An eco-friendly welcome

JD Wetherspoon has thrown down the gauntlet to the corporate green brigade in a big way.

Last week the pubco lifted the curtain on arguably the most futuristic eco-friendly pub in the country. Costing £3million and taking nine months to build, the Kettleby Cross will be a flagship pub for the chain and has the aim of using 50 per cent less energy than a similar sized Wetherspoon outlet.

As well as saving energy through rainwater harvesting, solar panels, evaporative coolers and sun pipes, energy will be actually be generated by a wind turbine.

The camouflage solar roof panels provide a minimum of 33 per cent of the energy used to heat the pub's water, while the evaporative coolers are designed to keep customers cool whenever the pub's temperature rises above a certain level. The coolers also assist staff by taking the heat out of the kitchen, making working conditions more friendly.

Meanwhile the sun pipes contain prisms which reflect natural sunlight to parts of the pub it would not otherwise reach, saving on the amount of energy needed to light the pub.

Other features include photo-voltaic tiles, which convert the sun's energy into electricity.

Zoe Tuff, who is managing the pub with Daniel Maccallum, says she is extremely excited about embracing the new technologies. "It's definitely an exciting time," she says. "Obviously we have to be a lot more aware of the energy we are using even down to having the lights on. But it will be interesting to see just how much energy we save."

She admits that it will be a "huge learning curve" for her having not especially eco-conscious before taking on the pub.

The team are the Kettleby are also focussing on re-cycling as well as having the green technologies in place. But Zoe has already been won over by the way it is working. "Re-cycling and helping save the planet is a lot easier than people think," she says.

Zoe and Daniel's team of 40 full and part-time staff have also had to become au-fait with all the eco technologies featured in and around the pub. "All our staff have had a 10-day training course teaching them how things are done at Wetherspoon but also they've been finding out about the pub so they can answer questions from customers," she explains. In case they get caught out, by way of a crib sheet, there are pictures frames up near the toilets on how the pub was built.

But Zoe remains confident that the pub itself will be a significant talking point and hopes that it could be the start of a new style of pub. "Hopefully the concept will work and other pub companies will take it on board," she says.