Did you think, like most of the industry, that Nils Leonard would start his own ad or design agency?

Well, he hasn’t.

The former chief creative officer and chairman of Grey London has done what we should all now expect him to do – something no one expected.

He has co-founded a coffee capsule company. Of course, it’s not just a coffee capsule company. There are plenty of those. It has a USP.

Halo is an ethical coffee capsule company producing the world’s first fully compostable coffee capsule, which is compatible with home Nespresso machines, the company claims.

Why? That’s simple. More than 30 billion coffee pods containing aluminium or plastic are produced every year. Most of them have to be sent to a municipal composting facility. Halo’s pods can be put in the kitchen food bin and biodegrade completely within 90 days.

It takes 150 to 200 years for aluminium to begin breaking down.

Leonard’s partner, Richard Hardwick, said in the launch statement, “Most people don’t understand the irreversible damage coffee capsules are inflicting on the planet. Aluminium and plastic coffee capsules are very difficult to recycle so most end up in the bin and that’s why up to 75% are currently being sent to landfill every minute. It’s a design challenge no-one has cracked. Until now. I’ve been creating premium expresso for 23 years and capsules for over 10 years and this is the culmination of what I’ve been trying to deliver to coffee lovers for all this time.”

Halo’s two other co-founders are former Nespresso business director, Andrew Richardson and David Foster, a trained barista and master coffee brewer.

The coffee inside the pods isn’t everyday either. Its bespoke blends – Kopi Lawak Diamond, Panamanian Geisha, Royal Kona and Three Mountain – are high end, roasted by Antica Tostatura Triestina in Italy using rare coffees.

And they’re expensive. £10 ($AU16) for a box of 10 capsules compared to Nespresso pods at about AU37c each.

The coffee pods are only available to order online from Halo’s website at present, but Halo hopes to find like-minded partners in the future to make the product more widely available.