Registration: http://ih2o-la.eventbrite.com/
Imagine H2O Water Business Workshop
The Water-Energy Nexus: Water Companies that Save Energy
Reducing energy in the usage, production, transportation of water and wastewater
Sponsored by the Ontario Canada Ministry of Economic Development & Trade
Presented by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Global Water & Technology Forum
View our video featuring the finalists from our 2009 Water Efficiency Prize.
Winners
Fruition Sciences (Winner)
WaterSmart Software (Runner Up)
Rainwater Hog (Runner Up)
Finalists
ecoBeta
Ecoproducts Group
Envirocern
Intelligent Irrigation Systems
Puralytics
STI
Quantaic
May 20, 2010 – Imagine H2O’s Scott Bryan presented Fruition Sciences, WaterSmart Software and Rainwater Hog at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Global Water & Technology Form. Presented at the Chairman’s Breakfast, the IH2O winners were given a chance to discuss their innovations in creating a sustainable water future. Chairman Timothy Brick also announced Metropolitan’s partnership with IH2O’s upcoming 2010 Water-Energy Nexus Prize Competition.
$100,000 Prize for Water Businesses that Save Energy
SAN FRANCISCO, MAY 18, 2010 – We all know we should drive less and turn off the lights to save energy, but who knew water consumption plays such a pivotal role, too? In California, as much as 19% of the state’s energy use is dedicated to pumping, moving and treating water. Today, Imagine H2O announces a $100,000 prize for startup businesses that reduce the energy needed to move and treat water and wastewater.
About the Water-Energy Nexus Prize
This is beginning to change, as evidenced by a recent prize competition aimed at water-saving tech startups. The ImagineH2O prizes handed out earlier this month, gave a total of $70,000 to three companies that are laying the groundwork for breakthroughs in water efficiency.
NEW GLOBAL WATER PRIZE ANNOUNCES WINNERS
Winning Innovations Show Promise for Vastly Reducing Water Consumption
SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2010 – A web application that alerts wine grape farmers when their vines are thirsty. Rainwater storage that’s easy to install and fits in tight spaces. Technology that tells water utility customers their usage rate and rewards them for cutting back. These are the winning business ideas for the inaugural Imagine H2O Prize and they’re ready to save the world hundreds of billions of gallons of water.
In its first year, the global competition rewarded business plans that offer the greatest promise of breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water. First Place went to Fruition Sciences, which has developed an innovative way to give the vineyard farmer real-time status of key variables for growing wine grapes. Already used successfully by nine grape growers in California, Fruition’s web application has generated significant water savings while decreasing or eliminating yield loss and improving quality.
“We saw a real challenge in the wine industry,” says Sébastien Payen, co-founder of Fruition, which operates out of both California and France. “There were absolutely no plant-based sensors to optimize water management.” So he combined his co-founder Thibaut Scholasch’s dissertation research on vine water status variations with his own mastery of recent sensor and information technology and voilà! Their winning idea was born.
“Fruition showed us a very targeted plan, a promising technology and the ability to execute their idea,” says Scott Bryan, Director of Operations of Imagine H2O, a nonprofit building a “Silicon Valley” for water in the Bay area. “In the water sector, most entrepreneurs want to be in every single market, but Fruition has started out with an intriguing niche market where they can polish their idea and then go broader into other agricultural markets. “
Rainwater HOG’s H2OG tank, which is a food-grade, rectangular module made of low-density polyethylene that can store water horizontally or vertically, was a runner-up. “The HOG makes it easy for people to harvest and use rainwater instead of city water for their irrigation and even inside their homes, and can thus reduce a building’s city water use by more than 50%,” says HOG designer Sally Dominguez, who co-founded the company with husband and CEO, Simon.
“Rainwater HOG showed us a clear plan and demonstrated they could scale it,” says Brian Matthay, Program Manager of Imagine H2O. “They have a clever approach to a very basic solution: rainwater collection. It’s a great way to water your lawn or keep emergency water on hand. You can even use HOGs as insulation around your house. And it will be a DIY project someday.”
Working as an architect in her hometown of Sydney, Australia, Dominguez noticed most of her clients were inner-city dwellers that wanted to save water but didn’t want to lose valuable space. When she couldn’t find a sustainable horizontal tank on the market, she designed her own. The H2OG is available in the USA, Australia and the UK with markets being developed in India and Japan.
WaterSmart Software also earned runner-up status for its web-based application that allows water utilities to optimize their water conservation programs. WaterSmart empowers utilities’ residential customers to take water saving actions by providing water use information, customized recommendations, and rewards for their efforts. “The judges were impressed that within 60 to 90 days of being incorporated, WaterSmart had really made some inroads with major municipalities that demonstrated demand for their product,” says Matthay.
Once it goes to market (two pilot programs will launch this year), WaterSmart could save participating homeowners an average of 3,000 gallons of water per year. In some cases, a total water use reduction of 20%. “Conservation can be a cost-effective ‘new’ source of water,” says Peter Yolles, who co-founded San Francisco- and San Diego-based WaterSmart with Rob Steiner.
With more than fifty teams from all over the world submitting entries, the Prize was created to help find sustainable solutions to global water problems through entrepreneurship. The competition offers prizes of $70,000 in cash, business, legal, accounting and tax support, and access to a network of partners, customers and financiers to help bring their ideas to market.
The winners will be honored at Imagine H2O’s Water Innovator’s Showcase March 11, 2010, from 7 – 9 p.m. at Terra Gallery, 511 Harrison Street, San Francisco. Hundreds of cleantech leaders from the Bay area and beyond, including water entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, water utility executives, investment bankers, cleantech lawyers, government officials and public policy experts, will gather to discuss where and how innovation is happening in the water sector. Ambassador John Bohn, Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, will give the keynote speech. Tickets are available for purchase at: http://imagineh2o.eventbrite.com/
“We hope this competition can bring more attention to water and sustainability issues,” says First Place winner Scholasch. Indeed, “awareness has been an obstacle to moving the water market forward,” says Tamin Pechet, Chairman and Executive Director of Imagine H2O.“Be it public awareness of the looming water crisis, investors trying to ferret out potential business solutions, or would-be entrepreneurs networking with the vital players who can be of support. The Prize is intended to become a magnet for water entrepreneurship and give the finalists extraordinary exposure to the investment and business community.”
The competition’s inaugural prize focused on water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse. “There are alternate sources of energy – but there are no alternate sources of clean water,” says Ralph Petroff, member of the judging panel and a water technology CEO for 20 years, who currently advises technology start-ups as CEO of Magna Vista Group. “Increased water efficiency is the only solution. We will run out of clean water long before we run out of oil.” Future years’ competitions will have different prize topics addressing other critical water problems.
“Business has an important role to play in developing the next generation of solutions to the world’s water challenges,” said Gordon Nixon, President and CEO of RBC, founding sponsor of Imagine H20. “We are thrilled to have played a role in bringing this inaugural competition to life and congratulate all the finalists and winners.”
Imagine H2O has financial backing from RBC*, the Full Circle Fund, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and other private foundations. Its growing list of partners includes the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the National Water Research Institute, Babson College, the Stanford University Conservation Program, and others.
For more information, please visit www.imagineh2o.org.
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* Royal Bank of Canada (RY on TSX and NYSE) and its subsidiaries operate under the master brand name RBC. RBC is one of North America’s leading diversified financial services companies and among the largest banks in the world, as measured by market capitalization. The company employs approximately 80,000 full- and part-time employees who serve more than 18 million personal, business, public sector and institutional clients through offices in Canada, the U.S. and 53 other countries. The RBC Blue Water Project is a 10-year, $50 million commitment to support organizations that are committed to stewarding the world’s water resources. For more information, please visit rbc.com.
Get your tickets to Imagine H2O’s Showcase Event on March 11th
Proposed Start-Ups Could Save Over One Trillion Gallons of Water Annually
SAN FRANCISCO, December 21, 2009 – The judges for the Imagine H2O Prize have chosen ten finalists in the inaugural global competition. This year’s Prize rewards business plans that offer the greatest promise of breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water.
With more than fifty teams from all over the world submitting entries, “the competition has already exceeded our wildest expectations,” says Brian Matthay, Imagine H2O’s Program Manager. Created to help find sustainable solutions to global water problems through entrepreneurship, the competition offers prizes of $70,000 in cash, business and legal support, and access to a network of partners, customers and financiers to help bring their ideas to market.
“Only a small number of water start-ups receive angel and venture investment each year. Our team did an extensive search to find an impressive number of promising water start-ups looking for support,” says Tamin Pechet, Imagine H2O’s Chairman. “More importantly, the Prize actually inspired some water start-ups to put together their teams and business plans that might not have done so otherwise.”
It was more than the quantity of entries that was surprising. “It was very difficult for the judges to limit the finalists to only ten,” says Ralph Petroff, member of the judging panel and a water technology CEO for 20 years, who currently advises technology start-ups as CEO of Magna Vista Group. “I have no doubt that many of these business plans will become the foundations for successful and profitable water companies. The high caliber of the business plans is an excellent validation that water efficiency is the next key clean-tech market.”
“A competition like this is long overdue,” echoes Rob Steiner, co-founder of finalist WaterSmart Software, who has been in the water sector for many years.
Entries were submitted from the United States, India, Europe, Canada and Australia. Teams included CEOs of publicly traded companies, consultants in the water business as well as MBA students. The finalists in the first Imagine H2O Prize are:
“We hope this competition can bring more attention to water and sustainability issues,” says finalist Thibaut Scholasch, Ph.D., who along with partner Sebastien Payen, founded finalist Fruition Sciences. Indeed, awareness has been an obstacle to moving the water market forward, says Pechet, be it public awareness of the looming water crisis, investors trying to ferret out potential business solutions or would-be entrepreneurs networking with the vital players who can be of support. The Prize is intended to become a magnet for all interested parties and give the finalists extraordinary exposure to the investment and business community.
“It is an honor to be a part of Imagine H2O’s vision to facilitate coalitions between entrepreneurs, industry experts, scientists, venture capitalists and executives to tackle what is arguably the greatest challenge of our time – the way we, as a civilization, manage water as a finite resource,” says J. Mark Arnold, Vice President, Business Development, Quantaic Corporation, one of the finalists.
The competition’s inaugural prize focuses on water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse. “There are alternate sources of energy – but there are no alternate sources of clean water,” says Petroff. “Increased water efficiency is the only solution. We will run out of clean water long before we run out of oil.”
If all of the finalists’ proposed businesses were realized, over one trillion gallons of water could be saved annually.
Entries were accepted starting in September 2009 and winners will be announced at a showcase event in March 2010. Future years’ competitions will have different prize topics addressing other critical water problems.
Imagine H2O has financial backing from RBC, the Full Circle Fund, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and other private foundations. Its growing list of partners includes the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the National Water Research Institute, Babson College, the Stanford University Conservation Program, and others.
For more information, please visit www.imagineh2o.org.
Contact:
Amy Logan
(415) 419-5557
The first round judging will close and finalists will be informed this week. We will then post finalists to the website. Please stay tuned.
Enter your executive summary by 11/16/09 at 11:59pm pacific time at www.imagineh2o.org. Please email prize@imagineh2o.org with any questions.