Well done Shepherd Neame for having such foresight to save resources - and cash - for the long term by regarding the day to day environmental impact of running a large business as being essential to the whole operation.

It's high time for environmental efficiency issues to come to the top of the pub industry news agenda. Pubs are just about the most wasteful, fuel guzzling, inefficient buildings you could imagine. The energy costs of running a normal regular English pub are ridiculously high because the responsible repair and maintenance of the bricks and mortar of the national estate has been neglected for decades.

None of the big PubCos have any particular regard to lowering emissions from their estates or increasing fuel efficiency because by and large the responsibilities and costs for such decisions have been totally devolved to the people who have the least money to invest - tied lessees.

Another area of failing CSR in this business.

Royal Bank of Scotland are energy efficiency leaders in the property owning business and have long had an environmental efficiency officer. HEnce their high profile involvement in national energy efficiency awards and campaigns.

RBS's responsibilities fail completely, however, with regards to the energy efficiency of the large brick and mortar estates they own which are operated by PubCos like S&N Pub Enterprises for example where total responsibility for that part of the oepration is devolved to the S&NPE senior management who have to my knowledge, shown a reliable and total disregard for implementing any form of energy saving measure across their estate.

This to the extent that they have never even encouraged BDMs to recommend that licensees change to low energy light bulbs. I have not seen an S&NPE BDM for a very long time though. Perhaps their 'hands off' policy has changed in the intervening time.