A carbon footprint is the measure of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an activity. It can be calculated for a product, service, person or even a country, and is used to understand the impact that human activity is having on the earth’s climate. The standard unit of measurement for a carbon footprint is carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e).

Our 2017 carbon footprint

We take full responsibility for our products from generation of raw materials to end of life. Being aware of the footprint of everything we use and do means we continually focus on minimising the environmental impact of every aspect of our business. It’s a continuous challenge to ensure we are balancing every decision on ethics and overall planetary cost, and therefore essential that we measure our business through a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit.

Therefore, the first business performance indicator that we report is our CO₂ emissions per litre produced. Our footprint is independently measured and reported in detail by global experts Anthesis.

The overall carbon footprint for all our products, office and people movements in 2018 totalled 6,023 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), a 5.4% increase on last year’s total of 5,712 tonnes of CO2e. An expected increase for a growing business delivering +25% growth in net profit in the year.

We remain the first and only water brand to have achieved the independent British Standard Institute’s carbon neutrality standard, PAS 2060.

Our iconic clear glass bottle range is made using Ethical Glass, an initiative that Belu led with supply chain partners to bring a new lightweight bottle to market. Every bottle also generates a royalty that’s given to our partner, WaterAid. Using smart design and collaboration right through the supply chain, our bottles are the lightest Still and Sparkling water bottles available on the market. Better yet, they are made in the UK using the highest recycled glass content in the formation of the bottle we can find available. In 2017 this was 40%.

Overall, our beautiful glass bottle is 17% lighter and has a 17% improved footprint than our previous Belu glass bottle.

Ethical Glass is available in 330ml and 750ml.

From 2012, our plastic bottle range has been made with at least 50% recycled plastic, leading the UK bottled water market.

Our position on supplying plastic bottles recognises that until a viable and sustainable alternative option exists (and we will continue to invest here), there will be occasions where plastic product is still required. We will therefore continue to strive to increase the recycled content of our bottles and mainly use recycled content from used plastic bottles.*

We continue to encourage all customers and potential customers to ‘buy less’, but when they do buy water, to choose Belu. A lightweight, crushable bottle using at least 50% recycled material, and 100% recyclable.

* The priority is to create high quality food grade recycled plastic, and although the majority of resources we use are used bottles, there are some other used plastic items that also hit the grade we are looking for.

Read more in our book of #BeluWaterStories

Green glass can increase recycled content up to 80%

We love green glass and its credentials from a recycled content perspective. In 2017, we supplied 861,331 of green bottles to hotels and restaurants across the UK. However, we have come across great difficulty to get kilns in the UK to make this greener glass, so for now we are limited to supplying this in a 500ml format only. Our goal for 2018 is to increase availability of this product line.