Sustainability

At Australian Venue Co, we’re on a mission to make our venues more sustainable, right across the country. We’re focused on creating positive change across three key pillars, with our dedicated Sustainability Project Manager leading the way.

Energy

Our goal is to reduce our energy intensity and foster an energy-conscious culture across our business. We know the biggest impact we can have on energy is through the energy we don’t use.

Waste

We’re cultivating a waste-conscious culture focused on circularity. Our key waste streams are Commingling, Cardboard & Paper, Organics, Container Deposit Scheme (CDS), and General collection for unavoidable plastics.

Plastics
We’re taking steps to cut down on plastics and single-use items that can’t be recycled. Adopting a ‘Remove, Reduce, Replace’ approach, we’re working to phase out soft plastics and make smarter, more sustainable choices across our operation.

We’re exploring ways we can reduce waste, and re-use and recycle in our venues and offices every day to help us tread more gently on the planet.

We’re rolling out LED lighting at our venues across Australia in 2022. LED lights are significantly more energy-efficient and with lower carbon emissions than traditional fluorescent lighting.

Around 50% (103) of our venues have been upgraded so far with LED lights replacing old lighting, with works continuing through 2022-23. Already reducing our electricity related emissions by around 800 tonnes of co2 per year.

We’re dialing up the number of plant-based menu options on our menus. Meat-free alternatives are now widely available for two of our most popular pub classics: our Eggplant Parmas & Beyond Burgers have been an instant hit!

Straws: By using paper straws, in the last 12 months we have avoided 7 million plastic straws.

Food containers: Last year we used over 3 million single use plastic food containers in our kitchens. In 2022 we decided we needed to change. We’ve now had over 190 venues switch to reusable containers. Over the next 12 months this will reduce around 3.5 million plastic container from ending up in landfill and we are continuing to further eliminate plastics from our procurement.

Currently we have 6 of our venues using onsite solar power, renewably powering around 20% of their energy needs. That’s around 73 days of the year powered by the sun per year! We’re continuing to work on expanding our solar powered sites through 2023 and beyond.