Podcasts about wastewater industry

In this episode of the Pumps & Systems podcast, we're speaking with Dr. Martin Gross, CEO and founder of Gross-Wen Technologies. He's going to be telling us about algae-based technologies and their role in the wastewater industry. Tune in the first Wednesday of every month for new episodes of the podcast! Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/kvzWLSdbWrI?si=BuWDNqUyU2oORFZ2 Pumps & Systems Podcast homepage: https://www.pumpsandsystems.com/podcast/ Pumps & Systems Magazine: http://www.pumpsandsystems.com Opening music: Know Myself - Patrick Patrikios Closing music: Freeling - Lauren Duski

Welcome to the Smells Like Money Podcast hosted by Suzan Chin Taylor, aka the DooDoo Diva. In this episode, we wrap up our safety series with Stu, a workplace safety specialist. We delve into the concept of the "industrial athlete" and explore the critical role of ergonomics in the wastewater industry. Stu sheds light on how ergonomic practices, typically associated with office settings, are crucial for fieldwork in wastewater management. Learn about the most common and costly injuries in the industry, how simple ergonomic adjustments can prevent them, and practical tips to enhance your daily routines for a healthier work-life balance. I hope you find this episode as informative and as exciting as we have. Please let us know your thoughts about the episode! Connect with Suzan Chin-Taylor, host of The DooDoo Diva's Smells Like Money Podcast: Website: www.creativeraven.com | https://thetuitgroup.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/creativeraven/ Email: raven@creativeraven.com Telephone: +1760-217-8010 Listen and Subscribe here to your favorite platform : Apple Podcast - Google Podcast - CastBox - OverCast - Pocket Casts - Youtube - Spotify https://creativeraven.com/smells-like-money-podcast/ Subscribe to the Podcast: https://creativeraven.com/smells-like-money-podcast/ Be a guest on our show: https://calendly.com/thetuitgroup/be-a-podcast-guest Check Out my NEW Digital Marketing E-Course & Coaching Program just for Wastewater Pros: https://store.thetuitgroup.com/diy-digital-marketing-playbook-for-wastewater-pros #IndustrialAthlete #WorkplaceSafety #Ergonomics #WastewaterIndustry #MusculoskeletalHealth #InjuryPrevention #WorkLifeBalance #FunctionalMovement #SafetySeries #DoodooDivaPodcast

What will you learn about Gradiant, the first-ever Water Tech Unicorn, if you listen to this week's release of the Podcast? Well, I have seven insights for you, starting with number one:Innovative Business Model and Focus on Proprietary Solutions: A significant portion of Gradiant's projects (60%) are sole-sourced, meaning they face no competition for these projects because they develop the solution from scratch for their client. This approach underscores the importance of offering bespoke, innovative solutions to clients' unique problems, a strategy that can be crucial for startups, sure, but also for anyone aiming to differentiate themselves in the competitive and sometimes commoditized water market!Emphasis Rapid Technology Development: Gradiant's success is partly attributed to their philosophy of pushing technology to market quickly, embracing the concept of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). They focus on developing technologies that are good enough to solve the problem at hand and getting them into the field for testing, rather than waiting for a perfect solution. This approach accelerates adoption and allows for real-world feedback to refine that said technology.Attracting and Retaining Talent through Generous Incentives: If Prakash is so certain that Gradiant's special sauce lies in its people, it's no wonder that Gradiant has set a high industry standard by allocating 7% of the company for employee participation, excluding the founders. This generous approach to employee equity is indicative of the value they place on their team's contribution to the company's success and can serve as a model for how startups might consider structuring their own incentive programs.Building a Strong Company Culture and Team: I just touched on how Gradiant attributes a large part of their success to the quality of their team and the company culture they have cultivated. Well, this emphasis on assembling a talented and culturally cohesive team highlights the importance of not just technical skills, but also the alignment of values and vision within the company.Leveraging Acquisitions for Strategic Growth: Gradiant's strategic acquisitions, particularly in markets where organic growth would be too slow or challenging, demonstrate the value of targeted M&A activities to rapidly expand capabilities and market presence. There's again a talent aspect to this, as their approach to keeping and incentivizing the talent within acquired companies further emphasizes the importance of people in Gradiant's growth strategy. Adapting Business Models to Market Needs: Gradiant's ability to adapt their business model, such as the Build-Own-Operate (BOO) approach that got them started in Oil & Gas and still gets applied today on certain projects, showcases their flexibility in meeting client needs and market demands. This adaptability is a critical strategy for navigating the complex and varied global water market. Note as well that they don't claim they've been super clever in using this approach; they actually "stole" it from their customers! Listen and adapt; there's win-win potential in that.Emphasis on R&D and Innovation Centers: The establishment of innovation centers in strategic locations underscores Gradiant's commitment to continuous innovation and development of bespoke solutions. This approach not only fuels their pipeline of proprietary technologies but also positions them as a globally local leader in water tech and in the water industry. I could have taken more, but I think seven is a good chunk to go out and apply, so here you have it. If you think I've missed one that's even more important than those seven, come tell me on LinkedIn or by mail (my mail is in the description). Full Episode: https://dww.show/how-gradiant-became-the-first-and-only-water-tech-unicorn/

The detailed deep dive into micro-dosed lithium with context and research is in this week's main episode, so here's a bonus with my full interview with Sudhir Gadh, the CEO & Founder of Third Element Water.Main IdeaAdding micro-dosed lithium to drinking water can significantly enhance health, from improving mental well-being and brain health to reducing the risk of chronic diseases, offering a simple yet profound way to boost public health through water mineralization.ParticipantsAntoine Walter: Host.Sudhir Gadh: CEO & Founder @ Third Element Water.Third Element WaterThird Element Water is a company that specializes in bottling lithiated water found in West Texas. Their mission extends beyond selling water; they aim to raise awareness about the importance of mineral content in water, specifically highlighting lithium for its numerous health benefits.Unique InsightsMicro-dosed lithium in drinking water has been linked to a range of health benefits, including improved mental health and reduced chronic disease risk, without the high costs or side effects associated with pharmaceutical interventions.The presence of lithium in water sources worldwide suggests a natural basis for its health benefits, underscoring the potential for widespread, low-cost public health improvements.The initiative challenges current norms and regulations surrounding drinking water, proposing a shift towards mineral-enhanced water for broader health benefits.Key IdeasHealth Benefits of Lithium: Lithium, even in micro-doses, can improve electrical balance in the body, potentially offering benefits for conditions like COVID-19 and post-COVID syndrome, enhancing brain health, and promoting overall wellness.Enhancing Water with Minerals: Sudhir Gadh discusses the concept of not just cleaning water but enhancing it with minerals like lithium, akin to practices with fluoride and chloride, to address deficiencies and improve public health.Regulatory and Perception Challenges: The initiative faces challenges related to public perception and regulatory norms, as well as the need for education and awareness to overcome skepticism and embrace the health benefits of mineral-enhanced water.Business and Deployment Strategy: Third Element Water aims to operate both B2C and B2B, selling their lithium-enhancement product directly to consumers and working with municipalities to improve public water supplies.Key PointsSudhir Gadh introduces Third Element Water and its focus on lithiated water.Discussion on the broad health benefits of micro-dosed lithium in water.Lithium's role alongside other minerals in enhancing water quality.Challenges in changing public perception and regulatory standards for drinking water.Strategy for deploying lithium-enhanced water solutions to the public and municipalities.Quotes"We are electrical beings, and so small amounts actually improve electrical balance immunologically.""The latest research...is that there's less not just suicide, homicide, crime, Alzheimer's, psychosis, but there is greater wellness.""We enhanced salt...we enhanced toothpaste and water now with fluoride. We're just moving to what's sensible."Counter-Intuitive FactsLithium as a Health Enhancer: Commonly associated with treating bipolar disorder at high doses, lithium in micro-doses can significantly improve public health with minimal risk.Enhancing Water to Improve Health: Unlike the conventional focus on removing contaminants, adding lithium and other minerals to water can address nutrient deficiencies and enhance health.Accessible and Affordable Health Solution: Contrary to expectations, enhancing water with lithium is a low-cost strategy that could deliver significant health benefits without the need for expensive medical interventions.Full Article: https://dww.show/micro-dosed-lithium-tap-waters-health-hack/

I'm pretty sure nobody ever noticed the butterfly effect in real life. Changing a little parameter somewhere, which leads to unexpected consequences at a total other end of the system, might probably happen on a daily basis, but first, as I said, you'd have to notice and, second to understand that the effect you're seeing is, in fact, linked to the tiny change somewhere else. We can accept that as a fact and try to master our silos to the best of our abilities, or we can see the continuous advancements in artificial intelligence as the missing link that finally enables us to get more holistic in the comprehension of our systems!For instance, what if super tiny levels of certain components in drinking water had macro consequences, positive or negative, on human health? What if private worksites on a section of a watershed had tremendous consequences on the water risk downstream? What used to be conjectures drawn on a napkin now become data trends you can spot and link in the era of artificial intelligence and machine learning.Not ChatGPT or MidJourney style, but soft sensor and data crunching style. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, first, thanks a lot, great choice, I appreciate; then you might recall a topic that we've quite extensively covered on this microphone. So, what's different today with True Elements? I'll let Kim explain in great detail in just a minute, but I'd say it's a matter of scale. We've seen in the past how modeling, machine learning, or AI can help within a plant, an industrial site, or a city with use cases all across the board. Well, True Elements' Water Intelligence introduces the watershed level as one of the many levels where they aim to create value. Full Episode: https://dww.show/big-data-deeper-insights-crafting-smarter-water-strategies/

Welcome to the second installment of this week's water reuse series! If you've missed the first one, that was a dense conversation with Austin Alexander, Xylem's VP Sustainability; my advice: go back and listen to it once you're done with today's insightful, too short for my taste, but hence packed discussion with Aaron! And yes, I'm slightly biased.So, in today's episode, we discuss the inherent inertia in water management that stems from centuries-old centralized systems, which pose a significant challenge to adopting water reuse. We'll tackle water scarcity from an unusual angle: looking at it as an economic risk, which in turn may accelerate reuse, assuming... policies play their role. That's to say, as an enabler, not a barrier. We'll discuss how necessity breeds creativity, how there's still legwork to do to overcome public misconceptions about recycled water, and how technologies are reaching a maturity stage that makes them very approachable and plug-and-play. Let's cut to the chase, it's time for me to open the mic' to Aaron!Full Episode: https://dww.show/the-economic-incentives-of-the-water-reuse-revolution/

with

If you're a regular listener of this podcast, I hope I don't need to convince you about the perks of water reuse: it's a widely untapped water resource in an era of growing water scarcity, it's the cheapest of all the unconventional water sources, notably much cheaper than seawater desalination, and it comes with a wealth of welcome side-effects, ranging from much better environmental impact and removal of trace compounds and endocrine disruptors, all the way through resource recovery and circular economy.Great, that's a very rational story, yet we humans are no rational beings despite what we believe. We're emotional, and the emotions associated with water reuse are, let's face it, tainted. As a result, despite all the good reasons to adopt it, the recent growth we've seen in water reuse's contribution to our water mix might be an optical illusion. It's growing, yes, but a bit like a dragster to which you would have attached a parachute after having placed an elephant in the passenger seat. So the question becomes: how do we remove that elephant and that parachute? How do we speed up the much-needed adoption of water reuse? And what prevents the elephant from disembarking the car?To answer these, we'll delve with Austin today into the challenge of fostering the political will and public acceptance necessary for reuse's widespread adoption. We'll follow up on Friday with another brilliant return guest, Aaron Tartakovsky from Epic Cleantec, to look into infrastructure challenges, outdated regulations, and, again, overcoming public perception. And I'll close that tryptic with my own synthesis, leveraging some of my former guest's wisdom - notably David Lloyd Owen and Paul Gagliardo - but also Austin, Aaron, and Henry Charrabé, which you've not heard on that microphone yet, that should be out next Monday and available on my main YouTube channel as well. Full Episode: https://dww.show/beyond-technology-the-social-dynamics-of-water-reuse/

with

At the end of 2022, I discussed the silver wave the water sector is facing on that microphone. Well, sorry to start 2024 that way, but as Kendra will explain in a minute, that wave turned into a tsunami, and it's about time we learn how to surf it!So this week, I'm releasing two twin episodes, the one you're currently listening to - that's a great choice, stay here - and a conversation with Lyle King from Influx Search where we look at the water job market dynamics from a complementary perspective. So, if you haven't heard Lyle yet, add it to your playlist and you know what to do after finishing this one!In this episode, we'll discuss the role of a water champion, how to tackle the silver tsunami through workforce development in general and the Veolia Academy in particular, Industry awareness and branding, and finally, diversity and inclusion. I had a blast recording this conversation at the Rethinking Water Conference organized by Sciens Water at the Columbia Water Center in New York, thanks again to Alex Loucopoulos and the Sciens team for inviting me over, and without further due, let me welcome Kendra Morris.Full Episode: https://dww.show/the-unseen-potential-in-water-careers/

with

with

Happy New Year! With a new year comes statistically, for one-third of us, the urge to make good resolutions. If you're under 30, it's even more than half the people who make these good resolutions. In maybe or maybe not related news, 50% of people contemplate changing their careers, and two-fifths of them even contemplate so very openly. What does that mean. Well, if you're in a super sexy working field, that's great news: more people will want to join you. But the other side of that same coin is that if you're on the maybe less sexy end of the market, you better be prepared to struggle. Where's the water sector on that scale? Well, despite its promising landscape for job seekers, its competitive wages, especially on the lower end of the qualification ladder, its lower educational barriers to entry, and its tremendous opportunities in a variety of roles that are critical to the infrastructure and environmental sustainability, hence I'd say, despite its high purpose, unfortunately, you guessed it right, we the water professionals are not that sexy. But once we've said that, what do we do about it? Well, this week, I'm releasing two twin episodes. The one you're currently listening to, with Lyle King, and another one you'll find in your hopefully favorite feed, with Kendra Morris. While the latter deals with training more people to water jobs, the former you're again currently listening to, so this one looks in depth at a few key aspects of the job market and its best practices.If you belong to the people actively or passively looking for new endeavors, you'll learn what skills are the most in-demand right now, what techniques yield the best mid and long-term results in interview processes, and what water field is the hottest. If you're looking to recruit the best water professionals out there, you'll learn how and where to find the right fits, how Lyle and his peers might be able to help you out, and what to absolutely avoid if you don't want to experience crazy churn rates amongst your candidates.But what if you're neither recruiting nor seeking to recruit, shall you skip this episode? Of course I'm biased, but in my humble opinion, you really shouldn't. Because as Lyle will explain, the most efficient use of your HR resources is to ensure you retain and optimize your talents. Which involves employer branding, and efficiently articulating company culture and values. That's a packed schedule, so let's cut to the chase and without further due, let me open the mic' to Lyle King. Remember, if you like this episode, share it with a friend, a colleague your boss or your team, that's the only way I can spread the message and I'll see you on the other side!Full Episode: https://dww.show/new-year-new-you-new-water-job/

We think aout carbon emissions when we fly, not when we flush! Let me coin that phrase, which opens up my reflection this week on a water professional's carbon impact and the ways to mitigate it through deploying water technologies. Let's dive into the heart of the water sector's role in CO2 emissions and explore innovative technologies that could drastically reduce our carbon footprint.  I share my personal journey of grappling with the guilt of my carbon emissions and how it led me to discover solutions far more effective than planting trees. First, let's summarize Xylem, Cambi and Global Water Intelligence's findings on the Water Sector's Carbon Footprint. It surprisingly compares almost one to one in CO2 equivalent emissions with the aviation industry. Then, let's explore 5 Carbon Mitigation Strategies in the Water Sector: 1️⃣ Leak Reduction - Discussing the impact of 126 billion cubic meters of lost drinking water annually and how pressure management can significantly reduce this loss and the associated carbon impact. 2️⃣ Smart Pumps: How optimizing pumps with AI and machine learning can slash energy use and CO2 emissions. 3️⃣ Biogas Enhancement: The potential of anaerobic digestion and thermal hydrolysis processes in wastewater treatment plants to produce biogas, replacing fossil fuels. (And what I used to do kind of wrong in that field) 4️⃣ Aeration Optimization: The role of AI in optimizing the activated sludge process, reducing energy consumption, and mitigating nitrous oxide emissions. 5️⃣ Advocacy and Policy Influence: The importance of regulations and incentives in driving sustainable practices in the water sector. I'm closing on a personal touch, reflecting on the impact of the Water circus on the road twice a week all year long. It's great if the water sector compensates its emissions, but what if it didn't create them in the first place? Let's set ourselves on the path to 2050! Bottom line; think critically about your own carbon footprint and the broader implications of everyone's daily water use. Let's all challenge conventional ideas and present an opportunity for water professionals and enthusiasts to contribute to a more sustainable future. Additional Resources The power of MABR  Better understanding Methane emissions  Fighting Nitrous Oxide emissions in Wastewater Treatment  Cutting the Water Sector's carbon emissions in half (at no cost)  The potential of the Thermal Hydrolysis Process  Following my tracks on the IOT Use Case Podcast (together with Aerzen)  The full blog article on this week's episode covering the Water Sector's Carbon Impact  ⬇️ In this Episode ⬇️  00:00 My 12-Ton CO2 Problem 00:50 The Superpower of Water Pros 01:40 Where do the Water Sector's CO2 emissions come from? 02:51 Water Technology n°1 06:26 Water Technology n°2 09:33 Water Technology n°3 12:43 Water Technology n°4 16:11 Water Technology n°5 19:15 Conclusion

with

with

Ready to shake up how you think about water investments? This episode dives into the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) and how it can be a game-changer for justifying water projects.

Ever seen a family drama as intense as 'Game of Thrones'? Well, Hager und Elsässer (H+E) has had its share of suitors and heartbreaks, and it's about to get more dramatic.

In a world saturated with content, what makes a good movie trailer stand out? The answer lies in a potent blend of psychology, novelty, and familiarity. Trailers like Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" and George Lucas's "Star Wars" have set the gold standard, employing a mix of well-known tropes and groundbreaking elements to captivate audiences.  Marvel Studios has taken this to the next level, mastering the "novel yet familiar" approach and leveraging psychological principles like the Zeigarnik effect to leave audiences wanting more.  And if trailers and teasers have proven to be a game-changer for dozens and dozens of movies, beyond the silver screen, the principles that make them compelling can be applied to our everyday storytelling, whether it's a business presentation, a social media post, or a pitch to a local journalist to "news hack" a Global Trend.  By understanding the psychology and strategies behind successful movie trailers, we can craft narratives that not only capture attention but also sustain it, making our stories as unforgettable as the films they promote. And coincidence or not, if you've ever followed my advice and read the Worth of Water book by Gary White and Matt Damon - who should know one thing or two about movie trailers - the opening chapter exactly follows the 6-step framework that Phill Agnew lays out. Step 1 - Identify the Core Message That's the narrative we discussed with Carl minutes ago; in the example of the Water.org founders' book, that's the win-win-win perspective of achieving Water for all.  Step 2 - Blend Novelty and Familiarity In theory, that's Star Wars combining the Hero's Journey with Space Opera. In the case of our book, that's a water charity, but combined with a bank and Nobel-prize-winning microcredit strategy. Step 3 - Cast for Impact Matt Damon, do I need to add anything here? Well actually yes, because it's not just the impact of a big name; it's also a blend of novelty and familiarity, as just explained. The well-known Matt Damon, but not cast as Jason Bourne but as an NGO founder with a high drive for impact. Step 4 - Craft the Narrative Arc Remember how Carl explained minutes ago how two pictures ended the Vietnam War? Or the heartbreaking story of the parents of the deceased football player in Nebraska? In Water.org's book, it's Matt Damon getting to know Wema along her long road to collect Water for her family. Step 5 - Zeigarnik Effect Don't close the action; let things open. That happens several times in Matt Damon and Gary White's story. But we had an even greater example with Carl's congressman story: when he says "I work in water security. And I leave it at that." the congressman can't resist the urge to get to know what happens next. Step 6 - Choose the Release Timing Wisely For the "Worth of Water" book, that was right in time to get people buzzing about it before the UN Water Conference, and guess who then got to feature in the opening segment of that Conference - probably also the only one worth watching? Along the same lines, that's word for word Carl's advice of picking the right story at the right time and constantly being on the lookout for planets aligning with that regard.  So here you go, a bullet-proofed 6-step framework to get your local news reporter intrigued or to shed new light on your water innovation's impact.  ➡️ Check out the entire article on how to finally build the Water Narrative

Open Innovation is not the only link between last week's conversation with Max Storto from the Xylem Innovation Labs, and this week's deep dive with Ann and Joshua. Indeed, in just a minute, we'll delve into a paradigm-shifting model we touched on last week: Open Innovation.  To ensure we have a common understanding of the term, Open Innovation fundamentally alters how companies think about their innovation process. If you remember my conversation with Glenn Vicevic from Veolia, he defined Open Innovation as Innovation that's not closed. We had a good laugh, still, it's true: the Idea is to break open the former R&D silos, to enter the age of porous boundaries and shading frontiers, where external ideas and technologies flow into the organization, and internal ideas flow out into the broader ecosystem. Long before this got to be a thing in the Water Sector, we've seen companies like Procter & Gamble, flipping their R&D approach to connect with external innovators. They sourced ideas from around the globe, leading to breakthroughs like the Swiffer.  To take a more techie reference, consider how Apple's App Store empowers an army of developers to build upon iOS, creating value for both Apple and the broader user community. It's a win-win scenario, optimizing resources, and accelerating market-ready solutions. But why is this a pivotal discussion for the water sector? Open Innovation could be the key to unlocking new technologies, sustainable practices, and financial models that address pressing water issues - you know, the ones that just got evaluated as a multi-trillion dollars business opportunity by CDP - if you missed that one, go check my YouTube channel for more.  But for you listening to this, why does all of that matter: well, companies that successfully adopt Open Innovation practices could leapfrog in growth and impact. They could be faster to ride trend waves, have a more efficient use of their capital, put technology adoption on steroids, and if you're a regular of this podcast, you know how that's the game changer. Hence if, for sure, everything can't be painted in pink, and silver bullets still don't exist, getting a glimpse of the way Evoqua leveraged open innovation strategies to inspire your own innovation approaches is quite a generous gift from Ann and Joshua, which really didn't hold back when it comes to sharing.  You'll leave this episode understanding the vital metrics and benchmarks to assess Open Innovation opportunities, as well as actionable tips for investors, in-house strategists, and entrepreneurs keen to leverage this model before it becomes an industry norm. Remember, if you appreciate the value shared today and for free, you can help me out tremendously by sharing this episode with a friend, a colleague, your boss, or your team, if you're new here make sure to subscribe, I insist, it's entirely free, and it helps me to keep getting incredible guests on that microphone. Last word before we take off, if you're in New York on the 19th of September and you like free sharing of incredible water value, you may want to join the Rethinking Water Conference at the Forum at Columbia University, the link is in the description, and I'll be there the entire day to record some more interviews. Come share a recycled wastewater beer with me in the evening, and I'll meet you on the other side! ➡️ Check out the entire article on how Evoqua deployed Open Innovation to turn the tides!

with

Max Storto is Lead Innovation Analyst at the Xylem Innovation Labs. Xylem is one of the largest water and wastewater technology company globally and follows the simple motto: "Let's solve water" A bit more than one year ago, I invited Sivan Zamir on this microphone to discuss the Xylem Innovation Labs, Xylem's shiny, fascinating, and intriguing move into the start-up accelerator world. That has been a well-received episode but also one that sparked quite a lot of conversations.  You know, Xylem is a listed behemoth; everybody is well aware that they have to make money! So when they mention that they will help water industry companies to 10x their customer base, that they will fund pilots with the Trial Reservoir and fund other water accelerators with, for instance, Imagine H2O, it not only raises an eyebrow but also generates a ton of questions. And usually a very logical deduction: of course, they will have a great positive impact on these companies' path, but they will also reward themselves by taking stakes and equity in these companies, hence turning a pretty straightforward positive return on investment.  Now that's where it gets even more intriguing, because, in my process of getting a better understanding of the mechanics of the Xylem Innovation Labs with its scout, Max, I actually uncovered something we had not discussed at all with Sivan last year: Xylem doesn't take any equity in its incubated partners. Zero. And it doesn't stop there: they don't even expect these companies to be exclusive or tied to Xylem in anything beyond a simple NDA - which is merely more there to protect the start-ups than the water giant.  So, for a layman like me, it's hard to get the strategic sense of that move. Until you shift your internal software and realize that what Xylem is pursuing with its Innovation Labs is not investment, it's R&D. And a bit like in a Google versus Apple approach you would see in tech, their bet here is that adopting an open innovation strategy, is actually the most impactful and the best use of their money for the water ecosystem, yes, because I believe Patrick Decker when he tells me he wants his company to have a positive impact, but also the best path to growth for Xylem itself! And a bit like the App or Play Stores have been great growth factors for Apple and Google, Xylem's future partnerships with the companies it strategically groomed may be significant commercial assets in a world of water challenges that are not getting easier or simpler. You'll see that this is just one of the many gems we uncovered while opening the hood and exploring the Xylem Innovation Labs engine with Max, Max who, by the way, has been an incredible sparring partner able to cope with great openness with my sometimes annoying wittiness, I had great fun to record this one, so I'll stop ranting and let you have great fun listening to it.  ➡️ Check out the entire article on how to grow 10 wonder kids from 5 to 50 customers

with

Here's the secret: I'm not a one-man band. Yes, I lied all that time. Did you really believe I could push a podcast interview out every week for 163 weeks in a row, all by myself? Of course not. The Don't Waste Water Corporation is a hefty team of 22. But here's the catch: I'm the only human. Let me introduce you to my crew. First, there's my editing manager, a robot called Descript. In his AI team, we've got the Scribe, which turns all my recordings into text. Pretty standard so far, but it becomes swiftly cooler with the Grammar Maniac. If I record this: "So, what's the uh, name of your book?" The Maniac identifies the filler words and gets them out of the way.  In that same team, the Chopper chops out every word, and so if I were to say something as stupid as: Colmar is not the nicest place on earth, I just have to select the wrong word as you'd do in your text editor, and delete it. Job done! The work is then handed over to the Audio Engineer. Because sometimes a guest or me, may record on a poor microphone or noisy environment. And you certainly don't want to hear what a poor microphone or noisy environment sounds like. In more difficult cases I escalate it to Adobe Enhance Beta. And in last resort to iZotope's Neutron or Ozone Smart Assistants.  Back to Descript: the Audio Engineer has a quite dangerous colleague I very seldom use, but if needs be, I can emulate any voices and have them say whatever I want. For instance, here are two sentences from Alice. Can you find out which one really belongs to today's interview?  Now, this is for sure an audio podcast, but also a YouTube video. And would you like to watch me speaking if I avoided any eye contact with you? Well, if that was ever to happen, I'd be just one click away from having the rectifier bring back my eyes where they should be. Yes, that one is a bit scary.  What if I lean back a bit too much in my chair and go out of focus? Topaz AI brings me back to sharpness.  And what if I stumble? No wait. And what if I stumble? Not the right dynamic. And what if I stumble? Gling automatically picks my best take! Then, if I want to lure you into listening to a great interview, I can say it. But if I say it with subtitles, statistics say you're more likely to follow my advice. That's Captionator's job.  And while I record horizontally, getting the word out is more efficient in Vertical mode - but nothing to worry Final Cut's AI always prompts my best profile. And if I don't have time to edit the best quotes myself, OpusClip does it for me! A cool episode needs a cool title: My ideas are not always top-notch thankfully, Coschedule loves to rate them and propose improvements. While YouTube requires me to provide at least a decent thumbnail to distribute my content, I often have a hard time finding a relevant picture or illustration to promote a water or lithium topic. In these cases, I ask MidJourney for a solid basis and Photoshop Beta for added context.  Finally, while TrueSync, ColorLab AI, Insta 360 Studio, Leia Pix AI, and many I'm probably forgetting here have been sporadic members of the team but didn't stick in the long run, I've recently hired ChatGPT to compile the key episode highlights you'll find in the show notes and on the Don't Waste Water website.  Last but not least, all my English copy is written in Grammarly, which detects that "English" should take a capital letter. Yes, I know, you don't hear my grammar mistakes, so why bother? Well, my prospective guests have to read my emails first, and you only have one chance to make a good first impression. Why do I tell you all of that? First don't worry, if you were to use any of these tools, I wouldn't get a cent. This wasn't an ad with extra steps. No, I'm telling you that to highlight one of the ideas Claudia and Alice develop in their new book: AI may be neither a threat nor a waste, but used right, a way to enhance humans. 

with

Saad Dara is the CEO and Founder of Mangrove Lithium. Mangrove Lithium develops an innovative approach to Lithium Refining which is using electrochemical processes to reach battery grade from diverse raw sources.  The decarbonization of our World oftentimes resembles a set of Russian Dolls. First, we needed electric cars, so the manufacturers started shifting their internal combustion lines to EV ones. Then, batteries were on the critical path, so the World frantically built Gigafactories. As a result, Lithium became the bottleneck, and over the next decade, we'll try to catch up. But in doing so, we may well bump into the next problem: missing chemicals. Don't roll your eyes too fast: I do know that Soda Ash, for instance, is pretty commonplace and shouldn't be an issue. Except if you are in the middle of the high Andes, and especially on the Argentinan side, where dozens of junior lithium companies are currently cutting their teeth.  If you don't have enough Soda Ash, you can't refine your Lithium Chloride to Carbonate, and why is that a problem, well, that means you have to truck large volumes of concentrated brines away, and reach a place where chemicals are available. Not a big deal? Well, except if you compound in the absence of paved roads around most of the Salars that will enter into production in the next years, or simply the fact that bringing a truck up to an altitude of over 4'000 meters is not that easy.  While I was up in Olaroz, Cachi, and Jama, I crossed two different trucks in two different places that had rolled over onto the side of the road. So again, I'd say, not a piece of cake. But if evaporation ponds are so efficient in the high Andes, it's, of course, thanks to widely available solar energy. Something energy companies start to leverage by installing solar farms. So what if it were possible to use that electrical energy right where it's produced, to refine the concentrated brines that evaporation ponds output into battery-grade carbonate or hydroxide?  Well, some companies have started to explore that electrochemical road, and you would have guessed, that's where Mangrove Lithium is focusing.  Their technology was born as a water treatment and desalination play, yet the ideal product-market fit seems to rather be in the lithium industry - once again, a proof of the high porosity between those two worlds.  Let me avoid spoiling you all of my conversation with Saad Dara, but what I can already tell you is that we had good fun recording, I hope you'll enjoy it as well, if you do, please remember to take that episode and share it with a friend, a colleague, your boss or your team, wherever you're listening or watching that, make sure to like and subscribe, and I'll meet you on the other side! ➡️ Check out the entire article on how Mangrove Lithium is the Jewel in Bill Gates' crown on the (don't) Waste Water website!

Glenn Vicevic s the CTO of Veolia Water Technologies and Solutions. Veolia WTS provides Industry-leading water technology and process expertise to solve the toughest water, wastewater, and process challenges. Innovation as a water start-up is an uphill battle. If you've ever listened to this podcast, we've covered that topic through many examples: you'll have to commit for years to decades to push your technology through, and it will require a lot of grit, persistence, confidence, and much more.  To describe that Sisyphus-worthy path, we've often taken a few examples on that microphone that illustrate well this entrepreneurship journey, and arguably the n°1 example is Zenon's story.  I guess we don't have to dive into the details here, because we did that extensively with the legendary Andrew Benedek, the founder of Zenon, when he was my guest about 15 months ago.  But Andrew's trajectory is just one of the possible outcomes. Grow your company until it's almost too big to stand alone, exit, and use your well-earned money to start again and strive to save the World.  Yet, when Zenon merged with GE Water, and Andrew Benedek went on to acquire Anaergia, Zenon's Technical Director stayed with the company, and kept growing with it, as it went on to merge with Suez and last but not least, Veolia. You would have guessed it, this former technical director is Glenn Vicevic, my guest today, and Veolia WTS's chief technical officer. And what's fascinating about today's conversation is that it gets us to understand the next part of a technological company's path. What do you have to do to stay on top of the game? How do innovation and R&D tick at a different pace and follow different rules once you're a water tech giant, compared to your early steps as an agile Start-Up. What's cooler than exploring the innovation engine of the World's largest water tech company? Let's find out, trust me, you'll get to love Glenn's openness and eagerness to share several nuggets. ➡️ Check out the entire article on how the World's Largest Water Company, Veolia, fosters innovation

Andreas Müller is the CEO of GF. GF is a sustainability and innovation leader aiming to provide superior customer value across three Divisions enabling the safe transport of liquids and gases, lightweight casting components, and high-precision manufacturing technologies. If you've listened to this Season 9 of the podcast, you've noticed how we covered the lithium and water nexus topic from a wide variety of angles. We've had the helicopter view with Tony Strobbe, the project developers' inputs with Robert Mintak, Christopher Brown, Cris Moreno, and Andy Robinson, and the technology stories with Teague Egan, Devesh Sharma, Ben Sparrow, Chris Wyres, and Jim Rieke. Spoiler alert, given the success of this season and the topics we covered, we will continue the exploration as one of the topics of the next ones, so stay tuned; I'm currently interviewing more fascinating companies, and as I'm recording this, I'm about to take off to Argentina partially for that. Still, there's one aspect we had not covered so far, despite regular hints across all the episodes. Direct Lithium Extraction is a high-flow high-stakes application. Evaporation Ponds involve a lot of water as well, and when it comes to lithium refining, be it from hard rock or evaporation ponds, you've got a sizeable bunch of waterish processes, which require to convey fluids, water, and chemicals. As a process person, that's the boring part. I know it; I'm a process person. Because what can a piping system do, right? Work smoothly, and then it gets zero praise; it just exists, and nobody cares. Or not work, being blocked, leaking, becoming a hazard, and a net loss, and then everybody's aware, and everybody is pissed.  So I thought it might be worth looking into a piping system company's view on that lithium green field. To discuss how they're in to help, how, at what stage, and what they have to propose. Of course, I'm a little bit biased in that story, as I am working for a piping system company.  But there's more than just pipes, fittings, valves, sensors, engineering, prefabrication and process automation in today's episode, as I reached out to the CEO of GF to come discuss all of that on my microphone, which means not only GF Piping Systems, but also Casting Solutions and Machining Solutions, which offers an interesting glimpse into the new Electric Vehicle vertical. ➡️ Check out the entire article on GF, the 222 Year Old Start Up on the Don't Waste Water Website 

Andy Robinson is the President and COO of Standard Lithium. Standard Lithium coins itself America's 21st century Lithium Company, and indeed, they shall become the first lithium developer in the World to produce direct-extracted lithium at a commercial scale in El Dorado. It's now several weeks that we're exploring together the depth of the lithium World, and we've heard quite a lot of things about Direct Lithium Extraction, or DLE. For instance, we've heard from Cris Moreno, the very recently-appointed CEO of Vulcan Energy Resources how: DLE is already commercial and accounts for 10% of the World's Lithium. And yet, you've heard many of my other guests on that microphone discuss with me how DLE is not yet commercial, and might be the next big thing, assuming it gets to that commercial scale. So where's the truth? Well, everybody's right here. What Cris Moreno refers to is that in Argentina and China, companies have been using DLE as one step of the lithium extraction process while still leveraging evaporation ponds as a sequel step.  What's still not reached yet, though, is a company or process that would be leveraging DLE and getting rid of evaporation ponds. And that is the game-changer that would unlock many more geographies and resources across the World, hence the legit excitement around it.  Now, excitement often comes as well with wide-ranging creativity, and right now, the DLE scene is blessed with blossoming companies trying out a wide range of technologies, let's face it, it's also because of that, that the lithium field is so thrilling for a water nerd like me.  But before further exploring these technical takes, I thought it would be worth following Ben Sparrow and Robert Mintak's advice and getting Andy Robinson on the microphone. Why so? Well, because if Standard Lithium is set to be the first company in the World to bring DLE to the commercial scale, without any evaporation ponds, it's probably because of him. As you'll hear in a minute, he won't admit it, and he'll refer to luck, as Robert Mintak did before him. But still, from picking the right place to go all-in on DLE, to testing out a bunch of processes from lab to demo-scale continuously over the past three years, to the next steps on the horizon from lithium carbonate to hydroxide conversion and to carbon capture, it takes a sound methodology, and a cool head approach, which can probably inspire many in that field. So without further due, let me leave the floor to Andy, to explore his 5-step rule for a good lithium project and learn from his learnings in El Dorado. ➡️ Check out the entire article on the 5 rules to a successful direct lithium extraction  adventure on the Don't Waste Water Website

Are America's water pipes broken? For millions of citizens across the country, it may seem so. The well-documented examples of Flint, Jackson, New Orleans, or Baltimore may well seem alarming. But in fact, they are just the tip of an iceberg that reveals more every day. The Water Crisis in America is not looming: it's already there. Over the past year, I met with 20 subject matter experts to not only identify the problems but also come up with solutions. From academics to investors through politicians, water industry leaders, influencers, and NGOs, I spent months interviewing them, recouping their inputs, synthesizing their thoughts, connecting them to existing research, and enhancing it with dozens more insights I've collected over the years. The result is:

Christopher Brown is the CEO and co-founder of Helios Corporation. Helios acknowledges that the World's current trajectory is unsustainable and focuses its expertise in Energy, Power, Biomass, Capital Markets, and the latest environmental technology to achieve more, using less.  Over the past episodes, we've discussed why we need more lithium, where to find new sources, and how to unlock them from a technical standpoint. We've discussed fascinating projects and drawn a line toward a more sustainable future for the decade to come. But sustainability isn't only environmental and financial impact; it's also the human dimension. And even when lithium is literally found in deserts, those places still belong to someone and to a culture, and they historically had a role and use that wasn't lithium extraction for several centuries.  That is true wherever you are on earth, from South America's first nations to Canada ones, through local communities in all the places where unconventional sources of lithium are to be mined in the future. Everything in life can be done against someone else or instead in concertation. And to that extent, what we discuss with Christopher today offers a framework for comprehension, best practices, and way forwards.  As I mentioned in my intro, when Helios acknowledges that the World's trajectory is unsustainable, it's also important to ensure that the remedy is better than the plague. So sustainability is a keyword, for sure, and an ambitious one. From Argentina to Canada through the US, today's exploration is one of the deepest we've had in this mini-series, and I'm really thankful to Christopher for the incredible openness he demonstrated and the great pedagogy you'll get to experience in just a second. Right before that, let me remind you that if you like what you hear, you can help others benefit from it by sharing this episode with a friend, a colleague, your boss, or your team, thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I'll meet you on the other side! ➡️ Check out the entire article on How Sustainable Lithium Production Has an Overlooked 3rd Component on the Don't Waste Water Website

Devesh Sharma is the CEO of Aquatech. Aquatech helps the world's most recognized companies solve important water challenges. There's a fine line between risk-taking and putting all you have at stake, between perseverance and obstinacy, and between grit and recklessness. And it's only when the dust settles that you'll know on which side of the line the ball decided to fall. When I started my career in the water industry, veterans were telling me: keep your fingers off the industrial market. It's a "who's the cheapest" game, and they're so short-term-minded that it's depressing. Yet, at the same time, these veterans opted out of the industrial game; Aquatech was created as an almost pure-play dedicated to that very specific end of the market. Risk-taking or putting all you have at stake?  A couple of decades later, and long before it was hype, that same Aquatech ventured into Water as a Service to speed up the adoption of its technologies. Perseverance or obstinacy?  And while the world of Water consolidates in a fashion we've probably never experienced before, Aquatech trusts it can keep growing and build its path as a private, family company. Grit or recklessness? Well, I don't have all the answers, but what I can tell is that as the dust settles, the industrial end of the Water Market is the one thriving right now, as it's faced with the hottest challenges ever, which in turn generate new opportunities.  And as Devesh will explain in a minute, 30% of Aquatech's revenue today comes from its Water as a Service; said differently, they have a 30% - probably high-margin - annual recurring revenue with a plan to expand it to 50%. That's a ratio that kind of turns a hardware company into a software/tech type of play. And with that mix, Water suddenly becomes a much more scalable business - as we've seen with Gradiant recently turning into the water sector's first unicorn.  Well, Gradiant and Aquatech are certainly not the same, but they have similarities in the technologies they develop and the markets they serve. And Gradiant claimed its unicorn status, thanks to a 225 million dollar series D raised at that billion-dollar valuation. I'm throwing Gradiant in the discussion here because we're debating the possible next steps for Aquatech with Devesh today.  And my napkin calculations and estimates indicate to me that Aquatech is probably already a unicorn, given its revenue mix, proprietary technology, and turnover somewhat double of Gradiant's. Take it with a pinch of salt; none of these companies are public, so it's pure guestimates. Now, I mention dust settling, and I'm using that metaphor on purpose. Because Aquatech was chosen by Lithium Americas to build the lithium refinery at its upcoming Thacker Pass lithium mine, which is extracting this "While Oil" from clay, so settled dust. And Aquatech has the perfect portfolio to take on this 2020s challenge because it tripled down on industrial water and zero liquid discharge since the 1980s - something we'll dive into much deeper with Devesh in today's conversation.  Finally, I think Aquatech's story is inspirational on many more levels. It's also the tale of a family business, taken to its today's shape and successes by two brothers that were respectively 24 and 14 when they took over. So let me avoid spoiling everything, and leave the floor to Devesh, just after reminding you that if you like what you hear, please take this episode and share it with a friend, a colleague, your boss, or your team, and also don't forget to subscribe. ➡️ Check out the entire article on How Lithium Refining & Water as a Service spark growth for a Family Business on the Don't Waste Water Website

Over the past months, Thames Water: - announced a £1 Billion loss - received a £51 Million fine - kept serving 15 million customers - let raw sewage spill for 75'000 hours - piled up £14 Billion in debt - lost 10'500'000 wheelbarrows of water - lost its CEO How concerning is all of this for UK's largest water company? Let's review! 00:00 Thames Water is in Troubled Water 00:21 Thames Water got fined for repeated failure 01:11 Thames Water's n°1 Problem 01:41 The history of the UK Water scene 02:08 Is Water a License to Print Money? 02:57 Thames Water's owmership history 03:54 Why so much debt? 04:43 Thames Water's infrastructure is in bad shape 06:05 the Thames Water investment paradox 07:38 What's next for Thames Water? 08:27 What's to learn from Thames Water's trouble? ▶️ Watch the video version of this episode on YouTube     

Chris Wyres is the CEO of Evove. Evove aims to take membranes to the next level, overcoming the inherent flaws in conventional architectures, hence transforming membranes, transforming separation, and filtration. In the middle of the 19th century, a Belgian inventor, Adolphe Sax, conceived what's known today as the saxophone, which is today the fourth most popular instrument, just behind the piano, the guitar, and the bass. Yet, it wasn't Sax's only invention, as he also conceived Saxtrombas, Saxtubas, considerably improved the bass clarinet and invented the Saxhorns that also still somewhat live today.  Yet, have you ever heard of the Ophicleide? Or of the serpent? I could keep naming many more less successful instruments, and if you want to get an anthology of all of them, look up an original score from Mendelssohn or Berlioz: Romantic era composers really leveraged that wave of new ways to produce all kinds of sounds.  Each of these inventions addressed specific needs, but not all overcame their flaws or found a clear use case, like the saxophones with the military orchestras. And so, only a few stood the test of time.  To me, the membrane world today resembles a lot of the mid-19th century orchestras. It's tingling with incredible ideas, new takes, new materials, radical approaches, and blooming innovation.  We've addressed several of them on that microphone, from Membrion's ceramic ion exchanging membranes to Zwitterco's zwitterionic material, through Cembrane, LiqTech, a membrane anthology with Graeme Pearce, or the history of MBRs with Andrew Benedek. But with the boom in membrane applications, there are also new needs, new challenges, and new markets to address, which keeps incentivizing and rewarding innovation and differentiated approaches.  Evove actually ticks all these boxes. They're actively developing new application fields, such as lithium extraction or green hydrogen production while building the rocket on the go with their Enhance and Separonics product lines. They're also bringing new perks to membrane applications in desalination or food and beverage. And they're inventing a new type of company: decentralized, finely adapted to each vertical, and frankly ambitious: "We want to be the Water Sector's first Unicorn!" I won't spoil you too much of what Chris very openly shares in today's interview, don't worry; I'll leave him the floor just after reminding you that if you like what you hear, if this is of any value to you, please take that episode and share it with a friend, a colleague, your boss or your team. Thanks a lot to all the ones I see doing it every week; that's heartwarming to me. Is Evove a saxophone or an Ophicleide? Time will tell, but you can build an Idea for yourself by listening to the full episode! ➡️ Check out the entire article on how Vulcan enabled its Zero Carbon Lithium project by selling its products years ahead, including a teaser, a slider, and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

Tony Strobbe is EV supply chain Projects Director. Every Monday, he compiles a dedicated content piece he shares on LinkedIn that covers one aspect of that said supply chain, so if you like what he shares today, make sure to follow him! I hope you haven't missed last week's conversation with Ben Sparrow from Saltworks! If you have, shame on you, but let me bring you up to speed: we're diving into the lithium value chain to discuss, evaluate and uncover the opportunities for water technologies and professionals in this rapidly growing application that taps into several layers of the water industry. Now when you visit a foreign country, it's often a smart move to start by getting the basics of language and culture. So that's the mission I tasked Tony with today: let us break down the fundamentals of lithium processes. Why, where, and how do we refine lithium. What do we need to know on the technical side of the equation, but also on the geopolitical aspect of things. Where does the lithium value chain sit in the greater scheme of the EV supply chain? Those are just some of the questions we'll get to answer today. And that will give us valuable keys to leverage the next nuggets in this series, such as the company that shall build the first ever commercial scale Direct Lithium Extraction project, or the dedicated team within the World's largest water company that's conceived some of the most emblematic lithium refining projects.  Before kicking off, let me just share with you that I'm back from the Global Water Summit in Berlin and then the BlueTech Forum in Edinburg; it was a great experience to get to meet many of you and to discuss water, wastewater, water entrepreneurship, and much more. I'm so grateful for the many heartwarming feedbacks you gave me on the podcast, it means the World to me, and beyond just an ego-boost, it's critically important for me as I strive to produce you the most useful content every week. If it's the case, I'm glad it is, and you can help me out by sharing the pod with your friends, colleagues, boss, or team. Yet if you feel there's something I shall be doing differently or better, hey, feedback doesn't have to be positive: come share me your thoughts on LinkedIn or by mail: antoine@dww.show. I also came back from both Berlin and Edinburg with great pieces of content, I spoke with the GWI team and the BlueTech team, I also cut some quite insightful interviews with Xylem, Veolia, Aquatech, Kemira, Evoqua, Gingko Bioworks, and more, I can't wait to share you all of this, once I've digested and edited it, but enough for that sidetrack and all that teasing, I'll leave the floor to Tony, and I'll meet you on the other side.  ➡️ Check out the entire article on how to sell smaller-sized Water Companies, including an infographic and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

with

Maybe "Lying" is too strong of a word, but at least there's a serious imbalance between what's needed, what's spoken about, and what's really pledged. Wanna dive deeper into the topic? Check out my full video: https://youtu.be/7gksQHzCYVA

Here's the full breakdown of the Water Action Agenda pledges (including the Excel table that you can download) ➡️ https://dww.show/the-truth-about-the-water-action-agenda-768-commitments-decrypted/ I fear that the UN Water Action Agenda suffers from what Barney Stinson (yes, the one from How I Met Your Mother) would call... the cheerleader effect. Many "commitments", but at the end of the day, a lot of pretty vague ones. So I looked into it and share you some emblematic examples in this video! But I did not stop there. I also wanted to test out what it takes to be featured on the Water Action Agenda and decided to introduce a commitment myself. To do so, I got a bit of help: the almighty ChatGPT wrote it integrally for me in just two queries. And guess what? It got adopted! Now to be clear, it's not so much of a scam at the end of the day: I will really follow my pledge and publish a Water Podcast a week for the next year. And in all cases, I'll submit updates on my pledge, which isn't the norm when you find out that ⬇️ I made an additional short on how a $300 Bn pledge became a $101 Bn commitment ➡️ https://youtube.com/shorts/hc0jeCdaYns?feature=share Timestamps: 00:00 Csaba Kőrösi presses a mysterious button 01:00 Why was the UN Water Conference happening at all? 01:58 Can the Water Action Agenda save the UN Water Conference's outcomes? 03:02 The problem with the Water Action Agenda: the Cheerleader Effect 04:10 2 Examples of Empty Statements (amongst 146 other ones) 06:37 "Lukewarm Water Commitments" (a problematic UN Water Action Agenda category) 08:22 3 Awesome Commitments (there are good ones too!) 10:08 What's the scam? 11:03 Using ChatGPT to trick the United Nations 12:42 Did it Work?  14:12 Conclusion ➡️ Reach out to me: antoine@dww.show 

Karl Michael Millauer is the founder of KMM Consulting and a former C-Level executive in some emblematic water groups like BWT, Christ Water Technology, Aquatech International, and Aquarion AG. KMM Consulting helps clients around the globe leverage opportunities in the world of water through mergers & acquisitions, finance & funding, business development, and strategic support. The water industry features some behemoths that regularly make the news: Veolia, Xylem, Suez... I mean, you know the usual suspects, as I have been featuring them every time there was noteworthy news to share about them. Then, there's a fascinating wave of cool kids worth several thousands of millions, like 374Water, which I had on this microphone, or NX Filtration, which I should have on this microphone at some point; that's my mistake for not inviting them yet, and a growing pack of high-profile scale-ups raising tens of millions in seed rounds and Series A like my former guests Klir, Epic Cleantec, Source, or ZwitterCo. Yet the water sector is also one of these typical places where the iceberg metaphor holds true! I see you rolling your eyes because that damn iceberg is overused but bear with me.  The 50 largest water companies combined only represent 25% of the total market, which by extension, highlights how there's an ocean of small-sized players that support all shades of water applications! How many? I can't tell, and despite looking around, I couldn't put my hands on even the beginning of a statistic that would depict this bottom of the pyramid. I guess that's one more proof that while big players get a lot of attention, expert support, and coverage when they merge or consolidate, smaller actors have long been left in a no man's land.  Well, this is the no man's land I'm inviting you to explore this week with Karl Michael. And it's pure serendipity: I wanted to cover that topic for a while, so I got very curious when Global Water Intelligence introduced their opportunity exchange platform, featuring dozens of smaller-sized water companies looking for funding, a new owner, a distribution partner, or a licensee. Why serendipity? Well, the 35 first opportunities listed on this marketplace were all coming from Karl Michael Millauer. So I reached out, and you'll get to discover in a minute all of his openness to share a bit of his work and world! Right before that, I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart all the new listeners that came and joined me on this podcasting journey over the past weeks; I'm so happy to see the nice growth of this channel! I'm a one-man band, and I'm running this podcast on my free time and, let's be real, at my own expense as well, I love doing it for sure, but it's good in my long and tiring editing evenings to realize it's not for nothing, and it's bringing you some value. So here's today's call to action: we'll have a special episode next week to close this season 8, and I have almost finished recording a special mini-season 9 that will look into the depth of the lithium industry and value chain and how that's an incredible opportunity for the water industry. I'm super excited to share this one with you, so stay tuned! This also means that I now have a bit of time to think of the upcoming season 10, and that's where I need you! If you have special wishes, areas you'd like me to explore for you, questions that keep you up at night, or guests you'd like to suggest to me, that's your chance: reach out to me on LinkedIn or send me an email at antoine@dww.show and I'll make sure that Season 10 serves you well! Come on, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side.  ➡️ Check out the entire article on how to sell smaller-sized Water Companies, including an infographic and a full transcript on the (don't) Waste Water website!

with

This week Charli has  Brad Hitselberger  on to talk IFS  Brad Hitselberger graduated from East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering with a concentration in Industrial and Systems Engineering. He has been working in some capacity with pumps for 6 years in various roles. He started out working in the wastewater side focusing on collection systems and pumps for a leading manufacturer in the industry. At the beginning of 2022, he took a role with Industrial Flow Solutions as their Municipal Business Development Manager to focus on building out their Municipal strategy. Currently he lives in Charlotte, North Carolina but enjoys traveling, meeting, and learning from many people in the water industry! Read up at EmpweringPumps.com and stay tuned for more news about EPIC in Atlanta this November!Find us @EmpoweringPumps on Facebook, LinkedIn,  Instagram and Twitter and using the hashtag #EmpoweringIndustryPodcast or via email podcast@empoweringpumps.com 

Jennifer Möller-Gulland is a Water Risk Expert and Water Economist for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme. Jennifer is also the founder of the Water Risk Assessment Blueprint Training, a 12-week online course that helps water professionals to know the Water Risks, convince decision-makers to consider and address them, be part of the solution, and accelerate their career. Somewhere in Paris' headquarters of the OECD, an independent and diverse group of eminent policymakers joined forces in May 2022 to create the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. After the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change released in 2006 and the Dasgupta Review on the Economics of Biodiversity issued in 2021, they were about to complete what they called the Sustainability Trilogy with the release of their Pact for Voluntary Commitments - an incredible report that they launched on 22 March 2023 at the UN Water Conference. Did you hear of it? Well, let's say it wasn't a banger, but they must have a good PR team, so it gathered some mainstream media attention. That's where Jennifer picked it up and looked up their Water Risk Assessment. The result is history: a nicely crafted, pedagogic, positively toned yet affirmative LinkedIn post shared 113 times, where she calls out their b***s***. Hey, that intro is not about name and shame. But I'm telling you that story because it seems that even though the World Economic Forum's yearly Global Risk Report has water-related ones all over its top ten, there's a severe deficit in understanding, framing, and running water risk assessments.  Yet how can we solve problems we don't understand and cannot size correctly? As Jennifer will explain in a minute, that's a challenge that shall be understood at all levels, from the government to companies and individuals, because water risks are connected to economic development, social development, GDP, every facet of the economy and even gender equality so clearly, ignoring water risks can have long-lasting impacts on individuals and communities. So let's fix that, and let me close this intro and leave the floor to Jennifer, just after reminding you that you still have a couple of days left to book your seats for the upcoming BlueTech Forum, happening in Edinburgh on the 17th and 18th of May under the tagline of Innovation with Impact.  The agenda is packed with great speakers, mastermind roundtable sessions, "innovation for impact" box design sprints, 5 by 5 partnership case studies, lots of networking opportunities, and BlueTech's signature cherry-picked disruptive water tech innovations.  Check out the full agenda on bluetechforum.com - the link is in the description - and consider joining me and many former guests of this podcast in Edinburgh this May. If that's of interest, here's the cherry on the cake: with the code Antoine20, like my name, 20, you'll get a 20% discount on your registration if you book before the end of April, so hurry up; the doors are closing! ➡️ Join me (and many others!) at the BlueTech Forum Get a 20% discount on checkout by using the code ANTOINE20

with

with

Alex Rappaport is the CEO and Co-Founder of ZwitterCo. ZwitterCo leverages the benefits of Zwitterions to build Membranes that treat the world's toughest wastewater. Theoretically speaking, wastewater treatment is easy. You have water with stuff inside at the inlet, and you want water with much less stuff inside at the outlet. So you just have to define what has to be removed, and you could size a membrane to do exactly that job. Let's say, you want everything that's larger than 1 nanometer to be out of the picture. You take a reverse osmosis membrane, you push your wastewater on one end, and whatever comes out on the other end will fit your specification. Easy, the job's done, goodbye! Well... The problem is that if that system was to work, it would for sure not work long. Your membrane would be clogged, and irreversibly fouled, and after minutes to hours, you would have to throw it away and start fresh. Now, nobody except me would be stupid enough to try something like that out. So in most cases, you won't go for a one-step treatment; you'll rather opt for a clever combination, where stuff gets removed from water layer by layer with optimized efficiency.  Stages of this process will probably be done with membranes, and if you want to end up reusing that water, the last step will for sure be done with membranes. But even if you have this time designed everything right, your membranes will still clog over time, and backwash will lose efficiency cycle after cycle until irreversible fouling is so high you have to replace your system. So, every 7 to 12 years, you're good to reinvest in membranes, modules, and some peripherals. Unless someone cracks the code for fouling-free membranes... But that's physically not possible, right? Well, that's before looking into the surprising physical properties of Zwitterions, a special family of molecules that are simultaneously positively and negatively charged. As a result, they're highly hydrophilic and very resistant to non-specific adhesion.  So wouldn't that make them the best special sauce to pump up a membrane filtration system? I'll let Alex answer this in a minute, as he'll do it so much better than me.  But you'll swiftly notice that it's a fascinating take at the toughest wastewaters and most difficult industrial reuse riddles. To that extent, ZwitterCo is a perfect example of innovation with impact. If that's a theme you'd like to explore in greater depth, Innovation with Impact is also the tagline of the upcoming BlueTech Forum, happening in Edinburgh on the 17th and 18th of May. The agenda is packed with great speakers, mastermind roundtable sessions, "innovation for impact" box design sprints, 5 by 5 partnership case studies, lots of networking opportunities, and BlueTech's signature cherry-picked disruptive water tech innovations.  That's just a bite-sized summary of a packed agenda - if you'd like to know more, check out bluetechforum.com - and consider joining me and many former guests of this podcast in Edinburgh this May. I talked of cherry-picked innovation: well there's a cherry on the cake as well: with the code Antoine20, like my name, 20, you'll get a 20% discount on your registration if you book before the end of April. ➡️ Join me (and many others!) at the BlueTech Forum Get a 20% discount on checkout by using the code ANTOINE20

Join me (and many others!) at the BlueTech Forum ➡️ https://www.bluetechforum.com/ Get a 20% discount on checkout by using the code ANTOINE20