Future Water

Many would have struggled to begin a new job at the start of the Covid 19 Lockdowns in 2020, so imagine what it would have been like to start as the new Managing Director of a water utility at that time? That's exactly what Lara Olsen, Managing Director of South East Water did. Lara has worked in startups, in the energy space, in corporates and in government roles throughout her career and one of her career highlights was working at Tesla where she learned that even very large organisations can be agile. Lara shares how she is applying what she has learned from outside the water industry in her role. And about how having a design philosophy, agility, a strong sense of purpose and commitment to customers can open the door to innovative thinking.  So many questions came up in this discussion but overall Lara paints a picture of her vision for South East Water's innovation future. Today's episode is hosted by GHD's Water Market Leader for Victoria, Lindsey Brown.

More and more utilities are realising the benefits of sustainable procurement practices, not only for their organisations' bottom lines but also for their communities. Today I talk with passionate changemaker and sustainability advocate Lindsey Brown about a recent webinar series she put together to engage utilities on this topic. Lindsey is GHD's Water Market Leader for Victoria, Australia. With a 15-plus year background in environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility and public policy development in the water industry, Lindsey is passionate about sustainability and win-win outcomes for all stakeholders.  In today's episode, we dig into why sustainable procurement matters, what it looks like in practice and Lindsey shares an overview of her four-part webinar series featuring some of the innovators in this space.

Nothing exists within a vacuum. When we build huge infrastructure, it doesn’t stand alone, but amidst multiple upon multiple, in fact, infinite systems of life.   So far in the 21st Century, the discourse about what we build has been largely around sustainability. How do we make buildings, and our infrastructure sustainable so they not only last a long time but so they don’t harm the environment or people?   Today we explore a different perspective, the concept of regenerative design. It’s a conversation that goes beyond sustainability, that asks the question: “How might we look at what we create and build for the benefit of human beings more deeply so that all life can thrive in any given area?”   For this discussion, we are joined by guests Ben Preston and Lindsey Brown. Ben is an independent consultant and engineer who is deeply committed to inspiring and educating people about regenerative design. Lindsey is GHD’s Water Market Leader for Victoria, Australia who is leading an exploration of how regenerative design can help transform the work of the water sector.    Together, Ben and Lindsey explore what regenerative design is and how it could be applied in the water industry.

In the US there are literally thousands of small municipal water utilities and one of the big challenges faced by small utilities is how to leverage innovation to better serve water consumers and communities. Building new infrastructure and developing new ideas is often too costly and resource-intensive for small regional utilities. However, one US regional utility company has developed an innovative coop model to up the game of local utilities so they can bring the latest in technology and innovation to their communities. In today’s interview, I talk with EJ Water Cooperative CEO Bill Teichmiller to find out more about how it works and how this model has transformed regional utilities.

Welcome to our first Future Water episode for 2021.  We’re kicking off the first episode of the year by looking at how utilities innovate for drought resilience. I could think of no one better to talk to about this than Jim Fear, Senior Planning Engineer at Seqwater. With over 30 years industry experience, Jim’s seen every drought response strategy under the sun. In this interview, we talk about what Seqwater is doing to innovate in an era of climate change, as well as best practices and past experience in drought management.

Innovation inspiration can come from a wide variety of sources outside your industry, at least that was the case for the digital metering team at Yarra Valley Water (YVW).  In today’s show, I talk with Raghu Bharadwaj, Program Director for the Digital metering program at YVW. Raghu shares with us how his team leveraged cross sector expertise and innovation to develop connected digital meters that are more efficient to make and run than they were in the past.  And he gives some insight into why Yarra Valley Water has been making waves with their approach to innovation. I wondered if there was something in the water at Yarra Valley. Listen to Raghu as he shares the full story.

Welcome to a slightly different episode of Future Water this week. Our community AquaLAB Connect has been up and running now for about 6 months and we’ve welcomed senior water professionals from around the globe into our platform. This has led to a lot of interesting and candid conversations about the future of water innovation, the big challenges utilities everywhere are facing and the big ideas our community is speculating about.

How can water utilities help move the dial in developing new water technologies and solutions? We’ve all heard of accelerator programmes, but how can they be applied to water utilities? In this episode, we take a deep dive to answer these questions.

Believe it or not, the water crisis is here and impacts developed and developing nations alike. According to the United Nations, by 2025, nearly two billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity. In this episode, we look at how two very different cities are tackling the water security problem and we explore what it’s going to take to secure this fundamental resource for future generations. We’ll explore the trends, what countries are currently doing to address water security in the face of climate change and what’s getting in the way of taking action on water security? 

Believe it or not, the water crisis is here and impacts developed and developing nations alike. According to the United Nations, by 2025, nearly two billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity. In this episode, we look at how two very different cities are tackling the water security problem and we explore what it’s going to take to secure this fundamental resource for future generations. We’ll explore the trends, what countries are currently doing to address water security in the face of climate change and what’s getting in the way of taking action on water security? 

While each innovation approach has some overlap and similarities, it’s the nuances that make them distinct. Partnerships can have a wide range of impacts for corporations and water utilities alike; they can enhance technological capability, supply chain flow and a range of other things. In this episode, we talk partnerships with Nick Shewring, Strategy and Client Lead for GHD Digital. This is the third episode in a series on Stretching Your Innovation Dollar, where we explore how water utilities can partner with, co-create with and empower innovators both from within their organisations and externally. Nick takes us through best practices for forming partnerships whether you’re a large organisation, startup, or individual and also explains the massive value partnerships bring to the water industry by helping us work better together. About Nick Nick is the Strategy and Innovation Lead for D-Lab at GHD and one of our awesome team members here at AquaLAB. In his past business life, he worked with Air New Zealand and also co-founded successful New Zealand startup BizDojo as well as other startups. Nick has coached and mentored hundreds of startup teams and has a significant network in the local and international startup ecosystem. His specialty is bringing people together to achieve impressive things. Connect with Nick Shewring on LinkedIn

Being entrepreneurial no longer means having to leave the corporate life behind. It can be done with the backing of an organisation. Organisations know that in order to survive they need to innovate and more and more organisations are recognising the benefits of fostering intrapreneurship to this end. It’s a win-win. Organisations take on the risk and the rewards and employees get to play in the innovation sandpit and shift the dial on what’s possible with support. In this episode, we talk intrapreneurship with Melissa Witheriff, Head of Digital Innovation at Credit Union Australia (CUA). This is the second episode in a series on Stretching Your Innovation Dollar, where we explore how water utilities can partner with, co-create with and empower innovators both from within their organisations and externally. While not from a water utility, Melissa lays out the steps to create a culture of innovation in large highly-regulated organisations, as well as what it takes for entrepreneurial individuals in the corporate landscape to go the distance. Regardless of what side of the fence you’re on, this episode has tons of value for any entrepreneur or organisation looking to transform how innovation is done from within. For show notes on all of our episodes, visit: https://medium.com/@aquaLAB.

Cyber attacks are a clear and present threat to both organisations and individuals the world over and, alarmingly, they are no longer just about stealing your bank details. As a recent attack on an Israeli water treatment plant has shown, the motivations behind them are becoming increasingly political and that poses a significant issue for water infrastructure. We talked with Cyber Security expert, GHD about the impact cyber threats could have on water and what utilities can do to safeguard their data and operational technology. Sunil Sharma has 25+ years of experience in Digital Risk and Security, and ICT. Formerly, he led Digital Risk and Cyber Security practices at PwC and Accenture. He has led several Digital Risk advisory and consulting engagements across Energy, Resources, Financial, Retail, and Entertainment industries. And is currently GHD’s lead consultant, assisting organisations in setting up comprehensive digital risk strategies and executing successful rollout of risk controls. Sunil is passionate about cyber security, especially in the water industry where there’s more take up of operational technology, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. Connect with Sunil Sharma on LinkedIn

What does innovation look like in the corporate context in 2020? And how can utilities leverage their people, their partners and smaller players in the startup ecosystem to create value for their customers? This is the first episode in a series on Stretching Your Innovation Dollar, where we explore how water utilities can partner with, co-create with and empower innovators both from within their organisations and externally. In this episode, we talk about open innovation with David Camerlengo, Principal of Open Innovation at Unearthed. Unearthed is an Australian-based technology and innovation services platform that connects challenges facing the resources sector to a community of entrepreneurs and industry innovators. David shares some excellent insights with us on what open innovation is, how it’s implemented and what good looks like. He also demonstrates how this approach has helped solve big business challenges through external collaboration and finding potential in unlikely spaces. David has a passion for matching large resource sector corporates with small startups and scale-ups from around the world. What he’s found is that sometimes the best solutions come from surprising places and ideas, and that’s the beauty of open innovation. David’s experience is largely based in technology commercialization and senior stakeholder engagement, with a background as an engineer. Previously he served as Trade & Investment Commissioner for Queensland Government and was based in Houston, Texas. David is a board member of both the Open World Wide Innovation Network, and the Australian - American Chamber of Commerce and is the former President of EGR Group. Connect with David Camerlengo on LinkedIn

Delays, shortages and businesses going bust: Welcome to supply during the 2020 pandemic. Covid-19 has exposed some gaping holes in industry supply chains. A recent article in Supply Chain Digital claimed that “94% of Fortune 1000 companies have been affected by supply chain disruption” because of Covid-19. Utilities are suddenly faced with the reality that any disruption to the delicate procurement process can have a massive ripple effect on the provision of safe, clean water to customers at the end of that supply chain. And, in this episode, we explore how supply chain issues are impacting on the water industry and ask, what will enable utilities to create a resilient water supply chain in the years to come. To take us further into this topic, we talked to 4 incredible experts in the water industry: Jacob Wu from Unitywater, Simon Kaye and Meha Bola from GHD in North America and Katrina Donaghy from water tech company Water Ledger. To read the show notes and our in-depth article on the water industry supply chain, visit our website.

Covid-19 has accelerated innovation in the water industry and one innovation that is attracting increased attention from utilities is remote assessment technology. In this episode, AquaLAB's Cara McCullough talks to Rohan Koenig, Immersive Digital Solutions Lead at GHD Digital about drones, thermal imaging, worker safety, digital twins and more. Rohan dives deep into how Pandemic life has accelerated the uptake of this technology and how it can be applied in the water industry. With the benefit of over 20 years of experience working within science and engineering combined with management experience, Rohan's expertise is in the understanding and development of business opportunities, team leadership and external relationships to achieve success. Connect with Rohan on LinkedIn. AquaLAB is GHD’s global knowledge and innovation platform for the water industry. We seed and grow the conversations, ideas and innovations to solve your water imperatives. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/aqualabghd/