WEFTEC is a highlight of The Water Council’s year, and though the event looked different in 2021, that fact didn’t change. The Water Council has a strong presence at this year’s event in Chicago, co-sponsoring the Global Center with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation on behalf of the state of Wisconsin.
We are just a few days out from the start of WEFTEC, the global conference for water professionals organized by the Water Environment Federation. We are so excited to meet up with the rest of the water technology sector for the first time in two years to learn and network.
At The Water Council, we love to convene, connect and showcase our members. But this can leave out companies that aren’t part of the water technology sector but still want to support our mission of driving freshwater innovation and advancing water stewardship. That’s where our new Water Champion initiative comes in.
At The Water Council, we often find ourselves banging the drum to alert people about present and coming water challenges. But we also focus on finding solutions, which is what keeps us hopeful for the future. One way we facilitate solutions is through our innovation programming. Learn more in our September newsletter.
Application is now open for our fall 2021 Tech Challenge! Our Tech Challenge connects water innovators to innovative water users. Our corporate sponsors — A. O. Smith, Badger Meter, Watts Water Technologies and Xylem — issue challenge topics. Applicants are invited from all over the world and all areas of innovation — universities, business, government labs and more — to submit their solutions.
There is an important relationship between water technology and water stewardship that is well demonstrated by the success story from John Barelli and WaterSurplus. Watch our latest video to learn more.
As I write this, we are expecting another day of severe storms and extreme heat in Milwaukee. Is this caused by climate change? It’s hard to say for certain, but we know climate change is here and will get worse, as confirmed by the recent United Nations report. While the news about climate change is alarming, we at The Water Council see a huge opportunity to leverage our work in water innovation, technology and stewardship to make a real impact in the sustainability movement.
The Water Council welcomed a new neighbor in July with the opening of Beckhoff Automation’s Milwaukee office in the Global Water Center. Beckhoff, based in Germany with U.S. headquarters in Minnesota, is a provider of advanced and open automation solutions. The 3,660-square-foot Global Water Center office includes space for sales, engineering, support and training. The office also gives the company easy access to The Water Council, helping us work together to promote innovation in freshwater technology.
I’m pleased to invite you to our second Milwaukee post-WEFTEC business development event for U.K. and European companies October 20-22. We’ve created a thought-provoking agenda to facilitate a meaningful exchange of ideas and strategies: from engaging with new, powerful panels to small group discussions featuring water specialists, state government officials, utility partners and industry C-suite executives, and, of course, through personal networking.
Water, as one of Water Leaders Summit panelists said this week, is having a moment. Our discussions this week, much like week one, couldn’t have been timelier. On Tuesday, we talked to Sara Gonzalez-Rothi, senior director for water for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, with a follow-up panel from Emilio Tenuta of Ecolab and Claudia Toussaint of Xylem. As expected, they emphasized over and over how closely water is tied to climate change.