MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

7 Lessons from Ape2o:

How to Turn Sustainability into

Competitive Advantage

Here’s what other business leaders can learn from Ape2o’s journey

Lesson 1. Find the market inefficiency

Ape2o doesn’t compete on sustainability alone. It addresses a genuine pricing problem. Bottled water costs £1.50 to £2 for half a litre on the go. That’s twice the price of petrol.

“You’re basically paying for the receptacle that it comes in,” Ape2o Co-Founder, Anthony Newman, explains.

Rather than competing with cheap supermarket water, Ape2o targets the on-the-go market with high-quality vending machines, “big apes”, that dispense filtered, UV-treated, chilled or sparkling water for just 25 pence. Customers bring their own reusable bottles.

Lesson 2. Make impact measurable

Ape2o’s machines measure water dispensed down to the nearest half-litre, providing landowner partners with quarterly reports showing exactly how many bottles were saved.

“”There’s no greenwashing,” Anthony states. “This machine saved 10,000 bottles this year… and that actually represents a lot of crude oil and a lot of CO2 that was going to be used in production of those bottles.” Ape2o Co-Founder, Anthony Newman, explains.

Transparent, granular metrics using a framework and reporting system like FuturePlus build trust with partners and avoid greenwashing accusations. When London Zoo hit 10,000 vends in its first quarter, the data told an undeniable story.

Lesson 3. Attract, don’t shame

Sustainable solutions must be convenient and appealing, not guilt-driven. Ape2o’s insight? People want to do better, but they need the infrastructure to make it easy.

High-quality machines in high-footfall locations. Contactless payment. Twenty-second transactions. Chilled and sparkling options. Convenience is essential to changing behaviour at scale.

Lesson 4. Align with regulatory trends

Ape2o’s partnerships with landowners are driven by two factors:

Sustainability Goals: Many have net-zero ambitions. Ape2o provides measurable, reportable metrics that demonstrate real impact.

Regulatory Pressure: Landowners increasingly bear responsibility for plastic waste pickup. As a plastic-reducing initiative, Ape2o helps reduce these costs while meeting regulatory requirements.

Lesson 5. Build values into the business model

In a bold move for any startup, Ape2o commits 10% of turnover (not just profits) to ocean conservation projects.

“Turnover is very transparent. We’re very open about it, it’s published,” Anthony explains. “We had to be able to know that there was no smelly fish in the background.”

Current beneficiaries include the Zoological Society of London‘s marine conservation work and North Sea biodiversity projects.

This commitment, built into the company’s DNA from day one, becomes part of the brand story and provides resilience during difficult days.

Lesson 6. Recognise bold buyers

After three years of street research – literally standing on London streets with placards – Ape2o launched in 2019. Year one brought validation: Southwestern Railway, London Zoo, and Landsec – a gamechanger for the business.

“You do need a bold buyer at the other end of that equation,” Anthony recalls. “They need at least half the credit for innovation that works.”

Lesson 7. Focus on consumer empowerment

Real change happens when customers choose better options and vote with their wallets, not just when regulations mandate them. Ape2o‘s vision is simple: make reuse the norm by making it the obvious choice

“If we can set in motion that mechanism for making reuse the norm, our job is done,” Anthony concludes.