Let’s unpack Evoqua’s intricate approach to Open Innovation – a strategy that significantly optimizes technological adoption and capital efficiency. We’ll get an expert breakdown, offering insights into strategic intellectual property development, the nuances of their merger and acquisition strategies, and why the Product Vitality Index should become your next key performance indicator: with 🎙️ Ann … Read more

You may recall how we covered the Xylem Innovation Labs’ inception last year with Sivan Zamir, which led to many questions as to how they actually work! Let’s open the hood and explore how Xylem scouts the best prospects, multiplies their commercial references by 10 and propels them to new heights all of that… without … Read more

Is AI a force for good or a double-edged sword? In this comprehensive look, we’ll discuss everything from the ethics of AI to its transformative role in sustainability. Are you ready to understand the complexities of an “AI Sustainable Future?” Let’s dive right in: with 🎙️ Alice Schmidt, MBA lecturer, Adviser to the European Commission, … Read more

Mangrove Lithium started as a Water Technology play, yet it rapidly became evident that Lithium refining was an even stronger product market fit! Mangrove’s clever pivot was rapidly rewarded with a powerful business angel: Breakthrough Energy Ventures. What’s so sexy about electrochemical lithium refining that it attracted Bill Gates? Let’s explore: with 🎙️ Saad Dara … Read more

Everybody wants to be the big dog one day! But how do you ensure staying on top once you’ve secured the number 1? That’s what we explore today, as we prove innovation to be key, at the intersection of membrane filtration, digital twins, and sustainability. Let’s wander the ever-evolving landscape of the global water industry … Read more

In a rapidly changing environment, how does a company that’s around for over two centuries ensure to stay on top of the game? How does an old unicorn work in symbiosis with a bubbling start-up ecosystem? How does it apprehend new tidal waves such as the lithium and EV revolution? Let’s find out: (Also check … Read more

Ready for an epic journey? Strap in as we rock’n roll from deep-down brine to powering our future through lithium! We’re plunging into the buzz around Direct Lithium Extraction and companies like Standard Lithium who are making magic happen. Water and lithium – it’s a wild ride, let’s follow our guide this week: (Find out … Read more

Humans are the third pillar of sustainability, and for too long, they’ve been left out of the equation of sustainable lithium production. So it’s about time to integrate all shareholders and first nations in particular in the lithium revolution discussion. How? Let’s explore: (Also check my entire Lithium deep dive!) with 🎙️ Christopher Brown – … Read more

Aquatech is in business for 40 years, yet it is on the verge of taking a new dimension through two spectacular contracts in lithium refining: Lithium America’s Thacker Pass and Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hell Kitchen. Couple it with the company’s rise in Water as a Service (30% of its revenue today, soon to reach 50%) … Read more

Membrane filtration is a fast-moving scene striving for innovation and quite differentiated approaches. But has it ever been as disruptive as 3D-Printed spacers and graphene coating that puts performance on steroids? Let’s dive into one of the most fascinating takes on the matter in years: (Also check my entire Lithium deep dive!) with 🎙️ Chris … Read more

Battery-grade lithium can have a significant carbon impact through its production, refining, and transport stages. Yet, an Australian company with a European project may well have found the solution with its Zero Carbon Lithium: Vulcan Energy Resources. And its product is flying off the shelves… years ahead of its actual production. How’s that possible? Let’s … Read more

Have you ever heard of the Lithium King? That’s the title Shale Magazine gave to EnergyX’s founder and CEO, Teague Egan. So what got him that recognition? It could be the company’s patents along the entire battery supply chain, their differentiated direct lithium extraction technology, or the company’s claim that they offer the best complement … Read more

There’s a company that can boast having worked on turning any possible source of Lithium to battery grade: Veolia. How does the Water Giant double down as a lithium refinery builder? Let’s find out. Find out more with my entire Lithium deep dive. with 🎙️ Jim Rieke – VP of Process Engineering at Veolia Water … Read more

😮 Anaergia’s flagship asset, the Rialto Bioenergy Facility, just filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. What happened? What are the problems? What’s next? Let’s review ⬇ with 🎙️ Antoine Walter, Podcaster in Chief at GF Piping Systems

Standard Lithium shall become the first company ever to run a Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) process at a commercial scale by the mid-decade in El Dorado, Arkansas. How did they manage to fast-track this project? Let’s dive into their DLE secrets. Find out more with my entire Lithium deep dive. with 🎙️ Robert Mintak – … Read more

When you visit a foreign country, it’s often a smart move to start by getting the basics of language and culture. That’s our agenda for today: let us break down the fundamentals of lithium processes! Find out more with my entire Lithium deep dive. with 🎙️ Tony Strobbe – EV supply chain Projects Director 💧 … Read more

Lithium Mining shall get from 500’000 tons per year to at least 2 if not 3 or 5 million tons by 2030. How will we get there? We’ll need a lot of planets to align… and heavy support from the Water Industry! Find out more with my entire Lithium deep dive. with 🎙️ Benjamin Sparrow … Read more

Water Companies can face a wide array of events: creation, expansion, profit, losses, and sometimes even death. Yet one specific change is maybe the most transformative: getting sold and transferred to a new owner. If that’s well documented for large water groups, it’s a much different story for smaller water companies: let’s explore it! with … Read more

The top 10 risks ranked in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report all relate to Water. If that’s not a sign that it is time to get your Water Risk Assessments right, I don’t know what is! Not convinced yet? Let’s dig further: with 🎙️ Jennifer Möller-Gulland, Water Risk Expert and Water Economist for … Read more

Zwitterions are weird beasts with two fascinating perks: being simultaneously positively and negatively charged turns them highly hydrophilic and very resistant to non-specific adhesion. Wouldn’t that make them the best special sauce to pump up a membrane filtration system? Let’s find out! with 🎙️ Alex Rappaport, CEO and Co-Founder of ZwitterCo.  💧 ZwitterCo leverages the … Read more

When marketing focuses on “Promotion” only, it limits itself to 8% of its possible spectrum. And it has consequences! Product-market Fit, go-to-market strategies, or strategic directions for the company might suffer from that tropism on the last link in the tactics chain. Who is to blame? Most of the time, top management. with 🎙️ Björn … Read more

with 🎙️ Paul Gagliardo, Judge and advisor at Imagine H2O, and Principal at Gagliacqua.      💧 Paul also runs the Water Entrepreneur, an incredibly good water podcast that is one of my personal favorites and which also turns out to be a family business as Paul will elaborate on later on in the conversation.

Everybody predicted Water Wars would eventually happen one day, and for many places in the World, we’re far past the days where these conflicts would just be a concept. Yet, the scenes that we experienced in France over the past few days came as a surprise, in a water-rich first World country. What does it … Read more

with 🎙️ Ben Kimura Gross, CEO of Systemics Academy, Negotiation Trainer, and Mentor.      💧 At Negotiation with Goliath, Ben trains sustainability professionals and entrepreneurs to get decision-makers on their side and make your goals their goals.

Ozone is a water technology that has been around for over a century. Its players are established (and entrenched), it’s a $1.4 billion sub-section of the disinfection sector, and it doesn’t seem to be much left for technical disruption. And maybe against the odds, it’s a fertile ground for a great entrepreneurial venture! How? Let’s … Read more

Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) provides a systematic framework to identify and assess environmental impacts associated with a product or service, including energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, waste generation, and as probably most interesting for us, water use. Hence, LCA is a powerful decision-making tool that helps identify opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, improve efficiency, and promote … Read more

Many decisions we make may look good on a small scale, yet as soon as we zoom out, we realize that they were the wrong choice in the end. That’s all fine when it’s about eating the last chocolate chunk in the box, but it’s an entirely different story when it comes to Water, its … Read more

Membrion is on track to become one of the loveliest success stories within the Water Industry. That’s everything but a coincidence: it is instead the result of a methodical build-up of the customer link. And you can actually steal this methodology today, as my guest rolls it out for you: with 🎙️ Greg Newbloom, CEO … Read more

When we discuss the water crisis in America, we often focus on a certain section of the Water Cycle: residential water. Yet, that’s only a fraction of the challenge and probably not the one where water is valued the most. Indeed, could you imagine industrial production without water? That’s why it’s a risk, and the … Read more

There are a lot of parameters to consider when planning infrastructure for today and the decades to come. It is a compound of existing assets, communities, social issues, vulnerabilities but also water and climate data. This is why democratizing access to all those datasets is so crucial to solving the water crisis in America! And … Read more

15% of America’s water is already in private hands. For some, that’s a concern! For others (including me) that’s a proof of concept to ask for more. How could private capital help solve America’s water crisis? That’s what we’ll explore: with 🎙️ Henry Cordes, Principal at Sciens Water 💧 Sciens is a research-driven investment fund … Read more

How does an investor decide to fund a water technology or a water company? Are they sitting in a Shark Tank environment and following their instinct to make a decision in minutes? That’s very unlikely, right? Yet, you won’t know before you actually ask about the research and due diligence process. That’s what we explore … Read more

There’s a treasure in the sewer, and we barely notice: wastewater and its pee and poo are an incredible source of water, energy, and a bunch of additional resources. Better: it could solve the World’s water needs and help balance the Zero Carbon energy equation. How? Let’s explore: with 🎙️ Antoine Walter – Podcaster in … Read more

At the exact point in time where governments are heavily investing in renewing their central water infrastructure, distributed water treatments still grow at a 3x faster pace! Does this mean we will soon all have a Water Filter ordered from Amazon and screwed under our sinks? Let’s explore: with 🎙️ Upmanu Lall – Director of … Read more

If Climate Change was a shark, water would be its teeth – once we’ve said that, what happens? Not much. Still, 70% of Climate Change’s consequences will be felt through water. Isn’t it time to better prepare for Climate Change Adaptation? Let’s explore: with 🎙️ Lauren Enright – Founder of Axiom Climate LLC with 🎙️ … Read more

With 50’000 water and 35’000 wastewater utilities, the US Water Sector is highly scattered. This has consequences: 63 million Americans are potentially exposed to unsafe drinking water! This is where consolidation and especially the one happening on the smaller system’s level, sparks hope. I got to meet with US’s largest consolidator – in less than … Read more

Philanthropic Capital could be the third source of investment the Water Sector desperately needed to find a balance. How will the blend of philanthropy into private funding and federal grants change the name of the game? Let’s explore: with 🎙️ Sean Davis, founder and managing director of Merton Capital Partners, adjunct professor at the Palm … Read more

The Water Challenge is three-dimensional. We face broken pipes, broken policies, and broken economics! Yet, if we get to the bottom of it, the economic one seems to be the root cause of all the other problems. What if Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs actually explained it? That’s what we’ll uncover: with 🎙️ Tom Rooney … Read more

De Nora Water Technologies entered the water business in 2015 – with a bang. Under the lead of Mirka Wilderer (since 2019), the company further grew up to a successful IPO in July 2022. What’s to learn from it? What’s on De Nora’s and Mirka’s plate for the next months and years? Let’s explore: with … Read more

with 🎙️ Henrik Hagemann is the CEO and Co-Founder of Puraffinity.    💧 Puraffinity is a GreenTech Company that designs smart materials for environmental applications.​ Their cutting-edge material design and creative engineering approach may provide a new horizon to solve the daunting PFAS / Forever chemicals challenge we face.

Patrick Decker became Xylem’s CEO in 2014. At the time, the company was a renowned product supplier in the Water Industry. Yet under its lead, Xylem further expanded to become a solution provider fostering and nurturing its surrounding ecosystem. Patrick was kind enough to spend some time with me to review some of the hot … Read more

New York City did a bold move in the 1990s by betting on Nature-Based Solutions to protect its drinking water quality. Yet new challenges arise: how can nature help the Big Apple on its path to Climate Change adaptation? Let’s explore: with 🎙️ Paul Gallay – Lecturer & Co-Director at the Columbia Climate School 💧 … Read more

Climate Change recalls us every day how important it is for the World to accelerate on its path to decarbonization. Today, the Water Industry is everything but carbon neutral: yet this could change today and at scale if we do it right! How? With a carbon-negative fuel. You already know that fuel: we’re talking about … Read more

When it comes to Sustainable Development Goals, we often limit Water to SDG 6. Yet, water plays a key role in many more of them! Let’s explore it: with 🎙️ Kevin Sofen – Director of Innovation at W. S. Darley & Co., Host of the Smart Firefighting podcast, and Co-Host of the SDG Talks Podcast. … Read more

2.2 million Americans don’t have access to water and wastewater services in their homes. 44 million more recently experienced water quality issues. Isn’t it time to effectively close the water gap? The first step to closing is probably acknowledging: an information mission that’s been taken on by DigDeep. Today, we’ll explore how they act to … Read more

We’ve been regularly touching on how we’re facing an aging water infrastructure: and so is the water workforce as well! In light of the “silver wave,” we currently experience, how can we transform the water industry to attract new, diverse and dynamic talents? This age and knowledge pyramid problem is of particular concern when you’re … Read more

The job of a Water Professional can be lonely: in many utilities, water treaters are on their own – or not far from it. But to keep you growing as a person, a certain friend has your back, your favorite water podcast. Don’t worry; this one is not about bragging (as much as I praise … Read more

Our World is facing new water challenges that will be hard to solve with old solutions only. This means that helping new entrants and mid-market green tech companies to thrive is also the best segway to putting their impact on steroids! But navigating the jungle of finance, investment, regulations, institutions, and existing business canvas can … Read more