Go with the flow Pentair

go with thE flow

The next best thing to creating more natural resources, global leader Pentair creates products and solutions that help people to make the best use of the resources they rely on most. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to director Dr Roland Folz to gain an insight into this truly innovative company.

Innovation isn’t just a good idea at Pentair: it’s a philosophy, a complete way of thinking that impacts on everything the company achieves. With its dedication to utilising alternative energy on a large scale and protecting and maximising natural resources, this successful company is a global leader in solutions and equipment for water, fluid and thermal management.

Managing to balance its over 50-year old history with a refreshingly modern entrepreneurial approach, Pentair has long been a company driven by vision. Its smart story of mergers, acquisitions and organic growth has seen the development of a forward-thinking, realistic yet exciting operation, with an ever-expanding roster of ‘some of the most important flow management and thermal solution products in the industry’. Pentair makes perfect sense

Director Dr Roland Folz is the perfect interviewee; he knows Pentair inside out and is both passionate and pragmatic about the sustainability focus that underpins the company’s every action. Dr Folz said, “Pentair is part of something special and always has been. Our strong focus on sustainability means that we are continually creating technology that involves utilising alternative energy on a large scale. We close the loop from a technical side. Why would we waste something as precious as irreplaceable natural resources? What we do makes perfect sense.”

Pentair offers sustainable solutions across industry sectors, with its core areas of operation including advanced filtration and desalination, aquatic and aquaculture systems, crop spray and crop protection, flood water and waste water systems, food and beverage processing, irrigation management, equipment and electronics protection, fastening solutions and thermal building solutions.

With Dr Folz representing the Pentair divisions of food and beverage processing in particular, his efforts are focused on driving initiatives in sustainable energy and he is primarily concerned with biogas and waste management. He continued, “Pentair is innovating solutions designed to extract energy out of waste material, so that could be water reuse, water recovery, identifying water stress regions...We give clear, technologically-advanced advice for building plants with efficient processes so water isn’t wasted and product isn’t wasted. In the food and beverage sector, which is my particular speciality, we create smart filtration solutions that help reduce water waste, while at the same time reducing solid waste. We also integrate end-of-pipe solutions, so that’s a complete cycle.”

No need to waste

Alongside water waste reduction and management, Dr Folz is focused on emissions. He noted, “We look a lot into our expertise with gas management, which has taken us to our leading position regarding CO2 capturing and recovery. We’re very much at the forefront, driving innovation in this exciting industry. Our success in CO2 capturing and recovery is part of how we are succeeding through differentiated solutions, even compared to larger players.”

These differentiated solutions are integral to Pentair’s exhaustive understanding of how to reduce, utilise and capture natural resources, while creating uncompromising standards of safety, sanitation and performance. The company ensures it stays close to

both the market and its customers, which in turn guarantees that it understands the changing needs and demands of both parties. Dr Folz said, “The population is changing, which impacts on the types of solutions that are required; for example, the globally-growing middle class will increase food demand. We participate by innovating safe, sustainable solutions to help increase production with fewer resources, such as being at the cutting edge of clean processing up to aseptic processing.” Good for everyone, everywhere

Dr Folz continued to explain how Pentair’s long-term focus on sustainability and safe process design across every aspect of its highly-respected business has always gone beyond ‘box ticking’. He said, “Sustainability is not something we’ve been pushed into; it’s not about quotas or CSR. Sustainability has always been our natural partner, the company has always followed this philosophy – creating solutions that are good for everyone and everything is a good fit.”

Indeed, it is this philosophy that will continue to see Pentair’s success bloom even more in the coming years. Dr Folz concluded, “Even though we have thought this way for many decades, we continue to be the right choice for many customers as they start to appreciate that being smart with our natural resources is essentially no longer a choice. We help our customers achieve that; we enable them to fulfil their goals. We are a dynamic, innovative, fast-paced company that is packed with people with the right mindset; it’s exciting working at Pentair and it’s exciting working with Pentair. Our technology curve continues to move upwards and I’m very happy to have new customers and new team members along for the ride!” n