Greene King sustainability score: 51/100
Better than 100% of Food Service / Restaurants
Leading practice starts at 60. The highest score on SINK is 71.
Greene King runs about 2,600 pubs across the UK and two breweries. Based in Bury St Edmunds, with roots going back to 1799, it is a major hospitality and beverage operator.
More about Greene King
The company is a private subsidiary of CK Asset Holdings.
Founded 1887Head office Bury St Edmunds, United KingdomStaff ~38,881Revenue £2,539.0M (FY2025, 53 weeks to 4 Jan 2026)Website ↗
Greene King has credible emissions data and SBTi-validated targets, but Scope 3—92% of its footprint—is barely moving: only 12.8% down against a 50%-by-2030 commitment. RE100 membership relies on grandfathered cross-border certificates, not additionality. Nature risk, water consumption and waste reduction lack quantified baselines.
Greene King scores 51/100 (Making progress) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified October 2026.
That places Greene King joint 129th of 1,023 companies scored, and 1st of 53 in Food Service / Restaurants.
What is Greene King doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Carbon Footprint: Operations and Targets & Commitments (8/10, 8/10). Weakest on Nature & Biodiversity Impact and Water Impact (3/10, 3/10).
Where Greene King lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- Its effect on natureAssess its effect on nature and publish a basic environmental policy.
- Its effect on waterMonitor its water use and take measures to reduce it.
- How it uses materials and handles wasteReport measurable waste or recycling targets publicly.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations8/10No verified figures published with their method and a falling trend.
- Emissions from its supply chain7/10No full value-chain map or supplier engagement programme.
- Whether its emissions are falling6/10No consistent fall over several years across its operations and supply chain.
- How clean its energy is5/10Less than half its energy shown to be renewable, or no transition plan.
- Its effect on nature3/10No assessment of its effect on nature, and no basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles waste4/10No measurable waste or recycling targets reported publicly.
- Its effect on water3/10No monitoring of water use, or no measures to reduce it.
- Its climate targets8/10No validated long-term net zero target.
- How openly it reports6/10No annual impact report, or no pay linked to climate targets.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Greene King's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleWhat evidence is Greene King's score based on?
13 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
23% of them were published by Greene King itself; the rest come from independent sources.
10 of 13 sources are independent of the company.
“Limited Assurance, in accordance with ISAE 3000 (revised), for our 2025 location-based greenhouse gas emissions.”
“Greene King is showing climate leadership by committing to using 100% renewable electricity by 2030.”
“Greene King has announced its commitment to 100% renewable electricity by joining the RE100 global initiative.”
“We have prioritised a collaborative approach with our suppliers to enable us to achieving our decarbonisation, deforestation and human rights commitments”
“achieve zero air freighted items across all menus at Greene King’s 1,600 managed pubs from Autumn/Winter 2025”
“sent 9,000+ tonnes of food waste to anaerobic digestion plants”
“Per pint, water usage in the brewing process should be reduced by more than 50%, alongside improvements in energy efficiency.”
“Greene King would commit to reduce absolute scope one and two greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year.”
“Greene King commits to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions 50% by 2030 from a 2019 base year.”
“Greene King has been named the Best Sustainable Pub Company”
“Greene King has pledged to become net zero by 2040”
“Greene King has been ordered to pay almost £11,000 after one of its pubs polluted an environmentally sensitive river”
““We identified about 80% of our carbon footprint comes from scope 3 emissions,” Malic says.”
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
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How does Greene King compare with other food service / restaurants companies?
Greene King is the highest-scoring food service / restaurants company we've rated.
Among the 53 major food service / restaurants brands we've scored, Greene King sits 1st of 53.
Who comes next in Food Service / Restaurants?
Greene King leads its sector. These are the next 3 down.
Wahaca has built a credible mid-scale sustainability programme with certified carbon neutrality since 2016, menu-wide carbon labelling, and strong waste diversion (86% recycling).
See the breakdown →LYOVEL publishes its own Scope 1, 2 and 3 footprint on France's mandatory ADEME BEGES registry — 2,368 t Scope 1+2 and 40,311 t Scope 3 (2022), with a 2020 filing showing an absolute decline — and has set its own 2030 reduction targets (Scope 1+2 −57%, Scope 3 −75%).
See the breakdown →Harvester's parent, Mitchells & Butlers, has SBTi-validated net-zero targets and renewable electricity across 1,726 sites, but absolute emissions progress is modest at 16% towards a 2040 goal.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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