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Where Are They Now? Belu, £5.2m to WaterAid & How You Can ‘Drink the Difference’
Over the years, the Global Good Awards has celebrated hundreds of organisations for the actions they take for the environment, the community and business.
Throughout the year, we have been looking back at some of our previous winners to share news of their growth and ongoing success.
This week, we are featuring the female-led business, Belu, who won the Global Good Award for Best Sustainable Small Business in 2017 for their Made with Mineral Water & Ethics initiative.
Belu launched a new range of tonics and mixers in green glass for the hospitality sector, making it the only tonic and mixer brand to use over 70% recycled materials in its bottles. By transitioning more customers to their UK-made lightweight glass bottles, Belu has saved 850,000kg of glass annually (the equivalent of 2.1 million wine bottles!), further reducing their carbon emissions by using fewer raw materials.
Belu already had an impressive list of achievements when they won the Global Good Award five years ago. As well as other accolades, including the Queen’s Awards and Footprint’s Drinks Sustainability Awards, Belu invested heavily in carbon reduction offset projects, and reduced their carbon intensity by 41%. This has now jumped to a 68% reduction. The company had been carbon neutral for years, and were the only drinks company to have achieved PAS2060 accreditation. Belu was also the only drinks supplier in the UK to offer a filtration service with in-house bottling, to encourage the hospitality industry and corporates to move away from single-use packaging.
Since winning the Global Good Award in 2017, Belu’s greatest innovation has been pioneering the move away from single use bottles to filtration. Next time you’re at a restaurant, bar or hotel, you might see one of their filter taps dispensing still or sparkling water. This is another big step that the small company is making to influence change in the hospitality industry, by encouraging venues to reuse their slick signature glass bottles. The aim of introducing the option is to reduce the emissions intensive process of producing and delivering bottles, in the hope that venues switch to filtration to support sustainability, and bring down delivery costs. At a time when we’re seeing inflation rising, alongside fragile supply chains increasing the risk of stock issues, it’s a win-win!
On the topic of green credentials, five years ago Belu developed a PET bottle using 50% recycled plastic. They also launched a successful pilot to produce a 100% recycled replacement, which they have been using ever since. All Belu’s PET bottles use 100% recycled plastic and are 100% recyclable themselves. Their range of mixers and tonics use over 70% recycled material in their bottles. Belu has also updated their ethical glass bottles, having launched an even lighter bottle with partner Encirc that uses 45% recycled materials.
WaterAid
Belu’s enduring relationship with WaterAid has seen them donate millions in profits over the years to the charity. WaterAid delivers clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene to people around the world. In 2018, Belu achieved their aim to raise £1 million in profits for WaterAid in just one year. They almost repeated this feat the following year. With the onset of lockdown, Belu still managed to donate £100k, the minimum amount they have pledged to WaterAid, despite experiencing trading losses.
In June 2021, Belu celebrated ten years of their partnership with WaterAid. In that time, Belu invested all their net profits – over £5m – to helping end the water crisis and, in doing so, have transformed the lives of over 330,000 people across the globe.
Pandemic Pause
Although challenging, Belu used the lockdown period as a time to pause and reflect upon their aspirations for the business. Inspired by the courage of people and community spirit around the world during the pandemic, Belu announced their refreshed purpose in April 2021:
“Belu is a drinks business that puts people and the environment first. Our purpose goes beyond our products; by 2030, we will change the way the world sees water. This is our invitation and promise to everyone who chooses to buy us. It is core to every product and service we sell and all of our profits are invested in pursuit of it.”
Belu continues to go from strength to strength. In 2021 alone, the company achieved the following:
- They expanded their Filter in Action service across the UK and internationally, including Hong Kong, which led to forming the Belu Collective with customers such as the Upper House and Dough Brothers restaurants, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Elsewhere welcomed workplaces, construction sites and restaurants from burger joints to Michelin stars to the scheme, installing 158 new machines. The Sustainable Restaurant Association estimates each participating restaurant is saving at least 12,000 single-use bottles a year.
- Belu launched a new range of tonics and mixers in green glass for the hospitality sector, making Belu the only tonic and mixer brand to use over 70% recycled materials in its bottles.
- They were recognised as Food Made Good Supplier of the Year.
- By transitioning more customers to their UK-made lightweight glass bottles, Belu have saved 850,000kg of glass annually (the equivalent of 2.1 million wine bottles!) and, therefore, further reduced their carbon emissions by using fewer raw materials.
Belu has achieved all of this with the same number of global staff: 11.
Charlotte Harrington, co-CEO at Belu says: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved over the last five years. At times it’s been tough but we’re a passionate team, with an incredibly supportive network of customers and supply chain partners who together believe that businesses can help solve some of the world’s problems. We happen to be in drinks and focussed on changing the way the world sees water, but our model could be applied to any other product, and we want to inspire other businesses to do things differently”.
To appreciate the full extent of Belu’s mission and achievements, take a look at their latest impact report.
