What Future Cities Need

INTERVIEW

What Future Cities Need

Kostas Poulopoulos is the Area Managing Director of Gulf, Levant and Pakistan at Grundfos, a company that is adopting the latest technology innovations for its digital transformation journey. The Sustainabilist spoke with Kostas about Grundfos’ sustainable operations and how they are making an impact

How is sustainability integrated in Grundfos’ business operations? At Grundfos, sustainability has been at the heart of what we do for the last 75 years! This is not a statement for our 26

annual report and communication, but the way we see the world, act, develop and do business. We pioneer innovative solutions for the world’s water and climate challenges and being world’s largest pump manufacturer makes us responsible for leading the way. Our commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals on water and climate change makes it critical for us to ensure our business operations are in line with our vision and values. Sustainability is at the core of our strategy. In fact, Grundfos is the first company of its kind

to introduce the sustainability index as a key performance indicator across the organisation, inspiring other global technology giants to do the same. In our facility in Dubai, we use sustainable packaging; recycle water in our pump testing beds; source over 70% of the light in the factory naturally; recycle our waste; we have removed single-use plastic; and as we speak, we are implementing solar panels that will meet approximately 60% of our annual power need.

What are Grundfos’ iSolutions and how does the creation of a comprehensive system support the efforts to transition to a smart city? The smart city concept will enable a more efficient management of available resources, as well as assets and services, through the implementation of live data harvested thanks to IoT and city-wide connectivity.

Pumps are at the heart of every building, wastewater network, and treatment facilities. Moreover, it is calculated that they comprise about 10% of world’s total electricity consumption. We are committed to pioneering solutions which enable the world to optimise and efficiently manage safe water applications. Grundfos iSolutions brings together intelligent pumps, cloud connectivity and digital services for a system which offers real-time monitoring, remote control, fault prediction and system autooptimisation. In essence, it is a solution which optimises the entire system by ensuring reliability and performance across all components within the system. Grundfos iSolutions works in all kinds of buildings, industries and water utilities, delivering savings of energy, labour and maintenance costs while maximising system performances.

Grundfos is the first company of its kind to introduce the sustainability index as a key performance indicator across the organisation. “

“Regionally, how are Grundfos’ solutions enabling governments to attain their sustainability goals? Grundfos is working with leading utility companies, municipalities and authorities across the emirates and the wider region, with the aim of achieving the sustainability goals. With over 30 years of experience in the region, our applied knowledge, capabilities, and intelligent solutions for managing water and wastewater applications, we are contributing to optimisation and operational efficiency in the existing and expanded networks.

As Grundfos operates in a great number of industries, which one do you believe faces the greatest challenges in terms of integrating sustainable management of resources? Each segment represents its unique set of challenges and opportunities. With consideration factors ranging from reliability to financing, there are solutions to enable sustainable management of resources across all segments.

In the future, water demand will continue to rise, placing more pressure on supply and distribution of water and wastewater. Water utilities have the critical role of providing water to their citizens, and to keep up to speed with the growing demand, water networks need to be expanded and existing ones optimised.

On the other hand, one of the highest consumers of energy in the Middle East is old buildings with outdated HVAC systems. Financing retrofit of these systems can be a challenge for building owners, as such, Grundfos partners with ESCOs to finance these projects and pay through savings actualised. Through our Energy Check service, we conduct energy optimisation studies for existing systems, highlighting energy and water savings potential.

What do you believe are important measures that will need to be adopted globally for water conservation, environmental protection, and transitioning to smart cities? Partnerships between businesses locally and globally are critical to exponentially increase impact, discover new synergies, and explore opportunities that tackle these challenges.

Government legislations lay the foundation for framework that businesses can operate in and the direction they need to move in. We continue to see amazing initiatives by the UAE government on this front, including the initiatives towards the SDGs and the 2050 Energy Strategy.

But we also know that it is up to every household to adopt and incorporate changes that will help in terms of water conservation, environmental protection and the transition to smart cities.

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