Source

**Source** (stylized in all caps; formerly known as **Zero Mass Water**) is a tech company founded in 2014 and based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with its mission of "perfect drinking water for every person, every place." They created a solar panel array that converts water vapor molecules into liquid form, then combine the minerals magnesium and calcium to make clean, sustainable drinking water. On average, it will produce about 3-5 liters of drinking water per day.

According to founder and CEO Cody Friesen, in the first five years they installed SOURCE Hydropanels in 45 countries. Friesen noted to *Forbes*, "Condensing water from the air is not a new idea... But the question is how the water is condensed and with what source of energy. Previous attempts tend to be essentially big refrigeration units that use immense amounts of electricity, inefficiently and at great intensity, only working when the humidity is rather high."

American rapper Lupe Fiasco gave a keynote speech about the company at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2019. He commented that his interest in this topic first stemmed from fellow rapper Mos Def's "New World Water," which he elaborated in an interview with *Vibe*, "stood out because it was focused on this one subject, which I did not know too much about at that time. [...] It's water, but he went through all of it: politically, environmentally, socially, chemically. I think it's one of those things that only a rapper could do, or only a poet could do: take this subject and hit it in all these different areas and components. It just kind of got bookmarked in my mind: water is an issue, water's a problem, water's a right." The second time was when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2010 to bring awareness to the worldwide water crisis.

## Background

In an interview, Lupe Fiasco revealed to *Vibe* that he and Cody Friesen first met through the Aspen Institute, both being part of the Henry Crown Fellowship, though in different classes. One day they both happened to be in Chicago and got in contact, with Friesen telling him about Zero Mass. Fiasco recalled, "When he first told me about Zero Mass, it was kind of unbelievable. He created this device that pulls water out of thin air and only uses solar power to do so. It's like a solar panel that doesn't make energy, it makes water. That's fascinating, I'm in. At the time it was very early so he was looking for just friends and family investors. I invested, I wished I would have invested more. But I invested and it went further, he asked me to come on with a few other fellows to his advisory board to the company. I came in really to just articulate communication internally, what's the best way to frame the message, to talk about the product…just advise him on how to talk about it really simply. Our first advisory board meeting, the first thing I did was play "New World Water." I was just sitting there amidst all these luminaries from the water space, from the finance space, from the tech space, from the invention, 3D printing space, and I come in and play Mos Def."

## References

1. ↑ Prieto, Matias (April 22, 2019). "Zero Mass Water's Solar Panels Pull Clean Drinking Water Out of Thin Air". *The Green Optimistic*.
2. ↑ "Zero Mass Water Becomes SOURCE Global, PBC to Supply Renewable Drinking Water Around the World". *Business Wire*. September 23, 2020.
3. ↑ Kart, Jeff (January 13, 2022). "Solar-Powered SOURCE Hydropanels Can Produce Up to 5 Liters of Drinking Water Per Day". *Forbes*.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ketchum III, William (February 22, 2019). "Lupe Fiasco on New World Water, and Changing the World with His Bars Before Leaving Rap Behind". *Vibe*.
5. ↑ "Lupe Fiasco to Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro for Charity". *AllHipHop*. April 13, 2009.