Signals

UK – A new British brewery based in Surrey, England, is using solar energy to make eco-friendly beer. One Planet Brewing uses photovoltaic solar panels to generate enough electricity to power its 15-hectolitre, electric brewery.

The brewery’s first beer is a 5.5% abv Hazy IPA which is available to purchase in keg and can form from October 2023. One Planet Brewery also sources home-grown and local hops, uses re-usable kegs and glass flagons, and only offers delivery to customers within a 30-mile radius.

The company’s brewing capacity will also be limited by the amount of solar energy it can generate. In the sunny summer months, One Planet Brewery will sell its excess to the grid and buy back what it needs over the winter months. Initially, this means just four or five brews per month, with production paused from December to February.

As explored in our Solar Sustenance microtrend report, solar power is fast emerging as a long-term, affordable and sustainable option for food and drink businesses looking to reduce costs, promote sustainability and enhance their eco-friendly reputations.

Every Friday, The Future Laboratory team offer an end-of-week wrap-up of the topics, issues, ideas and virals we’re all talking about. This week, Simar Deol, foresight analyst, would like to offer some much-needed respite from a bad news week with a few stories that instilled in her a little bit of joy.

: First, this heart-warming piece from Rhaina Cohen questions what would happen if friendship, not marriage, were at the centre of our lives. Cohen’s writing expands on our work in Modern Marriage, and looks at a new type of family structure in which friends live together, raise each other’s children, use joint credit cards and occupy the most significant relationship in each other’s lives.

: Second, this fun piece showcases the creativity with which modern South Asian-American couples are expressing their dual identities through music (cue Bad Bunny and Bollywood), fashion (embellished white lehengas instead of traditional red) and ceremonies featuring vows and garland exchanges. It tracks a cultural and behavioural shift we also identified in Six Indian Jewellery Brands Combining Heritage and Innovation.

: Finally, this research from the University of Oxford pinpoints how warm summers and wet winters in the UK are likely to improve our wine quality. It’s not climate change that I celebrate here, but the gastronomical and tourism experiences I can enjoy in UK wineries without needing to cross the Channel. We will be assessing the market shifts and business opportunities this will unlock in our forthcoming UK Wine Market report. Watch this space!