Belu 2025-26 Purpose in Progress | £6.5M to WaterAid Since 2011
Source: https://belu.org/impact-report
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:16
Belu 2025-26 Purpose in Progress | £6.5M to WaterAid Since 2011
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2025-26
Purpose
In Progress
PURPOSE
PEOPLE
Product
Profit
WHY WE EXIST
A BETTER WAY TO DO BUSINESS
Belu is an award-winning drinks business, a social enterprise built on a simple idea: that there’s a better way to do business, and that through business we can solve some of the world’s problems. We seek to balance our impact on the planet, ensuring a sustainable business model while maximising our social impact.
Our purpose is to change the way the world sees water. In 2025, that purpose became more permanent than ever. Belu is now proudly owned by The Belu Foundation, a charity. We exist solely to deliver our mission and commit to giving all net profits to the Belu Foundation, which will pass them directly to WaterAid until at least 2030. Our Articles of Association meaningfully reflect our commitment to doing things differently. The Articles were aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2021. This means our modus operandi prioritises environmental and social impact.
This report is our commitment to transparency. It is an honest account of our performance, the challenges we have faced, and the future we are working towards.
“Our role is to serve great-tasting water, to innovate alongside our partners, and to help shift how the world thinks about water, one bottle, one refill and one decision at a time.”
Charlotte Harrington
CEO
PURPOSE
Our impact in numbers
Numbers tell a story. Ours is one of cumulative, compounding impact, built over almost two decades of putting purpose first.
Behind every figure is a choice: a hotel switching from imported bottled water, a restaurant choosing Belu for its tables, or a workplace installing a filtration system. On their own, these are small decisions. But multiplied across thousands of venues and millions of servings, they add up to something much bigger: lasting change at a scale that makes a difference.
£
0
Given to WaterAid since 2011
0
Lives
that could have been reached with access to clean water in partnership with WaterAid
0
Pieces of packaging made from recycled content since 2012
£
0
Invested in nature‑based solutions and responsible approaches to climate impact since 2010
0
%
Reduction in CO2 intensity
(CO2 per litre poured)
vs 2010
PURPOSE
Our impact framework
Everything we do is anchored to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on Goals 6, 12 and 13. Alongside our impact partners WaterAid, WRAP, Blue Marine Foundation, Thames21 and Communigrow, we turn these global goals into real, measurable action across water stewardship, climate and packaging, while transforming hundreds of thousands of lives with access to clean water.
For Belu, the SDGs, alongside our values and DNA are a framework to guide every business decision we make, ensuring accountability and that we balance our impact.
SDG 6: CLEAN WATER & SANITATION
Our partnership with WaterAid began in 2011 and has been the foundation of everything we do, because change starts with water.
Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are not luxuries. They are the key to unlocking health, dignity and opportunity. They are the difference between a child who makes it to school and one who stays home; between a community that thrives and one that spends its energy surviving; and between an economy that grows and one that stalls.
The scale of the global water crisis remains staggering and urgent:
703 million people are still living without clean water close to home.
Every two minutes, a child under the age of five dies from diarrhoea caused by dirty water.
By 2040, 1 in 4 children will be living in places where there is not enough water.
These statistics are all too real. They represent real people, in real communities, whose lives are shaped by the presence or absence of something most of us do not think twice about.
PURPOSE
£371,204 Given to WaterAid in 2025
In 2025, Belu gave
£371,204 to WaterAid
, bringing our cumulative total to
£6.5 million since 2011
. This means that over
435,000 lives
could have been reached with access to clean water in partnership with WaterAid.
WaterAid works alongside communities in 22 countries worldwide, not only to bring clean water, but also to enable people to maintain and manage it, share knowledge, stay healthy, have time to work and study, and ultimately thrive. Our partnership goes beyond financial contribution. It is a shared commitment to systemic, lasting change.
We give all our net profits to WaterAid on an unrestricted basis, so funds can be directed exactly where they are needed most. We use WaterAid’s average cost per user figures to give a sense of what the £371,204 net profit from 2025 given means in terms of lives positively affected.
Cost per user: £15 for clean water, £10 for decent toilets and £2.20 for good hygiene. Read more about this
here
.
This means that with our support in 2025 24,747
Lives could have been reached with access to clean water in partnership with WaterAid.
We support a WASH framework with WaterAid to deliver clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene as the fundamentals of our work.
WATER
Millions of people still don’t have clean water close to home – including 785 million people globally
, with long daily journeys (sometimes 5–7km) to unsafe sources like hand‑dug wells. This means illness, lost time, and lost opportunity, especially for women and girls who do most of the water collection.
Sanitation
1 in 4 people don’t have access to a decent toilet
, leading to disease, unsafe environments, and undignified conditions in homes, schools, and health centres. Open defecation still occurs in many places, contributing to infections and maternal health risks.
Hygiene
3 billion people lack handwashing facilities at home
, increasing the spread of disease. Poor hygiene affects childbirth safety, childhood illness, and general community health. Women and girls carry the burden of caring for sick family members, which limits opportunity.
Learn more about WaterAid
Pushpa
Nepal
Read more
Margaret
Malawi
Read more
Asatta
Liberia
Read more
Chinyama
Zambia
Read more
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Being responsible is not just about what goes into our products. It runs through every choice we make, every material we select, and every partner we work with across the entire supply chain. At Belu, SDG 12 shapes how we source, manufacture, and collaborate across the industry.
In 2025, we launched the Belu can, marking our first move into aluminium as a format. A key feature of the can is the on-can carbon labelling, which displays the carbon footprint of each of our formats side by side, giving consumers the data they need to make more informed choices.
Developing the can required a detailed review of our supply chain and materials. In line with SDG 12, we prioritised responsible sourcing at every stage, though this process surfaced some genuine constraints. BPA-free can linings could not be sourced from within the UK, so we made the decision to procure from the Netherlands, balancing material safety with supply chain transparency. The can reflects our broader approach to SDG 12: designing products that support responsible consumption, being honest about the trade-offs involved in sustainable production, and giving consumers the information they need to understand the impact of what they buy.
Through our partnership with WRAP and participation in the UK Plastics Pact, we have contributed to a programme that,
by the end of 2025, had eliminated 99.9% of identified problematic plastics
, removed hundreds of millions of unnecessary items from the UK market. Design changes driven by Pact members have helped make over 70% of plastic packaging reusable or recyclable, cut lifecycle emissions by around 20%.
Through this collaboration, our focus has remained consistent: reduce what is not needed, prioritise recyclability and recycled content, and be transparent about what sustainability claims truly mean. Our aim is not to look good on paper, but to ensure progress is measured by real environmental impact rather than perception.
SDG 13: Climate action
As a water business, we feel a responsibility not only to protect water systems across the UK, but also to minimise the carbon impact of our operations as we grow, ensuring our business delivers positive environmental impact. While our total emissions may change as the business scales, our focus is on reducing the carbon intensity of our products and services through better decisions, innovation and transparency.
Until the end of 2025, Belu aligned its carbon measurement and management to the PAS 2060 framework, alongside a commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative. We have deliberately moved away from traditional carbon offsetting and instead prioritise a reduction‑first approach, using full lifecycle carbon measurement to guide action and accountability.
We instead invest in
nature-based solutions
here in the UK, because the most meaningful and tangible impact comes from projects on the ground which we deliver through our impact partners.
PURPOSE
OUR IMPACT PARTNERS
Communigrow
Are a sustainable food education charity located in East Malling, Kent, at the heart of the ‘Garden of England’. They show children, young people and adults how to grow fresh food in a chemical free, sustainable way, consequently benefiting physical and mental wellbeing in harmony with the natural environment.
Read more
WRAP
Is a global environmental NGO tackling the climate and nature crises through smarter resource use. In 2025, Belu invested in three WRAP-led workstreams: the Food and Drink Pact to reduce waste and improve supply chain transparency; the Holistic Water Roadmap, supporting initiatives like Mockbeggar Farm to build water resilience; and the UK Plastics Pact, driving progress on recyclability and recycled content, proving voluntary collaboration can deliver impact beyond regulation alone.
Read more
Blue Marine Foundation
Exists to restore the ocean to health. They work to protect marine ecosystems, tackle overfishing and create sustainable models for the communities that depend on the sea. With over 30% of the world's oceans now in need of protection, their work sits at the intersection of conservation, policy and local action - driving change at a scale the ocean urgently needs.
Read more
Thames 21
Is a charity dedicated to protecting and restoring London's rivers and waterways. Through hands-on conservation work, community engagement and advocacy, they tackle pollution, restore natural habitats and reconnect people with the water on their doorstep. In a city where waterways are too often overlooked, Thames21 are doing the quiet, vital work of bringing them back to life.
Read more
PEOPLE
A people-powered business
Belu is a people-powered business made up of like-minded individuals who thrive on delivering impact, are passionate about what they do, and continuously innovate our business. Our ability to deliver on our purpose is made possible by our ambitious team, partners, and wider collective. We are proud to work alongside people who share our belief in business as a force for good.
In 2025, our team continued to show up with purpose across every part of the business. We invested in Multiverse training to equip the team with practical AI skills, helping us work smarter and increase our impact, while continuing to act responsibly and without bias in how we use AI.
Here’s some of the headlines from our people.
NEW BELU COLLECTIVE MEMBERS
0
Across hotels, restaurants, pubs and workplaces.
BELU HOSTED EVENTS in 2025
0
Sharing our tastemakers stories at venues such as Jeremy King’s The Park and Apricity Restaurant.
NUMBER OF BOTTLES SOLD in 2025
0
M
Across our glass and rPET range. Up 11% on 2024.
FILTER MACHINES INSTALLED IN 2025
0
Notable new installs include The Newman and Corner Shop.
PEOPLE
OUR CULTURE
At Belu, we are driven by a promise and a purpose to get water to the people who need it. To make that a reality, we aim to bring the right people together at the right time to do the right thing. Together, we can create a more sustainable world and change lives for the better.
Connection and collaboration remain at the heart of everything we do. In 2025, we brought our Belu collective together through four key events:
Our Served with Purpose launch at Apricity
Breakfast with Jeremy King at The Park
A panel at Kricket Shoreditch with Rik Campbell and Paulo De Tarso, exploring purpose in hospitality
A brunch at The Orange in Belgravia with WaterAid’s Community Voices team, where we heard first-hand the real-world impact of our partnership
Meet the Belu team
Our Voices event
Our Kricket Event
PEOPLE
THE BELU COLLECTIVE
Beyond our own events, our team stayed active across the industry, speaking on panels, attending conferences, and contributing to conversations about how hospitality can operate more sustainably and with greater intention.
We welcomed 104 new collective members into a growing community committed to doing business better, including hotels such as The Newman and Shangri-La Hong Kong, as well as restaurant One Club Row.
The Belu Collective is a group of committed businesses passionate about reducing single‑use waste, lowering carbon impact, and generating positive social impact through business.
PEOPLE
BELU GLOBAL
In 2025, Belu Global continued to accelerate its mission across Asia, with the Belu collective growing steadily as we expanded our footprint in Hong Kong and Singapore.
This year marked strong progress in the hospitality sector, including partnerships with standout hotels such as the
Kimpton Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong and The Warehouse Hotel in Singapore.
Despite challenging market conditions, independent eateries in Hong Kong remained resilient, and we were proud to support a thriving Belu collective including
Crushed, Babette, Le Colvert, Primo Posto, Montana Bar, and Jija.
A major milestone was reached as we closed the year with
100 active Belu machines in Hong Kong, marked by an installation at Calici in Sai Ying Pun.
In Singapore, our first full year of operations saw strong growth, with new customers including Forketta and partners from the Lo & Behold Group.
Beyond hospitality, we expanded into the workplace sector with the launch of the Belu Curve, welcoming partners such as CBRE and the Financial Times.
We also strengthened our sustainability engagement by exhibiting at ReThink for the first time and forming partnerships with the Canadian Chamber and the Business Environment Council.
Andy McAdam from MSW surrounded by the Welsh countryside
PEOPLE
OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
We continue to work alongside our long-term supply chain partners, Montgomery Waters and Encirc to continue to bottle and innovate our drinks products. Our supply chain partners hold themselves to the same high environmental standards we set for ourselves. Our pioneering bottle supplier Encirc is forging ahead with plans to decarbonise its furnaces, exploring low-carbon alternatives including biofuels, electricity, hydrogen and biomethane, an essential step in cutting their scope 1 emissions and, in turn, reducing our scope 3 footprint.
Learn more about our supply partners
PEOPLE
CANS PRODUCTION
In 2025 Belu worked with Wenlock Spring Water for the production of our aluminium cans, building on an established partnership for our 18.9 litre cooler formats they already produce. Wenlock operates a highly energy efficient, bottling at source facility in Shropshire, where heating and hot water are supplied by on‑site biomass boilers fuelled by Miscanthus grown on its own land, alongside solar power and heat‑recovery systems. This alignment strengthens supply chain resilience while supporting lower impact production.
Watch our launch video
“Encirc is advancing glass sustainability through energy efficiency, carbon reduction technologies and fuels and recycled glass content, supporting partners like Belu in delivering lower-impact, fully recyclable packaging solutions for the future.”
- Fiacre O'Donnell
Sustainability Director, ENCIRC
PEOPLE
SERVED WITH PURPOSE
Launched in April 2025, Served with Purpose began as a campaign to explore what it truly takes to build hospitality businesses grounded in purpose – not as a slogan, but as a daily practice. Since then, it has evolved into a people-led storytelling platform, becoming increasingly embedded within Belu’s brand and the wider hospitality community.
Served with Purpose brings together a network of like-minded hospitality and workplace organisations committed to making a positive impact through their choices.
In 2025, we delivered nine podcast episodes and ten in-depth interviews, spotlighting key Tastemakers across the hospitality sector. Guests included Jeremy King, Chantelle Nicholson, Aji Akokomi, Sunaina Sethi, and Clem Haxby – individuals who are shaping the hospitality industry.
Their insights were refreshingly honest. Purpose lives in small, often unseen decisions: where you source from, how you treat your team, and whether you are willing to have difficult conversations. Progress is rarely linear, and sustainability is often slower than expected. But those building meaningful businesses share a common mindset – they prioritise long-term conviction over short-term gain.
Crucially, these conversations reinforced that purpose and profit are not at odds. Businesses grounded in genuine values build genuine loyalty – and that loyalty is more powerful than any marketing campaign.
As Served with Purpose continues to grow, we are building on this momentum with new tastemakers and a broader community helping shape a hospitality industry where purpose becomes the standard, not the exception.
Listen to our podcast
PRODUCT
OUR FOOTPRINT
Understanding our carbon footprint enables better decision-making. We keep our supply chain as local as possible, our emissions as low as possible, and our commitment to the circular economy intact. These numbers are the reflection of our commitment to improving our carbon footprint and the challenges we face.
We choose to measure our footprint and product intensity by per litre poured to accurately compare our different formats. Overall, our carbon footprint increased by 1%, mainly due to business growth and higher volumes of glass bottles sold.
TOTAL CARBON FOOTPRINT CO2E (TONNES)
0
Carbon Intensity reduction (CO2 per litre) since 2010
0
%
Carbon intensity REDUCTION (CO2 per litre) YoY
0
%
SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS % of total emissions
0
%
PRODUCT
Our emissions breakdown
We measure every product from cradle to grave. This covers raw materials, manufacturing, inbound transport, bottling, distribution, use, and end of life. For our filter machines, we also track the reuse or recycling of their components.
Processing the raw materials for our glass produces the largest share of our emissions at 81%.
In 2025,
we reduced our product intensity per litre poured by 11% year on year,
despite continued growth in our mineral water volumes. This improvement was driven by a favourable shift in product mix, including increased sales of lower carbon RPET formats, efficiency gains at our bottling operations, and the ongoing expansion of our filtration business, which delivers a significantly lower emissions profile per litre.
Understanding our carbon footprint is what enables us to make the right decisions – keeping our supply chain as local as possible, our emissions as low as possible, and our commitment to the circular economy intact.
PRODUCT
EMISSIONS BY PRODUCT
In 2025,
25.4m bottles were sold and 217 new filtration systems were installed, with 992 filtration machines now live.
Filtration delivers 21% of our revenue while generating just 2% of our total emissions, while drinks accounts for 77% of revenue but generates 94.9% of emissions.
Growing this part of the business further will continue to reduce our carbon intensity. Each filtration machine installed saves an estimated 22,000 single-use bottles per year, a figure that adds up fast. Our bottled mineral water remains the core of what we do, accounting for the largest share of both revenue and emissions.
As a reflection of our compact and conscientious team, our
organisational
footprint
remains
very small
at
just
3%
of our total
. We
don’t
knowingly
export our bottled water, but we do
operate
filtration in Hong Kong and Singapore, so there are necessary flights from time to time.
We’ll
continue to track and reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions directly, while working closely with our suppliers to drive down Scope 3 which amounts to 93% of our total footprint.
PRODUCT
OUR PACKAGING FOOTPRINT
4.7% of our total packaging footprint is plastic, 50.2% of which is made from recycled material.
Glass accounts for 84% of our packaging footprint, made from at least 35% recycled material and is fully recyclable. We’re still searching for a more sustainable pallet wrap with recycled content that’s fit for purpose, and for recycled food-grade caps for our 100% rPET bottles. To be continued.
PRODUCT
CARBON INTENSITY
Across our product range, carbon intensity varies significantly depending on format. Clear glass is our most emissions-intensive option at around
585
gCO₂e
per litre, while our 19L coolers and filtration products perform considerably better, at approximately
67 and 120
gCO₂e
per litre respectively. Recycled PET, at around
159
gCO₂e
per litre, offers a meaningful improvement over glass for packaged drinks where a bottled format is required.
Aluminium cans produce
38
2
gCO₂e
per litre poured largely with emissions created at the start of their lifecycle despite the good end of life position with high recycling rates.
Our overall product carbon intensity currently sits at around
153 gCO₂e
per litre. Reducing this figure over time sits at the heart of our carbon strategy, achieved both through the growth of lower‑carbon formats and through ongoing reductions in the carbon intensity of all our products. This includes working closely with suppliers to improve materials, processes and design, particularly within higher‑carbon formats such as glass, which sits at the heart of our carbon strategy.
These figures inform how we think about our product mix. If we were guided by emissions reduction alone, the case for phasing out glass or cans in favour of recycled PET and expanding filtration would be clear-cut. In reality, we recognise that the market preference plays an important role, and that driving meaningful change means bringing our collective with us rather than simply removing the choices they value.
PRODUCT
THE LAUNCH OF CANS
In 2025, we launched our first aluminium can range across the UK as part of a bigger mission: to open up the conversation around packaging and its real impact. Aluminium has a strong case. Each can is made from at least 68% recycled material and can be recycled without losing quality. With an 81% recycling rate in the UK, it’s one of the more circular formats available for packaged water.
(Reports from Sustainable Packaging News)
. Although while
70%+ of aluminium cans are recycled globally
,
only 30–35%
currently make it
back into new cans
. The rest are
down‑cycled
into products such as: Automotive parts (e.g. engine blocks), Construction materials and steel de‑oxidisers. Once used this way, they
cannot return
to drinks cans due to incompatible alloys.
Bringing the Belu can to market wasn’t straightforward. As we were launching a new product, we struggled to find a UK-based supplier offering BPA-free aluminium cans at the scale we needed. In the end, we sourced them from a supplier in the Netherlands to meet our standards. Canned water sits in direct contact with its packaging, so what lines the can matters. We use a BPA-free liner to ensure no harmful chemicals get into the water between production and the moment it’s poured.
Because for us, this is about progress over perfection – being transparent about the challenges and helping people better understand the impact behind every choice.
“At Belu, carbon reduction starts with reducing emissions at source across our supply chain. Our ambition is a 100% reduction in emissions per litre poured versus our 2010 baseline, alongside a Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) working towards a zero carbon future. Where emissions remain unavoidable, we take responsibility for addressing them credibly and transparently through our use of nature based solutions.”
- NOLAN WRIGHT
DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS
PROFIT
PURPOSE P&L
At Belu, we have created our own Purpose P&L, a unique tool to hold ourselves accountable to something bigger than financial performance. It tracks not just the health of the business, but the real-world impact every bottle of Belu creates.
Our Purpose P&L maps revenue through to impact across three pillars aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 6,12 and 13.
Every pound of profit we generate is reinvested in pursuit of our purpose. The Belu Foundation exists to ensure it stays that way, permanently.
OUR LEARNINGS FROM 2025
Like most businesses, we navigated a year that demanded resilience and adaptability. Rising costs, geopolitical
uncertainty
and a hospitality sector under sustained pressure shaped the environment in which we
operate
. We faced each challenge with our values
intact, and
emerged
with a clearer sense than ever of who we are, what we stand for and where we are going.
How launching a new product takes time
Launching Belu cans has been a journey of balancing excitement with uncertainty. Though not originally in our plan, growing customer demand in key sectors like workplace, festivals and grab and go made it a necessary step – one taken with Purpose front of mind.
Read story
The impact of EPR on our business
One of the most significant challenges of 2025 has been the introduction of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. In principle, we support the idea that producers should take responsibility for their packaging. In practice, the scheme as designed presents real and disproportionate challenges for businesses like ours.
Read Story
The challenges facing hospitality
The hospitality sector is facing one of its toughest operating environments in recent memory. Energy, food and supply chain costs remain high, while increases to minimum wage and employer National Insurance contributions add further pressure. For many operators, especially independents, the challenge is no longer growth but survival.
Read story
The role of responsible ai use in our business
Artificial intelligence has been impossible to ignore. Over the last 12 months, we have actively explored how emerging AI technologies could support Belu, testing tools and approaches with the potential to improve efficiency across the organisation.
Read story
CHANGING THE WAY
THE WORLD SEES WATER
CHANGING THE WAY THE WORLD SEES WATER
In 2026, Belu is moving toward a year defined by impact, responsibility, and innovation.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPonsibility
We are campaigning for a targeted rebalance of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy, so it strengthens recycling infrastructure without creating unfair costs for hospitality or driving unintended inflation and reduced social impact.
LIGHT-WEIGHTING
We will further lightweight our bottles to reduce the material used without compromising quality, because every gram makes a significant difference to our carbon footprint and the effects of EPR.
SERVED WITH PURPOSE
Our Served with Purpose campaign will solidify our commitment to purpose-led hospitality through the expansion of our tastemaker network and the launch of season two of our podcast.
ON PURPOSE
We will be hosting two On Purpose associates to help us strengthen our strategy as we scale our social and environmental impact, simplify our ways of working, and deliver profitable, purpose-led growth.
GOVERNANCE
Finally, we will embed governance beyond legal structures, so it is lived through our board and trustees, processes, and culture, shaping decisions and impact every day.
CHOICES MATTER
None of the impact we have made would be possible without the people who choose Belu every day.
To our Belu Collective across hospitality and the workplace, thank you for choosing us, championing us, and sharing our belief that small decisions matter. Every bottle served, every filter installed, every can poured, and every conversation started about where your water comes from all add up. As we grow, so does our Belu-niverse, a connected ecosystem of wholesalers, hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafes, and experiential venues, all working toward the same goal.
To our impact, supply chain, and strategic partners, you are the reason we can deliver on our goals and live our purpose every single day.
To the freelancers, agency partners, and friends of Belu who help push us forward and deliver a higher standard of work, we thank you for your dedication and look forward to achieving even more in 2026.
We also want to give a big thank you to Natalie Campbell for her 6 years at Belu as Co-CEO.
We are changing the way the world sees water, together. And we are only just getting started.
Everything shared in this Purpose in Progress would not have happened without our wonderful network of brilliant businesses and incredible individuals.
Team Belu
Credits: Thank you to, Alan Courtenay, Alfatech, Aquacure, Avon Freight, Belu Foundation, Belu’s Founder Reed Paget, Belu Investors and Board Representatives, Borg & Overstrom, Brita, Buzzacott, CCL, Celli, Charles Russell Speechly, Covaris, Cycles Marketing, Dan Bramfitt, Distil, Droople, DrinkWorks, Encirc, Everyone at WaterAid, First Colour, Flo‑Tek Hong Kong, Flo-Tek Singapore, Forest Cloud, Foxtrot Partner, Fresh Accounting, G Owen & Sons, Green Courier, Greenworks, Hydrachill, Imagine, Love Your Accountants, Maidens of Telford, MCC Labels, Metabev (Socofar), Montgomery Waters, NDA Packaging, NOMOQ, Our customers, Our HR partners, Our Tiny Marketing Co, Reflex, Retap, Rudd McNamara, Seaways, Seven Hills BPI, Severn Transport Services, Shepherds Transport & Storage, Stevens & Bolton, Stickershop, Systempack, T Alun Jones, TCI, Team Belu, The Glasshouse, Wares of Knutsford, Water care and Wenlock Spring Water for inspiring, supporting and partnering with us along the way.
The Launch of Cans
Launching a new product is always a balance of excitement and uncertainty, and bringing Belu cans to market has been no exception. From a sales perspective, it has meant holding confidence in the proposition while navigating understandable customer hesitation. Even with a clear purpose, moving customers from early conversations to confirmed listings takes time, persistence, and belief.
Cans were not originally part of our plan, but growing customer demand and the accelerating move away from plastic made it clear this was a step we needed to take. As with everything at Belu, it had to be done with planet and purpose front of mind. That commitment shaped the journey from the very beginning.
One of the biggest challenges has been securing listings with wholesalers to access the market. You need demand from their customers to secure these listings, which takes time. The other challenge is commercial viability. We had to invest to launch this product, and with low volumes of raw materials come higher costs than at scale, while still needing to price competitively to win customers. It is always a delicate balance for smaller producers, especially those that need profit to deliver purpose. This remains very much a live challenge for 2026.
We purposefully designed our packaging to include a transparent look at how a can performs from a CO₂ perspective against our other packaging formats. This was designed to give consumers the information they need before purchasing, to showcase the impact of their choices, and most importantly, to start a conversation about the choices we all have.
Seeing the first customers commit, watching the cans land in the market, and hearing positive feedback from operators and the trade brings a real sense of progress. Each win builds credibility and makes the next conversation a little easier. A big thank you to the customers and wholesalers who made this happen, including Store Supply, Albion and Enotria, Farmer J, Atis, and The Salad Project.
Most importantly, launching Belu cans is about more than introducing a new product. It is about driving meaningful change, opening doors into new sectors, starting conversations with operators we had not previously engaged with, and helping us reach a much wider audience.
Rosie Nickson & Sarah Durston
Senior Partnerships & Growth Lead, Head of Drinks Operations
Extended producer responsibility
One of the most significant challenges of 2025 has been the introduction of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility scheme. In principle, Belu supports the idea that producers should take responsibility for the environmental impact of their packaging. In practice, the scheme as designed presents real and disproportionate challenges for businesses like ours.
For Belu, EPR will add 7.35% to our cost of goods. In Germany, the equivalent scheme would cost us 1.5-2.1%. We’ll let that sit for a moment…
The problem lies with how the scheme is structured. Glass used exclusively in restaurants and hotels has been classified as household waste. Overlapping regulations, including DRS and PRNs, have created complexity, uncertainty and costs that fall hardest on smaller, purpose-driven businesses supplying hospitality rather than grocery multiples.
We would support this wholeheartedly if we believed the money would genuinely move the needle on the circular economy. We have been advocating for responsible packaging and reduced waste long before it was fashionable. But from everything we’ve seen, this funding is not ringfenced for waste infrastructure or recycling investment. It risks disappearing into local authority budgets with no guaranteed environmental return. That is not a circular economy policy.
What troubles us most is that businesses like ours were not meaningfully consulted in this process. The consultation appears to have focused predominantly on larger brands and those supplying grocery multiples. As a small, purpose-driven B2B business supplying hospitality, we were not part of that conversation. We think that matters enormously, because we are exactly the kind of business this policy will hit hardest. We are not a consumer brand. We supply businesses. Our packaging does not directly end up in household bins. Being pulled into scope in the same way as a major supermarket brand feels fundamentally at odds with what this policy is trying to achieve.
We are a business that genuinely wants to grow, to give more to WaterAid, to reduce our carbon footprint and to keep proving that purpose and profit can work together. Costs like this make that harder. And when businesses like ours start doing the maths and wondering whether they can sustain it, something important is lost – not just for us, but for everyone who chooses us because they believe in what we stand for.
We have been actively engaging with policymakers and industry bodies to advocate for a fairer, more evidence-based approach – one that recognises reuse, the high recycling rates for glass and the realities of business waste collection in hospitality. We are calling on the Chancellor to look again at this, whether that means reconsidering the amount, the structure or how it applies to businesses supplying the B2B market. We will keep making noise about it, and we hope you will stand alongside us.
Nolan Wright
Director of Supply Chain Operations
the challenges facing hospitality
The hospitality sector is facing one of its toughest operating environments in recent memory. Margins are under sustained pressure, and relief feels a long way off. Energy, food, and supply chain costs remain high, while increases to minimum wage and employer National Insurance add even more strain. For many operators, especially independents, the challenge is no longer growth, but survival.
Geopolitical instability only intensifies these pressures, driving volatility in energy markets and disrupting global supply chains. Forward planning in this unpredictable landscape has become difficult, and risk is higher than ever.
At the same time, there is a growing sense that government support has not kept pace with reality. Continued pressure from business rates, alongside the lack of meaningful VAT reform, leaves UK hospitality at a structural disadvantage. New regulatory changes, like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), risk adding further cost and complexity at a time when the sector can least absorb it.
At Belu, we see both sides of this story. While we have sadly witnessed the closure of much-loved venues, there is also an incredible pipeline of new openings and ideas, especially in London, where many have noted a renewed energy and buzz across the scene. Belu collective members like The Newman, One Club Row, and Cornershop exemplify this energy and creativity. As ever, we remain committed to supporting our partners to navigate challenges and build for the future.
Giorgia Tracy
Senior Partnerships Lead
The role of responsible AI use at Belu
Artificial intelligence has been impossible to ignore. I frequently am targeted with different new technologies that are somehow going to make my job redundant. Over the last 12 months, we’ve actively explored how emerging AI technologies could support Belu by testing tools and approaches with the potential to improve efficiency across the organisation. We attended industry conferences and spoke with experts to understand both the opportunities and the realities of adopting AI responsibly.
While AI has real potential to make us more efficient and more impactful, there’s a growing gap between how fast the technology is moving and the readiness of teams to implement it responsibly. Our commitment is simple: people come first. We prioritise skills, understanding, and long-term value over speed. We could go head first into it and look to create workflows for every piece of work inside the business, however I don’t believe this to be ethical. The question I ask myself often is would this benefit our customers, our team or our impact in a meaningful way without being a detriment to one of these. While many businesses will run to reducing their overheads with AI we believe that as a business their is an ethical question that must be asked of ourselves as leaders, profit over people?
For a business like ours, which is proudly built on real relationships and the personal nature of hospitality, this means strengthening and optimising our existing processes and technology before investing heavily in new AI solutions. We focus on improving efficiency where it genuinely adds value, upskilling our team in AI tools, and developing clear business cases before adoption rather than rushing into change. We will continue to make real world connections with different hospitality businesses and ensure their is always someone to answer the phone or pop in for a visit.
We’re also mindful of the wider implications of AI, such as issues of bias and environmental impact. As a purpose-led business, we hold ourselves – and the technologies we use – to high environmental and social standards. Any AI tools or processes we adopt must align with our commitment to operating responsibly and using business as a force for good.
Hamish Woolgar
Senior Marketing & Digital Lead
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2025-26
Purpose
In Progress
PURPOSE
PEOPLE
Product
Profit
WHY WE EXIST
A BETTER WAY TO DO BUSINESS
Belu is an award-winning drinks business, a social enterprise built on a simple idea: that there’s a better way to do business, and that through business we can solve some of the world’s problems. We seek to balance our impact on the planet, ensuring a sustainable business model while maximising our social impact.
Our purpose is to change the way the world sees water. In 2025, that purpose became more permanent than ever. Belu is now proudly owned by The Belu Foundation, a charity. We exist solely to deliver our mission and commit to giving all net profits to the Belu Foundation, which will pass them directly to WaterAid until at least 2030. Our Articles of Association meaningfully reflect our commitment to doing things differently. The Articles were aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2021. This means our modus operandi prioritises environmental and social impact.
This report is our commitment to transparency. It is an honest account of our performance, the challenges we have faced, and the future we are working towards.
“Our role is to serve great-tasting water, to innovate alongside our partners, and to help shift how the world thinks about water, one bottle, one refill and one decision at a time.”
Charlotte Harrington
CEO
PURPOSE
Our impact in numbers
Numbers tell a story. Ours is one of cumulative, compounding impact, built over almost two decades of putting purpose first.
Behind every figure is a choice: a hotel switching from imported bottled water, a restaurant choosing Belu for its tables, or a workplace installing a filtration system. On their own, these are small decisions. But multiplied across thousands of venues and millions of servings, they add up to something much bigger: lasting change at a scale that makes a difference.
£
0
Given to WaterAid since 2011
0
Lives
that could have been reached with access to clean water in partnership with WaterAid
0
Pieces of packaging made from recycled content since 2012
£
0
Invested in nature‑based solutions and responsible approaches to climate impact since 2010
0
%
Reduction in CO2 intensity
(CO2 per litre poured)
vs 2010
PURPOSE
Our impact framework
Everything we do is anchored to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular focus on Goals 6, 12 and 13. Alongside our impact partners WaterAid, WRAP, Blue Marine Foundation, Thames21 and Communigrow, we turn these global goals into real, measurable action across water stewardship, climate and packaging, while transforming hundreds of thousands of lives with access to clean water.
For Belu, the SDGs, alongside our values and DNA are a framework to guide every business decision we make, ensuring accountability and that we balance our impact.
SDG 6: CLEAN WATER & SANITATION
Our partnership with WaterAid began in 2011 and has been the foundation of everything we do, because change starts with water.
Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene are not luxuries. They are the key to unlocking health, dignity and opportunity. They are the difference between a child who makes it to school and one who stays home; between a community that thrives and one that spends its energy surviving; and between an economy that grows and one that stalls.
The scale of the global water crisis remains staggering and urgent:
703 million people are still living without clean water close to home.
Every two minutes, a child under the age of five dies from diarrhoea caused by dirty water.
By 2040, 1 in 4 children will be living in places where there is not enough water.
These statistics are all too real. They represent real people, in real communities, whose lives are shaped by the presence or absence of something most of us do not think twice about.
PURPOSE
£371,204 Given to WaterAid in 2025
In 2025, Belu gave
£371,204 to WaterAid
, bringing our cumulative total to
£6.5 million since 2011
. This means that over
435,000 lives
could have been reached with access to clean water in partnership with WaterAid.
WaterAid works alongside communities in 22 countries worldwide, not only to bring clean water, but also to enable people to maintain and manage it, share knowledge, stay healthy, have time to work and study, and ultimately thrive. Our partnership goes beyond financial contribution. It is a shared commitment to systemic, lasting change.
We give all our net profits to WaterAid on an unrestricted basis, so funds can be directed exactly where they are needed most. We use WaterAid’s average cost per user figures to give a sense of what the £371,204 net profit from 2025 given means in terms of lives positively affected.
Cost per user: £15 for clean water, £10 for decent toilets and £2.20 for good hygiene. Read more about this
here
.
This means that with our support in 2025 24,747
Lives could have been reached with access to clean water in partnership with WaterAid.
We support a WASH framework with WaterAid to deliver clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene as the fundamentals of our work.
WATER
Millions of people still don’t have clean water close to home – including 785 million people globally
, with long daily journeys (sometimes 5–7km) to unsafe sources like hand‑dug wells. This means illness, lost time, and lost opportunity, especially for women and girls who do most of the water collection.
Sanitation
1 in 4 people don’t have access to a decent toilet
, leading to disease, unsafe environments, and undignified conditions in homes, schools, and health centres. Open defecation still occurs in many places, contributing to infections and maternal health risks.
Hygiene
3 billion people lack handwashing facilities at home
, increasing the spread of disease. Poor hygiene affects childbirth safety, childhood illness, and general community health. Women and girls carry the burden of caring for sick family members, which limits opportunity.
Learn more about WaterAid
Pushpa
Nepal
Read more
Margaret
Malawi
Read more
Asatta
Liberia
Read more
Chinyama
Zambia
Read more
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
Being responsible is not just about what goes into our products. It runs through every choice we make, every material we select, and every partner we work with across the entire supply chain. At Belu, SDG 12 shapes how we source, manufacture, and collaborate across the industry.
In 2025, we launched the Belu can, marking our first move into aluminium as a format. A key feature of the can is the on-can carbon labelling, which displays the carbon footprint of each of our formats side by side, giving consumers the data they need to make more informed choices.
Developing the can required a detailed review of our supply chain and materials. In line with SDG 12, we prioritised responsible sourcing at every stage, though this process surfaced some genuine constraints. BPA-free can linings could not be sourced from within the UK, so we made the decision to procure from the Netherlands, balancing material safety with supply chain transparency. The can reflects our broader approach to SDG 12: designing products that support responsible consumption, being honest about the trade-offs involved in sustainable production, and giving consumers the information they need to understand the impact of what they buy.
Through our partnership with WRAP and participation in the UK Plastics Pact, we have contributed to a programme that,
by the end of 2025, had eliminated 99.9% of identified problematic plastics
, removed hundreds of millions of unnecessary items from the UK market. Design changes driven by Pact members have helped make over 70% of plastic packaging reusable or recyclable, cut lifecycle emissions by around 20%.
Through this collaboration, our focus has remained consistent: reduce what is not needed, prioritise recyclability and recycled content, and be transparent about what sustainability claims truly mean. Our aim is not to look good on paper, but to ensure progress is measured by real environmental impact rather than perception.
SDG 13: Climate action
As a water business, we feel a responsibility not only to protect water systems across the UK, but also to minimise the carbon impact of our operations as we grow, ensuring our business delivers positive environmental impact. While our total emissions may change as the business scales, our focus is on reducing the carbon intensity of our products and services through better decisions, innovation and transparency.
Until the end of 2025, Belu aligned its carbon measurement and management to the PAS 2060 framework, alongside a commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative. We have deliberately moved away from traditional carbon offsetting and instead prioritise a reduction‑first approach, using full lifecycle carbon measurement to guide action and accountability.
We instead invest in
nature-based solutions
here in the UK, because the most meaningful and tangible impact comes from projects on the ground which we deliver through our impact partners.
PURPOSE
OUR IMPACT PARTNERS
Communigrow
Are a sustainable food education charity located in East Malling, Kent, at the heart of the ‘Garden of England’. They show children, young people and adults how to grow fresh food in a chemical free, sustainable way, consequently benefiting physical and mental wellbeing in harmony with the natural environment.
Read more
WRAP
Is a global environmental NGO tackling the climate and nature crises through smarter resource use. In 2025, Belu invested in three WRAP-led workstreams: the Food and Drink Pact to reduce waste and improve supply chain transparency; the Holistic Water Roadmap, supporting initiatives like Mockbeggar Farm to build water resilience; and the UK Plastics Pact, driving progress on recyclability and recycled content, proving voluntary collaboration can deliver impact beyond regulation alone.
Read more
Blue Marine Foundation
Exists to restore the ocean to health. They work to protect marine ecosystems, tackle overfishing and create sustainable models for the communities that depend on the sea. With over 30% of the world's oceans now in need of protection, their work sits at the intersection of conservation, policy and local action - driving change at a scale the ocean urgently needs.
Read more
Thames 21
Is a charity dedicated to protecting and restoring London's rivers and waterways. Through hands-on conservation work, community engagement and advocacy, they tackle pollution, restore natural habitats and reconnect people with the water on their doorstep. In a city where waterways are too often overlooked, Thames21 are doing the quiet, vital work of bringing them back to life.
Read more
PEOPLE
A people-powered business
Belu is a people-powered business made up of like-minded individuals who thrive on delivering impact, are passionate about what they do, and continuously innovate our business. Our ability to deliver on our purpose is made possible by our ambitious team, partners, and wider collective. We are proud to work alongside people who share our belief in business as a force for good.
In 2025, our team continued to show up with purpose across every part of the business. We invested in Multiverse training to equip the team with practical AI skills, helping us work smarter and increase our impact, while continuing to act responsibly and without bias in how we use AI.
Here’s some of the headlines from our people.
NEW BELU COLLECTIVE MEMBERS
0
Across hotels, restaurants, pubs and workplaces.
BELU HOSTED EVENTS in 2025
0
Sharing our tastemakers stories at venues such as Jeremy King’s The Park and Apricity Restaurant.
NUMBER OF BOTTLES SOLD in 2025
0
M
Across our glass and rPET range. Up 11% on 2024.
FILTER MACHINES INSTALLED IN 2025
0
Notable new installs include The Newman and Corner Shop.
PEOPLE
OUR CULTURE
At Belu, we are driven by a promise and a purpose to get water to the people who need it. To make that a reality, we aim to bring the right people together at the right time to do the right thing. Together, we can create a more sustainable world and change lives for the better.
Connection and collaboration remain at the heart of everything we do. In 2025, we brought our Belu collective together through four key events:
Our Served with Purpose launch at Apricity
Breakfast with Jeremy King at The Park
A panel at Kricket Shoreditch with Rik Campbell and Paulo De Tarso, exploring purpose in hospitality
A brunch at The Orange in Belgravia with WaterAid’s Community Voices team, where we heard first-hand the real-world impact of our partnership
Meet the Belu team
Our Voices event
Our Kricket Event
PEOPLE
THE BELU COLLECTIVE
Beyond our own events, our team stayed active across the industry, speaking on panels, attending conferences, and contributing to conversations about how hospitality can operate more sustainably and with greater intention.
We welcomed 104 new collective members into a growing community committed to doing business better, including hotels such as The Newman and Shangri-La Hong Kong, as well as restaurant One Club Row.
The Belu Collective is a group of committed businesses passionate about reducing single‑use waste, lowering carbon impact, and generating positive social impact through business.
PEOPLE
BELU GLOBAL
In 2025, Belu Global continued to accelerate its mission across Asia, with the Belu collective growing steadily as we expanded our footprint in Hong Kong and Singapore.
This year marked strong progress in the hospitality sector, including partnerships with standout hotels such as the
Kimpton Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong and The Warehouse Hotel in Singapore.
Despite challenging market conditions, independent eateries in Hong Kong remained resilient, and we were proud to support a thriving Belu collective including
Crushed, Babette, Le Colvert, Primo Posto, Montana Bar, and Jija.
A major milestone was reached as we closed the year with
100 active Belu machines in Hong Kong, marked by an installation at Calici in Sai Ying Pun.
In Singapore, our first full year of operations saw strong growth, with new customers including Forketta and partners from the Lo & Behold Group.
Beyond hospitality, we expanded into the workplace sector with the launch of the Belu Curve, welcoming partners such as CBRE and the Financial Times.
We also strengthened our sustainability engagement by exhibiting at ReThink for the first time and forming partnerships with the Canadian Chamber and the Business Environment Council.
Andy McAdam from MSW surrounded by the Welsh countryside
PEOPLE
OUR SUPPLY CHAIN
We continue to work alongside our long-term supply chain partners, Montgomery Waters and Encirc to continue to bottle and innovate our drinks products. Our supply chain partners hold themselves to the same high environmental standards we set for ourselves. Our pioneering bottle supplier Encirc is forging ahead with plans to decarbonise its furnaces, exploring low-carbon alternatives including biofuels, electricity, hydrogen and biomethane, an essential step in cutting their scope 1 emissions and, in turn, reducing our scope 3 footprint.
Learn more about our supply partners
PEOPLE
CANS PRODUCTION
In 2025 Belu worked with Wenlock Spring Water for the production of our aluminium cans, building on an established partnership for our 18.9 litre cooler formats they already produce. Wenlock operates a highly energy efficient, bottling at source facility in Shropshire, where heating and hot water are supplied by on‑site biomass boilers fuelled by Miscanthus grown on its own land, alongside solar power and heat‑recovery systems. This alignment strengthens supply chain resilience while supporting lower impact production.
Watch our launch video
“Encirc is advancing glass sustainability through energy efficiency, carbon reduction technologies and fuels and recycled glass content, supporting partners like Belu in delivering lower-impact, fully recyclable packaging solutions for the future.”
- Fiacre O'Donnell
Sustainability Director, ENCIRC
PEOPLE
SERVED WITH PURPOSE
Launched in April 2025, Served with Purpose began as a campaign to explore what it truly takes to build hospitality businesses grounded in purpose – not as a slogan, but as a daily practice. Since then, it has evolved into a people-led storytelling platform, becoming increasingly embedded within Belu’s brand and the wider hospitality community.
Served with Purpose brings together a network of like-minded hospitality and workplace organisations committed to making a positive impact through their choices.
In 2025, we delivered nine podcast episodes and ten in-depth interviews, spotlighting key Tastemakers across the hospitality sector. Guests included Jeremy King, Chantelle Nicholson, Aji Akokomi, Sunaina Sethi, and Clem Haxby – individuals who are shaping the hospitality industry.
Their insights were refreshingly honest. Purpose lives in small, often unseen decisions: where you source from, how you treat your team, and whether you are willing to have difficult conversations. Progress is rarely linear, and sustainability is often slower than expected. But those building meaningful businesses share a common mindset – they prioritise long-term conviction over short-term gain.
Crucially, these conversations reinforced that purpose and profit are not at odds. Businesses grounded in genuine values build genuine loyalty – and that loyalty is more powerful than any marketing campaign.
As Served with Purpose continues to grow, we are building on this momentum with new tastemakers and a broader community helping shape a hospitality industry where purpose becomes the standard, not the exception.
Listen to our podcast
PRODUCT
OUR FOOTPRINT
Understanding our carbon footprint enables better decision-making. We keep our supply chain as local as possible, our emissions as low as possible, and our commitment to the circular economy intact. These numbers are the reflection of our commitment to improving our carbon footprint and the challenges we face.
We choose to measure our footprint and product intensity by per litre poured to accurately compare our different formats. Overall, our carbon footprint increased by 1%, mainly due to business growth and higher volumes of glass bottles sold.
TOTAL CARBON FOOTPRINT CO2E (TONNES)
0
Carbon Intensity reduction (CO2 per litre) since 2010
0
%
Carbon intensity REDUCTION (CO2 per litre) YoY
0
%
SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS % of total emissions
0
%
PRODUCT
Our emissions breakdown
We measure every product from cradle to grave. This covers raw materials, manufacturing, inbound transport, bottling, distribution, use, and end of life. For our filter machines, we also track the reuse or recycling of their components.
Processing the raw materials for our glass produces the largest share of our emissions at 81%.
In 2025,
we reduced our product intensity per litre poured by 11% year on year,
despite continued growth in our mineral water volumes. This improvement was driven by a favourable shift in product mix, including increased sales of lower carbon RPET formats, efficiency gains at our bottling operations, and the ongoing expansion of our filtration business, which delivers a significantly lower emissions profile per litre.
Understanding our carbon footprint is what enables us to make the right decisions – keeping our supply chain as local as possible, our emissions as low as possible, and our commitment to the circular economy intact.
PRODUCT
EMISSIONS BY PRODUCT
In 2025,
25.4m bottles were sold and 217 new filtration systems were installed, with 992 filtration machines now live.
Filtration delivers 21% of our revenue while generating just 2% of our total emissions, while drinks accounts for 77% of revenue but generates 94.9% of emissions.
Growing this part of the business further will continue to reduce our carbon intensity. Each filtration machine installed saves an estimated 22,000 single-use bottles per year, a figure that adds up fast. Our bottled mineral water remains the core of what we do, accounting for the largest share of both revenue and emissions.
As a reflection of our compact and conscientious team, our
organisational
footprint
remains
very small
at
just
3%
of our total
. We
don’t
knowingly
export our bottled water, but we do
operate
filtration in Hong Kong and Singapore, so there are necessary flights from time to time.
We’ll
continue to track and reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions directly, while working closely with our suppliers to drive down Scope 3 which amounts to 93% of our total footprint.
PRODUCT
OUR PACKAGING FOOTPRINT
4.7% of our total packaging footprint is plastic, 50.2% of which is made from recycled material.
Glass accounts for 84% of our packaging footprint, made from at least 35% recycled material and is fully recyclable. We’re still searching for a more sustainable pallet wrap with recycled content that’s fit for purpose, and for recycled food-grade caps for our 100% rPET bottles. To be continued.
PRODUCT
CARBON INTENSITY
Across our product range, carbon intensity varies significantly depending on format. Clear glass is our most emissions-intensive option at around
585
gCO₂e
per litre, while our 19L coolers and filtration products perform considerably better, at approximately
67 and 120
gCO₂e
per litre respectively. Recycled PET, at around
159
gCO₂e
per litre, offers a meaningful improvement over glass for packaged drinks where a bottled format is required.
Aluminium cans produce
38
2
gCO₂e
per litre poured largely with emissions created at the start of their lifecycle despite the good end of life position with high recycling rates.
Our overall product carbon intensity currently sits at around
153 gCO₂e
per litre. Reducing this figure over time sits at the heart of our carbon strategy, achieved both through the growth of lower‑carbon formats and through ongoing reductions in the carbon intensity of all our products. This includes working closely with suppliers to improve materials, processes and design, particularly within higher‑carbon formats such as glass, which sits at the heart of our carbon strategy.
These figures inform how we think about our product mix. If we were guided by emissions reduction alone, the case for phasing out glass or cans in favour of recycled PET and expanding filtration would be clear-cut. In reality, we recognise that the market preference plays an important role, and that driving meaningful change means bringing our collective with us rather than simply removing the choices they value.
PRODUCT
THE LAUNCH OF CANS
In 2025, we launched our first aluminium can range across the UK as part of a bigger mission: to open up the conversation around packaging and its real impact. Aluminium has a strong case. Each can is made from at least 68% recycled material and can be recycled without losing quality. With an 81% recycling rate in the UK, it’s one of the more circular formats available for packaged water.
(Reports from Sustainable Packaging News)
. Although while
70%+ of aluminium cans are recycled globally
,
only 30–35%
currently make it
back into new cans
. The rest are
down‑cycled
into products such as: Automotive parts (e.g. engine blocks), Construction materials and steel de‑oxidisers. Once used this way, they
cannot return
to drinks cans due to incompatible alloys.
Bringing the Belu can to market wasn’t straightforward. As we were launching a new product, we struggled to find a UK-based supplier offering BPA-free aluminium cans at the scale we needed. In the end, we sourced them from a supplier in the Netherlands to meet our standards. Canned water sits in direct contact with its packaging, so what lines the can matters. We use a BPA-free liner to ensure no harmful chemicals get into the water between production and the moment it’s poured.
Because for us, this is about progress over perfection – being transparent about the challenges and helping people better understand the impact behind every choice.
“At Belu, carbon reduction starts with reducing emissions at source across our supply chain. Our ambition is a 100% reduction in emissions per litre poured versus our 2010 baseline, alongside a Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) working towards a zero carbon future. Where emissions remain unavoidable, we take responsibility for addressing them credibly and transparently through our use of nature based solutions.”
- NOLAN WRIGHT
DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY CHAIN OPERATIONS
PROFIT
PURPOSE P&L
At Belu, we have created our own Purpose P&L, a unique tool to hold ourselves accountable to something bigger than financial performance. It tracks not just the health of the business, but the real-world impact every bottle of Belu creates.
Our Purpose P&L maps revenue through to impact across three pillars aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals 6,12 and 13.
Every pound of profit we generate is reinvested in pursuit of our purpose. The Belu Foundation exists to ensure it stays that way, permanently.
OUR LEARNINGS FROM 2025
Like most businesses, we navigated a year that demanded resilience and adaptability. Rising costs, geopolitical
uncertainty
and a hospitality sector under sustained pressure shaped the environment in which we
operate
. We faced each challenge with our values
intact, and
emerged
with a clearer sense than ever of who we are, what we stand for and where we are going.
How launching a new product takes time
Launching Belu cans has been a journey of balancing excitement with uncertainty. Though not originally in our plan, growing customer demand in key sectors like workplace, festivals and grab and go made it a necessary step – one taken with Purpose front of mind.
Read story
The impact of EPR on our business
One of the most significant challenges of 2025 has been the introduction of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. In principle, we support the idea that producers should take responsibility for their packaging. In practice, the scheme as designed presents real and disproportionate challenges for businesses like ours.
Read Story
The challenges facing hospitality
The hospitality sector is facing one of its toughest operating environments in recent memory. Energy, food and supply chain costs remain high, while increases to minimum wage and employer National Insurance contributions add further pressure. For many operators, especially independents, the challenge is no longer growth but survival.
Read story
The role of responsible ai use in our business
Artificial intelligence has been impossible to ignore. Over the last 12 months, we have actively explored how emerging AI technologies could support Belu, testing tools and approaches with the potential to improve efficiency across the organisation.
Read story
CHANGING THE WAY
THE WORLD SEES WATER
CHANGING THE WAY THE WORLD SEES WATER
In 2026, Belu is moving toward a year defined by impact, responsibility, and innovation.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPonsibility
We are campaigning for a targeted rebalance of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy, so it strengthens recycling infrastructure without creating unfair costs for hospitality or driving unintended inflation and reduced social impact.
LIGHT-WEIGHTING
We will further lightweight our bottles to reduce the material used without compromising quality, because every gram makes a significant difference to our carbon footprint and the effects of EPR.
SERVED WITH PURPOSE
Our Served with Purpose campaign will solidify our commitment to purpose-led hospitality through the expansion of our tastemaker network and the launch of season two of our podcast.
ON PURPOSE
We will be hosting two On Purpose associates to help us strengthen our strategy as we scale our social and environmental impact, simplify our ways of working, and deliver profitable, purpose-led growth.
GOVERNANCE
Finally, we will embed governance beyond legal structures, so it is lived through our board and trustees, processes, and culture, shaping decisions and impact every day.
CHOICES MATTER
None of the impact we have made would be possible without the people who choose Belu every day.
To our Belu Collective across hospitality and the workplace, thank you for choosing us, championing us, and sharing our belief that small decisions matter. Every bottle served, every filter installed, every can poured, and every conversation started about where your water comes from all add up. As we grow, so does our Belu-niverse, a connected ecosystem of wholesalers, hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafes, and experiential venues, all working toward the same goal.
To our impact, supply chain, and strategic partners, you are the reason we can deliver on our goals and live our purpose every single day.
To the freelancers, agency partners, and friends of Belu who help push us forward and deliver a higher standard of work, we thank you for your dedication and look forward to achieving even more in 2026.
We also want to give a big thank you to Natalie Campbell for her 6 years at Belu as Co-CEO.
We are changing the way the world sees water, together. And we are only just getting started.
Everything shared in this Purpose in Progress would not have happened without our wonderful network of brilliant businesses and incredible individuals.
Team Belu
Credits: Thank you to, Alan Courtenay, Alfatech, Aquacure, Avon Freight, Belu Foundation, Belu’s Founder Reed Paget, Belu Investors and Board Representatives, Borg & Overstrom, Brita, Buzzacott, CCL, Celli, Charles Russell Speechly, Covaris, Cycles Marketing, Dan Bramfitt, Distil, Droople, DrinkWorks, Encirc, Everyone at WaterAid, First Colour, Flo‑Tek Hong Kong, Flo-Tek Singapore, Forest Cloud, Foxtrot Partner, Fresh Accounting, G Owen & Sons, Green Courier, Greenworks, Hydrachill, Imagine, Love Your Accountants, Maidens of Telford, MCC Labels, Metabev (Socofar), Montgomery Waters, NDA Packaging, NOMOQ, Our customers, Our HR partners, Our Tiny Marketing Co, Reflex, Retap, Rudd McNamara, Seaways, Seven Hills BPI, Severn Transport Services, Shepherds Transport & Storage, Stevens & Bolton, Stickershop, Systempack, T Alun Jones, TCI, Team Belu, The Glasshouse, Wares of Knutsford, Water care and Wenlock Spring Water for inspiring, supporting and partnering with us along the way.
The Launch of Cans
Launching a new product is always a balance of excitement and uncertainty, and bringing Belu cans to market has been no exception. From a sales perspective, it has meant holding confidence in the proposition while navigating understandable customer hesitation. Even with a clear purpose, moving customers from early conversations to confirmed listings takes time, persistence, and belief.
Cans were not originally part of our plan, but growing customer demand and the accelerating move away from plastic made it clear this was a step we needed to take. As with everything at Belu, it had to be done with planet and purpose front of mind. That commitment shaped the journey from the very beginning.
One of the biggest challenges has been securing listings with wholesalers to access the market. You need demand from their customers to secure these listings, which takes time. The other challenge is commercial viability. We had to invest to launch this product, and with low volumes of raw materials come higher costs than at scale, while still needing to price competitively to win customers. It is always a delicate balance for smaller producers, especially those that need profit to deliver purpose. This remains very much a live challenge for 2026.
We purposefully designed our packaging to include a transparent look at how a can performs from a CO₂ perspective against our other packaging formats. This was designed to give consumers the information they need before purchasing, to showcase the impact of their choices, and most importantly, to start a conversation about the choices we all have.
Seeing the first customers commit, watching the cans land in the market, and hearing positive feedback from operators and the trade brings a real sense of progress. Each win builds credibility and makes the next conversation a little easier. A big thank you to the customers and wholesalers who made this happen, including Store Supply, Albion and Enotria, Farmer J, Atis, and The Salad Project.
Most importantly, launching Belu cans is about more than introducing a new product. It is about driving meaningful change, opening doors into new sectors, starting conversations with operators we had not previously engaged with, and helping us reach a much wider audience.
Rosie Nickson & Sarah Durston
Senior Partnerships & Growth Lead, Head of Drinks Operations
Extended producer responsibility
One of the most significant challenges of 2025 has been the introduction of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility scheme. In principle, Belu supports the idea that producers should take responsibility for the environmental impact of their packaging. In practice, the scheme as designed presents real and disproportionate challenges for businesses like ours.
For Belu, EPR will add 7.35% to our cost of goods. In Germany, the equivalent scheme would cost us 1.5-2.1%. We’ll let that sit for a moment…
The problem lies with how the scheme is structured. Glass used exclusively in restaurants and hotels has been classified as household waste. Overlapping regulations, including DRS and PRNs, have created complexity, uncertainty and costs that fall hardest on smaller, purpose-driven businesses supplying hospitality rather than grocery multiples.
We would support this wholeheartedly if we believed the money would genuinely move the needle on the circular economy. We have been advocating for responsible packaging and reduced waste long before it was fashionable. But from everything we’ve seen, this funding is not ringfenced for waste infrastructure or recycling investment. It risks disappearing into local authority budgets with no guaranteed environmental return. That is not a circular economy policy.
What troubles us most is that businesses like ours were not meaningfully consulted in this process. The consultation appears to have focused predominantly on larger brands and those supplying grocery multiples. As a small, purpose-driven B2B business supplying hospitality, we were not part of that conversation. We think that matters enormously, because we are exactly the kind of business this policy will hit hardest. We are not a consumer brand. We supply businesses. Our packaging does not directly end up in household bins. Being pulled into scope in the same way as a major supermarket brand feels fundamentally at odds with what this policy is trying to achieve.
We are a business that genuinely wants to grow, to give more to WaterAid, to reduce our carbon footprint and to keep proving that purpose and profit can work together. Costs like this make that harder. And when businesses like ours start doing the maths and wondering whether they can sustain it, something important is lost – not just for us, but for everyone who chooses us because they believe in what we stand for.
We have been actively engaging with policymakers and industry bodies to advocate for a fairer, more evidence-based approach – one that recognises reuse, the high recycling rates for glass and the realities of business waste collection in hospitality. We are calling on the Chancellor to look again at this, whether that means reconsidering the amount, the structure or how it applies to businesses supplying the B2B market. We will keep making noise about it, and we hope you will stand alongside us.
Nolan Wright
Director of Supply Chain Operations
the challenges facing hospitality
The hospitality sector is facing one of its toughest operating environments in recent memory. Margins are under sustained pressure, and relief feels a long way off. Energy, food, and supply chain costs remain high, while increases to minimum wage and employer National Insurance add even more strain. For many operators, especially independents, the challenge is no longer growth, but survival.
Geopolitical instability only intensifies these pressures, driving volatility in energy markets and disrupting global supply chains. Forward planning in this unpredictable landscape has become difficult, and risk is higher than ever.
At the same time, there is a growing sense that government support has not kept pace with reality. Continued pressure from business rates, alongside the lack of meaningful VAT reform, leaves UK hospitality at a structural disadvantage. New regulatory changes, like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), risk adding further cost and complexity at a time when the sector can least absorb it.
At Belu, we see both sides of this story. While we have sadly witnessed the closure of much-loved venues, there is also an incredible pipeline of new openings and ideas, especially in London, where many have noted a renewed energy and buzz across the scene. Belu collective members like The Newman, One Club Row, and Cornershop exemplify this energy and creativity. As ever, we remain committed to supporting our partners to navigate challenges and build for the future.
Giorgia Tracy
Senior Partnerships Lead
The role of responsible AI use at Belu
Artificial intelligence has been impossible to ignore. I frequently am targeted with different new technologies that are somehow going to make my job redundant. Over the last 12 months, we’ve actively explored how emerging AI technologies could support Belu by testing tools and approaches with the potential to improve efficiency across the organisation. We attended industry conferences and spoke with experts to understand both the opportunities and the realities of adopting AI responsibly.
While AI has real potential to make us more efficient and more impactful, there’s a growing gap between how fast the technology is moving and the readiness of teams to implement it responsibly. Our commitment is simple: people come first. We prioritise skills, understanding, and long-term value over speed. We could go head first into it and look to create workflows for every piece of work inside the business, however I don’t believe this to be ethical. The question I ask myself often is would this benefit our customers, our team or our impact in a meaningful way without being a detriment to one of these. While many businesses will run to reducing their overheads with AI we believe that as a business their is an ethical question that must be asked of ourselves as leaders, profit over people?
For a business like ours, which is proudly built on real relationships and the personal nature of hospitality, this means strengthening and optimising our existing processes and technology before investing heavily in new AI solutions. We focus on improving efficiency where it genuinely adds value, upskilling our team in AI tools, and developing clear business cases before adoption rather than rushing into change. We will continue to make real world connections with different hospitality businesses and ensure their is always someone to answer the phone or pop in for a visit.
We’re also mindful of the wider implications of AI, such as issues of bias and environmental impact. As a purpose-led business, we hold ourselves – and the technologies we use – to high environmental and social standards. Any AI tools or processes we adopt must align with our commitment to operating responsibly and using business as a force for good.
Hamish Woolgar
Senior Marketing & Digital Lead
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