Pub tells customers the carbon footprint of every item on its menu

A pub has become the first in Britain to show the carbon footprint of every item on its menu.

Punters at the Sticklebarn in Great Langdale, Cumbria, can now consider the planet as they tuck into traditional pub grub.

The menu change is the latest in a series of measures to reduce the pub’s environmental impact.

At the alehouse, a plate of chilli nachos creates a worrying 5.74kg of greenhouse gases.

That’s the equivalent of driving 14 miles in a car or charging a smartphone 732 times.

And a slow roasted lamb burger with wedges produces 4.53kg in emissions. It’s largely because of the methane released by sheep.

According to an online carbon calculator, this amounts to just over two kilograms of coal being burnt.

Greenhouse gas emissions are measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).

The average Brit produces around 9kg a day through eating and drinking, depending on their diet.

Dishes with a lower carbon impact include a black bean burger (0.86kg) and apple and walnut salad with baked polenta (0.97kg).

Those with meat range between 2.72kg CO2e to 5.4kg CO2e.

Sticklebarn’s food manager Gareth Fuke said: ‘Food is such an important part of people’s lives and there is much more awareness and interest in seasonal and local.

‘The carbon calculator is a way of quantifying this. It helps us plan the menu and provides diners with choices.

‘It’s been well received and people appreciate being given the freedom to choose what they want to eat.

‘We want meat on our menu that is local and high quality so we can cater for everyone.

‘At Sticklebarn we champion the traditional Herdwick breed for our lamb dishes, produced by local farmers including our tenant farmers.

‘These hardy sheep graze on our mountains and taste wonderful.’

One of the most environmentally friendly main meals on the dish is a chickpea and mushroom roll which retails at £4.95, and produces a mere 0.3kg of CO2e.

Walkers visiting the tavern might mistake it for just another traditional pub in the Lake District.

But the attractive taproom is the only National Trust-run pub in the country after it was taken over in 2012.

The heritage organisation owns 60 pubs nationwide but the rest are tenanted and run as individual businesses.

Sticklebarn is powered by hydroelectricity and profits help the heritage organisation look after the environment which surrounds it.

Excess electricity is also fed into the National Grid, creating funds for the charity’s conservation work in the Lakes.

Last year the pub was awarded two out of three stars by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

Academics say that a carbon footprint is the best way to measure the full climate change impact.

It is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, and is usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).