Belu named ‘Green Company of the Year’ at The Drinks Business Asian Awards

Belu was named Green Company of the Year at this year’s drinks business Asian Awards.

We are ecstatic to win this coveted category at the prestigious DB awards in Asia. We expanded our filtration business in Hong Kong in 2021 – only two years ago! Thank you to our original founding partner in Hong Kong The Upper House (Swire Hotels) and to others in our founding collective; Mandarin Oriental HK, SpiceBox Organics, Maximal Concepts and Aarhan, for believing in Belu and our purpose. You can now find Belu Filter in Action in 22 venues across Hong Kong.

We’d also like to thank our technical partners Metabev/ Socofar, Future Green, Food Made Good, Fresh Accounting and Invest HK.

After being founded in the UK 20 years ago, Belu launched our ‘Filter in Action’ sustainable water solution in Hong Kong in 2021 to help the hospitality Industry with sustainable water service solutions to replace imported bottled water with premium filtered water on tap in reusable glass bottles to help tackle the waste problem in the UK and reduce carbon emissions.

We invest in solutions to deliver UN Sustainable Development Goals 6, 12 and 13. Since 2011 we have given WaterAid, £5.5 million (53.6M HKD) to tackle water poverty, transforming over 360,000 lives. Belu is a social enterprise and leader in the field. We open source every aspect of our business to enable others to see there is a better way to operate; truly for people and planet.  

Belu filtration is the sustainable solution for water provision, setting in motion a behaviour change within the Hong Kong hospitality industry and aligning with customers increasingly looking to dine in more sustainable venues. As well as reducing waste, carbon footprint and transport, there’s less storage required and business in Hong Kong can help change the lives of many people worldwide through our partnership with WaterAid. Good for planet, people and business. According to Hong Kong Government statistics, in 2021, Hongkongers disposed of 4,662 tonnes of plastic every day. This accounted for 22% of daily commercial waste.

At one of our restaurant partners, Mr & Mrs Fox (Swire), they previously sold 6,295 bottles of water in a year. After switching to Belu filtration they sold the equivalent of 10,799 bottles between December 2021 and December 2022. Mr and Mrs Fox increased their revenue whilst simultaneously cutting waste and lowering carbon emissions. 

On working with Belu, Joshua So, Outlet Manager for Swire Hotels, noted, “What a refreshing change to be working with a company whose ethos in sustainability align with ours.  Not only do we benefit in reducing the wasteful staffing hours of previously ordering water bottles, receiving delivery of water bottles, filling water bottles in fridges, doing stocktakes of the water bottles! Our staff can now focus more of their time on their guests and other operational duties.

We are not just saving money but profiting from using the BELU Water filtration system.. Genius! 

At a time when, every little penny counts, installing BELU water filtration system has definitely made a lot of sense”

In total we have 30 filtration machines in Hong Kong, saving an estimated 7,016 kilograms of CO2e annually.

Belu does not export our bottled products from the UK for environmental reasons, however it is worth noting that implementing filtration would save 7 kilograms of CO2e per litre when compared with importing Belu mineral water via container ship. This figure would increase if sent via airfreight. We advocate for filtration as the most environmentally friendly option for venues to provide filtered water.

We publish all figures annually in our Impact Report and work with the fact checker organisation Provenance to verify all our sustainability claims and credentials. 

For 2023 and beyond Belu is planning to inspire more businesses in Hong Kong that there’s a better way to do business through our customer networks and onboarding new customer and strategic partners. Belu continues to push boundaries and explore new opportunities in Asia and other territories.

Hong Kong site: https://www.belu.hk