‘Carbon footprint’ refers to the CO2 released primarily from fossil fuel burning (oil, diesel, coal and natural gas) and is the main contributor to climate change.

We measure, reduce and transparently report our carbon footprint as an indicator of our environmental impact. This applies to the carbon emissions of all of our products, and not just our head office. This means that we take responsibility for the emissions from the initial raw materials we use through to customer’s use and how the bottles are disposed of at the end of their life.

We measure and report our carbon footprint in a transparent way to achieve PAS 2060 standard by working with industry experts Anthesis. This applies to the impact of all of our products, not just our head office. From 2010 to 2016 we reduced our carbon footprint by 45% per litre to 433g CO2e/litre. Every stage in the life of our products has a different carbon impact, the majority are associated with the raw materials we use.

We go over and above what’s required to minimise our environmental impact. Our initiatives like light-weighting our glass and using high levels of recycled content have all helped dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of our products. After we have reduced their footprint we offset our remaining carbon emissions through investing in carefully chosen carbon reduction projects outside of the UK, which reduces our overall carbon footprint down to zero. This means that each and every one of our products is carbon neutral, which in turn helps you to reduce your own footprint.

Clever ideas and independent partnerships help reduce our carbon footprint. In 2013 this meant collaboration with Bristol’s glass packaging specialists Rawlings. We worked together on the design of Ethical Glass, a new initiative to create lighter bottles which replaced both our old 750ml and 330ml clear glass bottles. This is now the lightest clear glass bottle family available in the UK.

The Ethical Glass bottle will be made in the UK by the sustainably focussed glass manufacturers Owens-Illinois, creators of the Glass is Life campaign and in line with our commitment to support British industry. Glass is already the most sustainable packaging option available as it is made from all natural materials, and can also be recycled endlessly. It has remained a favourite in the hospitality industry as it is the only packaging option that protects the freshness and flavour of products without any additional layers of material.

We’ve also made the bottles available on the open market through Rawlings and we hope that more companies will take the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint by using Ethical Glass. Buying Ethical Glass also contributes to our all profits donation to WaterAid too.

Ethical Glass is great for a number of reasons:

• 18% lighter than previous Belu glass bottles
• Over 45% recycled content
• 850,000kg of glass will be saved annually. This is equivalent to 2.1 million wine bottles
• 11% further reduction to Belu’s carbon emissions. This is the same as saving the carbon associated with 7,000 nights in an average UK hotel

The rate at which we recycle plastic bottles in the UK is increasing every year. 6,952 million* plastic bottles were collected for recycling in 2012, representing 58% of plastic bottles consumed by UK households. Every ton of recycled plastic saves 5,774 kilowatts of energy, 16.3 barrels of oil and 23 cubic meters of landfill space, as well as saving water and emissions from the virgin material production process.

We worked with world plastics recycling experts NEXTEK to help us lead the plastic bottle packaging market with the use of 50% recycled plastic in our current plastic lines, and we are committed to increasing this percentage as far as we can. The majority of our plastic is now also made from bottles consumed, recycled and turned into new plastic in the UK.

Using recycled plastic in the bottle manufacturing process is a good thing as it is less energy intensive than using the equivalent of newly made plastic. Recent studies have shown that this can be as much as 80%** less energy. Switching from plastic that has no recycled content to bottles like ours that contain 50% recycled materials reduces the carbon footprint by 31%.

*RECOUP – http://www.recoup.org/p/34/key-data-benchmarks

** The ICE database (University of Bath)

Belu launched its green glass range in response to leading Italian restaurant chain Zizzi’s who wanted to offer their customers a classically continental looking product without the environmental damage.

Belu remains the only UK producer of both still and sparkling mineral water in green glass. Because the UK is a net importer of wine, this means that the recycled content of green glass is over 80% compared to 45% for clear glass. This then means less energy is required to melt the raw materials during glass blowing.

Green glass bottles are made from sand, soda ash and limestone and it takes 1.2 tonnes of raw materials to make one tonne of glass. Recycled glass can be added to the furnace, replacing raw materials without any effect on the quality of the finished bottle, and this reduces C02 emissions and prevents environmental impact of quarrying raw materials. The recycled glass is the wine, beer and soft drink bottles that local authorities collect from household recycling and waste management companies collect from bars and restaurants.

Since introducing green glass in 2010, to date (December 2015), we have turned the glass of over 2.5 million wine bottles into over 2.2 million green glass water bottles. Restaurants can make a big difference by choosing our green bottles, saving an average carbon reduction of 36% a year. A small restaurant selling around 2,500 cases a year can save as much carbon dioxide equivalent as it takes to drive around the M25 137 times in an average petrol car.