Patrick Decker is the CEO of Xylem. Xylem is the fourth largest water business in the World and a water and wastewater technology company that's well known for its motto: "Let's solve water."

Eleven years ago, almost day for day, ITT spun off its water business to create Xylem. That move itself didn't change much, but the eleven years' journey that followed profoundly reshaped the company and, by extension, many aspects of the Water Industry itself. 

Patrick Decker has been leading that transformation for now almost nine years, and in a sometimes very conservative Water Sector, he's bringing much of a fresh breath! 

For instance, a couple days ahead of his WEFTEC visit, he shared on social media which days he would attend and invited anyone to come to talk with him at Xylem's booth. And as we'll discuss today, as walking the talk is a critical pillar of his values, he also really had those informal discussions: the perks of being approachable.

Does Xylem need the exposure of this podcast? Not at all; they already draw 1 billion people to their campaigns through their partnership with the City Football Group. But I think we all need the inspiration Patrick shares today.

Before even recording, he mentioned how he would be worse of a guest than his brilliant colleagues Austin Alexander and Sivan Zamir that already appeared on that microphone. It wasn't humble brag but a sound respect for his team.

And during and after recording, he addressed me as a peer in this Water Industry - which arguably I'm by no means, as I would be aware if I was leading a 5 billion business. 

What I want to underline here is how inspirational it is to see this kind of Water Leader. We know the challenges ahead, and it's good to see those qualities in the captains of the boats!

Patrick was kind enough to stop by my microphone to share this wisdom shot. But he also had to continue his journey, as he was awaited on scene to give his talk, which makes for a short episode today. 

As you can imagine, I have dozen more questions that I would love to raise him, and that's where you can help me to provide you with the answers.

If you like that first session and enjoy Patrick's answers, share that episode around you. Recommend it to your friends and peers, and come leave me a comment under my LinkedIn post to encourage Patrick to come back! I'm pretty confident that with the right level of support from all of you, I can win him over for a deeper dive. So come one, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side!

What's Patrick Decker's Call To Action? Let Us Solve Water!

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with 🎙️ Paul Gallay - Lecturer & Co-Director at the Columbia Climate School 

💧 Columbia University is a global leader in climate and sustainability education, aiming to bring an interdisciplinary knowledge base for future climate leaders to work with businesses, communities, governments, and civil society to address the climate crisis.

What we covered:

🌊 Why we failed at bringing people into the Water Equation and how we can act on it today 

🩺 How there's an intricate relationship between water quality and our health, and how the recent US EPA PFAS announcements moved the needle 

😊 How New York has been leading the battle against emerging contaminants since the 2018 Water Protection Act 

💪 How the best approach to protect quality is not to treat Water, but to protect it at the Source 

🚰 How New York secured its water future by entering into a Watershed agreement in the 1990s and what it involved 

💸 How nature-based solutions in the Catskill Mountains and in the Croton Watershed represented an eight-time better solution than grey-engineered alternatives 

🤝 How protecting New York's watershed has a bunch of welcome side effects for the local communities 

💙 Communities, Households, their link to water, societal involvement, the Army Corp of Engineers, the Hudson river... and much more!

🔥 … and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥   

➡️ Send your warm regards to Paul on LinkedIn. 

➡️ Check Columbia University's website  

➡️ A big THANK YOU to Sciens Water for enabling this episode!

➡️ Check out the full story on how New York leveraged nature to mitigate its Water Risk on the (don't) Waste Water website!   

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Paul Gallay is Lecturer & Co-Director at the Columbia Climate School. Columbia University is a global leader in climate and sustainability education, aiming to bring an interdisciplinary knowledge base for future climate leaders to work with businesses, communities, governments, and civil society to address the climate crisis.

If you recall Season 3, Episode 13, I had David Lloyd Owen on that microphone to discuss his book, Global Water Funding. I've said it several times ever since, but if there's one book you shall read to understand the water challenges ahead, it's this one. It's hard to read, it's packed, and it's dense, but it's invaluable!

So, in that book, I discovered the Catskill Mountain and Croton Watershed agreements, which the city of New York concluded in the 1990s. The Idea was to leverage nature-based solutions to prevent pollutants from entering New York's water scheme rather than heavily investing in a treatment plant that would take them out. 

Since then, we've further explored nature-based solutions on that microphone, with the City of Glasgow, the City of Paris, or watershed experiments in Italy and Austria. 

Yet, I had never heard of the one Paul will touch on in a minute after expanding on the New York watershed example I just mentioned. 

And that new program he'll introduce to us is the perfect example of a clever application of the Climate Change adaptation we discussed with Kevin Sofen last week. Climate Change is here to stay; it will have consequences, and fencing those off using nature sounds like a very sensible approach!

Water quality, involving communities, teaching, or further researching, there's a dense agenda for today's conversation. So without further due, let me remind you that if you like what you hear, please - and I can't stress that enough - share it around you. Grab your friends' phones, and subscribe them to the podcast. Recommend your favorite episode to a colleague, or tell the World with a LinkedIn post! And, of course, if there's anything you don't like about the podcast, come tell me!

Can Nature Protect New York From Water Catastrophes? Yes!

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with 🎙️ Kunal Shah - Chief Growth Officer at Anaergia and council member of the World Biogas Association, the Singapore Water Association, and Imagine H2O Asia. 

💧 Anaergia ambitions to convert waste into a carbon-negative fuel for a sustainable future.

What we covered:

🔸 How we only tap into a fraction of the biogas potential today and why 

🌎 How biomethane can change the Water Industry's carbon path at scale and today 

🤝 How beyond just wastewater's organic potential, there's an incredible synergy to develop with other waste streams and how to leverage it 

⛽ How a wastewater treatment plant can finally become a water resource factory, producing carbon negative fuel 

💰 How achieving this shift will prevent cities from disposing of valuable waste in landfills while increasing their overall revenue 

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 How Climate Change and Decarbonization talks should be integral parts of a modern company's culture 

3️⃣ The three sources of waste Anaergia leverages to feed its renewable natural gas supply chain  

🚀 The potential and limitations of all the current fads around new gas and energy sources  

⏲️ The scale at which a biogas project becomes viable and the secrets to fast-track payback times  

🧱 How breaking a Chinese wall inside a utility family actually changes the name of the game  

🌟 How the north star of utility decision-makers is evolving and how resilience trumps all other KPIs  

📆 How some still pursue fluffy targets while forward-looking utilities have clear marks with year-by-year rollouts  

🌱 How challenging it is to lead complex project sales in the Water Industry as a young professional  

💵 How much of a game-changer it was for Anaergia to walk the talk and finance its own endeavors from Day One  

3️⃣ The three bottlenecks of Anaergia’s growth (that don’t include the usual suspects)  

⚡ How Anaergia intends to become the “Tesla of Renewable Natural Gas” and how they execute that vision  

🧑‍🏫 How the Water Industry is a living MBA for young water professionals, how they are desperately needed, and how they can get support  

📈 The meaning of “Anaergia,” the common pitfalls of water entrepreneurship, resource recovery, Anaergia’s Ideal Customer Profile, Developing projects, Having skin in the game, Becoming a management partner for your customers... and so much more!

🔥 … and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥   

➡️ Send your warm regards to Kunal on LinkedIn 

➡️ Check Anaergia's website

➡️ Check out the full story (and an infographic) on how Carbon-Negative Fuels will decarbonize our World on the (don't) Waste Water Website!

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Hallo, bonjour, and welcome to the Don't waste water podcast! I am your host, Antoine Walter, and in today's episode, I am delighted to welcome Kunal Shah as my guest! Kunal is Chief Growth Officer at Anaergia, and a council member of the World Biogas Association, the Singapore Water Association, and Imagine H2O Asia. Anaergia ambitions to convert waste into a carbon-negative fuel for a sustainable future.

By Season 5, episode 12, we got to meet one of the Water Industry's legends, Andrew Benedek, the founder and architect of Zenon. There were so many nuggets to dig, from wastewater membranes to entrepreneurship through some of the boldest moves in our industry, that I didn't really cover his new endeavor with Anaergia.

Actually, to be honest, I did it on purpose at the time. Because when I interviewed Andrew, I had just met Kunal a couple weeks before at the Global Water Summit.

And the least I can say is that I got incredibly impressed by his speed of thought, his knowledge, and his accuracy. And as he had almost agreed to join me on that microphone, I wanted him to be our guide into the present and the future of biomethane production, aka our sector's carbon-negative fuel. 

I finally could take my microphones to Anaergia's office in Singapore some weeks ago, and let's face it, the rest is gold. 

But don't take my word for it; experience it for yourself. So I'll strive to keep this intro short and let you dive into Kunal's insight as fast as possible. 

Because when interviews are on my editing table, I always extract some highlights to share them on social media. Kunal broke a record: right now, I have about 14 minutes of highlights!

So remember, if you like what you hear, don't keep that knowledge for you. Sharing is Caring, take this episode and share it with a colleague, come tell me what you liked about it on LinkedIn, grab your friend's phones and subscribe them to the podcast, come on do it, and I'll meet you on the other side!

How to Make Carbon Negative Fuel, Boost Utility's Revenue and Save the World

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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. 

💧 The SDG Talks podcast highlights Change Makers and their work towards the UN SDGs with a sound passion for highlighting people and organizations that will transform the world into a better place for everyone.

What we covered:

💧 How Kevin first got involved with Water when he aimed to rethink H2O, and how his focus evolved into the SDG Talks 

🔵 How water's value is multi-faceted and how you need a holistic and almost ethnographic approach to really evaluate its impact 

🖇️ How Water is deeply interconnected with many - if not all - of the SDGs 

🚰 How we often lack information about Water Quality and how to take on that challenge - with examples from Flint or Jacksonville 

🌱 How it's time to not only fight climate change, but also start thinking about climate change adaptation technologies 

🤝 How everyone should take ownership of their Water Quality and how they may be coached to do so 

🏌️ Water as a vector of inclusion, Golfing next to Lake Michigan, Coach K, Elkhart Lake, Kevin's Why... and much more!

🔥 … and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥   

➡️ Send your warm regards to Kevin on LinkedIn. Or follow him on Twitter. 

➡️ Check the SDG Talk's website 

➡️ Enrich your curiosity's inner fire with the Smart Firefighting podcast's website

➡️ Check out the full story on how to close the water gap on the (don't) Waste Water website!  

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Kevin Sofen is Director of Innovation at W.S. Darley, but also a repeat podcast host with the Smart Firefighting podcast and the SDG Talks, a social entrepreneur with Wristsponsible, and adjunct professor at DePaul University, a multiple board member and a talent at Unleash. And if you wonder how he packs all of this in one life, don't worry, I wonder too! The SDG Talks podcast highlights Change Makers and their work towards the UN SDGs with a sound passion for highlighting people and organizations that will transform the World into a better place for everyone.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport. Where you have five acting as one, you become selfless. That's not from me; it's a quote from Coach K, the legendary 3 times basketball Olympic champion, 5 times NCAA winner, and Hall of Famer. 

Why do I talk about basketball? Well, because among all Kevin's activities, he's rolling out a coaching program that enforces people's ownership and intentionality toward their water. I'll let him expand on it in a minute.

But beyond the anecdote, the key message here to me is that change is a process no one can fully undergo alone. And if we want to change the World for the better, we need to team up, build upon each other's strengths, and get inspiration from proven best practices.

So Kevin sharing two hands full of his volunteering, activist, associative, business-related, or entrepreneurial experiences is like a mini-masterclass and a powerful refuel on inspiration. 

I bet that in some minutes, you'll start seeing SDGs differently, starting with all the ones that are not number 6. And if I further zoom out, you may look at water with a different eye. 

But without further teasing, I'll let you dive into my conversation with Kevin right after reminding you that if you like what you hear, please - and I can't stress that enough - share it around you. Grab your friends' phones, and subscribe them to the podcast. Recommend your favorite episode to a colleague, or tell World with a LinkedIn post! And, of course, if there's anything you don't like about the podcast, come tell me; I'm doing my best to better that content, one episode at a time.

Come on, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side. 

The Dear Link Between Water, SDGs and our Everyday Lives

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with 🎙️ George McGraw - CEO & Founder of DigDeep 

💧 DigDeep is a human rights nonprofit serving the 2.2 million+ Americans without the sinks, bathtubs, or toilets that the rest of the US takes for granted.

What we covered:

🤯 How 2.2 million Americans don't have access to water and wastewater services at home and how these places affected by the Water Gap could be at a 10-minute drive of your home 

🍀 How investing in water offers an insane return on investment of five dollars for one! 

😊 How access to water solves a wide array of problems, starting with undervalued ones like type two diabetes 

🌱 How DigDeep came to existence, what it aims to solve and how it intends to have an impact on these million lives 

🚰 How closing the gap doesn't stop at the people that desperately miss WASH services but also involves guaranteeing better tap water quality to 44 million Americans 

🤝 How we will need to think a bit laterally and change our approach to closing the water gap - as traditional approaches have failed for decades 

💸 How closing the water gap is before all a wrong pocket problem, what it involves, and how we can tackle this 

🥛 How looking at the water challenge, you can see whether a half-full or a half-empty glass (pun unintended) 

🏫 When DigDeep envisions achieving its mission and why seeing them disappear would be awesome news for all the right reasons  

🚱 How solving up to the nitty gritty details will build a better world, one plumbing line at a time 

✈️ The limits of central governments, finding the right catchphrase, getting inspired by the Airline Industry, One Water, Joining the movement, leveraging federal investment... and much more!

🔥 … and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥   

➡️ Send your warm regards to George on LinkedIn. Or follow DigDeep on Twitter. 

➡️ Check DigDeep's website  

➡️ Check out the full story on how to close the water gap on the (don't) Waste Water website!  

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George McGraw is the CEO and Founder of DigDeep. DigDeep is a human rights nonprofit serving the 2.2 million+ Americans without the sinks, bathtubs, or toilets that the rest of the developed World takes for granted.

I hope that the 2.2 million figure shocked you so much when I first mentioned it on that microphone a couple weeks ago in my introduction to my conversation with Colin Goddard from Source that you couldn't forget it. Cause I couldn't, honestly!

If the richest country in the World struggles to bring tap water and sewage services to its entire population, doesn't it mean that we're somewhat doomed everywhere around the World?

Actually, sitting down with George is exactly the kind of experience that makes you think: yes, there's a big problem. Probably even bigger than we all think it is. But at the same time, it's absolutely solvable. Or to quote him: humanity has solved much more complex issues than this one!

So why do we still repeatedly fail at closing the water gap? Why, despite the brilliant minds and charismatic leaders from Bill Gates to Mina Gulli through Matt Damon and, of course George McGraw, that devote themselves to solving that riddle, why do we keep failing?

Well, it might all boil down to one single issue. The wrong pocket's symptom. Those who've been in sales know the power of the right incentive! That is exactly where we're failing today. We heavily rely on utilities to manage water, and utilities are disincentivized to invest in helping these struggling communities because they would never be the ones reaping the benefits of this right move. 

But if there's one thing you'll be convinced of once you've listened to George, it's that we're not doomed at all. It takes half-full type of persons like him to bring us back on track, and I'm sure you'll exit this conversation freshly energized to go out and reap the five-to-one investment opportunity there is in doing what's right and good for everyone. 

So, if I'm right and George's message hits home with you, don't keep it secret. Take that podcast wherever you're listening from, hit the "share" button, and pass it over to one person over WhatsApp, LinkedIn, or TikTok for all that matters! Wanna distribute it further? Of course, please do so! But even just one person more that gets the message is one step closer to the goal of closing the water gap. 

Come on, do it, and I'll meet you on the other side. 

Will you help Closing the Water Gap and Save Lives?

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with 🎙️ Errick Simmons - Mayor of Greenville, Mississippi, and co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative.

💧 The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative works to improve the river's water quality, restore its habitat, coordinate the state's efforts, create sustainable economies around the basin, and celebrate the river's culture and history.

What we covered:

🧠 How to rethink water we need to rethink the World - what Errick has been contributing to at the last COP 26 

🍀 How managing a river basin involves the entire Social, Environmental, and Governance spectrum of activities 

👦🏽 How finding a way to attract and involve youth is a decisive factor in guaranteeing our water systems' resilience in the coming decades 

👴🏽 How the retiring workforce also leaves with a treasure of knowledge that needs to be transferred and safeguarded, and how it may require thinking laterally 

🌊 How large-scale natural events and catastrophes impact a river basin and what can be done to preserve communities and perform pre-disaster mitigation 

🤝 How the recent events in Jacksonville, Mississippi, highlight the need to reinforce solidarity and collaboration between neighbors and co-citizens of watersheds. 

💪 How private and public forces should join their efforts to benefit from the best of two worlds - especially in presence of high social challenges 

💻 How solutions from the past won't be solutions for the future, what needs to change, and what role digitization will play in this 

🏫 How solving the water riddle probably starts with water education and which role universities, scholarships, and grants will play in this 

🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏾 How diversity is an everyday battle, and how it is the best way to ensure we tap into our community's full potential 

💚 Partnerships, water becoming the "cool kid on the block," water management as an integral part of environmental protection... and much more!

🔥 … and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥   

➡️ Send your warm regards to Errick on Twitter  

➡️ Check the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative's website 

➡️ Check out the full story on how to overcome the silver wave by turning water sexy on the (don't) Waste Water website! 

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