Hello | We're Belu
A drinks business and social enterprise that puts people and planet first.
Welcome to our latest Impact Report.
Belu really is an open book. In here you’ll find our numbers, impact stats, partners, products, emissions, what we’re doing and what’s next. Plus it’s a chance for us to big-up the incredible people we are immensely proud to work with, the quality products we love to shout about and the mission we’re fiercely dedicated to: Changing the way the world sees water.
As an essential life source, ensuring access to clean water for all remains at the heart of why we exist. It fuels the fire and passion behind everything we do, and in 2022 (as you’ll see) that was a LOT.
2022 | another peculiar year
Three prime ministers. The loss of our longest serving monarch. Almost winning the Eurovision. Changes came thick and fast. The cost of living soared, bringing challenges which affected us all and it was a particularly tricky time for hospitality.
JOINING BELU IN 2022
I joined Belu in September 2022. Within weeks the industry faced a hike in glass prices and energy bills doubled. It was eventful. The reason I joined Belu was its fearless transparency and attitude towards taking risks. It struck me as a grown up business that had kept all the good bits of a startup.
Annual reports can be a bit dry, so we’ve tried to look back on the last year and pull out the most interesting snippets. I’m proud to have played a small part in this already. What I’ve learned so far is that Team Belu are realists, but don’t take themselves too seriously. They encourage asking the difficult questions without judgement, which is what you need in a workplace. So, this report is less a labour of love and more a snapshot into the reality of what a team of hardworking individuals can achieve when everyone pulls together to make things happen. And, the fact that the opening letter isn’t from one of our Co- CEOs, shows that everyone has a voice in Belu. I’ll be passing the baton on for the 2023 report next April.
BLAZING OUR OWN TRAIL
Not shying away from ambition in the face of adversity, the past year at Belu has been a story of carefully nurtured growth; welcoming us newbies, scaling the filtration side of the business and expanding impact partnerships. All whilst keeping true to roots; thinking environment first and demonstrating that there is a better way to do business. The last year has been about rolling up sleeves and rebuilding post- pandemic. Grateful to be bouncing back but not naive to the fact that life will always throw curveballs. Belu puts its money where its mouth is and invests 100% of profits in pursuit of its purpose. We have two CEOs. It’s flexible, our team works remotely from all over the UK. Our lightweight bottles are industry leading for sustainability. Belu doesn’t export outside of the UK and has been carbon neutral since before it was a thing.
Keen to pioneer new ideas, experiment, and always looking for new ways to support and show love to the UK and Hong Kong hospitality venues and workplaces who choose to partner with us, because we know that without them we wouldn’t be here. At Belu it’s all about people, planet and creating impact, and we’re not keeping that to ourselves.
Georgie Murray
Brand & Impact Partnerships Lead
What's Next
There are some things we committed to doing in our last impact report which we will continue to work on:
- Building the team, ensuring everyone has opportunities for learning and development, health and wellbeing support
- Working with The Rivers Trust to explore opportunities to collaborate with our supply chain and customers to reduce excess water wastage
- Benchmarking our packaging footprint and creating an improvement plan with more recycled materials or lightweighting
In 2023, we will also:
- Continue our work with Provenance to further substantiate our sustainability claims
- Work with scope 3 suppliers to understand their decarbonisation plans
And we’ll still be following the ten-year roadmap we began in 2020, so by 2030:
- We will invest £15m in pursuit of our purpose, through our partnership with WaterAid, carbon reduction, nature-based solutions, sustainable innovation and circular economy principles
- At least 667,000 lives transformed (based on min £10m WaterAid cum since 2011)
- 100% reduction in eCO2g per litre poured vs our 2010 baseline and commitment to SBTi SME net zero target
- 2.2 million kgs of glass and plastic in closed loop (ideally circular) production or removed with customers moving to filtration
