Big changes in 2025
By Dean Amhaus, President & CEO
2025 is bringing major changes to the U.S. federal government that are sure to impact the water sector. How will a new White House administration and Congress affect water technology innovation in areas such as research, regulations, sustainability, tax policy and funding?
To help us sort it out, we are bringing in the D.C. experts: Josh Greene, vice president of government and industry affairs at A. O. Smith Corporation, and Tim Hannegan and Jay Sulzmann, co-founder and partner of HLP&R Advocacy. Hear their insights at our webinar on Jan. 22 at 10 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT. We’ve already seen quite a bit of global interest in this webinar, so don’t miss it.
This year will also bring more changes to the sustainability sector, as every year does. But with all the complicated risks associated with water, one thing that won’t change is the need for corporate water stewardship. During a Jan. 27 webinar, hear from Clayton Steele of Clearwater Paper Corporation on the value that his company saw in assessing its water risks and opportunities through WAVE: Water Stewardship Verified. Joining Clayton will be Matt Howard, our vice president of water stewardship, along with Lauren Enright of SCS Global Services.
Finally, two initiatives of The Water Council will kick into high gear in 2025: our U.S. Small Business Administration Regional Innovation Cluster and our collaboration with Veolia North America on a Water & Wastewater Workforce Center. Both will be on the agenda at our first member meeting of the year at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at Veolia’s new regional hub in downtown Milwaukee. Reserve your spot now!
innovation update
It’s always great to kick off the New Year with some good news, like announcing the winners of our fall 2024 Tech Challenge. The challenge, selected by sponsors A. O. Smith Corporation, Badger Meter and Watts Water Technologies, sought solutions for the detection, treatment and removal of microplastics and nanoplastics in water.
We’re pleased to announce the winners of the $10,000 prize:
- Lucendi, Inc., based in Los Angeles, Calif., develops AI-powered innovations for high-performance detection and characterization of micro-objects in liquids. Its Aqusens platform has been shown to automatically identify a variety of targets from microplastics to harmful organisms like giardia, cyanobacteria and toxic algae.
- PolyGone Systems, a Princeton University spinout, has developed an affordable, portable and environmentally friendly filtration system that captures microplastics below 1mm scale and can be applied to a wide range of water bodies, including rivers, lakes and wastewater effluents.
I’m also pleased to announce that in 2025 Xylem will join our Tech Challenge sponsors, providing water innovators with an exciting opportunity to get in front of more of the world’s leading corporate technology teams.
We also finished the application period for our BREW 2.0 Post-Accelerator earlier this month. To say that BREW has become a truly global program is an understatement — we received applications from a record 19 countries this year!
Next, our reviewers will go through each application and recommend which companies should move on to the interview round. Many of our reviewers come from our member companies. Contact Karen Frost if you’re a member interested in participating in the BREW review process.
water stewardship
This month saw the publication of a joint case study we wrote with Rockwell Automation for a World Economic Forum white paper. The paper focused on the potential for public-private collaboration in decarbonization. But our case study took a slightly different approach, describing Rockwell and The Water Council’s collaboration on energy and water stewardship. Rockwell is a partner with us in our water stewardship efforts and a lead partner in our Water + Energy Forward Engine, which seeks water and energy solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises.
We have some exciting water stewardship updates coming up in 2025, including targeted communications on how WAVE’s enterprise-wide approach to water stewardship works in complementary fashion with SCS Global Services’ site-level water stewardship certification. We are also working on new water stewardship training and a program that complements our existing WAVE verification. Stay tuned!
member news & opportunities
- News: Watertronics buys industrial building near its HQ for expansion.
- News: Fresh Coast Climate Solutions joins Cascade Energy.
- News: Watts Water Technologies acquires I-CON Systems.
- Opportunity: The deadline for the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest is Jan. 31. The initial entry only requires a 250-word submission. The Wisconsin Technology Council is hosting a free webinar Jan. 22 for potential applicants.
- Opportunity: The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) asks Wisconsin companies to take a survey to determine which international markets Wisconsin firms want included in its Global Trade Mission schedule in 2025-26. Meanwhile, you can learn more about WEDC’s April global trade mission to Canada at a Jan. 22 webinar.
- Opportunity: The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District invites public, private and nonprofit organizations that plan to install green infrastructure strategies on their properties to apply for partnership funding from the 2025 Green Infrastructure Partnership Program. Application deadline is March 6.
- Event: The Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport Show, the world’s largest annual trade show for wastewater and environmental service professionals, is Feb. 17-20 in Indianapolis.
- Event: Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust (Sweet Water) is hosting the 20th Annual Clean Rivers, Clean Lake Conference in Milwaukee on Feb. 25.
- Event: The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative is also holding its annual conference in Milwaukee, May 14-16, focused on “The Future of Fresh Water: Leading the Way in an Era of Scarcity.”
