Now’s the time
By Dean Amhaus, President & CEO
In the last month, I have been struck by what seems like a flood of major water news that have impacted locations across the U.S. This includes the massive sudden deluge of water in places like California and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to the long-term shortages of water along the Colorado River and the resulting efforts to find equitable solutions for millions of people and businesses.
Of course, it makes me think about how fortunate I am to reside in Wisconsin as well as the work of The Water Council at the intersection of innovation and water stewardship.
With the arrival of April, we welcome the first virtual training sessions for our 2023 BREW 2.0 cohort and announce an exciting partnership with one of Milwaukee’s legacy global corporations.
I’ll start my recap with one of the biggest water events in recent memory, the United Nations Water Conference. I was there with our vice president of water stewardship, Matt Howard. It was wonderful to see so many old colleagues among the attendees and discover new friends. Matt wrote some insightful reflections of the event on LinkedIn that I’ll summarize here:
- Don’t forget about too much water, poor water quality and water at the wrong times and wrong places.
- We need to leverage the power of the consumer.
- We know the “what”; now we need the “how.”
I’ll leave you with his call to action: “Now’s the time people. We know the ‘what’; we have some ‘hows’; ‘when’ is now.”
a packed calendar
New York City was just one of our stops as our staff toured the globe in recent weeks. On March 28, we held the first roundtable in Chicago for Great Lakes WISE (Water Innovation & Stewardship Exchange). We have created this peer-to-peer forum in collaboration with the Council of the Great Lakes Region for Great Lakes businesses that are interested in water stewardship. Read our blog to learn more about the initiative and this first meeting.
And that’s not all! Karen Frost, our vice president of economic development and innovation, visited Washington, D.C., for the Xylem Innovation Labs Symposium. Beverley Ferrara, our European representative, went to Seville, Spain, for WEX (Water & Energy Exchange) Global. And Matt hopped on a plane once again this week to speak to the American Chemistry Council in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
innovation update
Our spring Tech Challenge remains open until May 1. This session’s topics, chosen by A. O. Smith Corporation, Badger Meter and Watts Water Technologies, are:
- Electrochemical sensors to detect pharmaceutical pollutants in water.
- Low-cost structural plastic materials for use in chlorinated water.
Participants compete for a prize of up to $10,000 and the chance to present their innovations to the R&D teams of our sponsors. Click here to learn more.
We will host our first week of programming for this year’s BREW 2.0 Post-Accelerator cohort next week. These late-stage water technology companies will receive tailored training in sales, marketing, pitch refinement, startup culture and more. The accelerator culminates with a week of in-person training in Milwaukee, including our annual Pitch Day happening June 22. Mark your calendars now for this in-person and virtual event to learn about the newest crop of water technology entrepreneurs.
We know BREW 2.0 is successful because we continue to see previous participants excel. Here are some recent news items from BREW 2.0 graduates:
- Aqua Membranes, a 2021 graduate, recently announced a memorandum of understanding with The Saline Water Conversion Corporation, the water authority in Saudi Arabia, as detailed in this Aquatech article.
- Aquagga, a PFAS mitigation company and 2022 graduate, has raised $360,000 and counting in a community investment round led by Will Sarni, a water thought leader and founder of Water Foundry.
- BloomOptix, a 2021 BREW 2.0 graduate and participant in our Pilot Program, will soon launch its AI-powered microscope as a tool for diagnosing harmful algal blooms.
water stewardship
We gave you the inside scoop last month, but this week we officially announced our novel partnership with Rockwell Automation to promote corporate water stewardship around the world. As Tom O’Reilly, global vice president of sustainability for Rockwell Automation, states, “With The Water Council’s WAVE program and Rockwell Automation solutions, we are dedicated to driving impact within organizations to improve their water stewardship through consultation, data driven insights and digital transformation solutions.”
Our water stewardship work remains active as we have signed on more organizations to WAVE that we will announce soon. Be sure to follow The Water Council on LinkedIn and Twitter to get the latest developments. What is especially exciting is that we are actively pursuing some organizations that you don’t necessarily equate to water, but they recognize that they also play a major part in protecting this precious resource. Just as every drop counts, so does every business play a role.
We also continue to be looked to as a water stewardship leader nationwide. For example, this article in Barron’s about the Colorado River water crisis quotes Matt Howard among several other water experts.
As you may know, The Water Council was founded in Milwaukee because of Milwaukee’s history of water innovation and stewardship. Milwaukee is a global leader in stewardship of the freshwater resources running through and around our city. Check out this article by our communications director, Stacy Vogel Davis, that describes how Milwaukee became a stewardship leader and describes upcoming work that will mark the largest cleanup project in Great Lakes history.
new members
We welcome many new members this month, including the new BREW 2.0 cohort and a couple of Water Champions:
- Aquacycl
- bb7 (Water Champion)
- Charlton Morris (Water Champion)
- Cimico
- Enspired Solutions
- Genesis Systems LLC
- InfoTiles
- In-Pipe Robot
- Meratch
- Nucleic Sensing Systems LLC
- Redberry SAS
- SampleServe Inc.
- The Wasmer Company
- Watertronics LLC
Welcome to the hub where water works!
Member news & Opportunities
- News: The Fund for Lake Michigan has created a Daybreak Fund supporting nature-based climate solutions for Lake Michigan.
- News: Energy Tech Innovations is a finalist in the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.
- Event: Council of the Great Lakes Region is holding a webinar on “The ESG Landscape and Contextualizing it for the Great Lakes Region” on April 20.
- Event: The Northeast Wisconsin Sustainable Leadership Group will hold an event on Water Resilience & Sustainability on May 18. The event includes a virtual session with The Water Council on how to connect to technology providers and participate in WAVE.
- Event: The U.S. Commercial Service Mexico invites U.S. companies to join the U.S. Pavilion at Aquatech Mexico happening Sept. 5-7. Email Francisco Ceron for more information.
- Opportunity: Marquette University has added new ESG (environmental, social and governance) courses to prepare business leaders for a career in sustainability management and investing.
- Opportunity: The Wisconsin section of the American Water Works Association offers a scholarship for young professionals. Applications are due April 28.
