August 2017 Vol. 72 No. 8
Business
Arcadis Report Underscores Importance, Value Of Innovation
As North American water utilities imagine the future of providing on-demand, high-quality, affordable water and sanitation services to the hundreds of millions of customers who depend on them, a new report underscores the value of innovation in meeting those challenges.
Empowering Water Utility Innovation, from Arcadis, a global design and consultancy firm for natural and built assets, is based on a water and wastewater utility survey, and face-to-face workshops conducted with 423 leaders and professionals across 82 urban water utilities. A major finding was that more than 90 percent of respondents believe innovation is critical to their organization, however, only 40 percent engage innovation as a business practice.
The report reveals how innovation generates measurable ROI while resulting in social, environmental and economic benefits, ultimately improving quality of life for a utility’s customers. Specific innovations, such as stormwater harvesting, advanced metering and real-time system monitoring, are mentioned as pathways to maximizing results.
“By building a culture of creativity, investment, experimentation and incubation, utilities can deploy innovation to foster new approaches to serving customers, managing facilities and funding infrastructure improvements,” said Jason Carter, delivery and innovation lead at Arcadis North America. “Innovation enables utilities to effectively engage internal and external resources to continuously improve operations and increase value for their customers through improved system resiliency, efficiency and quality, the three elements of water sustainability.”
The report also highlights the Utility Innovation Framework as a tool for overcoming barriers and aligning organizational goals with innovation goals, and several case studies that illustrate how embracing innovation reaps sustainability dividends.
The Arcadis report builds on Fostering Innovation Within Water Utilities, an industry guidance manual published by the Water Research Foundation (WRF) and Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF), for which Carter served as the principal investigator.
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