Ibrida: A bread-beer startup
RESPONSIBILITIES
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Co-Founder,
Digital Strategist
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ENTITY​
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Registered brand,
Non-Profit Association​
The Process
With a strong design thinking methodology in place, Ibrida followed a divergent and convergent process. Months of research, benchmarking, interviews, service design tools, business canvas, and prototyping sessions served as the springboard to bring Ibrida to the real context. A strong influence of service design ideology in the team further enhanced this process.
The team leveraged their abilities as designers to empathize with the users and strategize the business decisions. In April 2019, Ibrida won its first competition, thus initiating the first incubation process in Milan. In 2021, Ibrida won another competition and 25,000 € to support its development.
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The Opportunity
The project started out as a university project at Politecnico di Milano where the goal was to come up with a project with a sustainable development goal. Staying true to the Italian context, we started talking about food.
In Italy 220,000 tons of food is wasted every year and 19% is attributable to bread. In the bakeries of Milan, despite the growing trend of attention to bread making, every day 3 to 7 kg remain unsold.
While searching for a way to save bread, we discovered the world of bread beers. The tradition of baking bread went hand in hand with the artisanal beer industry. And voila, Ibrida was born.
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Each Ibrida, not only reuses surplus bread but also reduces 30% of the malt, a key ingredient in beer production. And with the involvement of local bakeries and breweries, a local Km0 beer is born. Thus, Ibrida encourages more responsible consumption and production, responding to Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production).
The Big Idea
Ibrida is a neighborhood bread beer brewed with surplus bread unsold in the local bakeries in Milan.
Ibrida wants to give a second life to this product, by turning it into a local, social, inclusive and circular beer. The beer is crafted for and with the growing areas of the city, aiming to support small businesses scattered over fragile territories, promoting short supply chains and a km 0 approach.
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Ibrida has now produced 3 different types of beer - Ibrida x Bovisa, Ibrida x Chiaravalle, Ibrida x Barona - all referring to 3 growing neighborhoods in the city of Milan. For each of these editions, Ibrida collaborated with local bakeries in the neighborhood to procure surplus bread and a local brewery for the production of the beer.
Collaborating with partners who hold the same values, Ibrida is working towards promoting a sustainable mindset to all its consumers.
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*Ibrida is a project continuously in evolution. To stay updated check www.ibridabirra.com
