Could you imagine producing perfect drinking water out of thin air and fully off-grid? Let’s face it: Source’s take on atmospheric water generation is pretty disruptive. Could it be a blessing for people and places for whom traditional central approaches have failed?
We’ll explore today how even in the US, no less than 44 million people may need to find a solution to fix their tap, and try to evaluate how Source could fit in the role!
with 🎙️ Colin Goddard – Director at Source Global
💧 Source aims to market the world’s first renewable drinking water system. Clean, safe, made entirely off-grid, and available almost anywhere in the world.
What we covered:
😨 How more than 2 million Americans live without basic access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
😱 How over 44 million more US-Citizen are served by water systems that recently had health-based Safe-Drinking Water Act violations.
💪 How besides trucked and bottled water, Source intends to build a third path that might be much more sustainable
☀️ How Source actually produces water from ambient air by using the sun as the only source of energy
🪶 How the former Zero Mass Water has helped suffering communities like the Navajo Nation
💰 How much it costs to produce one liter of water using Source’s Hydropanels (all inclusive), and how it compares to alternative water sources (pun non-intended)
💥 How Source may well produce water at 30 times the US utility tariff average, yet the comparison doesn’t really hold water (pun intended, this time)
📈 How the Hydropanels aren’t perfect yet, and Source’s vision to one day produce the best and cheapest water on earth
🌱 How Source’s intentions are written up to the company’s bylaws, and how that leads them to be a certified B-Corp
❤️🩹 How centralized water solutions and technologies have failed to serve the edges of the grid
❌ How Source doesn’t identify as an atmospheric water generation technology and why
⚒️ How the Hydropanels work, how they’re monitored, how much they cost, and over how long
🏄♀️ How Source’s technology fits two different main purposes and hence can even be a suitable solution for California
🍾 Source’s business model, their own bottled water production, how a future decentralized water ecosystem would look like, water fit for purpose… and much more!
🔥 … and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥
Resources:
➡️ Send your warm regards to Colin on LinkedIn
➡️ Visit Source’s Website
is on Linkedin ➡️
Teaser: Atmospheric Water Generation Reinvented
Infographic: Atmospheric Water Generation but Fully Off-Grid!
Infographic-Colin-Goddard-Source-Global-Off-Grid-Atrmospheric-Water-GenerationTable of contents
Full Transcript:
These are computer-generated, so expect some typos 🙂
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Antoine Walter: Hi, Colin. Welcome to the show.
Colin Goddard: Hey, thanks for having me.
Antoine Walter: Well, I’m excited to have you because I’m excited to discuss the path of source and we have a lot of topics on the plates and I’m really looking forward diving into the core of it, but there’s traditions on that microphone and that starts with the postcard and you’re sending me a postcard from a rental car.
So what can you tell me about the place you’re at, which I would ignore by now?
Colin Goddard: Yeah, I’m talking to you from my rental car in a parking lot, baking under the sun in El Paso, Texas. Currently here to have meetings with local government contacts, nonprofit organizations, trying to help reach those that live on the outskirts of the community that traditional centralized water infrastructure has been unable to reach until today.
And we’ll still probably never reach for the decades in the. And this is exactly the type of scenario where the source team tries to investigate the dynamics and the concerns and see where the capability we’ve developed. The source can be helpful to make sure that people living in those remote areas can have clean, safe drinking water in their home.
Antoine Walter: You mentioned now those remote areas is that the first target for source.
Colin Goddard: I mean, I think the remote parts of not just El Paso county, Texas, but you know, not in the United States, but all over the planet have been the places where the water solutions and technologies , that brought so many of the urban areas forward. This past century have failed. Right. And have been unable to reach those really at the edges of the grid, so to speak where a disruptive technology like source and the hydro panel has the strongest value proposition, right.
And can make the biggest impact immediately. And so these are the first places that we try to understand the dynamics and the situation and understand, where can a tool like a source hydro panel be wielded and applied to create the largest impact.
Antoine Walter: So you see, I was tempted , to jump straight into the deep dive, but I’d like to get to know you more before we, we go into the heart of it. I was reviewing your path a bit and you have a path. Uncommon in, in the water industry, I would say because you have a policy background. Can you tell me a bit about that first part of your career?
Colin Goddard: Yeah. I would certainly say. A non-traditional background for somebody in the water industry. And really it started with my parents who have careers in international development. And as a result, I was born overseas and raised overseas. Most of my life, living in countries, such as Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia.
I went to high school in Egypt and then came to the us for college and university. And so my parents Had the worldview and had a a focus of trying to help those build the capacity to improve themselves in their own communities. And so this is what I grew, grew up understanding and was exposed to, my visit my first refugee camp before I was one years old and was trying to find my own way in this.
And. During my university time, I had a crazy experience unfortunately with the reality in the United States of gun violence and was shot in my French class, actually at university of Virginia tech. And that, led me into a world of policy and advocacy that I did for many years, trying to again, follow the same principle of doing things better to leave the world in a better place than you found it.
And. Made a lot of progress in that field, but wanted to get outta politics, and try to see how can we affect change on big, important issues from a business lens and from a different technology perspective. So I entered in the renewable energy sector was just really early into trying to find a place.
And when I, then when I heard about a company that had started, that was using the power of the sun to create drinking water. Out of the air. I thought this is incredible, right? This really merges all of my life experiences into a point where I can help work on big challenges for the society and do it in a really clever and innovative way.
That’s not so tied to politics and policy, which has its own set of challenges. And so I was like, this is a place I have to be. And called the company up and did my best to sell myself and was fortunate enough to join the team nearly now four years ago when we were really starting to build our business and operations in north America.
And now run the north American team on the business development and project development side, essentially, with the task of finding the places that have water challenges. That have been unaddressed and joining the conversations and understanding can what we do in our technology be helpful.
Antoine Walter: You joined zero mass water at the time, which must have been there. The name steel, when you joined,
Colin Goddard: Yes.
Antoine Walter: just give us an idea of the size of the company four years ago, when you joined.
Colin Goddard: So, yeah, when I joined source, it was called zero mass water, which was the first name when it was commercialized in 2014 and started and really a name that was out of the box was, speaks to the ethos of the company of have no inertia and be free flowing and learn and change.
But it was a hard name for people and customers and partners to remember. So, ultimately after years of growing the business and the projects in this area, we aligned the name of the company with the name of the core technology that the company manufactures and deploys, which is the source hydro panel.
So now our name is source. And also in that time where we changed the name, we also became a public benefit corporation. Where, for those who don’t know, we have it in our bylaws of our company to be thoughtful about what we do and how we do it in terms of the planet and the communities in which we work.
Right. And so it’s really, I think, another aspect of this company and the leadership of the company that wants to make sure that, what we have done can really help the planet and the people living on it in a lot of different.
Antoine Walter: sorry for the layman question. When you say public benefit Corp, is it a B-corp?
Colin Goddard: Yes, certified B Corp is another way to to talk about it. People know about it. And it requires a variety of things, which we were already largely doing. And so, it just made sense to, to be officially titled as such, which I think, helps people understand that, while we are a for profit company, we do have a perspective about our work in our technology and the way we carry our business to make sure we’re being thoughtful about those we’re working with and in the communities that we are looking , to assist.
Antoine Walter: I think we’re starting to get an idea about source and what this is all about, but nevertheless, what would be your elevator pitch to the company
Colin Goddard: Source is, an innovative water technology that has developed a whole new way to create clean drinking water from the atmosphere using nothing but clean, renewable energy. we are on a mission to make clean drinking water, an unlimited and renewable resource and perfect water for every person in every place of the planet.
that is essentially the elevator pitch that I think we’d give.
Antoine Walter: So, if I say that you do atmospheric water generation, it is restrictive.
Colin Goddard: Yes. Using that term atmospheric water generation brings a lot of people back to an older set of technologies, similar to essentially your dehumidifier or your air conditioner. That is, largely inefficiently convert. Vapor in the air to drinking water and also doing it in a way that’s not really clean and suitable for human consumption.
We create water from air in a similar manner, but the way in which we do it is truly novel and innovative, which allows us to operate in a variety of environmental conditions and create a really high quality drinking water from the start. So I’d say, the simple way to think about it is: We are to the atmospheric water generation category, like the electric motor is to the internal combustion engine. Yes. It accomplishes the same thing at the end of the day, but how it does it is fundamentally different and sustainable
Antoine Walter: You mentioned high quality drinking water on your website. It’s called perfect drinking water. So I’m intrigued what makes water perfect.
Colin Goddard: We talk about perfect water for Human consumption, right? The water that you need to put inside your body, at the core, of the base of human needs, right. The water you need to live. And so, that’s what we say when we mean perfect water.
It’s water that is perfect for what your body needs and for human consumption.
Antoine Walter: Is pure because you purify it. And then it’s also mineralized because you have your specific special sauce, which you mix at the outlet so that it is that perfect nature.
Colin Goddard: In addition to that, the way in which we create that water is entirely sustainable, right? We don’t have to use electricity or burn diesel to operate our system. And it’s created, exactly where it’s needed. Right. There’s not a long supply chain to get that water to the place where it’s needed to be consumed.
And so not just the kind of physical characteristics that you mentioned of the high quality water that the technology creates, but the manner at which it creates it is also, perfect for the need of getting drinking water anywhere on the planet that it’s needed.
Antoine Walter: So if we take a step back can you explain us how your hydro panel work? I, I I get, it’s not the mouse trap which is similar to an air conditioner. It doesn’t need any grids but what’s the process.
Colin Goddard: a good question without making you sign a piece of paper because a lot of the core process and materials are proprietary, and that is really the innovation that the team at Arizona state university unlocked many years ago. And it’s continuing to iterate on even to this day, but the concise answer is.
The process is driven largely by a proprietary hydroscopic material. Hydroscopic meaning absorbs moisture and attracted to hydrogen and oxygen that absorbs the moisture from the atmosphere naturally, and then a very clever and innovative thermodynamic process in cycle that we apply to that material in order to load it with moisture and empty it of.
To create drinking water from atmospheric vapor and the, then the, really the systems around it to allow it to operate fully off grid without external power and be monitored on a routine basis daily basis. So that we can see the performance of the systems, the aspects of the water to make sure that, we, and people who are using it understand the quality of the water that they’re drinking and what they’re drinking.
Those are the three core components of how the system makes water. That is really unique in the broader space of air to water systems that is emerging now.
Antoine Walter: The difference to another technology we’ve covered on the microphone. It was AKVO with Navkaran Singh Bagga which maybe what you call the traditional atmospheric water generation. at first sight, I thought it’s only the off-grid element, but you made clear that it’s far beyond that it’s all your technology, which is really a different twist at the same thing.
Interestingly I really. Missed part, which sounds really interesting about the quality element so that people really understand what they’re getting at the tap. So how does that materialize, what do they get as values about the water? They get.
Colin Goddard: All right. Great point. The way that our, the source hydro panels designed it’s has a suite of onboard sensors that monitor all the aspects of the water generation and storage and access activities, which then is shared with end users of the system. So they can see how much water their system generated, how much water they’ve used, and also that the water that they’re drinking is clean.
That the sterilization systems and the recirculation systems on board are working and that they don’t have to wait for a boil water advisory to come, or, hope that system wasn’t, sitting out in a plastic bottle in the sun, right. That provides that uncertainty about what they’re drinking and putting inside their body with the source technology and the information that we share within users on apps.
And with other ways, people can know that what they’re putting in their body is good and clean
Antoine Walter: if you look at the problem and the challenges you’re trying to solve, if I get you right, it’s whenever there’s no grid or limited grid capacities, whenever you’re not sure about the water quality. Then the ways to solve that today is bottled water, maybe trucked water. And you’re saying you have a better alternative, and that can be sourced hydro panel.
Colin Goddard: Precisely, where a technology like this can have the biggest impact are the places where traditional centralized infrastructure has been unable to reach. Right? The places we hear about all over the United States and my colleagues hear about, and all the other markets that they work on globally is where the cost per connection is too high, right?
So the utility or the government won’t ever have a return in the reasonable future for them to justify the capital outlay of running pipe, water systems and full water systems to these locations. And as a result, right. Option B is largely do nothing. And so what we’re saying is there’s now an option C to make sure that these locations can have a clean drinking water supply available conveniently from a tap inside their home for a tiny fraction of what they believe it would cost otherwise for a full pipe system. Now I’m not saying, we are not providing all the domestic water needs right for the home, but we are in critical supplementary component that really focuses on the very top of the pyramid.
A high quality water that is needed for human consumption. It can be a, an important, addition and a stepping stone for systems and governments to deploy, to provide immediate support to those families that are fully burdened with obtaining and keeping clean their own drinking water supply quickly and become a stepping stone.
Them to build out a more distributed and resilient water infrastructure system into the future. So we’re not saying we are the answer to the whole set of problems, but we have a very specific problem that we focus on and identify and make our impact in.
Antoine Walter: I, if I recall, right. You had been involved in Flint, Michigan when all the Evans happened and you supplied the places with some of your hydro panels, I guess that’s kind of the exception. In the United States, but you have like, an order of magnitude of the number of people who would be in a situation where they would need that plan C with the hydro panel.
Colin Goddard: Yeah, that’s a good question. And. I think where we’ve seen most recently, this number quantified is in a wonderful report on the subject that has been released by the nonprofit organization called dig deep. There are really the premier water, advocacy organization within the United States, focusing on domestic water challenges which is really unique in the space.
And they are an incredible organization that is able to make a massive amount of impact in the communities they work in and work with. And they’ve quantified, the populations living that are entirely unserved or are underserved by the traditional water infrastructure solutions. And they have I think without having it in front of me, roughly, nearly 200,000 residents across the United States where utility systems are just not gonna pencil economic.
All right. Pipe water systems are just not gonna pay back then another 200,000 or so, where it may happen depending on more thorough analysis, but it could be in reachable. And then another set that are, that should be reachable, right? But there are other, kinda legal and technical hurdles that can overcome.
And they’re really great at overcoming and them. In fact, they’re doing a project here in El Paso county where they’re helping connect mobile home community. That is only a quarter mile from the water. But have yet never had the connect. And so, that I think has been a helpful way to kind of scope the challenge within the United States.
But again, really the United States is, the country that has most people don’t really think twice about their water access. Right. And people think there, there is full access in the United States, but really you don’t have to scratch the surface a little bit to, to find those places in the United States where this is a challenge and it is even more so in other countries around the world, And other developing countries.
And so, I focus and my team focuses on the United States, which is what I know the best and can communicate with. But I know my colleagues in the company overall has a viewpoint of the same kind of challenges in other developing countries and other industrialized countries all around the world where the same core problem of, hard to reach with traditional infrastructure solutions, with areas with low population density, challenging topography and geography, and the local kind of water economic.
Right are really challenging.
Antoine Walter: that’s the objective answer with those several hundred thousands of people, which objectively don’t have a better alternative. And which would highly benefit from your solution? It just rings a bell in my minds about a conversation I had on the microphone with David Lloyd Owen about a statistic is sharing in his book, global water funding, where he brings up that 80% of people in California.
Don’t drink, tap water, just because they. Trust the quality of the tap. So that means it’s a huge bottled water market. And if you look at the trends in the us by 2034, bottled water is expected to surpass utility water in terms of money invested into it. So it’s less volume of course, but it’s more money.
So is that also something you’re looking into to say. There is a better alternative in terms of sustainability. You don’t need to have that water bottled. And then those plastic bottles running around the country, you could be producing off grid if you don’t trust the grid. And that could still be a better solution than bottled water.
Colin Goddard: Absolutely. What I first detailed was the locations , in the United States that are unreachable with pipe systems, which you’ve talked about now of the greater population of people with pipe systems that don’t trust it or can’t trust it. Right and supplement their full system with, single use plastic, bottled water in many cases, that’s the really, that’s a much larger opportunity that we see where we can provide that same high quality drinking water that’s provided separately and independently of the system that.
Is of concern without all the plastic and transportation emissions around getting that plastic bottled water and bringing it to your house and disposing of the waste. Right? So that’s another set of activities that we do here. That is quite compelling, particularly for a state like California, that has recognized a human right to clean water, but also recognizes the limitations right.
Of extending traditional infrastructure systems to many of these low density areas. So what the state does in the short term is provide. Right routine bottled water service delivered to many families. And, that’s part of our conversations with them is to say, look, this same outcome can be achieved of a separate, clean drinking water supply to supplement that family’s needs without all the plastic waste and corresponding greenhouse gas emissions from having to truck that water and dispose of the plastic bottles once they’re done.
So that is a much larger opportunity for us, not only here in the United States, but also globally. And it’s also very much a focus of ours.
Antoine Walter: On your website, you’re bringing up a cost argument. You’re saying that your solution is a cheaper alternative compared to bottled and trucked water. you agree, I’d like to make a napkin calculation with use of really simple and to check some facts because my own calculation seems to agree with your points, but I’d like to see if my hypothesis are right.
So what is the lifespan of your hydro panels?
Colin Goddard: So we are, always iterating on the core technology and the hydro panels that we are making and releasing now have a 20 year life. . And so we’ve been able to increase this continually through our own R and D efforts and we’ll continue to do so. Right. We are not satisfied with 20 years. We will go beyond that.
But right where we are today is 20 years. So if you were to take the upfront cost of a hydro panel, which currently retails a $2,000 us, but again, a price point, we are also actively working on and, amortize that over the 15 years and add the very basic air filter change that you need every year.
You’re roughly looking at a cost of roughly seven and a half cents a water bottle, or roughly around 15 cents a liter. On a straight marginal cost, what’s the cost of my liter to your liter, right. So we are competitive with single use plastic bottles available in retail, commercial markets in this, in the United States now.
Right. And then if you were to bring in, however, the other aspects of the sustainability components around the plastic waste and the transportation emissions and the gas and the fuel, et cetera, we’d be even more compelling comparison. But for the sake of this conversation, we. Purely marginal cost of water.
And this will continue to come down. As we continue to deploy the technology and greater economies of scale, this will be reduced substantially. And we will be, and our goal is to become. By far and away the cheapest source of potable water on the planet, no matter which market we’re talking about.
Right? And so we are well on that way, and we need more partners to join us on this way to, to see that future, that we also badly need, right. To follow the very similar roadmap that solar photovoltaic has followed when it early days where the cost per wat right. Was much higher. And now it has gone so cheap, which is part of why that has unlocked the technology like this.
Now that solars become so cheap and UBI, what can we do with it? Now we can use solar. Water. So we will follow that, continue that same cost curve as we get more projects and more partners that understand the way a tool like this can be utilized to help achieve the outcomes, that they want in terms of making sure people have clean and safe water in their homes.
Antoine Walter: There’s a lot to unpack in what you just said. Let me just come back to your retail price of 2000. Do you also install the panels yourself or is it something which is outsourced?
Colin Goddard: We do both. We have our own installation technicians and we’ve trained third party technicians to do installations depending on the nature of the project.
Antoine Walter: I guess you see me coming, I’m trying to unveil your business model here to understand what are the boundaries of your deliveries.
So your in the CapEx sales of hydro panels, sometimes you install it as well, but you don’t deliver it as a service for.
Colin Goddard: We have both, in fact, so we have both the CapEx sales where you can purchase the systems up front for the fixed price that we mentioned. Right. And then all the water that it makes essentially over its 20 year lifetime is essentially free with the very basic annual O and M we recommend, but if we’re doing larger projects in one location or, a larger set of project, And aggregated over multiple locations, we can follow the similar solar power purchase agreement model, where instead of purchasing the asset up front for a capital cost, we can enter into a contract to sell the water that the systems produce over a period of time.
At a fixed price per leader or per gallon, whatever we work agreement with for that location. So that avoids an upfront capital expense by that institution. Then it becomes more of an operating expense. So for a lot of, businesses or governments who already have a kind of budget set aside for bottle of water delivery, we can set, take that same amount.
And, com supply that same amount of volume of water, but without all the plastic waste, right. And and arrive at those same outcomes in a more sustainable way for the same price, if not, better. So those are the two models in which we currently are able to finance and construct projects.
Now.
Antoine Walter: so do you really divide the market that way that the commercial customers would go for the OPEX sales and the residential customers would go for the CapEx sales, or is it really whatever suits you the best?
Colin Goddard: I would say that trend is largely accurate. The residential customers and the governments we work with, . They’re more suited to do grants and loans, . Upfront capital expenditure plans. And so we fit into that model but for the other types of corporate entities, commercial customers, right.
Hospitality groups that don’t have that upfront capital expense, but can fold it into an operating expense. We also have an option. And so between both of those, right. That’s that’s where we see the business headed into the future.
Antoine Walter: You mentioned how you have continuous R and D and the product gets regularly better. One of the major drawbacks which have seen coming up left and right when you Google your solution is that it’s pretty heavy. We are talking of I can’t tell in, in per unit, sorry, but 150 kilograms. Is that still the case?
Colin Goddard: Yeah, that’s about right. So, that is also certainly an aspect that our team always looks at of how to balance the system in terms of its production, its cost, its weight, its size, right? All these aspects cuz, and to arrive at something that is commercially viable. . That’s very important, right?
We could really go on one of those points, but it will cause other aspects of the technology or the solution , to change. So it’s really a delicate balance of all these components to put something out there that can be reachable now where the market is today in these places.
Right. And then continue to allow us to build off that and innovate and bring those things down.
Antoine Walter: you mentioned some minutes ago that you’re looking for partners to, to expand and to go to the next step and go following the same route, then solar panels and have this scale effect. If I’m right, you just closed the series D. Is that what you intend to do? I mean, an impressive series D if I’m honest and not that much interest in the number, but we are talking of several hundred, I mean, more than 100 million.
It’s about what you intend to do with that. What is it unlocking for source?
Colin Goddard: Yeah. That unlocks the ability to continue to build the business and grow the core technology. And unlock these partnerships, . That are necessary to build for the future. Right? So that allows us to continue to form partnerships with government institutions that , have the objective of providing the service to families that can no longer reach, .
Hospitality groups that are looking to serve high quality drinking water to their guests. But without all that plastic waste, . Allows us to finance those project. It allows us to do, find more great individuals that can think for the future and think outside the box to help us form the right relationships and make the progress that we need.
So it’s been a great support and endorsement for where we’ve come. And we, now we know, where we have to go and we’re doing it every day.
Antoine Walter: Talking. Endorsements. Do you still have Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Jack Ma in your capital?
Colin Goddard: Yeah, breakthrough into the adventures has been one of our core partners from the beginning and we really value their input. And the the conversations they’ve led us to and perspectives they’ve provided us. They really are a forward thinking organization that does really good diligence on the companies that they support.
And we’re really proud of that endorsement and partner.
Antoine Walter: I can imagine how one can be proud of having this kind of endorsement. You mentioned how you’re competing with bottled water. So I was surprised to see that you also enter that market and you’re also bottling source water. So why are you doing that?
Colin Goddard: In many of the customers that we work with, particularly in hospitality sector, . They would like a more sustainable packaged water that they can offer to guests. . And some of the retail partners that are approaching us, .
They’re interested in something more sustainable, . A water supply. That’s not extracted from the ground. . That’s not in a plastic bottle. So we. Looking at options for us within, packaging, source water in various ways to enable those partners and customers to, to grow their businesses.
And so it’s a newer space for us. We still are very focused on manufacturing, hydro panels and, deploying them and delivering water per our water purchase agreement contracts. But this is a new area for us to explore together with the partners that are sophisticated in the.
Antoine Walter: I have. An elephant in the room, which I need to address, which is whenever you’re doing your due diligence to look for whatever source does, it is fascinating to see how the World is split in two. And then I can’t count how much on our needs side, but you have the wants, which say that’s awesome.
And your vision is incredible of going one day to be producing the cheapest water from earth and that perfect drinking water. There’s a lot of arguments supporting that. And on the other hand, you have the people who hate you. I couldn’t find people in between actually, which is interesting, which means to me that you’re hitting a nerve, but the people who hate you are pretty vocal. How do you react to that heat?
Colin Goddard: I would say for, those I would say folks just fundamentally don’t underst. How the technology works and what we’re trying to accomplish. I feel like there is a sense that, that the first electric utilities felt when solar photo VO tank manufacturers approach them. Right.
And very similar to what water utilities do when they see us. Right. And these water utility professionals spend a. All their time. Right. And do really good work to make sure that their systems are functioning right. And what’s delivered to customers at the end of the day is a good high quality product.
I think they think that we are trying to do what they do and that’s not the case at all. We’re trying to be a useful tool in their tool belt. We wanna be a partner to help them reach. And help them accomplish their own mission, not to replace them by any means. So I think it’s just purely a lack of just an understanding of how the technology works and what we’re trying to accomplish with it.
And the supplementary, role that we’re trying to play, I mean, Our global water challenges are great. Right? And we need new ideas and new solutions to get us into the future that we need. And so, there needs to be an all hands on deck approach. That, that utilizes, all the innovations of reuse and desalination and also, tapping into new sources for drinking water, like, like, source does with the atmosphere.
So you. I’m not too concerned when people , don’t speak positively what we do. I see that as an opportunity for us to educate them about what we’re really trying to accomplish and bring them in and bring them in closer so they can really understand what we’re about and how we work.
Antoine Walter: Let me be a bit more specific about those people, because I had one of them on that microphone in the season five with with Christopher Gasson and Christopher Gasson, who was the chief editor of global water intelligence wrote one day an article where he called source a criminal waste of money.
And I actually was. I couldn’t find a better word that than shocked, cuz it’s not every day that you see this kind of Strong words. And I discussed that with him on that microphone and he said, yeah, it’s his editorial role to have an opinion. But if someone was to call my company a criminal waste of money, I’d be. Probably very pissed. So how do you react to.
Colin Goddard: I would love to take this person to visit some of the sites with the families that we’ve worked with in the Navajo nation, for example, . Who live far from the nearest water line and have been told, they will never see a running water supply in their home, in their lifetime.
And how that they’ve had to, be forced to travel great distances, to haul water from various sources that of various quality, . And people get sick as a result. And now, right. They’re drinking from a tap in their home, a clean drinking water supply that they own, and they’re making themselves.
Right. They’re not relying on externally and telling me if that’s an egregious waste of money. I think that is an a beautiful use of resources to make sure that the most basic resources being applied to those who need it most. So, and ultimately that’s, you know what I think about, and that motivates me every day, people who do new things, other people look at it, don’t understand it and they speak down to it, right?
This is not something new for us. This is for all new ideas and new frameworks. So, it’s not discouraging in any way for us. Right. We keep our heads down and we focus on the impact that we know we can make. And the lives that we. And the more we can communicate that and have people realize that I think more people understand the role that a technology source will play in the future.
Antoine Walter: Talking of the future and the role you want to play there. What’s your vision for a source? Where do you see source in, in five or 10 years? It’s a crystal question. Sorry. It’s a difficult one, but what’s your vision?
Colin Goddard: I’m here in the Western United States, like many other parts of the world,. Where there’s a growing sensitivity of sticking more straws into the ground, . To pull up the ever dwindling supply of water. . Of, and then the concern over all the plastic waste, right.
That people are. Creating because they’re buying, their drinking water in a plastic bottle. And the world that I wanna see in five, 10 years is a place where now there is a ubiquitous option C . For folks to not have to tap into the same depleted reservoirs and not have to spend that money.
Piece of plastic that we’ll use once and throw away, but be able to have clean drinking water from a tap in their house, no matter where they live that will be theirs that they own, that will be reliable for them and will be a part of their more resilient water future. I think we have all the pieces we need, we know where the challenges are and we’re building those relationships.
And I see the future being more of the same in that way. We are on the right path. And and I’m excited for the future cuz a capability like this and the stories that we learn really are profound and we’re excited to keep doing it.
Antoine Walter: And if I look now at the business side of the same question, I don’t know if your ization for the latest series D is public, but by my estimates you’re probably not that far from being the first unicorn in the water sector. Is it something which is barely relevant to you or is an IPO somewhere down the line, something which is a target for source.
Do you have any plans or is it really about where the head goes? You’re gonna follow the.
Colin Goddard: Yeah, I think again, my view was really on the communities that don’t have access to water. . And the future that I see in their lives and in their communities and how we get funded to do that, can be a variety of ways. And that’s not really of my concern.
I, and not really our team is, really a group of people with diverse backgrounds, right. It’s really a key tenant of this company is to build aggressively for divergence is something that we say often and think zero mass, right. To be able to. Fluidity and and to pivot and when needed, but at the same time, have a ver treasure, your focus and do what you know is gonna make an impact and bring us to tomorrow.
And, that’s really what I’m focused on.
Antoine Walter: Colleen, thanks a lot for the openness and thanks a lot. The fascinating exploration of the world of source. I’m pretty sure there’s much more matter for a sequel, someone down the line, but I think we have a thorough overview with that deep dive. So if that’s fine for you, I propose you to switch to the rapid fire questions.
Colin Goddard: Sounds great. Thanks.
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