Solutions to the Freshwater Crisis are Here - It’s Time to Implement | Transcend Interview - GreenBusinessImpact

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:15):
So this doesn't lead to a lot of new innovations that could truly change our world.
And during this interview today, Adam Tank.
.333333333Chief Customer Officer at Transcend talks about how their technology can do all the upfront grunt work and heavy lifting to propose new sustainable projects faster and more efficiently than ever before. 5 00:00:38,713.333333333 --> 00:00:43,138.333333333 So to learn exactly how Adam and his team Transcend are making this happen. 6 00:00:43,148.333333333 --> 00:00:46,478.333333333 Stay tuned for this entire amazing interview. 7 00:01:22,508.945578231 --> 00:01:35,911.825396825 Adam, I know you're in a quite a number of different ventures, so I'd love to hear about all of what you're doing and just, tell us a little bit of an overall picture about what you're doing and then we can dive into more of the details throughout this show. 8 00:01:35,911.825396825 --> 00:01:37,659.263038549 So go ahead and tell us about you, Adam. 9 00:01:37,869.263038549 --> 00:01:38,169.263038549 Sure. 10 00:01:38,169.263038549 --> 00:01:38,649.263038549 Sounds good. 11 00:01:38,649.263038549 --> 00:01:39,189.263038549 Thanks Billy. 12 00:01:39,189.263038549 --> 00:01:40,989.26303855 So I am Adam Tank. 13 00:01:41,19.26303855 --> 00:01:54,192.59637188 I'm a serial entrepreneur in the water industry and believe that water is, Next big, we'll call it, earth critical or society critical topic that very few people are talking about. 14 00:01:54,202.59637188 --> 00:02:00,625.92970522 And the world of water is varied, vast, large, incredibly exciting, unbelievably complex. 15 00:02:00,635.92970522 --> 00:02:09,625.92970522 And the work that I'm doing and where I'm spending most of my time right now is helping water utilities, project developers, engineers, streamline the process. 16 00:02:09,635.92970522 --> 00:02:15,585.92970522 Designing and assessing options for water and wastewater treatment infrastructure around the world. 17 00:02:15,595.92970522 --> 00:02:18,623.70748299 So I run a software company with another co-founder. 18 00:02:18,953.70748299 --> 00:02:24,423.70748299 We've grown from 12 people three years ago to now over 65, almost 70 today. 19 00:02:24,428.70748299 --> 00:02:28,508.70748299 And our tool has been used to design over 10,000 treatment plants globally. 20 00:02:28,518.70748299 --> 00:02:29,688.70748299 So it's been a really fun ride. 21 00:02:29,698.70748299 --> 00:02:30,928.70748299 Wow, that's amazing. 22 00:02:30,928.70748299 --> 00:02:32,672.46031746 And I that's something really to be proud of. 23 00:02:32,672.46031746 --> 00:02:34,352.46031746 10,000 different facilities. 24 00:02:34,352.46031746 --> 00:02:35,72.46031746 That's amazing. 25 00:02:35,72.46031746 --> 00:02:35,432.46031746 Thank you. 26 00:02:35,473.41269841 --> 00:02:41,584.62585034 How quick has that, growth been for you guys? It seems 12 people to 65 and over 10,000 facilities. 27 00:02:41,646.11111111 --> 00:02:44,315.49886621 That's quite a trajectory, which is awesome. 28 00:02:44,315.49886621 --> 00:02:44,544.20634921 Yeah. 29 00:02:44,544.20634921 --> 00:02:46,361.64399093 It has been a true rollercoaster. 30 00:02:46,361.64399093 --> 00:02:49,973.71882086 People talk about the startup journey and. 31 00:02:49,983.71882086 --> 00:02:52,819.37641723 You know this idea of being a unicorn or having you. 32 00:02:52,829.37641723 --> 00:02:53,969.37641723 Logarithmic growth. 33 00:02:53,969.37641723 --> 00:02:56,759.37641723 And you always see the hockey stick charts and everyone's always talking about that. 34 00:02:56,999.37641723 --> 00:03:00,42.42630385 That very rarely happens in climate tech startups. 35 00:03:00,47.42630385 --> 00:03:01,810.37414966 definitely not in water tech startups. 36 00:03:01,810.37414966 --> 00:03:08,246.30385488 And I'm not saying that we're there cuz we're not, but we certainly feel like that energy is palpable, if you will. 37 00:03:08,251.30385488 --> 00:03:13,450.36281179 So when we started the company, we raised about 3 million, as a seed financing to get it off the ground. 38 00:03:13,780.36281179 --> 00:03:14,920.36281179 And then we raised another. 39 00:03:14,930.36281179 --> 00:03:16,850.36281179 About a year and a half or two years into it. 40 00:03:16,850.36281179 --> 00:03:19,710.36281179 So we raised just north of 13 total to do this. 41 00:03:20,10.36281179 --> 00:03:21,665.36281179 And the future is bright. 42 00:03:21,670.36281179 --> 00:03:22,985.36281179 I'm really excited about it. 43 00:03:23,51.6553288 --> 00:03:23,531.6553288 That's awesome. 44 00:03:23,531.6553288 --> 00:03:41,649.67120181 And what are you in the day to day operations of things? Are you still on the side of do you get to get your hands dirty and work with companies or are you more overseeing on the top level? Where are you in all of it? Yeah, so in the early days I was like all of us had my hand in everything. 45 00:03:41,659.67120181 --> 00:03:44,189.67120181 So I was in sales and product marketing in. 46 00:03:44,194.67120181 --> 00:03:49,864.67120181 The tech side of the house in recruiting and all that stuff, I still do get my hands very dirty. 47 00:03:49,894.67120181 --> 00:03:53,134.67120181 We are still truly startup, very lean, very nimble. 48 00:03:53,464.67120181 --> 00:03:58,449.67120181 No two days look the same, but I have become much more strategic in a way. 49 00:03:58,749.67120181 --> 00:04:07,122.98185941 So my role as chief customer Officer and what that means is, I work to ensure that our customers are actually using the tool to the best of its capabilities. 50 00:04:07,127.98185941 --> 00:04:10,607.98185941 And then I also am in charge of the marketing for the company. 51 00:04:10,617.98185941 --> 00:04:14,637.98185941 So between those two, it's not just like hand wavy thought leadership. 52 00:04:14,637.98185941 --> 00:04:21,770.44217687 It's no I'm looking at our ads accounts, getting on customer calls, going to conferences, right? Doing all that stuff that you need to do in order to be successful. 53 00:04:21,770.44217687 --> 00:04:23,826.58730159 And if I wasn't doing those things, I still wouldn't be here. 54 00:04:23,856.58730159 --> 00:04:24,6.58730159 I'd. 55 00:04:24,94.65986395 --> 00:04:25,234.65986395 That's when it's not fun anymore. 56 00:04:25,294.65986395 --> 00:04:26,464.65986395 I still like to get my hands dirty. 57 00:04:26,469.65986395 --> 00:04:26,889.65986395 Definitely. 58 00:04:26,889.65986395 --> 00:04:27,519.65986395 That's cool. 59 00:04:27,759.65986395 --> 00:04:39,149.58049887 And so I guess this is a good time to talk about, what is your software do and how does it help companies, design their, water facilities and infrastructure? Sure. 60 00:04:39,389.58049887 --> 00:04:52,800.31746032 So the one of the biggest challenges we have, In the world of water, is that there are an unbelievable amount of innovative, sustainable, proven technologies that can treat water and wastewater. 61 00:04:52,810.31746032 --> 00:04:57,371.98412698 That could really change the freshwater crisis, that we're having for the better. 62 00:04:57,451.66666667 --> 00:05:00,121.66666667 And I won't say do it overnight, but pretty close. 63 00:05:00,511.66666667 --> 00:05:02,459.08163265 The problem is that those technologies. 64 00:05:02,464.08163265 --> 00:05:19,250.74829932 Oftentimes don't have a chance to scale meaningfully in the industry because it takes an unbelievable amount of engineering work and data analysis to determine, is this technology a best fit for this project? So what ends up happening is you spend six months assessing your options. 65 00:05:19,520.74829932 --> 00:05:26,867.21088435 Inevitably, the utilities who are fairly risk averse, say, It sounds like it could be good, maybe it hasn't been tried in my city or my state or my country. 66 00:05:26,872.21088435 --> 00:05:36,302.21088435 And then the engineering firm who's responsible for doing this work will also say, yeah, it looks good, but it's probably safer to go with a conventional technology or conventional type of treatment. 67 00:05:36,312.21088435 --> 00:05:40,905.54421769 And so these technologies that can seriously help us overcome this freshwater crisis. 68 00:05:40,915.54421769 --> 00:05:50,198.90022676 Are still, stuck in like a pilot stage or a lab stage, or maybe a handful of projects scattered across a given region, but they don't have the chance to meaningfully scale. 69 00:05:50,198.90022676 --> 00:06:03,887.93650794 So what we're doing and the whole reason that we exist is because we want to enable project developers, utilities, engineers, to rapidly assess what are the benefits of proven sustainable treatment technologies. 70 00:06:04,277.93650794 --> 00:06:16,127.93650794 Do it early on in the project phase so they can make an assessment very early to say, Hey, this is something we should be considering, and hey, utility or asset owner, this is why this will benefit you and this is why we propose. 71 00:06:16,137.93650794 --> 00:06:17,97.93650794 This given option. 72 00:06:17,97.93650794 --> 00:06:26,834.36507936 So our tool in a matter of, 15, 20 minutes up front, instantly kicks out basically a full set of engineering documents and designs for given technologies. 73 00:06:26,844.36507936 --> 00:06:28,580.53287982 So the engineers can say yes. 74 00:06:28,585.53287982 --> 00:06:33,140.53287982 Here's the data based on CapEx, opex, greenhouse gas emission carbon footprint. 75 00:06:33,380.53287982 --> 00:06:36,290.53287982 Instantly know what the benefits are of a certain technology over. 76 00:06:36,362.59637188 --> 00:06:37,22.59637188 That's awesome. 77 00:06:37,22.59637188 --> 00:06:41,240.12471655 Just being able to check all those boxes up front and just get out of the way that's huge. 78 00:06:41,266.58730159 --> 00:06:48,914.00226757 And when you were first starting and coming out with all of this, was it a long term process that allowed you to start, you. 79 00:06:48,924.00226757 --> 00:06:51,178.53741497 Being able to say okay, it works well here. 80 00:06:51,208.53741497 --> 00:06:55,78.53741497 Okay, this one works well here, and like doing all the assessing and vetting and all of that kind of stuff. 81 00:06:55,418.53741497 --> 00:07:02,775.55555556 How did that come along? I love this question because the origin of the company I think, speaks perfectly to the challenge that we have in water in the world at large. 82 00:07:02,785.55555555 --> 00:07:07,505.55555556 This software was developed inside of a company called Organica Water and Organica. 83 00:07:07,515.55555556 --> 00:07:09,475.55555555 The founders of Organica have this amazing idea. 84 00:07:09,715.55555555 --> 00:07:13,895.55555555 If, I don't know, have you ever been to a treatment plant, Billy, or are familiar with it? Okay. 85 00:07:13,955.55555555 --> 00:07:14,255.55555555 Alright. 86 00:07:14,495.55555555 --> 00:07:20,615.55555555 So if anyone listening that's not, you can imagine what a wastewater treatment plant might look like and smell like. 87 00:07:20,625.55555555 --> 00:07:23,445.55555555 Generally they're disgusting and they're not pretty. 88 00:07:23,685.55555555 --> 00:07:25,768.88888889 They're big concrete tanks. 89 00:07:25,948.88888889 --> 00:07:31,295.55555555 They're filled with wastewater, either coming from humans or industry or storms, whatever it might be. 90 00:07:31,300.55555555 --> 00:07:33,220.55555555 And they're just generally not pleasant to be around. 91 00:07:33,520.55555555 --> 00:07:38,870.55555555 So in most cases, wastewater treatment plan is located 5, 10, 15, 20 miles outside of a city. 92 00:07:39,277.22222222 --> 00:07:49,474.14965986 And the challenge with that is it's extremely expensive to dig tunnels for sewage and collections to get that sewage out to the treatment plant. 93 00:07:49,520.10204082 --> 00:07:53,540.10204082 And even worse, if you treat that wastewater in a way that makes it usable. 94 00:07:53,550.10204082 --> 00:07:59,10.10204082 Either for drinking water purposes or gray water purposes, you have to pump it back all the way back to the city. 95 00:07:59,20.10204082 --> 00:08:04,420.10204082 So the founders of Organica were an architect that said, these treatment plants don't have to look ugly. 96 00:08:04,430.10204082 --> 00:08:07,505.10204082 And an engineer that said, and they don't have to smell and they can look pretty. 97 00:08:07,510.10204082 --> 00:08:11,892.18820862 So Organica developed basically a compact greenhouse. 98 00:08:11,902.18820862 --> 00:08:17,192.18820862 Garden looking treatment plant that could be located effectively in the center of a city. 99 00:08:17,202.18820862 --> 00:08:23,352.18820862 So that way you didn't have to spend all the money digging tunnels and sewers, and if you wanted to reuse the water, you were right there close to the center of the population. 100 00:08:23,362.18820862 --> 00:08:29,272.18820862 But to what we talked about earlier, the challenge was an engineering firm or utility would say, ah, this sounds great. 101 00:08:29,277.18820862 --> 00:08:32,401.40589569 Who doesn't want a garden treatment? But prove to me that this works. 102 00:08:32,418.3106576 --> 00:08:42,978.3106576 So do all of this engineering and design work, show me the rendering these 3D models of the plants, right? We want to see this as close as we can to it being like real or operational. 103 00:08:43,338.3106576 --> 00:08:43,518.3106576 Yeah. 104 00:08:43,523.3106576 --> 00:08:51,798.3106576 And for a small company like Organica, they didn't have all the engineers and the money and the time to do all this work, especially because if they don't win the project. 105 00:08:51,853.3106576 --> 00:08:52,333.3106576 They're out. 106 00:08:52,363.3106576 --> 00:08:54,343.3106576 They're out of all that money and they're out of all the time. 107 00:08:54,733.3106576 --> 00:09:00,163.3106576 So the CEO said, we're gonna find a way to automate the process of creating these preliminary designs for treatment plants. 108 00:09:00,173.3106576 --> 00:09:07,33.3106576 And so over time, the software was developed for Organica technology and then conventional technologies and then other technologies. 109 00:09:07,223.3106576 --> 00:09:13,763.3106576 And eventually we said, Hey, this software standalone can really help the industry, not just as part of Organica. 110 00:09:13,973.3106576 --> 00:09:18,373.3106576 So that's when we decided to spin it out in 2019 and set up, its our own business as a software company. 111 00:09:18,378.3106576 --> 00:09:18,708.3106576 That's great. 112 00:09:18,708.3106576 --> 00:09:22,163.33333333 That evolution is incredible That's really cool. 113 00:09:22,553.33333333 --> 00:09:28,544.45578231 And so you first were with Organica about helping this software for Organica and helping it there. 114 00:09:28,584.45578231 --> 00:09:44,924.37641723 When you were first making that transition to trying to go out and find the first projects to work on on the outside of this and saying okay, we're gonna create this, the standalone what was your feedback from potential people you were working with, like engineering firms and things like that? What was their feedback when they first saw. 115 00:09:44,934.37641723 --> 00:09:50,443.86621315 Yeah, It's a fun question to talk through because we still get this today, and it's been, we've been on this journey for three years. 116 00:09:50,448.86621315 --> 00:09:55,708.86621315 Engineers are used to doing things the way they've been doing it for decades. 117 00:09:55,763.86621315 --> 00:10:14,993.86621315 They're comfortable with the Excel strip spreadsheets that they're using or that they purpose built or their existing tools, AutoCAD Revit, right name, whatever tools they might be using to do this type of, So when we come in and we say, Hey, we can fully automate this process, you will never have to open up an Excel spreadsheet or AutoCAD or any of these other programs. 118 00:10:14,993.86621315 --> 00:10:18,163.86621315 Again, of course, the first thing they're saying is, one, this is impossible. 119 00:10:18,180.98639456 --> 00:10:20,530.98639456 You can't possibly do what you claim that you can do. 120 00:10:20,535.98639456 --> 00:10:25,545.98639456 And then the second thing they say is once they actually try a tool and they realized we can is, oh my God, what's gonna happen in my. 121 00:10:25,982.65306122 --> 00:10:28,682.65306122 So in the very early days, that was what we struggled with. 122 00:10:28,682.65306122 --> 00:10:37,819.31972789 And even today, we still continue to struggle with it, despite the fact that we now have proven it time and time again with multiple engineers, multiple engineering firms, multiple utilities. 123 00:10:37,829.31972789 --> 00:10:41,877.74376417 So it's, it's just a matter of it's frankly, it's a matter of patience and time. 124 00:10:41,949.84126984 --> 00:10:51,844.05895692 And when the utilities and the asset owners start to realize Hey, we now have the ability to assess all of these options up front in the same time in budget that we did before, it's a no brainer. 125 00:10:51,849.05895692 --> 00:10:53,524.05895692 And by the way, it's not just in the water industry. 126 00:10:53,534.05895692 --> 00:10:55,904.05895692 If you look across any industry, it could be finance. 127 00:10:56,234.05895692 --> 00:10:57,404.05895692 Look at what's happened to Wall Street. 128 00:10:57,404.05895692 --> 00:11:00,434.05895692 Most of the people that used to be trading paper tickets have now. 129 00:11:00,444.05895692 --> 00:11:04,464.05895692 Replaced, quote unquote, by algorithms and trading, those jobs haven't been replaced. 130 00:11:04,464.05895692 --> 00:11:08,257.61904762 They're just doing different things, doing higher level things, right? Same thing in the medical world. 131 00:11:08,437.61904762 --> 00:11:21,7.61904762 A doctor is now using AI or smart decision making and big data to make an assessment for a patient based on thousands, if not millions of data points that they couldn't have otherwise considered, and they're delivering a better outcome to the patient. 132 00:11:21,187.61904762 --> 00:11:22,117.61904762 The doctor isn't going. 133 00:11:22,488.71882086 --> 00:11:23,568.71882086 It's the same thing for us. 134 00:11:23,568.71882086 --> 00:11:24,978.71882086 The engineer is never going away. 135 00:11:25,248.71882086 --> 00:11:26,928.71882086 They're just gonna be doing higher level. 136 00:11:26,928.71882086 --> 00:11:30,978.71882086 And quite frankly, for the engineers that have adopted our tools, they're having a lot more fun at work. 137 00:11:30,988.71882086 --> 00:11:32,338.71882086 They have better work life balance. 138 00:11:32,338.71882086 --> 00:11:37,258.71882086 In many cases, they're working on projects that they're excited about, more detailed, more innovative, more creative. 139 00:11:37,268.71882086 --> 00:11:41,874.94331066 And so that's the evolution of what our tool looks like for firms that are willing to go on this journey. 140 00:11:41,879.94331066 --> 00:11:48,691.57596372 Yeah, definitely because you're taking out all of that, basically busy work and saying, okay, computer here, you take the busy work. 141 00:11:48,871.57596372 --> 00:11:52,81.57596372 Let me go work on the high level cognitive functioning part. 142 00:11:52,100.91836735 --> 00:11:55,623.32199546 That is a lot more fun and that everybody would like to spend more time on, but. 143 00:11:55,655.54421769 --> 00:11:59,686.92743764 They've been doing all this, plug and play stuff that they have to like, do every single time. 144 00:11:59,686.92743764 --> 00:12:03,364.00226757 But now it's okay, we can take the algorithms, have them all do that. 145 00:12:03,604.00226757 --> 00:12:05,614.00226757 Now let's focus on the fun stuff. 146 00:12:05,794.00226757 --> 00:12:05,914.00226757 Yes. 147 00:12:05,914.00226757 --> 00:12:07,304.34240363 And so I think that's really cool. 148 00:12:07,334.34240363 --> 00:12:10,954.65986394 Cause I think that's, an evolution of a lot of this technology and people get afraid. 149 00:12:10,954.65986394 --> 00:12:13,177.72108843 They're like, oh, AI's gonna, take away jobs. 150 00:12:13,177.72108843 --> 00:12:16,731.57596372 And our robots are gonna take all away, all of our, cashier jobs. 151 00:12:16,731.57596372 --> 00:12:17,367.04081633 It's okay. 152 00:12:17,427.4829932 --> 00:12:26,557.84580499 Because of this technology that's gonna free up time to allow those people to go and do better things and allow those people to go and get better jobs and. 153 00:12:26,586.36054422 --> 00:12:30,189.69387755 Technology only increases the amount of jobs. 154 00:12:30,189.69387755 --> 00:12:33,19.69387755 It never seems to take away any of those jobs. 155 00:12:33,19.69387755 --> 00:12:41,59.7845805 It might replace some of the, less, higher cognitive functioning jobs, but that's a good thing because then you get higher paying jobs and you do better work. 156 00:12:41,59.7845805 --> 00:12:44,978.92290249 And so that's a lot of people get afraid of oh, all this technology is gonna take away jobs. 157 00:12:44,978.92290249 --> 00:12:47,589.72789116 And it's no it's only going to expand I totally agree. 158 00:12:47,594.72789116 --> 00:12:48,279.72789116 A beautiful thing. 159 00:12:48,554.72789116 --> 00:12:49,634.72789116 Yeah, totally agree. 160 00:12:49,663.43537415 --> 00:12:55,592.82312925 The simplest example I can give you is that, I had an engineer recently, verbatim say thank you for making my life easier. 161 00:12:55,592.82312925 --> 00:12:58,384.87528345 And what they were referencing was our software. 162 00:12:58,441.6553288 --> 00:13:06,873.37868481 When it creates these documents, one of the things it creates is what's called the design basis or basically it's a report around how this treatment plant was designed with all the calculations and all that. 163 00:13:06,873.37868481 --> 00:13:09,184.70521542 And it's formatted in Microsoft Word template. 164 00:13:09,189.70521542 --> 00:13:21,19.70521542 Anyone that's ever worked in Microsoft Word and try to move a picture around understands how frustrating it is to try to format these documents properly, and our software does it on the engineer's behalf. 165 00:13:21,29.70521542 --> 00:13:30,119.70521542 So even something like that, I can think of a million other things you can be doing that are better use of your time than trying to format a Word document properly. 166 00:13:30,509.70521542 --> 00:13:33,919.70521542 And it's a perfect problem for a computer to solve instead of a human. 167 00:13:33,929.70521542 --> 00:13:34,289.70521542 Yeah. 168 00:13:34,359.70521542 --> 00:13:34,809.70521542 Exactly. 169 00:13:34,809.70521542 --> 00:13:35,229.70521542 I love it. 170 00:13:35,234.70521542 --> 00:13:49,963.94557823 And so as part of, the work that you guys are doing in the water industry, what have you been able To allow engineers to do in terms of this moving us forward to solving this freshwater crisis? Sure. 171 00:13:49,973.94557823 --> 00:13:58,185.79365079 So one of my favorite examples was so we work globally, so we have clients in Europe, south America, South Africa us obviously, this one's a US specific example. 172 00:13:58,185.79365079 --> 00:14:05,663.57142857 So there was a utility in the Southern US water utility in the southern US who were looking at what options they had available to them. 173 00:14:05,668.57142857 --> 00:14:08,368.57142857 To expand their existing wastewater treatment plan. 174 00:14:08,378.57142857 --> 00:14:20,441.24716553 So if you're in charge of a city and that the population is growing, meaning that there's gonna be more wastewater over time, you might see that industries are coming in, which means a different type of wastewater is gonna be coming into the facility. 175 00:14:20,711.24716553 --> 00:14:28,592.22222222 You might recognize that climate change is impacting your facility, so you might be having more wet weather events, so it could be, localized or regionalized flooding. 176 00:14:28,597.22222222 --> 00:14:31,327.22222222 Oftentimes that water ends up hitting the treatment plant. 177 00:14:31,337.22222222 --> 00:14:36,57.22222222 So what you built 20 years ago is not going to continue to work because of all these different changes. 178 00:14:36,67.22222222 --> 00:14:48,641.95011338 So when this utility had their request for proposals out or this bid out to say, Hey, engineering firms evaluate what this treatment plant could look like in five years, given all of these different scenarios. 179 00:14:48,641.95011338 --> 00:14:49,511.95011338 So population. 180 00:14:49,576.75736961 --> 00:14:51,826.75736961 The type of waste water that's coming in, et cetera. 181 00:14:51,836.75736961 --> 00:14:56,856.75736961 And they were asking the consultants to provide three different possibilities for what the treatment plant might look like. 182 00:14:56,911.75736961 --> 00:15:05,411.75736961 When the utility found out about our software and decided to incorporate that as part of this process, they amended that RFP to include 30 different scenarios to be assessed. 183 00:15:05,421.75736961 --> 00:15:06,291.75736961 So 10 x the. 184 00:15:06,788.42403628 --> 00:15:12,128.42403628 What ended up happening was there was so much more data created and analysis done for this particular plant. 185 00:15:12,488.42403628 --> 00:15:32,164.85260771 They actually ended up choosing a technology to treat the wastewater as part of this expansion that wasn't originally considered, which actually enables that utility to not only reduce some of the GHG and carbon impact of that facility, but in the future if they wanna do something like direct portable reuse or indirect portable reuse, where you're cleaning the wastewater to a point. 186 00:15:32,494.85260771 --> 00:15:34,114.85260771 It can be used for human consumption. 187 00:15:34,324.85260771 --> 00:15:36,4.85260771 This technology will allow them to do that. 188 00:15:36,14.85260771 --> 00:15:41,588.78684807 So that's just one simple example of the capabilities of the tool and why there's such a big benefit for the world at large. 189 00:15:41,593.78684807 --> 00:15:41,953.78684807 Definitely. 190 00:15:41,953.78684807 --> 00:15:42,617.39229025 No, that's awesome. 191 00:15:42,617.39229025 --> 00:15:43,127.39229025 I love that. 192 00:15:43,517.39229025 --> 00:15:44,447.39229025 And yeah. 193 00:15:44,452.39229025 --> 00:15:54,647.36961451 How do you see this, the water industry as a whole impacting climate change that we're in right So there's something in the industry called the water energy nexus. 194 00:15:54,657.36961451 --> 00:15:57,757.36961451 I don't know if you've heard this term before, but effectively, water and power. 195 00:15:57,762.36961451 --> 00:15:58,367.36961451 This is the first time. 196 00:15:58,477.36961451 --> 00:15:58,717.36961451 Okay. 197 00:15:58,717.36961451 --> 00:15:58,987.36961451 Alright. 198 00:15:58,987.36961451 --> 00:16:03,557.36961451 So water and power are inextricably intertwined in a state like California. 199 00:16:03,827.36961451 --> 00:16:10,47.36961451 It's something like 70% of all of the power that's consumed in the state. 200 00:16:10,57.36961451 --> 00:16:11,887.36961451 It's consumed by operations and. 201 00:16:12,290.70294784 --> 00:16:12,710.70294784 Wow. 202 00:16:12,710.70294784 --> 00:16:15,964.92063492 So treatment pumping, collections. 203 00:16:16,354.92063492 --> 00:16:17,134.92063492 The list goes on. 204 00:16:17,134.92063492 --> 00:16:19,887.57596372 You'll have to check me on this, but, so take 70 with a grain of salt, but it's high. 205 00:16:19,892.57596372 --> 00:16:20,656.57596372 It's very high. 206 00:16:20,656.57596372 --> 00:16:21,150.15873016 Very high. 207 00:16:21,150.15873016 --> 00:16:25,581.6893424 And also given the, dryness of the state as well, so Yes. 208 00:16:25,651.6893424 --> 00:16:25,889.10430839 Yeah. 209 00:16:25,894.59183673 --> 00:16:26,404.59183673 That's, yeah. 210 00:16:26,436.03174603 --> 00:16:27,366.03174603 Huge problem too. 211 00:16:27,396.03174603 --> 00:16:28,56.03174603 No questions. 212 00:16:28,61.03174603 --> 00:16:28,226.03174603 Okay. 213 00:16:28,236.03174603 --> 00:16:47,812.6984127 If we can solve challenges with water, meaning we can build better infrastructure, we can more optimally operate that infrastructure and not only has an impact on the amount of fresh water we're using and who has access to that, so equitable access of clean water, but it also impacts the energy consumption of water as well. 214 00:16:48,172.6984127 --> 00:16:51,356.031746 So another stat that might surprise you in water distribution systems. 215 00:16:51,356.031746 --> 00:16:58,686.031746 So once water has been treated and it's being sent to your home, For you to turn on your tap around 30% on average is lost in the system. 216 00:16:58,696.031746 --> 00:17:07,279.4331066 So 30% of clean water is just lost to the environment, due to leaks, due to poor usage in industrial applications, whatever that is. 217 00:17:07,669.4331066 --> 00:17:14,565.4535147 So even something as simple as that, if we can capture that lost water, just imagine having 30% more water available. 218 00:17:14,596.8707483 --> 00:17:18,946.8707483 Go to farms, go to industry, go to homes, and that would be a huge impact. 219 00:17:19,336.8707483 --> 00:17:21,773.5056689 So the water industry is overlooked. 220 00:17:21,773.5056689 --> 00:17:22,553.5056689 We don't think about it. 221 00:17:22,553.5056689 --> 00:17:23,843.5056689 All the pipes are underground. 222 00:17:24,203.5056689 --> 00:17:26,813.5056689 You might see a fire hydrant and you're like, oh yeah, I guess that's there. 223 00:17:26,813.5056689 --> 00:17:28,463.5056689 I didn't really think about it until you desperate. 224 00:17:28,473.5056689 --> 00:17:32,128.5056689 But when you don't have it, you realize how important it is for society. 225 00:17:32,216.8390023 --> 00:17:33,176.8390023 Yeah, definitely. 226 00:17:33,176.8390023 --> 00:17:33,950.1723356 That's so true. 227 00:17:33,950.1723356 --> 00:17:36,107.2698413 You really don't it's out of sight, out of mind. 228 00:17:36,107.2698413 --> 00:17:37,217.2698413 You don't really think about it. 229 00:17:37,222.2698413 --> 00:17:38,120.9546485 It's like trash. 230 00:17:38,120.9546485 --> 00:17:45,742.9387755 You put it out on the curb and it's oh, you, the trash van comes, pick it up, or, but for water, it's okay, I'm gonna turn on the tap and oh, water comes out. 231 00:17:45,742.9387755 --> 00:17:46,432.9387755 That's what I need. 232 00:17:46,497.8594104 --> 00:17:48,464.276644 It's all, it's like you don't even really think about it. 233 00:17:48,464.276644 --> 00:17:55,383.7777778 It's one of those things that you just go along in your day to day life, except when you know the power's out and you don't have any hot water for your shower. 234 00:17:55,383.7777778 --> 00:18:03,831.8390023 Then you're like, oh, gosh, what did I do? And you have a lot of predictions on your website too about fresh water and. 235 00:18:03,841.8390023 --> 00:18:06,481.8390023 About just surrounding water in general. 236 00:18:06,702.4965986 --> 00:18:16,20.7165533 And I really like the one that you mentioned about salt water being used for agriculture versus fresh water, which I just, boggled my mind for a minute there. 237 00:18:16,20.7165533 --> 00:18:22,604.0498866 I'd love to hear you tell this story about, what you think is this prediction about where things are going and Sure. 238 00:18:22,994.0498866 --> 00:18:26,804.0498866 How this can be a possibility for the future of agriculture. 239 00:18:26,864.0498866 --> 00:18:27,344.0498866 Sure. 240 00:18:27,524.0498866 --> 00:18:29,640.6825397 So this one did is, Was not my idea. 241 00:18:29,640.6825397 --> 00:18:34,400.6825397 I heard a NASA researcher speak at a conference and it totally blew our mind. 242 00:18:34,450.6825397 --> 00:18:37,289.6621315 So it was a conference for water industry professionals specifically. 243 00:18:37,289.6621315 --> 00:18:43,158.5056689 There were probably two, 300 people in the room, all whom had spent most of their career in the water industry. 244 00:18:43,168.5056689 --> 00:18:47,998.5056689 And this NASA researcher, gets on stage and the first thing he says is, all of you are thinking about this water situation. 245 00:18:48,438.5056689 --> 00:18:50,938.5056689 And so all of our jobs were like, oh my God, wait a second. 246 00:18:50,938.5056689 --> 00:18:52,873.6530612 What? We've all been in this for decades. 247 00:18:52,878.6530612 --> 00:18:55,882.2131519 Who the hell is this guy? I can't believe he would say something like this. 248 00:18:56,152.2131519 --> 00:19:00,289.6054422 And he proceeded for like an hour just to talk basically stream of consciousness at us. 249 00:19:00,289.6054422 --> 00:19:01,669.6054422 But it was so compelling. 250 00:19:01,712.6326531 --> 00:19:07,398.4376417 And basically his argument was, less than 1% of the world's fresh water is available to us for con. 251 00:19:07,408.4376417 --> 00:19:08,968.4376417 The bulk of that goes to agriculture. 252 00:19:08,968.4376417 --> 00:19:13,648.4376417 It's like something around 80% on average of all of our fresh water withdrawal goes to agricultural use. 253 00:19:13,978.4376417 --> 00:19:23,48.4376417 So if we can reduce the amount of fresh water used in agriculture, we can then free that up to have it in streams, lakes, reservoirs, industry, human consumption, right? Whatever that might be. 254 00:19:23,58.4376417 --> 00:19:30,8.4376417 And so he was saying what we need to do instead of reducing freshwater consumption in agriculture is to use salt. 255 00:19:30,561.7709751 --> 00:19:33,331.7709751 To replace most of our agriculture. 256 00:19:33,341.7709751 --> 00:19:48,944.106576 And what he meant by that was that, and he had done all the data and all the statistics and all the math around if we replaced our, beef consumption with fish consumption, or if we replaced our protein consumption from, wheat or other like staple crops. 257 00:19:48,944.106576 --> 00:19:52,239.5147392 And we use things like algae or sea vegetables. 258 00:19:52,459.5147392 --> 00:19:52,749.5147392 I. 259 00:19:53,194.5147392 --> 00:19:59,794.5147392 You can completely flip the script and save your fresh water for things that I mentioned, and then use salt water for everything else. 260 00:19:59,794.5147392 --> 00:20:10,387.6326531 So what his thesis was to take salt water, pump it inland, and then create basically salt water farms of fish, of algae, of sea vegetables, of salt loving crops. 261 00:20:10,397.6326531 --> 00:20:12,377.6326531 That would then be used to feed the population. 262 00:20:12,587.6326531 --> 00:20:16,967.6326531 And further, he'd also done modeling to say, you have these inland based saltwater farms. 263 00:20:17,147.6326531 --> 00:20:18,347.6326531 Those are gonna evaporate. 264 00:20:18,357.6326531 --> 00:20:21,147.6326531 They're gonna create fresh rain in places that need it most. 265 00:20:21,157.6326531 --> 00:20:32,647.6326531 So if you have a bunch of inland saltwater farms in California, they evaporate and they fall down as rain in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, the western states that are struggling with a lack of fresh water, it's gonna be great for them too. 266 00:20:32,657.6326531 --> 00:20:36,216.8049887 So it was a really compelling argument for him, and it was incredible to listen. 267 00:20:36,686.4988662 --> 00:20:37,166.4988662 Yeah. 268 00:20:37,196.4988662 --> 00:20:47,575.9773243 And that's super interesting and especially the like evaporation to help with crops in, fresh water in other crops as well, in other areas. 269 00:20:47,634.3446712 --> 00:20:53,33.2222222 It also just, makes you wonder about like the balance of things, of if that would even work in that way. 270 00:20:53,33.2222222 --> 00:20:55,99.6598639 Cause like a lot of you never know with weather Yeah. 271 00:20:55,109.6598639 --> 00:20:56,519.6598639 It's very unpredictable. 272 00:20:56,524.6598639 --> 00:21:09,305.0113379 And you always wonder okay, you might be putting more moisture, but how, what is that, like the butterfly effect of that going to be? Is that going to cause you know, hurricanes start hitting somewhere else or something like that? So like you. 273 00:21:09,315.0113379 --> 00:21:12,355.0113379 You never know whether Plenty of unintended consequences. 274 00:21:12,415.0113379 --> 00:21:12,685.0113379 Yeah. 275 00:21:12,715.0113379 --> 00:21:13,525.0113379 For better, for worse. 276 00:21:13,675.0113379 --> 00:21:14,510.0113379 Yeah, definitely. 277 00:21:14,520.0113379 --> 00:21:15,608.446712 I think that's super interesting. 278 00:21:15,608.446712 --> 00:21:25,691.5419501 Do you have any others that you've come across since that aren't on your website or maybe your favorite one that you wanna share from the website? Yeah, one of my favorites is around water utilities. 279 00:21:25,691.5419501 --> 00:21:30,924.8979592 Starting to package water and sell it at a premium. 280 00:21:30,934.8979592 --> 00:21:39,79.8979592 So one of the things that just blows my mind is that, society buys bottled water and they buy a lot of it, and in many cases, the bottled water companies are taking. 281 00:21:39,89.8979592 --> 00:21:50,341.6213152 This is, a simplified version, but they're taking a hose from the drinking water plant and they're just sticking it in a bottle of water and then giving it to you, and they're charging you a thousand percent more than what you're charged to just turn on your tap at home. 282 00:21:50,346.6213152 --> 00:21:54,444.138322 So my argument and my thesis was that utilities are going to start selling. 283 00:21:54,474.7732426 --> 00:21:59,893.5034014 Boxed water or bottles of water class water, hopefully not contribute to the plastic issues. 284 00:21:59,999.1269841 --> 00:22:08,219.1269841 In a way that provides that same service to people, but that they can charge more for, so that they can then improve their infrastructure, the water utilities. 285 00:22:08,429.1269841 --> 00:22:12,459.1043084 And since I wrote that, I think it was about three years ago, two years ago that I wrote with, that was 2020. 286 00:22:12,464.1043084 --> 00:22:14,744.1043084 I've seen a couple of utilities doing it. 287 00:22:14,744.1043084 --> 00:22:18,299.1043084 Chicago actually had a big campaign called Chicagua. 288 00:22:18,324.1043084 --> 00:22:27,84.1043084 and they released canned water from their drinking water plant, and they're selling it in stores around Chicago and they're using it as more of a marketing campaign than to make money off of, but Right. 289 00:22:27,84.1043084 --> 00:22:33,569.0929705 The point still stands like they felt like they had to compete for the mind of the customer with against bottled water companies. 290 00:22:33,579.0929705 --> 00:22:33,969.0929705 Huh. 291 00:22:33,979.0929705 --> 00:22:34,789.0929705 That's really interesting. 292 00:22:35,64.0929705 --> 00:22:43,186.7596372 It is very interesting cuz a lot of the time you hear that bottled water companies, they actually have a less of a standard than. 293 00:22:43,546.7596372 --> 00:22:45,526.7596372 Your local utility water. 294 00:22:45,854.8548753 --> 00:22:55,745.829932 And a lot of people have this mindset that it's the opposite, that, oh, I've got bottled water, it's highly filtered, or whatever, and it's like supposed to be, cleaner for me than the tap water. 295 00:22:55,745.829932 --> 00:23:02,777.7346939 But almost a lot of the times it's the opposite where the tap water's actually, gone through a lot more treatment and things like that. 296 00:23:02,805.7845805 --> 00:23:03,705.7845805 It's so interesting. 297 00:23:03,736.4421769 --> 00:23:20,97.3151927 I remember my father-in-law, I think he was like, Remember them talking about bottled water back when it was like first starting to come out as an idea and there were so many people like, who would ever buy bottled water And it's nowadays it's Yeah, it's a huge industry. 298 00:23:20,97.3151927 --> 00:23:22,557.3151927 A huge problem too with the plastic side of things. 299 00:23:22,557.3151927 --> 00:23:29,125.2403628 But yeah, and I know you also have a podcast called what are we talking about? And I love the name, by the way. 300 00:23:29,130.2403628 --> 00:23:30,35.2176871 I think it's really cool. 301 00:23:30,40.2176871 --> 00:23:30,250.2176871 Thank you. 302 00:23:30,250.2176871 --> 00:23:31,540.2176871 You've got a like nice little. 303 00:23:31,550.2176871 --> 00:23:33,120.2176871 Hominem going on there is cool. 304 00:23:33,130.2176871 --> 00:23:40,861.0113379 And so do you wanna tell us a bit about your podcast? What are talk about on the show? What are your, some of your favorite episodes? I'd just love to hear more about it. 305 00:23:40,991.0113379 --> 00:23:41,311.0113379 Yeah. 306 00:23:41,316.0113379 --> 00:23:41,491.0113379 Yeah. 307 00:23:41,491.0113379 --> 00:23:46,227.2244898 So my co-host and I, we play around with each other because he's of the boomer generation. 308 00:23:46,227.2244898 --> 00:23:48,27.2244898 I'm of the millennial generation. 309 00:23:48,297.2244898 --> 00:23:56,103.6077097 And the way that he views the world of water and the way I view it in some cases are different because I have obviously more technology focused lens like innovative. 310 00:23:56,103.6077097 --> 00:23:58,828.6077097 And his is more old school, but we oftentimes meet in the middle. 311 00:23:58,828.6077097 --> 00:24:02,403.6077097 And where the middle is exactly what we've been talking about, Billy, that no one thinks about water. 312 00:24:02,413.6077097 --> 00:24:05,663.6077097 So the goal of our podcast, we actually don't talk about water. 313 00:24:05,673.6077097 --> 00:24:24,623.6077097 We talk about how to talk about water, and it's an important distinction because in the water industry, we aren't telling our story in an effective way, and that means the general population doesn't think about the value of water or how much they should be paying or shouldn't be paying, or where they're getting their water from, or the quality of water. 314 00:24:24,983.6077097 --> 00:24:29,213.6077097 So if we could give people to start having these conversations, we feel like it's gonna be better. 315 00:24:29,223.6077097 --> 00:24:33,393.6077097 Our industry for sure, selfishly, but also the general population in the world. 316 00:24:33,403.6077097 --> 00:24:39,63.6077097 So the gold show, we bring on the water industry's best storytellers, and they talk about how they're telling water's story. 317 00:24:39,73.6077097 --> 00:24:42,821.5102041 So if it's interesting to you, feel free to listen in, right? Anyone that might be listening to this. 318 00:24:42,879.8548753 --> 00:24:43,903.8231292 But it's pretty niche. 319 00:24:44,203.8231292 --> 00:24:46,853.8231292 So if you listen a few episodes and don't like it, I don't blame you. 320 00:24:46,858.8231292 --> 00:24:50,39.4580499 But I'm hoping that at least it'll be entertaining enough that, you might be interested to. 321 00:24:50,50.5918367 --> 00:24:50,620.5918367 Yeah, definitely. 322 00:24:50,620.5918367 --> 00:24:54,720.4217687 It's on my list of things to listen to next I think it'll be fun. 323 00:24:54,751.1020408 --> 00:25:04,653.3696145 But do you have a favorite episode that anybody here on the Green Business Impact seek? Any entrepreneur or anybody who's in this climate space might be interested in and listening to You bet. 324 00:25:04,655.2857143 --> 00:25:06,567.5759637 There's one, one immediately comes to mind. 325 00:25:06,572.5759637 --> 00:25:08,212.5759637 Actually, the most recent one is probably interesting. 326 00:25:08,267.5759637 --> 00:25:25,609.2199546 We had a gentleman on who, recently crowdsourced $140,000 worth of funds from farmers in California, and they spent that money on a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal, which I was blown away by who would spend 140 grand on a full page ad about water and food. 327 00:25:25,619.2199546 --> 00:25:25,859.2199546 Yeah. 328 00:25:25,859.2199546 --> 00:25:28,885.8866213 In the Wall Street Journal, expecting that to do anything meaningful. 329 00:25:29,115.8866213 --> 00:25:32,325.8866213 To create a conversation around water, but the results were phenomenal. 330 00:25:32,535.8866213 --> 00:25:33,615.8866213 I'm not gonna give it away. 331 00:25:33,825.8866213 --> 00:25:48,335.8866213 You can listen to the show if you want, but anyone that's interested in making a mark in the world of climate tech should listen to that because I could never imagine spending six figures on a single page ad to run once in the Wall Street Journal, but the results prove themselves out. 332 00:25:48,345.8866213 --> 00:25:50,195.8866213 Huh? So definitely take a lesson if it's. 333 00:25:50,205.8866213 --> 00:25:50,505.8866213 Yeah. 334 00:25:50,685.8866213 --> 00:25:58,544.8435374 No, now I'm super curious because I, I would never thought to spend that much money on a single page at That's, wow, that's incredible. 335 00:25:58,574.5260771 --> 00:26:00,944.5260771 Yeah, I'll definitely have to go check that one out for sure. 336 00:26:01,334.5260771 --> 00:26:07,454.5260771 I hope everybody here I'll to put the links in the show notes and everything so everybody else can check it out as well. 337 00:26:07,503.4036281 --> 00:26:09,733.8117914 I think that'll be a good one for us all to check out. 338 00:26:09,743.8117914 --> 00:26:14,810.2517007 And what has been, your favorite part of hosting the podcast? It's always the people you bring on. 339 00:26:14,810.2517007 --> 00:26:16,670.2517007 You just get to meet really cool people. 340 00:26:17,0.2517007 --> 00:26:20,900.2517007 I've been in the water industry for over a decade and I learn something new every day. 341 00:26:20,905.2517007 --> 00:26:25,400.2517007 And the people that we bring on teach me something new about my own industry every time we do. 342 00:26:25,400.2517007 --> 00:26:30,460.7165533 So we're close to, I don't, maybe 40 episodes, 50 episodes, something like that. 343 00:26:30,470.7165533 --> 00:26:33,20.7165533 Every time I have someone on, there's always something I'm like, oh, wow. 344 00:26:33,30.7165533 --> 00:26:33,810.7165533 Didn't think about that. 345 00:26:33,810.7165533 --> 00:26:34,530.7165533 That's a really interesting. 346 00:26:34,540.7165533 --> 00:26:35,110.7165533 Definitely. 347 00:26:35,141.3741497 --> 00:26:35,561.3741497 I agree. 348 00:26:35,861.3741497 --> 00:26:44,44.446712 When I have people on here, it's just, it's always so intriguing to learn more in depthly about what they're talking about and be able to ask them questions. 349 00:26:44,44.446712 --> 00:26:49,644.8548753 And you don't always think about things in some ways and then, Other people will come on and just completely blow your mind about something you never even thought of. 350 00:26:49,654.8548753 --> 00:26:51,514.8548753 And those are always super fun. 351 00:26:51,514.8548753 --> 00:26:52,594.8548753 So I love it. 352 00:26:52,594.8548753 --> 00:27:00,674.1292517 And what are your goals for your podcast, for your business? For the next six months? It's to draw as many eyeballs in as possible. 353 00:27:00,684.1292517 --> 00:27:06,894.1292517 So obviously to elevate the conversation around water in society is a big personal mission of mine. 354 00:27:06,904.1292517 --> 00:27:09,652.292517 With our software, of course we're running a business. 355 00:27:09,715.6371882 --> 00:27:12,925.6371882 We want to have a healthy, profitable business for sure. 356 00:27:13,265.6371882 --> 00:27:20,993.7777778 And the more people we can draw eyeballs to that, the better off our society is as well, because we're designing more sustainable treatment infrastructure so they work together. 357 00:27:20,993.7777778 --> 00:27:22,996.9523809 But, for the next six months, that's our big focus. 358 00:27:22,996.9523809 --> 00:27:27,282.1337868 And then the other thing we just launched is that we actually are expanding into the power industry as well. 359 00:27:27,287.1337868 --> 00:27:36,707.1337868 So bringing climate solutions, design infrastructure, design automation into the power industry to do the same thing, which is deploy more sustainable power infrastructure. 360 00:27:36,717.1337868 --> 00:27:46,917.1337868 Especially with the renewable, the trajectory of renewables, like we need more substations, we need more generation capability, we need more storage capability, and the only way to do that is to put infrastructure in the ground. 361 00:27:47,187.1337868 --> 00:27:52,77.1337868 So we wanna be able to accelerate that development so we can accelerate the sustainable development of our planet. 362 00:27:52,87.1337868 --> 00:27:52,627.1337868 Definitely. 363 00:27:52,627.1337868 --> 00:27:53,121.3741497 That's great. 364 00:27:53,401.3741497 --> 00:27:54,781.3741497 And just a thought came to me. 365 00:27:54,781.3741497 --> 00:28:08,108.6077097 Are you guys working a lot in like third world countries and things like that? Or where are you guys mostly based around the world? I know you mentioned your 10,000 facilities around the world, but so those over 10,000 plants, we design them in over 120 countries. 366 00:28:08,113.9024943 --> 00:28:08,383.9024943 Wow. 367 00:28:08,443.9024943 --> 00:28:10,514.5827664 So they're scattered all over the place. 368 00:28:10,544.5827664 --> 00:28:13,944.5827664 Most of our work is in Europe, north America, south America. 369 00:28:13,949.5827664 --> 00:28:18,689.5827664 But we are taking on projects in South Africa, Southeast Asia. 370 00:28:18,694.5827664 --> 00:28:33,45.9773243 We often find that countries that are earlier on the development curve are actually a really good fit for our tool because if you're building brand new infrastructure, it's much faster and easier to do it from the ground up than it is to try to work with something that's already existing. 371 00:28:33,55.9773243 --> 00:28:37,795.9773243 So if anyone on the show is listening, that's from a country where you're looking at building treatment infrastructure. 372 00:28:37,800.9773243 --> 00:28:38,190.9773243 Let me know. 373 00:28:38,190.9773243 --> 00:28:45,314.9455782 It's worth having a conversation because we can probably meaningfully accelerate the build out of that infrastructure and do it in a much more sustainable, effective manner. 374 00:28:45,319.9455782 --> 00:28:46,129.9455782 Yeah, definitely. 375 00:28:46,189.9455782 --> 00:28:46,549.9455782 I love it. 376 00:28:46,554.9455782 --> 00:28:48,619.9455782 And what are you currently learning right now? Whew. 377 00:28:48,624.9455782 --> 00:28:50,34.9455782 Every day is something new. 378 00:28:50,94.9455782 --> 00:28:50,904.9455782 I'd say. 379 00:28:50,974.9455782 --> 00:28:56,976.600907 It's not necessarily as much related to climate or water, but the importance of people in an organization. 380 00:28:56,990.6258503 --> 00:29:03,90.6258503 Everything is done by your team or with your team, and it's done by people, is what I mean to say. 381 00:29:03,450.6258503 --> 00:29:10,840.6258503 And when you bring on the right team members and you have everyone aligned towards a common mission, magic happens. 382 00:29:10,850.6258503 --> 00:29:12,880.6258503 So just a constant reinforcement of that. 383 00:29:12,890.6258503 --> 00:29:19,490.6258503 Of how important people are, and especially in a remote world, how important culture is in developing a culture for a company in a remote environment. 384 00:29:19,490.6258503 --> 00:29:22,332.7460317 It's challenging, and if you don't focus on it, it just falls to the wayside. 385 00:29:22,337.7460317 --> 00:29:24,917.7460317 So making sure that those are top of mind and learning how to better do that. 386 00:29:24,960.0816327 --> 00:29:25,830.0816327 That's a big one right now. 387 00:29:25,835.399093 --> 00:29:26,615.399093 Yeah, definitely. 388 00:29:26,620.399093 --> 00:29:39,301.0453515 It's come up a number of times in the number of entrepreneurs that I've interviewed about how important culture is, especially for the companies that are a little bit bigger and have, like substantial group that they have has formed so far. 389 00:29:39,301.0453515 --> 00:29:42,233.6984127 And it's all been about, how important culture really is. 390 00:29:42,233.6984127 --> 00:29:48,222.1564626 And especially with c and everything that happened in the past couple years it's really become more and more. 391 00:29:48,268.1315193 --> 00:30:04,539.1519274 How important culture really is in terms of the growth of your company and being able to grow something sustainably because you might be able to grow really fast, but if you're not growing, Together and have a full culture that is able to sustain that growth. 392 00:30:04,726.9297052 --> 00:30:06,71.4421769 it's all gonna come crashing down. 393 00:30:06,121.4421769 --> 00:30:10,271.2834467 And that's what a lot of a lot of people have recognized and I think that's is super important. 394 00:30:10,271.2834467 --> 00:30:20,565.9886621 So I'm glad you brought that up, and if you had, one tip for another EPRI in the audience, for anybody else listening to the show, what is one tip that you would give them for growing their green. 395 00:30:21,285.1609977 --> 00:30:36,62.9047619 I would say it's probably not a topic that we talk much about as entrepreneurs or climate tech entrepreneurs, but if you want to meaningfully scale your business, you have to understand how business works and you have to understand the incentives and the financials around it. 396 00:30:36,67.9047619 --> 00:30:38,257.9047619 So it's not enough to be mission driven. 397 00:30:38,267.9047619 --> 00:30:39,107.9047619 We all are. 398 00:30:39,198.8798186 --> 00:30:41,74.6848073 That's ultimately why we're doing this. 399 00:30:41,79.6848073 --> 00:30:43,299.6848073 But if you wanna have a business, you have to understand the finances. 400 00:30:43,299.6848073 --> 00:30:52,109.6848073 And so I had a mentor very early on in my career who told me something I've never forgotten, which is when it comes to your customers, get as close as you can to understanding how they make money. 401 00:30:52,119.6848073 --> 00:30:55,119.6848073 And if you can help them do that, then your business will grow. 402 00:30:55,129.6848073 --> 00:30:59,449.6848073 So don't think of sales and marketing and finances as a dirty word. 403 00:30:59,459.6848073 --> 00:31:01,409.6848073 It's actually incredibly important to the health of your. 404 00:31:02,76.3514739 --> 00:31:07,246.3514739 You should think about it in terms of the more money that you make, the more impact you can make. 405 00:31:07,256.3514739 --> 00:31:11,893.9591837 Like they're not mutually exclusive, so be willing to treat your business like a business. 406 00:31:11,923.9591837 --> 00:31:20,63.9591837 Obviously your mission is critically important, especially around culture and what we're talking about, but you have to be comfortable making money and making an impact and scaling that. 407 00:31:20,73.9591837 --> 00:31:20,583.9591837 Yeah, definitely. 408 00:31:20,583.9591837 --> 00:31:26,973.9591837 Cuz the more you can make and more you can profit, the more you can put back into that and more of an impact you can have. 409 00:31:26,973.9591837 --> 00:31:39,666.1927438 So it's always, it comes back around because if you're a activist and you're out there, protesting or something like that, but you're only doing it on the weekends and then you come back during the week and you're working your nine to five job. 410 00:31:39,666.1927438 --> 00:31:42,336.1927438 That has nothing to do with climate and things like that. 411 00:31:42,391.1927438 --> 00:31:48,811.1927438 You could do that every single weekend, but if you could work on something every single day, you could have an even more of an impact. 412 00:31:48,811.1927438 --> 00:31:54,451.1927438 If you're doing that through work that you're making money through, that can sustain you financially. 413 00:31:54,461.1927438 --> 00:31:56,79.3560091 They can have such a bigger impact. 414 00:31:56,95.4784581 --> 00:32:06,509.0839002 because you're actually able to do that on a daily basis and then you have, more passion around it and you're willing to work extra hours to try to get things done because you're super passionate about it, you need to have the financials worked out. 415 00:32:06,539.0839002 --> 00:32:09,709.0725624 You can't Run off of love or passion or things like that. 416 00:32:09,769.0725624 --> 00:32:17,609.0725624 And if anybody would like to reach out to you, learn more about you, more about your business, more about your podcast, or can they find you? Yeah. 417 00:32:17,609.0725624 --> 00:32:19,649.0725624 The easiest way is to go to adam tank.com. 418 00:32:19,659.0725624 --> 00:32:25,479.0725624 I love helping fellow entrepreneurs I invest in and coach and advise early stage startups. 419 00:32:25,489.0725624 --> 00:32:27,982.6553288 So if anyone's interested, feel free to send me a note. 420 00:32:28,72.6553288 --> 00:32:29,722.6553288 There's a submission form on my website. 421 00:32:29,722.6553288 --> 00:32:36,800.4217687 Mention the name of this podcast, mention Billy's name, and I'll be sure that myself or someone from the team reaches out to make sure we can connect. 422 00:32:36,867.5192744 --> 00:32:37,256.6575964 Awesome. 423 00:32:37,256.6575964 --> 00:32:40,688.8911565 Adam, thank you so much for coming on Green Business Impact. 424 00:32:40,688.8911565 --> 00:32:56,107.5986395 It's been awesome having you on talking about water, talking about what you do for your business, your podcast, and so it's been really such a wonderful time and I hope to have you back on someday when you know you've launched in the energy industry and you're completely transforming it and making an impact there. 425 00:32:56,131.3061225 --> 00:33:01,471.3061225 I love to have you back on and keep in touch and give you updates and all that kind of stuff, so thank you. 426 00:33:01,481.3061225 --> 00:33:03,436.3061225 So much for coming on the podcast thank you. 427 00:33:03,436.3061225 --> 00:33:03,946.3061225 Thank you. 428 00:33:04,6.3061225 --> 00:33:04,486.3061225 Thanks Billy. 429 00:33:04,486.3061225 --> 00:33:05,26.3061225 Appreciate it. 430 00:33:05,31.3061225 --> 00:33:18,441.3061225 And if you enjoyed this interview with Adam Tank and all that he does in the water industry to make it easier to scale water technology solutions, tell that freshwater crisis that we are facing today, then I invite you to check out this interview. 431 00:33:18,861.3061225 --> 00:33:31,191.3061225 With swirl text, which has created a new way of treating wastewater to turn it back into a resource that can be reused by filtering the water more effectively using his unique technology. 432 00:33:31,251.3061225 --> 00:33:38,1.3061225 So to keep in line with that water industry vibe from this interview, make sure you check out the interview with Swirl Text.

All Episodes

Solutions to the Freshwater Crisis are Here - It’s Time to Implement | Transcend Interview

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Solutions to the Freshwater Crisis are Here - It’s Time to Implement | Transcend Interview