Nottingham brewery Castle Rock celebrated raising £2780 for Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust with their “Into the Wild” campaign yesterday. The campaign ran alongside the Trust’s efforts to raise £25,000 to help protect Nottinghamshire’s ancient woodlands.

Earlier this year, the two collaborated on “Into the Wild”, a witbier brewed with sustainably sourced ingredients to celebrate their 20 years of friendship. The artwork for the beer was designed by competition winner, Matt Newton, chosen from over 60 submissions. 10p from every pint sold was donated to the Trust.

The beer was launched at the Canalhouse in March, along with a fundraising quiz, gallery and art shop, as well as a raffle.

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust’s Emily Patrick commented, “It’s great to be celebrating 20 years of friendship with Castle Rock, the brew was a fantastic way to raise awareness and support our ancient woodland appeal. All the money raised from both the launch night and the sales of the beer will support us look after this magnificent habitat for wildlife to thrive and people to enjoy!”

“The work Castle Rock is doing to reduce their carbon footprint and be a more sustainable business are important steps for the future and links in with our urban vision for Nottinghamshire.”

The brewery handed over the cheque at the Poppy and Pint, which is itself undergoing incremental change for the benefit of our planet.

Castle Rock’s environmental officer Freddie Ireland is working with the pub to reduce its Carbon footprint, striving towards carbon neutrality. “The Poppy will be the first of our pubs to get its food waste collected for Anaerobic Digestion, providing an immediate and significant improvement to its carbon footprint.”

Freddie continued, “It already has LED lighting fitted which is a highly efficient use of energy, and there’s an EV charger installed in the carpark, too. We’re also consulting with contractors about solar PV with the aim of sourcing a significant proportion of the Poppy's energy via renewable sources by 2024, so the project is moving along nicely!”

Manager James Halfpenny said, “We’re really excited about making these changes. They don’t happen overnight but it’s an investment into our future, and one we think our customers will appreciate.

Amid rising energy bills, inflation, and everything else going on, it’s nice to have a positive message as we edge into winter. At Castle Rock we’re encouraging everyone to turn off their lights, TV and heating for a bit and pop down to the pub! There’s plenty of roles a pub plays in its community and taking action against climate change is one we can do together – for our mutual benefit.”