A WEST Berkshire councillor has conducted a survey to see which coffee shops on Newbury High Street are the most environmentally friendly.

Councillor Adrian Abbs (Lib Dem, Newbury Wash Common) is always looking for new ways to go carbon zero and believes one of the simplest ways is to use reusable coffee cups.

READ ALSO: Council planning for a zero carbon Reading.

Out of the 13 coffee shops he visited, only one didn’t give customers the choice to use their own reusable cups.

The restaurant was McDonalds who gave safety as their reasoning, but Cllr Abbs believes it’s because their machines can’t accept cups other than their own.

His findings show that Pret a Manger, Paul and Waterstones offer the best discount of 50p when customers use their own cups.

Cllr Abbs also worked out which coffee shops allow customers to save the most money annually assuming they buy a latte every weekday for 50 weeks.

The survey found that the best discount against an original price was with Café Nero, as combining a reusable cup with their stamping scheme means an effective 25% off your annual coffee bill – ie. a saving of £150.

If customers shop at Greggs and use their loyalty scheme, they will expect to spend £346 a year.

This is significantly less than Costa’s £600 a year.

Cllr Abbs’ tip is to avoid coffee shops that won’t let you use your reusable cup and don’t have a loyalty scheme.