LSN : News : Next-gen panels generating clean energy from sunlight and air

Mozzo coffee rebranding cuts through ‘purposeful’ category

Mozzo rebranding by B&B, Italy and London

US – Coffee brand Mozzo has turned to London agency B&B to rebrand in a bid to cut through the crowded ‘purposeful’ category and move away from Italian associations.

B&B is behind the branding on Fever-Tree, Pip n Nut and Pret at Home, and its challenge with Mozzo was to shine a light on its work with coffee-growing communities. The coffee brand’s USP is that a fixed social dividend is built into its business model, ensuring constant accountability and continued investment into its C2C Fund with every coffee bean sold. Since 2015, the brand has funded the build and first year’s operation of a maternity clinic on Idjwi Island, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and helped coffee farmers in the African country to found their own start-up cooperative, empowering them to manage their own production and introduce sustainable growing practices. Mozzo is currently working on new projects with its coffee-growers in Nicaragua.

The new mint green and bright orange branding is centred around a core tagline of ‘Coffee. Community. Connection.’ The logo, designed with digital animation in mind, reflects the idea of connection through an extended Z, and seeks to present Mozzo Coffee as a platform for communication.

‘The existing Mozzo identity took its cues from the world of Italian coffee,’ explains B&B associate creative director Jennie Potts, ‘but as a result it was hard to differentiate it from a lot of other brands and it had started to feel quite generic. We wanted to revitalise Mozzo, bringing back the energy it had back in 2005, when it was launched as a wind- and solar-powered coffee cart.’

Strategic opportunity

As seen in the spirits market, with new brands effectively decolonising and challenging cultural stereotypes, Mozzo’s rebranding highlights the need for identities to move further towards connection and purpose.

Next-gen panels generating clean energy from sunlight and air

Belgium – A consortium of engineers, scientists and designers is revolutionising solar panel technology, enabling energy production by sunlight and air absorption.

The Solhyd Project, led by Comate Engineering & Design, KU Leuven and the Province of Flemish Brabant, aims to make renewable hydrogen energy widely accessible. Their next-gen solar panels can produce 250l of hydrogen per day, which can have several uses, such as powering up appliances, heating households or charging electric vehicles.

The panels’ design resembles power banks and has a compact, optimised size similar to regular solar panels. But these panels convert water vapour found in ambient air into hydrogen gas with the help of sunlight. While the technology is still under development and not yet commercialised, the innovation has potential to provide a viable source of renewable energy for individuals, but mostly companies and larger organisations due to the hefty installation costs. But the Solhyd team claim that the development of a more affordable and widely accessible hydrogen panel is under way, a solution that could help consumers have a reliable source of energy in the face of energy and cost of living crises.

At LS:N Global, we are tracking tech innovators advancing the transition to cleaner energy sources in our Sustainability Series.

Solhyd Project by Comate Engineering & Design, KU Leuven, and the Province of Flemish Brabant, Belgium

Strategic opportunity

The transition to cleaner energy sources is picking up pace; consider how your business will be affected – or can help drive – this shift

Stat: International travel to recover in 2023, led by Australia

One Hundred Shoreditch, UK

Global – Despite forecasts of economic recession, international travel is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2023, according to a new survey conducted by YouGov for World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).

Ahead of the WTTC Global Summit in Saudi Arabia, data company YouGov polled over 26,000 consumers from 25 countries on their travel intentions for the coming year. The survey predicts a recovery in international tourism, with more than a quarter (27%) of consumers planning three or more trips in 2023.

In terms of demographics, data reveals that Australians will be the biggest travel spenders next year, followed by travellers from Canada, Saudi Arabia and The Philippines. In addition, social and environmental criteria are top of mind for travel decision-making, with a majority of consumers (61%) favouring sustainable travel brands and destinations for their travel plans.

With travel picking up and the tourism industry set for growth, more consumers will be turning to experts to navigate travel offerings, revitalising the role of travel agents.

Strategic oppportunity

With consumers eager to travel but more conscious than ever about the carbon footprint of their getaways, brands in the sector have a gap to fill in helping travellers shape their future trips in line with their preferences