report.thewatercouncil.com2023 Report - Water Council Annual Report

2023 Annual Report Letter from the Chairman NSF Resiliency Engine Innovation Water Stewardship Collaboration Our Members Our Board Our Staff Menu Letter from the Chairman NSF Resiliency Engine Innovation Water Stewardship Collaboration Our Members Our Board Our Staff Letter from the Chairman 2023 was an amazing year for The Water Council! Our big news, of course, was our successful application for a $1 million Development Award from the National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines program. This award will help us, together with our partners, build an Engine focused on water and energy resiliency and sustainability for manufacturers and utilities. It is a game changer for The Water Council with the potential for an even bigger impact on our region of eastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. But that’s not all we achieved this year. Our international connections continue to grow, as evidenced by our participation in UN Water Week, our hosting of an international business development tour with representatives from nine countries, our continued collaboration with the U.S. Water Partnership and Phuket, Thailand, and more. In September, we hosted the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Roadshow to help water technology entrepreneurs learn more about expanding into markets through the ADB, World Bank, U.S. Trade & Development Agency and more. We accomplished all that while continuing our renowned innovation programming. Our BREW 2.0 Post-Accelerator held its first in-person week of programming in Milwaukee, including a Demo Day and our first-ever curated investor event. This year’s international cohort of ten water technology startups was particularly strong, and it’s been inspiring to see how they support each other. We also held two Tech Challenges, with particularly strong results for our fall challenge. In the area of water stewardship, we grew our WAVE: Water Stewardship Verified program in its second year to 15 companies and organizations, including four that have been WAVE verified. We established an exciting partnership with fellow Milwaukee organization Rockwell Automation and continued our work with the American Chemistry Council and Suppliers Partnership for the Environment. As we continue to grow in our mission to solve global water challenges through innovation and water stewardship, we are grateful for the support of our members, partners, sponsors, board directors and staff. In my final year as board chairman, I am proud to see all The Water Council has accomplished in the last few years and to hand the reins to our new chair in 2024, Scott Beightol of Michael Best. Sincerely, Jim Stern Executive Vice President, A. O. Smith Corporation Chairman, The Water Council NSF Resiliency Engine In a thrilling development, the National Science Foundation (NSF) in May awarded The Water Council and our partners $1 million to develop a regional Engine focused on water and energy resiliency and sustainability for manufacturers and utilities . This development grant was part of the first round of awards for NSF’s new Regional Innovation Engines program, meant to: Advance critical technologies. Address pressing national and societal challenges. Cultivate partnerships across industry, academia, government, nonprofits, civil society and communities of practice. Promote and stimulate economic growth and job creation. Spur regional innovation and talent. The program is designed around the concept of use-inspired research, meaning Engines must uncover problems faced by their end users (in our case, manufacturers and water, wastewater and energy utilities) and find, develop and scale solutions. We selected a region concentrated around our hometown of Milwaukee that includes eastern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, home to leading energy and water technology companies, renowned research universities and a strong manufacturing sector. The Engine will align these resources to focus on water and energy resiliency and sustainability while ensuring the area offers a strong innovation pipeline and diverse, trained workforce to identify needs and quickly move solutions from the laboratory to the factory floor. Over the two years of the Development Award, The Water Council and our partners will prepare to apply for the next stage in the program, a Launch Award of up to $160 million over 10 years. This could be a true game-changer for our region. We are developing the Engine by: Holding stakeholder focus groups and visioning sessions to broaden and strengthen stakeholder engagement. Creating a roadmap of existing and needed programs for supporting solutions at every stage, from research to commercialization. Identifying university and industry research aligned with water and energy solutions. Expanding pathways within the investor community to support solutions. Developing a comprehensive and inclusive workforce strategy. Creating a talent development action plan. Since receiving the award, we have formed focus groups in areas such as university research, manufacturing, investment, workforce development, and diversity, equity and inclusion to make sure we set up the Engine for success. We are conducting customer discovery sessions to learn more about the water and energy challenges faced by manufacturers and utilities so we can narrow our focus and select relevant research topics. Finally, we are making sure we have the correct mix of partners to ensure the Engine is effective and self-sustaining after its launch. This is an exciting development not just for The Water Council, but also the region and our water technology members, many of whom will be able to share, develop and scale their solutions through this Engine. NSF Resiliency Engine Lead Partners Innovation The Water Council supports global innovation in the water technology sector through matchmaking, member services, networking and our signature innovation programs: BREW 2.0 Post Accelerator, Tech Challenge and Pilot Program. Brew 2.0 This year, we hosted in-person programming for our BREW 2.0 Post-Accelerator for the first time since we introduced the reimagined program in 2021. This hybrid program includes virtual training and a week of in-person programming and events in Milwaukee, culminating in a Demo Day when participants pitch their innovations to a live and virtual worldwide audience. In 2023 we added a curated investor event in partnership with NVNG Investment Advisors and hosted by Baird. Our 2023 cohort included strong global representation, with companies from the U.S., France, Norway, Spain and Slovakia. The companies all spoke highly of the program and their time in Milwaukee, and we enjoyed seeing how tight knit the cohort became this year. We were pleased to welcome an additional sponsor this year, Xylem, joining existing sponsors Beckhoff Automation and Thales Water Advisors. In addition to financial support, these sponsors provide valuable expertise and connections to our BREW companies. 2023 BREW COHORT Aquacycl Energy-neutral wastewater treatment-as-a-service for industrial, agricultural & residential applications Cimico Innovative solutions for wastewater biological treatment Enspired Solutions EPA-award-winning technology to destroy toxic PFAS molecules in water Genesis Systems Novel high-efficiency, low-cost, renewable utility scale water supplies developed from air Infotiles Software-as-a-service for water & wastewater management In-Pipe Robot Robotic pipeline inspection solutions with advanced software Meratch Internet-of-things sensor & software for measuring water level, flow, temperature & other water parameters Nucleic Sensing Systems Innovative equipment & solutions that provide insight into critical biological activity Redberry SAAS Simple, automated & precise microbiological water quality monitoring solutions SampleServe Software solution to streamline sample collection & lab analysis workflows SPONSORS Tech Challenge Our fall Tech Challenge yielded a record-setting crop of...