment
• Raising awareness within the Company and its estate including the introduction of a new category for Environmental Business of the Year into the annual St Austell Brewery Estate Awards.
• The Brewery is also working locally with Envision, Community Energy Plus, Business Link and CoaST and nationally with Envirowise and The Carbon Trust to promote environmental awareness throughout the Company and pub estate and to:
• o Install energy-efficient lighting across the pub estate which will reduce energy use for lighting up to 75 per cent (lighting currently accounts for a fifth of the Company's total energy use).
• o Minimise water use within all our operations and continue to install waster saving management systems throughout the Company.
• o Reduce our waste streams from all operations and build on the recycling initiatives already in place at the Brewery and its pubs.

Sally Sandford, St Austell Brewery's Environmental Manager, said: "Our aim is to integrate our environment policy into all of our business activities and conduct our operations to the latest standards and codes of practice so we don't just meet but exceed all appropriate legislative requirements.

"As a company which is already environmentally conscious we are setting a tough target to cut our carbon footprint by a further third but we believe it's important to challenge the way we operate in all our business streams. We will continually monitor our performance and identify areas for improvement."