A popular award-winning pub in Northamptonshire is creating a buzz in the county after announcing it has received a prestigious accolade for its growing green credentials.
The team at The Red Lion pub in Cranford, part of the Greedy Gordons culinary collection of pubs and venues, is celebrating success after being presented with a Sustainability Champion Award by the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII).
To achieve the celebrated Sustainability Champion status pubs must be actively involved in four key areas: energy reduction, waste reduction, sustainable procurement and customer and team engagement.
Director of Greedy Gordons, Richard Gordon, revealed the group’s pubs and venues, which include The Red Lion at Cranford, The Snooty Fox at Lowick, The Pig & Waffle in Grafton Underwood and the Buttery Café and Farm Shop in Woodford, are all actively boosting their businesses to be more eco-friendly.
Hospitality heroes crowned sustainability champions
A popular award-winning pub in Northamptonshire is creating a buzz in the county after announcing it has received a prestigious accolade for its growing green credentials.
The team at The Red Lion pub in Cranford, part of the Greedy Gordons culinary collection of pubs and venues, is celebrating success after being presented with a Sustainability Champion Award by the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII).
To achieve the celebrated Sustainability Champion status pubs must be actively involved in four key areas: energy reduction, waste reduction, sustainable procurement and customer and team engagement.
Director of Greedy Gordons, Richard Gordon, revealed the group’s pubs and venues, which include The Red Lion at Cranford, The Snooty Fox at Lowick, The Pig & Waffle in Grafton Underwood and the Buttery Café and Farm Shop in Woodford, are all actively boosting their businesses to be more eco-friendly.
Richard, who runs Greedy Gordons with business partner Sonya Harvey, raised a glass to toast The Red Lion’s latest award achievement. He said: “We are thrilled to announce The Red Lion has received the BII Sustainability Champion Award, it is such an honour to achieve this status within the industry.
“It is testament to the hard work across all our teams who tirelessly strive to ensure our business is as sustainable as possible. We have made significant investment within the business, as well as within the wider communities where our pubs and venues are located in Northamptonshire.”
The pub is also creating a buzz by helping boost bee populations. In a bid to increase biodiversity in the pub garden The Red Lion announced it is involved in the Punch Pubs’ ‘Pollinator Pubs’ initiative.
Richard revealed: “As part of Punch’s biodiversity partnership with the Eden Project, we have planted pollinator-friendly plants in the pub’s garden, grown and nurtured at Eden’s Growing Point nursery. We were thrilled to be one of only 100 Punch pubs across the UK to be specially selected for this incredible initiative.
“We have also sown National Wildflower Centre seeds and have a bee cup to support our bee community to stay hydrated. We’ve significantly invested in this initiative including bespoke signage for the garden, which is a haven for bees and wildlife.”
The Sustainability Champion Award has been created by the BII and is ‘awarded to those in the industry who have gone above and beyond to demonstrate their commitment to running a sustainable business… doing some incredible work to build an eco-friendly future that’s better for pubs, people and the planet’.
Additional activities to help secure sustainability status focuses on the business’s customer and team engagement initiatives, which include promoting sustainable transportation by encouraging customers and staff to use public transport, bike or walk to the pub providing incentives including discounts.
Richard added: “We’ve launched a Greedy Gordons Walk Guide, to help support people’s mental health. It maps a route which links all our venues, and a discount is offered to those who complete the walk.”
The venue also donates used coffee grounds which are utilised by a local allotment; vegetable peelings are used to feed the chickens and ducks which live opposite the pub; surplus beer is used in dishes, including pies; and cooking oil is recycled.
Richard said the pub had implemented numerous energy reduction measures leading to a significant reduction in usage, which saw energy costs decrease by 20% in the past year. Its waste reduction measures included introducing recycling programmes, composting food waste and eliminating single-use plastics.
The resourceful team often upcycle furniture at the pub, repurposing pieces for other areas of the venue and repainting old pub picnic benches, which the team donated to a local pocket park.
Punters visiting The Red Lion can not only enjoy the flourishing flowers, foliage and wildlife in its extensive garden, they can also enjoy fabulous seafood after the venue’s Fat Crab and Cocktails al fresco dining experience officially opened for the summer.
The outdoor designated dining option brings the trending tasty immersive seafood boil experience to diners in the county, with dishes dedicated to showcasing the very best seafood. The Fat Crab and Cocktails experience is available to book throughout the summer.
Sister pub The Snooty Fox will also be celebrating summer in style this July as Richard announced plans for an event showcasing fabulous food, drink and live entertainment.
He said: “On Sunday July 27 we will be staging the Snooty Fox Summer Sunday Smash in the garden. Pure Genius will be playing from 4pm with barbecue style food from June Plum on offer. Entry is free so we are inviting everyone to come along to enjoy this exclusive event.”
For more information visit the Greedy Gordons website.
