An Action-Packed Summer
By Dean Amhaus, President & CEO
While we’d like to think fall is still far away, our Water Leaders Summit is rapidly approaching, and boy will we have a lot to talk about.
The agenda for the Oct. 5-6 event is coming together and believe me when I say you will not want to miss these discussions on some incredibly timely topics. Here are some of the panels we have in the works:
- National and global water security with Emory Law Prof. Mark Nevitt, a retired Navy officer specializing in climate and national security, and Lauren Herzer Risi, director of the Environmental Change and Security Program at the Wilson Center
- Economic growth in the midst of water scarcity in the West with Kathryn Sorensen, former director of Phoenix Water Services and director of research at Arizona State University’s Kyl Center for Water Policy
- Corporate water risk, innovation and stewardship with representatives of Toyota Motors North America, BlueTriton Brands and Nutrien
And that’s just the beginning! Registration is now open, and we also have some sponsorship opportunities remaining.
Energizing partnerships
We announced a couple of exciting partnerships over the past month that will significantly progress our work in water security and water stewardship.
On June 23, we signed a unique memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Army Reserve to further the country’s capabilities relating to public sanitation, water technology and water talent. We are working with the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) to recruit water industry professionals such as many of you to serve as Public Water and Sanitation Civil Affairs Officers.
This is an exciting opportunity to serve the United States, lend your professional expertise on critical water issues and get all the benefits of being a U.S. Army Reserve officer. We also will work with partners to provide training and research to assist U.S. military personnel in their overall understanding of water-related issues.
A week later, we announced a partnership with the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) to deepen ties and accelerate water innovation and stewardship in the bi-national Great Lakes region. As part of the collaboration, CGLR will help us grow our WAVE: Water Stewardship Verified program. In turn, we will help CGLR launch and run a new regional effort called the Great Lakes Water Innovation and Stewardship Exchange, or Great Lakes WISE, a business-led peer-to-peer network.
water stewardship
Keeping with the sustainability theme, we are proud to introduce our new corporate water stewardship website. Check it out if you’re not sure what water stewardship is all about or how it applies to your company. This is also a fantastic resource for educating contacts about the importance of water in the corporate sustainability and ESG (environmental, social and governance) movements.
Of course, once you learn about the importance of water stewardship at your company, you’ll want to put a plan in place to improve water stewardship performance across the enterprise. The Water Council has a program for that – WAVE: Water Stewardship Verified.
Last week we announced our newest WAVE client: BlueTriton Brands, provider of bottled water brands including Poland Spring®, Ice Mountain® and Pure Life®. WAVE will help BlueTriton improve its enterprise-level water stewardship performance and public reporting, concluding with independent verification of its progress by SCS Global Services.
Contact us to learn more about WAVE. I also recommend attending a webinar we’re participating in with SCS Global Services, Apple and BlueTriton about the current state of water stewardship practices on July 26.
innovation update
Our innovation team wrapped up BREW 2.0 training recently, concluding several weeks of training for late-stage startups with exciting water technology innovations. Highlighting the final week was Demo Day, when the 10 BREW companies pitched their innovations to a diverse, global audience of potential investors, customers and supporters. If you missed the event, check out the replay below.
We also just announced the winners of our Tech Challenge:
- MIS7, of the Netherlands, won for its innovation using the temperature difference between a pipe and its surroundings to generate electrical energy.
- Biovert Protein, of Thailand, won for its work reclaiming wastewater for reuse using a nature-based intervention to clean water and upcycle nutrient waste into renewable biomaterials.
Finally, we recently awarded the prizes in our Future Water Leaders Fund Student Pilot Project. Alexis Countryman of the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Beth Kondro of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay each won $5,000 in funding toward their pilots involving nutrient removal. The program is funded jointly by The Water Council, the Fund for Lake Michigan, the Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences.
new members
I’d like to welcome two new members to The Water Council: Rockwell Automation and ProFlow Pavers Inc. We continue to grow our membership with companies of all sizes and types who are together making water work.
member news & opportunities
- News: Evoqua Water Technologies acquires Smith Engineering.
- News: APX10 appoints Dr. Lukas Loeffler, formerly of Schneider Electric and Evoqua, to Board of Directors.
- News: The Freshwater Collaborative of Wisconsin has launched a new website.
- Opportunity: The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is accepting applications from Wisconsin companies for the Governor’s Export Achievement Awards.
- Opportunity: ERDCWERX invites you to visit ERDCinnovation.org for opportunities to commercialize the U.S. Army ERDC’s newest water-related patents.
- Opportunity: The U.S. Green Building Council is seeking sustainability professionals to serve on LEED committees, including the Water Efficiency Technical Advisory Group.
- Jobs: Sloan, a commercial plumbing company in Franklin Park, Ill., seeks a vice president of sustainability.
- Jobs: Veolia North America seeks a director of asset management for its Milwaukee location.
