Volume 11, Issue 2 by The Solutions Journal

For a sustainable and desirable future

Solutions

Editorial

Letter from the Editor

SPRING 2020

Perspectives America’s Farms: Water Risk and Opportunity in the Agricultural Supply Chain. by Kirsten James

by Beth Schaefer Caniglia, Ph.D.

Changing Perceptions-Say Yes to Palm Oil

Contents

by Jonathan Finch & Monique van Wijnbergen

Despite what you may have heard, not all palm oil - the ingredient in most of your everyday products - is bad. But those who do produce it sustainably need our support, now more than ever.

Noteworthy Cap-and-Trade in California: Health & Climate Benefits Greatly Outweigh Costs by Marc Breslow, Ph.D. & Ruby Wincele

California has an economy-wide cap-andtrade system for greenhouse gases that now covers electricity, transportation, industry, and heating, with about 45% of the revenues invested in programs to further reduce greenhouse gases through the California Climate Investments (CCI). 100

Water Innovation Clusters as Solution Stewards by Marianne Langridge

This article explores the role of the Water Innovation Cluster Network in facilitating the connections that will ensure solution implementation in a timely manner. 103

Companies would do well to offer financial support to farmers to pursue sustainable agricultural practices. Such practices such as efficient irrigation, no till or low till field preparation, fertilizer optimization and planting cover crops can go a long way to reducing water waste and water pollution on the farm. 14

What is Environmental Writing? by Richard Goodman The article traces the origins of environmental writing, distinguishing it from nature writing. It posits that although environmental writing and nature writing both celebrate the earth’s majesty, environmental writing seeks to rouse the reader and to institute awareness, change and action. 16

Challenges and Opportunities for Nonmarket Valuation of Water Among the Anishinaabe Nations of the Great Lakes Basin by James I. Price, Tracy A. Boyer & Margaret Noodin

Nonmarket valuation is the practice, often applied to environmental resources, of putting dollar values on nonmarket services. Few nonmarket valuation studies have been conducted among indigenous communities because of differences between indigenous and Western belief systems, an inability to use certain valuation techniques, and difficulties obtaining information and respondent pools for surveys; as a result, indigenous values for environmental resources run the risk of being ignored in policy decisions. This overview considers the theoretical and methodological issues facing the nonmarket valuation of water quality in Anishinaabe communities and suggests solutions for future studies. 28

On Becoming Solutionaries: The First Global Revolution by Kevin Danaher

All previous revolutions were national revolutions, where the revolutionaries sought control of a particular country in order to change the direction of that nation’s policies. Now we are in the early stages of the first global revolution: it is a values revolution that is saying, instead of having money values rule over the life cycle, we must have life values rule over the money cycle. We must subordinate the economy to society and nature, rather than subordinating society and nature to the economy. 41

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For a sustainable and desirable future

Solutions

Contents WINTER 2020

48 Feature: A Symposium

A collection of essays on â&#x20AC;&#x153;disruptiveâ&#x20AC;? technologies that may transform the water sector in the next 10 years.

on the Future of Water

One Water and Resource Recovery: Emerging Water and Sanitation Paradigms by Glenn T. Daigger

Alternate approaches to urban water management are required to sustain service where already provided and to extend service where it is insufficient in the face of rising resource scarcity. Integrated systems incorporating one water and resource recovery approaches provide water service much more efficiently and recovery other resources (energy, nutrients) to reduce the net resource burden.

Disruptive Innovation in the Water Sector by Nikolay Voutchkov

The article presents advances in desalination and water reuse technologies which have a high potential to improve performance and minimize costs for water and wastewater treatment.

The search for real answers begins with Solutions

by Glenn T. Daigger, Nikolay Voutchkov, Upmanu Lall & Will Sarni

Positive Water Sector Disruptions by 2030 by Upmanu Lall

Decentralized water storage, treatment and distribution networks, that are centrally managed by private or public sector operators and target a high degree of rain and storm water capture and reuse addressing safety issues through innovative point of use sensors, will emerge as the architecture for urban water and wastewater systems.

The Future of Water is Digital by Will Sarni

Digital technologies have transformed sectors such as; education, mobility, healthcare and entertainment and now transforming the water sector. Digital technologies such as; satellite data acquisition and analytics, IoT, AI and machine learning, virtual reality and augmented reality are vastly improving how we manage water resources and infrastructure.

Join the Solutions Team Become a part of the global Solutions team. Applications are invited for volunteer section editors. Have Solutions delivered to your door or devices with our PDF subscription. Keep up to date on our latest articles and gain exclusive access to online and face to face Solutions events.

Envisioning

Reviews

Crafting the Post COVID world

Ray Anderson’s Legacy, Evolved by John A. Lanier

by Hunter Lovins, Sandrine Dixson-Declève

Ray Anderson and his company Interface made the business case for sustainability, a story originally told in the 1998 book Mid-Course Correction. In the updated version of that book, now titled Mid-Course Correction Revisited, Ray’s grandson John A. Lanier makes the case that we need to create more than sustainable businesses. We need to create sustainable economies. 106

& Mamphela Ramphele

The unfolding tragedy of the Coronavirus is causing devastation for millions of people worldwide and hitting the poorest and most vulnerable hardest. The crisis is far from over but all crises end, and when this one does, we will have to answer several urgent questions about the new world we want to craft. A return to “normal” is tempting, but not an option if we are to truly emerge from this emergency and create the finer future which is within our grasp. 148

Coping with CoViD-19, acknowledging the real plague by William E. Rees

The world is struggling in the throes of a tragic global pandemic. Regrettably, our contemporary mindset interprets the CoViD-19 plague solely in terms of population health and its impact on the economy—mainstream discussions focus doggedly on facilitating recovery, restoring growth and otherwise getting back to normal. This is a grave error—normal is pathology. However horrific CoViD-19 may seem, it is merely one symptom of gross ecological dysfunction. 159

COVID-19 and the transition to a sustainable wellbeing economy by Robert Costanza

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On the Ground The Winners of the George Barley Water Prize Pilot Stage Competition Are… by G. Melodie Naja, Tom Van Lent, Koos Baas, Leon Korving, Greg Möller, C. Ptacek, P. L. Sibrell & Yanyang Zhang.

Through the George Barley Prize, nine technologies were tested under the same conditions. The nine technologies were compared for their total phosphorus (TP) removal cleaning up to 32,176 liters per day of Holland Marsh canal water in Ontario, Canada. Collectively, the nine teams treated 10,962 m3 of water and removed 2.79 kg of TP, representing an average TP loading decrease of 65%. Teams F (U.S. Geological Survey), I (Green Water Solution), and G (University of Idaho-blueXgreen-Nexom) achieved the lowest TP concentrations among all nine teams during the three-month testing period. 109

A new water policy for Paris: Democratic and Socio environmental Sustainability by Anne Le Strat Ten years after its creation the success of Eau de Paris is beyond any question and no more contested. Contrary to the prevailing bias against the public entities, EDP shows that it can be very innovative in all fields and fully accomplish its obligations of public service. In these troubled and worrying times, we have to reaffirm the need to ensure the provision of essential goods and services to humanity. For this purpose, water has to be managed not as a commodity but as a common good. 122

We are all just walking each other home by Kathleen R. Smythe Field research experience in Ufipa in southwestern Tanzania suggests that a cultural practice of escorting guests from one’s home at the end of a visit gives greater meaning to Ram Dass’s popular statement that “we are all just walking each other home.” The author lived in Tanzania for several years and learned the local language to conduct historical and anthropological research about the relationship between Catholic missionaries and Fipa. Along the way she came to appreciate extended Fipa hospitality and the art of listening. 133

Leaving a place better than you found it; Making a difference and restoring ecosystems on the Great Barrier Reef by Anna (Anya) Phelan, Jack F. Ward, Kathleen Doody, Zheng Yen Ng, Ebony Watson, Lily Fogg, Kate Dutton-Regester, Rocio Vargas Soto, Karla Ximena Vazquez Prada, Annaleise Wilson, Hongmin Yan, Timothy Vanden Berg, Jessica Bugeja, Alexander Arkhipov, Matthew Allen & Stefan Hinkelmann

Coral reef ecosystems are one of the most valuable economic, social and environmental assets on our planet. With global stressors (such as climate change) causing bleaching and mass mortality across the world’s reefs, it has never been more important to preserve and restore these vulnerable ecosystems. Lady Elliot Island, a coral cay on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is a prime example of how innovative ecotourism solutions can successfully restore and sustainably manage a coral cay ecosystem. 137

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Contributors

The Solutions Journal Editor-in-Chief: Beth Schaefer Caniglia Associate Editors: Robert Costanza Hunter Lovins Ida Kubiszewski David W. Orr History Section Editor: Frank Zelko Noteworthy Section Editor: Shar Olivier Book & Envisioning Editor: Bruce Cooperstein Media Reviews Section & Sustainable Business Editor: Mairi-Jane Fox Print and Online Graphic Designer: Sarah Adams Editorial Board Gar Alperovitz, Vinya Ariyaratne, Robert Ayres, Peter Barnes, Bill Becker, Paulette Blanchard, Lester Brown, Alexander Chikunov, Cutler Cleveland, Raymond Cole, Rita Colwell, Bob Corell, Herman Daly, Thomas Dietz, Josh Farley, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Jerry Franklin, Mairi-Jane Fox, Susan Joy Hassol, Richard Heinberg, Jeffrey Hollender, Buzz Holling, Terry Irwin, Jon Isham, Wes Jackson, Tim Kasser, Frances Moore Lappe, Rik Leemans, Wenhua Li, Tom Lovejoy, Manfred Max-Neef, Peter May, Jacqueline McGlade, Bill McKibben, William Mitsch, Mohan Munasinghe, Norman Myers, Shar Olivier, Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir, Bill Rees, Wolfgang Sachs, Ken Sagendorf, Peter Senge, Rebecca Sheehan, Vandana Shiva, Anthony Simon, Gus Speth, Larry Susskind, David Suzuki, Mary Evelyn Tucker, Alvaro Umaña, Sim van der Ryn, Peter Victor, Mathis Wackernagel, Eugene Wilkerson, Robertson Work, Mike Young In Memoriam Ray Anderson Ernest Callenbach Elinor Ostrom Subscriptions http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/subscribe Email: solutions@thesolutionsjournal.com Sponsorships & Partnerships http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/sponsor Email: solutions@thesolutionsjournal.com On the Cover Photo by Daniele D'Andreti on Unsplash

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1. Matthew Allen is a PhD student in inorganic chemistry and a 2019 Global Change Scholar at The University of Queensland. His PhD is focused on the design of cage-like molecular structures that form in the shape of cubes and polyhedra known as supramolecular chemistry. 2. Alexander Arkhipov is a PhD student at the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland. His PhD project is focused on boosting beneficial plantmicrobiome interactions to increase plant productivity to develop novel microbe-based plant biopesticides and biofertilisers. 3. Koos Baas is the Co-Founder and EVP of Green Water Solution, a Floridabased startup that has embraced a “green” technology for phosphorus removal and recovery. Koos has a degree in Chemical Engineering and has been working in water treatment since 1978. His expertise is in corrosion, scaling and biofouling, mostly on cooling tower- and boiler treatment. 4. Dr. Tracy Boyer is a Professor and Environmental Economist at the School of Freshwater Sciences at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Boyer was formerly on faculty in Agricultural Economics at Oklahoma State University and holds a doctorate in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota. Her current research projects examine recreational

values and preferences for funding conservation in the Great Lakes; she has extensive experience working with state, local, and federal natural resource agencies in water policy and teaching environmental and natural resource economics. 5. Marc Breslow Ph.D. has an extensive background developing policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He has conducted studies forecasting the impacts of carbon pollution pricing and designed legislation to implement it for several states. Breslow formerly held two positions in Massachusetts state government, and in 2010 he had a leading role in developing and writing Massachusett’s Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2020. 6. Jessica Bugeja Jessica is a PhD candidate and UQ Global Change Scholar focusing on using state-ofthe-art biomedical imaging solutions for orthopaedic patients. Jessica is interested in, sustainable technologies with a particular focus on data and computer science to help improve patients’ quality of life. 7. Robert Costanza is Chair of Public Policy at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. He has authored or coauthored over 350 scientific papers, and reports on his work have appeared in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, The Economist, The New York Times,

Contributors

19 15

Science, Nature, National Geographic, and National Public Radio. 8. Glenn T. Daigger Dr. Daigger is currently Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan and President and Founder of One Water Solutions, LLC, a water engineering and innovation firm. He previously served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for CH2M HILL (now Jacobs) where he was employed for 35 years, as well as Professor and Chair of Environmental Systems Engineering at Clemson University. Actively engaged in the water profession through major projects, and as author or co-author of more than 200 technical papers, five books, and several technical manuals, he contributes to significantly advance practice within the water profession. 9. Kevin Danaher is a co-founder of Global Exchange (1988), co-founder of FairTradeUSA (1997), founder and Executive Co-Producer of the Green Festivals (2001). His 1985 PhD in sociology is from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a dissertation, “The Political Economy of U.S. Policy Toward South Africa.” Kevin has published numerous articles and is author or editor of 14 books. His most recent book, The Two Globalizations, is available as a free PDF download at kevindanaher.org. 10. Sandrine Dixson-Declève has 30+ years of European and international policy, business leadership and strategy experience with a particular focus on EU and international climate change, sustainable development, green growth, conventional and sustainable energy solutions and sustainable finance. She is currently

the Co-President of the Club of Rome and divides her time between lecturing, facilitating difficult conversations and advisory work. 11. Kathleen Doody is a PhD candidate in the Franklin Eco Laboratory at the University of Queensland. She is undertaking research in the field of animal ecophysiology, looking at the effects of ultraviolet radiation and temperature on the immune system of amphibians. Kathleen hopes to shed light on the potential contribution of human-induced environmental change on the rise of novel wildlife diseases and the rapid loss of amphibian biodiversity. 12. Kate Dutton-Regester DuttonRegester is a PhD candidate aiming to characterise the reproductive physiology of Australia’s unique shortbeaked echidna. Her career vision is to become a leading wildlife reproductive scientist involved in research that aims to improve the conservation outcomes of endangered species. 13. Jonathan Finch is a writer and blogger based in Leeds, UK. He has a particular interest in the food and drink sector and has written extensively on sustainability and consumer issues. He creates web content, press releases, blogs and thought leadership articles, advising firms and individuals in a wide range of sectors on their content strategies, and is a professional member of the ProCopywriters Alliance. 14. Lily Fogg has a multi-disciplinary background in developmental neuroscience, infectious disease and sensory neurobiology. She is currently undertaking a PhD on the role of ecology in the development

of the visual system of coral reef and deep-sea fishes. She aims to deepen our understanding of how these animals respond to shifting ecological demands, including anthropogenic environmental change. 15. Richard Goodman is the author of French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France, A New York Memoir and The Bicycle Diaries: One New Yorker’s Journey Through 9-11. He is an associate professor of creative nonfiction writing at the University of New Orleans. 16. Stefan Hinkelmann is a PhD student at UQ’s School of Economics. His research is in the area of Environmental Macroeconomics with a particular focus on Climate Change. 17. Kirsten James directs Ceres' strategy for mobilizing leading investors and companies to address the sustainability risks facing our freshwater and agriculture systems. Previously, Kirsten served for five years as the director of California policy and partnerships at Ceres, where she led strategy development for our California-focused policy work, engaging companies and investors in support of public policies that call for sustainable water management, clean energy and greenhouse gas emissions reductions in California. 18. Emilie Ann Jóhannsdóttir Salvesen Having previously done research on perception psychology during her B.S studies, Emilie is currently a M.S student in social and environmental psychology in the University of Iceland. The primary focus of her studies is behavioral science and applied social psychology where

theoretical frameworks are applied to help clarify and solve societal problems. 19. Christopher Kane is an Undergraduate Student in Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia, with a focus on practical sustainability in materials engineering and policy. 20. Leon Korving is the Scientific Project Manager at Wetsus, a European Center of Excellence for sustainable water technologies based in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Leon’s background is in chemical & environmental engineering, and he wants to contribute to society by helping to develop sustainable water technologies with a focus on phosphate and resource recovery. 21. Upmanu Lall Dr. Lall has worked on the prediction and mitigation of climate and water risks and systems solutions for water management since 1977. He directs Columbia University’s Water Center and Chairs the Dept. of Earth & Environmental Engineering. In addition to extensive academic publication, he has worked on solutions from farm to national scales with International and local organizations around the world. 22. John Lanier is the executive director of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation, the family foundation that advances its namesake’s legacy. As Ray’s grandson, John is an advocate for sustainability not just in business, but in society at large. He and his family are proud to support environmental nonprofits and universities that share Ray’s values. 23. Dr. Marianne Langridge is the Innovation Council Director for NEWEA, and the Founder and CEO

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Contributors 22

of Sustainable Synthesis Limited, PBC. She has 30 years of experience in the water and environment industry including roles in academia, government, non-profit and private sector business. She can be contacted at marianne@sustainablesynthesis.com. 24. Anne Le Strat was elected at the Paris City Council and thereafter nominated as Chairwoman and CEO of the mixed-ownership company in charge of water production for the Paris city. Ms. Le Strat also co-founded the European publicly-owned water and sanitation operators network Aqua Publica Europea, which she chaired from 2008 to 2014. Since 2015, Ms. Le Strat has been living abroad (first in East Asia, then in the US), working essentially as a consultant in environmental management while continuing to participate in water policy events around the world. She is currently a Research Fellow at New York University. 25. Hunter Lovins is president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, which helps companies, communities, and countries implement more sustainable business practices profitably. Over her 30 years as a sustainability thought leader, Lovins has written hundreds of articles and 13 books. A founder of the field of sustainable management, she has helped create several MBA programs and currently teaches sustainable business at the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, the University of Denver, and Bard College. 26. Greg Möller is a Professor at University of Idaho where he leads a research group to conduct translational, trans-disciplinary

research to advance the goals of sustainability by developing new knowledge and innovations in the area of sustainable solutions for water resources. 27. G. Melodie Naja is director of the Science Department at the Everglades Foundation. Her current research interests focus on identification and removal of pollutants impacting water quality in the Everglades. Her skills include water quality modeling, optimization and application of practical remediation processes. 28. Margaret Noodin is a Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she also directs the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education. She is author of Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature and two collections of bilingual poems in Ojibwe and English, Weweni and Gijigijigaaneshiinh Gikendan: What the Chickadee Knows. To see and hear current projects visit www.ojibwe. net where she and other students and speakers of Ojibwe have created a space for language to be shared by academics and the native community. 29. Anna (Anya) Phelan is an ecological economist and a Research Fellow at the Business School at The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on ocean plastic pollution, circular economy, social entrepreneurship and business sustainability. She is the Academic Coordinator for the UQ Global Change Scholars Program. 30. James I. Price is an Assistant Professor at the School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin

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– Milwaukee. Dr. Price formerly held postdoctoral fellowships at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Brock University, and the University of British Columbia – Okanagan, and holds advanced degrees in Economics from the University of New Mexico, with concentrations in economic theory, environmental economics, and econometrics. His research focuses on nonmarket valuation and municipal water supply, including issues related to source water protection, in situ water quality, drinking water quality, smallscale irrigation, and urban flooding. 31. C. Ptacek is a Professor at University of Waterloo where she leads the Groundwater Geochemistry Remediation Group. She conducts research on a variety of topics in contaminant hydrogeology and geochemistry, including studies on mechanisms controlling the fate and transport of metals, nutrients, pathogens, organic compounds in groundwater. 32. Mamphela Ramphele has been Co-President of the Club of Rome since 2018. She has been a student activist, medical doctor, community development activist, researcher, university executive, global public servant and is now an active citizen and a founding trustee of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.Previously, Dr Ramphele was Vice-Chancellor of UCT, one of four Managing Directors of the World Bank in Washington, DC and Leader of Agang SA, a party for all South Africans which won two seats in the national elections in 2014. 33. William E. Rees is a human ecologist, ecological economist, former

Director and Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. Best known as the originator and co-developer with his students of ‘ecological footprint analysis’, Dr Rees also publishes on the innate behavioral and learned cognitive barriers to sustainability. His work is widely recognized and awarded internationally. 34. Will Sarni Founder and CEO of Water Foundry. He is an advisor to multinationals, water technology companies, investors, multi-lateral development banks and NGOs. He is an investor in water technology start-ups with a focus on innovative digital, off-grid and advanced treatment technologies. He is a globally recognized thought leader and has authored several books on corporate water strategies, the energy-water-food nexus and digital water technologies. 35. P. L. Sibrell is a researcher at the US Geological Survey. He investigates new engineering processes and practices for environmental restoration of natural aquatic resources and systems. Throughout his career, he developed and characterized novel treatment systems for the remediation of acid mine drainage and nutrient contamination at the bench and pilot scale. 36. Kathleen Smythe teaches and writes about history and sustainability. She is Professor of History at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Her most recent projects include Whole Earth Living: Reconnecting Earth, History, Body and Mind (DixiBooks, 2020) and Bicycling Through Paradise:

Contributors

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Historical Tours Around Cincinnati, co-authored with Chris Hanlin (University of Cincinnati Press, 2021). 37. Rocío Vargas Soto is a Geologist from Chile and PhD Candidate in Geology at the Sustainable Minerals Institute. She aims to have a broader concept of mining and to be conscious about the effects that it has through the whole cycle, interested in applying technologies to mitigate negative impacts and encourage positive innovations in the resources sector. 38. Tom Van Lent is Vice President of Programs at the Everglades Foundation. Dr. Van Lent works on providing scientific and technical support to non-governmental environmental organizations. His respons ibilities include presenting expert analysis of hydrologic, engineering, and ecological information to assist in development of Everglades restoration alternatives and meeting Everglades restoration and protection objectives. 39. Timothy Vanden Berg graduated with First Class Honours in Chemistry from The University of Queensland (UQ), for which he was awarded the Wilmar Sugar Prize in Chemistry for achieving the highest standard in the program. He is now completing a PhD at UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience, where he is designing and synthesising molecules for the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

40. Karla Ximena Vazquez Prada is a PhD student at the Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology working on developing nanomaterials with the ability to diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases and cancer. She did her honours at the Institute of Nanosciences and Nanotechnology in the University of Barcelona. 41. Nikolay Voutchkov has over 35 years of experience in the field of desalination and water reuse. Published 10 technical books on desalination plant design and operation. Recognized with numerous awards for applied research and development of advanced technologies. 42. Jack F. Ward is a PhD student at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland. Jack researches geodynamic controls on porphyry ore deposit formation and the secular evolution of Earth’s ocean and atmosphere. 43. Ebony Watson is a PhD candidate at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the use of machine learning, genomics and bioimage informatics to investigate biological heterogeneity, particularly in the context of human ageing and age-associated diseases. 44. Monique van Wijnbergen is Sustainability and Corporate Communications Director at Natural

Habitats Group, a company fully committed to the sustainable production of organic and fair-trade palm oil. She is also a spokesperson for Palm Done Right, an international campaign on a mission to change the conversation around palm oil and to advocate palm can be grown for good. Monique combines ten years of experience as a commercial lead in the fast-moving consumer goods sector, with extensive experience working at the intersection of sustainability and commerce. She worked as an advisor for Oxfam’s FAIR Company-Community partnership program in palm oil and was the marketing and communication lead at sustainability program UTZ Certified. 45. Annaleise Wilson is a PhD researcher in Microbiology at the University of Queensland. Since 2018, Annaleise has been based within the Food Program at CSIRO where her research has focussed on food borne bacterial pathogens, particularly Salmonella, in relation to food production systems. 46. Ruby Wincele performs research on past, present and future carbon pricing systems and climate policy in the United States. She is pursuing her B.S. in Economics and Mathematics at Northeastern University, with a focus on environmental policy and equitable food systems. Her past experience includes conducting research and helping to create the “Today I

Learned: Climate” podcast at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, and advocating for state-level carbon pricing with Our Climate. 47. Hongmin (Jess) Yan is a PhD candidate at University of Queensland. Her research aims to understand how employees in the service industry can be more proactive, creative at work and better interact with coworkers, customers or clients. Her recent research focuses on frontline employees’ ethical decision making during service encounters. 48. Zheng Yen Ng has a background in applied linguistics and is currently a PhD student at The University of Queensland. His PhD project examines real-life interactions and perspectives of families and healthcare professionals, focused on access to healthcare information, resources and strategies for supporting and making appropriate health decisions. 49. Yanyang Zhang is an Assistant Professor at Nanjing University in China. Yanyang’s background is in environmental science and technology. Yanyang developed a new “Zero Phosphorus” nanocomposite adsorbent using a rare earth element. Yanyang received his Master’s degree at the University of Melbourne and his Ph.D at Nanjing University.

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Letter Letter from from the the Editor Editor

Letter from the Editor

Credit: United Nations COVID-19 Response



-When I last wrote to you, we were reeling from the devastating Australian bushfires that had killed over one billion animals. Discussions about the urgency of climate change were surging in the press. Then, as fast as our focus had sharpened on the pressing need to address our ailing climate, COVID-19 spread across the world, shifting our attention to “flatten the curve” of a global epidemic. But as news cycles shift from one global catastrophe to another, we should be reminded that climate change and COVID-19 require the same set of actions: They can only be abated by resilience thinking that reduces our vulnerability to external shocks, such as disease, economic fluctuations, floods and famine. Although none of us could see this specific virus coming, we definitely saw ourselves hanging from

Beth Schaefer Caniglia, Ph.D The Solutions Journal Editor-in-Chief

an ever thinning thread. Winnowing resources and increasing inequality have left us vulnerable to a dystopian future, where competition for scarce resources deteriorates into “Us” versus “Them” in an epic battle for survival. We are living in that world now. Our efforts to increase density in cities to lessen waste through economies of scale have provided the ideal conditions for this virus to spread. Almost overnight, tens of millions of people worldwide lost their jobs, restaurants boarded their doors, international travel and trade ground to an abrupt stop. The vulnerabilities in our local and global systems were revealed in an instant. Much of my own research and writing has focused on the factors that predict vulnerability when crises occur. In my book Resilience, Environmental Justice and the City, I wrote: When we look at inequality and resilience at the international level, three critical dimensions are highlighted in the sociological literature: the exposure and impacts of … disasters; the ability of elites to exclude the poor from decision-making and available resources; and the power of industrialized nations to dominate the international institutions that create policies, treaties and other cooperative agreements.1 These findings are as relevant for the spread and devastation of COVID-19 as they are for other economic, technical, and natural crises. Some can shelter, while others remain exposed. Frontline workers, whether fire fighters, health

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Letter from the Editor

professionals or meat packers are significantly vulnerable, as are people in densely populated cities, nursing homes, prisons, refugee camps, and shanty towns. The elites use their access to information, their financial power, and their political prowess to scoop up scarce personal protection equipment and ventilators before they can reach the communities that desperately need them. And central governments actively suppress information about predictive models and recommended reopening procedures that point to different policy responses than those that serve their reelection probabilities and the donors who support them. The vulnerabilities associated with inequality during the Coronavirus pandemic have been striking. In the United States, several studies have revealed that black and brown people, who make up approximately 30 percent of the population, have suffered over half of infections and nearly 60 percent of deaths from COVID-19. In the developing world, the pandemic has left millions unemployed worldwide whose services to international travelers and the global food and garment industries have been halted due to low demand. While small scale producers in Africa and Asia fear starvation due to frozen exports, Zoom stock increased by over ten percent as working from home became the norm for the professional class. While food lines grow, potatoes rot. While unemployment rates soar and organizations cease operations, the stock market recovered quickly and continues to climb. These contradictions are indicative of an economic system that favors profits over people and lacks adaptive capacity to collaboratively shift resources from their intended use to where they could be saving lives. But, just as we know the factors that contribute to our vulnerability to disease, climate change, and economic crises, we also know the factors that lead to increased resilience for everyone. As our Associate Editor Hunter Lovins writes in her book Finer Future, we have to create an economy in service to life. Our current economy exploits the environment and vulnerable populations of people to build profits for large corporations and elites, leaving everyone else vulnerable. Instead,

the economy needs to be reorganized to steward the natural resources that support life on earth and provide equitable opportunities for all of the people who live here. Other members of our distinguished Editorial Board have articulated pathways to increased equity and resilience, shining a light on the global, national, and bioregional solutions: • We can create an economy in service to life by placing people, prosperity, and planet into interaction in ways that support abundance for all three2; • We can elevate indicators of wellbeing to measure progress in nation-states, rather than rely on GDP as our primary judge of success in our economy3; • We can shift from a focus on sustaining our current way of life toward a regenerative future4. In this issue, we feature articles that articulate solutions that increase resilience. In our Feature Article Section, we are grateful to bring to you a series of state-of-the-art pieces focused on creating

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Letter from the Editor

thanks to the Club of Rome, in particular, for sharing their assessment of this global pandemic with us at such an important time. And, finally, we are deeply grateful for the financial support of Domini Impact Funds, who is our issue sponsor and a leader in the fight to build shared abundance in the world. I know all of you, our incredible readers and supporters, are leading us in the right direction. Thank you for your continued work on behalf of justice and sustainability. Quoting George Packer of The Atlantic: We can learn from these dreadful days that stupidity and injustice are lethal; that, in a democracy, being a citizen is essential work; that the alternative to solidarity is death. After we’ve come out of hiding and taken off our masks, we should not forget what it was like to be alone5. As always, in deep solidarity,

 Credit: United Nations COVID-19 Response

a resilient water future, which was originally published by the Inter-American Development Bank. Several articles outside of the Feature Section also focus on ways to enhance security and equitable access to increasingly threatened water supplies around the world. We also offer a special Envisioning Section dedicated to scenarios for post-Covid-19 recovery – scenarios that abandon attempts to restore business as usual in favor of a future focused on shared prosperity on a healthy planet. Many

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References: 1. Caniglia, B and B. Frank in Resilience, Environmental Justice and the City (Caniglia, B et al. eds). Chapter 4 (Routledge). 2. See the writings of Lester Brown, Paul Hawken, Bill McKibben, Peter Senge, Gus Speth, and Robertson Work (among others). 3. See the writings of Robert Costanza, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Ida Kubiszewski, and Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir (among others). 4. See the writings of Beth Caniglia, Rebecca Sheehan, Eugene Wilkerson, Ken Sagendorf, and Hunter Lovins. 5. George Packer We are Living in a Failed State (online 2020) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/ underlying-conditions/610261/

Editorial

Changing PerceptionsSay Yes to Palm Oil by Jonathan A. Finch & Monique van Wijnbergen

n the great palm oil debate, which is currently raging, amidst allegations of the pursuit of profit at the expense of sustainability, it seems that some kernels of truth have been lost along the way. Palm oil is a harmless, natural product in and of itself; it is the nature of human action which causes problems.

This article explores the truth behind the crop and posits how perceptions can–and should–be changed towards it. It does not seek to minimise the risk to our planet posed by bad palm oil production, but it does propose that the picture is more nuanced than we have been led to believe. In short, not all palm oil production is bad. We need transparency and honesty if we’re going to effectively address the concerns of all types of people across the world– whether it be vegans, the organic movement, or those concerned about workers’ rights and poverty. Let’s take each of these one by one.

Vegan and Organic Palm oil, as the name suggests, is from a palm tree–natural and wholly plant-based in its raw

form. So far so good for vegans. So should vegans choose palm oil, and why do many of them boycott it? A clue can be found in the Vegan Society’s own definition of veganism–which “seeks to exclude–as far as possible and practicable–all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.”1 Vegans simply can’t be sure that the palm oil they consume has come from animal-friendly and environmentally sustainable sources. How about those looking for organic produce? Here too, this natural product should pass the test with flying colours. The Soil Association definition states that it must “use fewer (or no) pesticides than non-organic produce; it must not contain GM elements; and no artificial preservatives must be www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 11

Editorial

question, we need to recognise that it can be very difficult to separate which ingredients come from good and bad suppliers in any one product. One thing is for sure; we need the power and passion of the vegan and organic movements to get behind sustainable, organic palm oil as much as is practicable. Then, the sum of the parts really would be greater than the whole.

Land usage and economic benefits

used.”2 Though there are increasing numbers of good, sustainable producers selling palm oil which pass this test, they remain in the minority–just 19% of the world’s crop is sustainable according to standards established by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).3 Therefore, some vegans and organic campaigners believe it is safer to cut out all palm oil from their purchases rather than take the risk of buying unsustainable varieties.

..we need to recognise that it can be very difficult to separate which ingredients come from good and bad suppliers in any one product. One thing is for sure; we need the power and passion of the vegan and organic movements to get behind sustainable, organic palm oil as much as is practicable. Herein lies the challenge, and it is a somewhat ironic one–for we find that we have to market a product that in its natural form is already entirely vegan and organic as…vegan and organic. The picture is blurred because of the human input in the process, that is, what we do to obtain and process the palm oil. Rather than demonise the product, we instead need to shine a light on the unscrupulous or non-compliant producers of what has been called “conflict palm oil.”4 Perhaps we need to look again at the question we started out with, too. Instead of asking “Should vegans choose palm oil?” we could try asking “Should vegans boycott only unsustainable and non-organic palm oils?” Even with this 12 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

The palm oil industry seems to attract paradoxes. For example, concerns of child labour and poverty in palm oil production must be balanced with the fact that in many instances the industry often offers locals a path out of poverty. A further contradiction is that a ban would almost certainly do more harm than good, due to the larger land needs of other crops. Replacing palm oil with other vegetable oils, such as soy, doesn’t necessarily solve the issue of deforestation and may actually worsen it. Switching to alternatives would most likely cause more land to be used to produce oils from other crops. Soy, for example, would use five times as much land to produce an equivalent amount to palm oil-and would not help alleviate child labour issues and concerns around pesticide use. The industry must aim for responsible innovation, rather than innovation at any cost. Those suggesting using oils derived from algae, to take another example, should bear in mind that large amounts of sugar are needed to produce it–only a small proportion of which is certified as sustainable. In addition, algae used in the past has been genetically modified, causing a consumer backlash as far back as 2014 for some leading producers. Using algae or yeast to produce oils may ultimately be one of the future solutions the industry adopts, but it will be many years or even decades before the regulatory hurdles are overcome and they are able to be produced in sufficient quantities. In the meantime, palm oil will remain a hugely valuable crop, so we should get used to producing it responsibly.

Checks and balances There is an underlying concern amongst many, including vegans and organic campaigners, as to the proportion of palm oil that is truly sustainable, and the checks and balances that exist to verify it. This situation is improving all the time and can only

Editorial

... palm oil will remain a hugely valuable crop, so we should get used to producing it responsibly. improve to the point of universal adoption by the continued work and engagement of ordinary people, subtly changing their buying habits, and calling out large corporations that rely on them for their customer base. Currently, 19% of the world’s palm oil is certified by the RSPO. Until 2018, RSPO certification allowed the clearing of secondary forests for palm oil plantations, though it now prohibits all forms of deforestation. There is, even in these pockets of industry best-practice, still room for improvement. The issue of cost also remains a concern and a barrier to uptake–it can cost up to $15 more per tonne to certify palm oil, and some smaller producers simply don’t have the money. This is not, however, a reason to despair–it is rather a reason to persuade the large conglomerates that do have the funds to do this, or risk being boycotted.

Motivation Creating real change requires motivation and focus, both to get started in the first place and then to carry the momentum forward into the future. Imagine, for a moment, a world without doughnuts, pizza, soap, toothpaste or deodorant. Clearly that’s an extreme thought and most likely not to ever happen–but it focuses the mind, and it underlines an important point; if we want to continue to have our favourite products produced in the quantities we’ve come to demand (and at a price that we can afford), then we have to accept that palm oil must be used, and that it must be produced sustainably. As the World Wildlife Fund points out, its functionality means it touches all of our lives; it’s in around to 50% of the packaged products we find in supermarkets and it’s also used in animal feed and as a biofuel.5 It is semi-solid at room temperature and can keep spreads spreadable; it is resistant to oxidation and can give products a longer shelf-life; it’s stable at high temperatures and so can give fried products a crispy texture; it’s also odourless and colourless so it doesn’t alter the look or smell of food products. We all must take responsibility for our lives–we aren’t going to give up shampoo and margarine

and sweets. Therefore, we will need palm oil in our lives–and if we accept this then we need to produce it correctly. Big industry will only seriously begin to change when consumers demand it in sufficient numbers–and consumers will only do this when levels of public awareness increase. As to retailers’ responsibilities, Monique van Wijnbergen of Palm Done Right is clear as to what they should be doing. “They need to try to work only with suppliers who use palm oil and derivatives that are produced ethically and sustainably. Secondly, they must raise the bar for brand suppliers by developing or revising their palm oil policies and demanding that suppliers transition to 100% sustainable palm oil supply, within a set time-frame.”

You’re not alone Whilst it may seem a tall order to expect consumers to do their research and ask probing questions of producers before buying, it’s important to remember that there is help and advice out there. Some organisations have created online scoring tools so consumers can rank companies according to their sustainability credentials. The WWF palm oil sustainability scorecard is one such tool.6 Palm Done Right also provides a list of brand partners and retailers that are part of their scheme.7 We must all ask our brands and shops to do better. If we all make the effort to be realistic with ourselves in terms of what products we need in our lives (and what they’re made from), and then take the time to choose carefully using the evidence available, this will be a powerful movement towards a fairer and more sustainable world. References: 1. Vegan Society [online]. https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/ definition-veganism 2. Soil Association [online]. https://www.soilassociation.org/ whatisorganic/ 3. Principles and Criteria for the Production of Sustainable Palm Oil 2018, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (revised February 1, 2020) [online] https://rspo.org/resources/certification/rspoprinciples-criteria-certification 4. International Labor Rights Forum [online]. https://laborrights.org/ publications/human-cost-conflict-palm-oil 5. WWF Palm Oil Program [online]. https://www.worldwildlife.org/ industries/palm-oil 6. WWF Palm Oil Buyers Scorecard [online] (2020). https:// palmoilscorecard.panda.org 7. Palm Done Right [online] (2020). https://www.palmdoneright.com/ en/the-people-doing-palm-right/brand-partners/

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Perspectives

America’s Farms: Water Risk and Opportunity in the Agricultural Supply Chain by Kirsten James

armers are the foundation of our $5 trillion global food system, responsible for growing the wheat, corn, soy and other agricultural commodities at the core of global supply chains. However, the agricultural industry is facing an imminent problem that threatens its ability to provide these essential crops: stressed water resources. Growing and processing food is a thirsty business, consuming more than 70% of the world’s water resources. The intensifying effects of climate change are placing an unprecedented strain on our water supply as the water cycle is inextricably linked to the changing climate. Between 1980 and 2013, the US suffered more than $260B in flood related damages and the 2019 flooding of the Mississippi river alone, which lasted 107 consecutive days, has caused over $2 billion in damages. 2020 has already brought with it record floods in parts of Mississippi. The future of America’s farms and the global food system is grim without definitive systemic action. In fact, $415 billion in revenue may be at risk for food companies from lack of available water for irrigation or livestock production, and $248 billion is at risk from climate change affecting crop production, according to a recent analysis by MSCI.

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Why should food companies invest in their supply chain? Soil health is arguably the most important indicator of agricultural resilience to drought and floods. As the buyers of key agricultural commodities, food companies have a responsibility to help farmers transition to sustainable farming practices and create resilient agricultural supply chains. This transition is also a critical component of meeting existing and future corporate sustainable sourcing goals. While a majority of companies are providing some level of educational support to growers through agronomic tools and training programs, critical direct and in-direct financial support is lacking. Less than half of the 40 food and beverage companies evaluated in the Ceres 2019 Feeding Ourselves Thirsty report, a benchmarking analysis and investor tool on the food sector’s response

Perspectives

to water risk, offer financial support to growers to pursue sustainable agricultural practices. And the support that is offered is often minimal. Providing financial incentives to farmers for implementing practices such as efficient irrigation, low-till/no-till, cover-cropping, optimized fertilizer application and diverse rotations can go a long way in improving soil health and promoting resilience. Providing an incentive can help jump-start these sustainable practices, and once farmers see first-hand the benefits, the odds are that they would continue them even if the direct financial incentives are reduced over time.

How can companies support this transition? Beyond paying farmers directly, there are many ways that companies can support the transition to more sustainable farming. For instance, they can provide low- or no-interest loans to growers to invest in water-saving irrigation technologies, participate in cost-sharing conservation programs and offer growers financial guarantees or longterm contracts if they adopt new practices geared at improving water and climate impacts. Comments made at a recent Ceres event by Mitchell Hora, a 7th generation Iowa farmer, speak to the importance of these incentives: “More investment in the supply chain from food companies is needed. Farmers need to see a real demand signal from the buying companies. Farmers are ready to be part of the solution, however, taking these sorts of improvements to more acres requires a redoubled commitment by all stakeholders, growers, food companies, consumers and investors. In terms of sustainable food and ag systems, we are all going to win, or we are all going to lose.” Companies whose acreage lies in regions with high water stress are pursuing various types of incentives. Examples include Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, PepsiCo and Unilever, all of whom are partnering with Practical Farmers of Iowa facilitate cost-share programs that award premiums to Iowa corn and soy farmers who grow cover crops, which improve soil health and reduce

runoff. The Midwest Row Crop Collaborative creates partnerships between farmers, environmental groups and food companies to protect watersheds throughout Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa. The group has pooled resources to expand practices that reduce nutrient runoff into the Mississippi River basin. Participating companies

Beyond paying farmers directly, there are many ways that companies can support the transition to more sustainable farming.

include Cargill, General Mills, Kellogg, PepsiCo and Unilever. In addition, Danone North America has initiated a cost-plus contract for dairy farmers who are transitioning to sustainable systems, wherein Danone covers the input costs and guarantees a margin of return over a specific timeframe.

Collaboration is key to the future of the global food system We now live in a world where if water and agricultural management practices are not improved significantly, companies will struggle to ensure low-cost, secure access to ingredients and farms will struggle to survive. Farm bankruptcies are up 24% in 2019, which is the steepest rise the farming industry has seen in years, partly due to challenges resulting from weather extremes such as drought and flooding. It’s becoming apparent that water is the new frontier in supply chain disruption, and ongoing collaboration and engagement between farmers and companies is the only way to overcome these challenges. As the farming industry and the largest food companies start to work more closely together, they will begin to see that the transition to more sustainable practices is about much more than risk management — it’s an opportunity to grow and shape the future of the global food system.

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Perspectives

What is Environmental Writing? by Richard Goodman

et me first establish, like a surveyor, the boundaries of this piece, with some topical fences. I’m going to be discussing environmental writing in the United States. Certainly, there has been, is, and will be, fine environmental writing by writers from all over the world. But we only have so much time and space. Most—but not all—of the books and writers I’ll discuss will be from this, and the previous, century. So, what is environmental writing? I think you would be hard pressed to find a common definition—that is, one that would instantly come to everyone’s mind when you ask the question. Wags would be tempted to reply, “Well, it’s writing about the environment,” and they wouldn’t be wrong. Up to a point. And, in fact, this is what Bill McKibben, the great and tireless

I would say that one of the hallmarks of environmental writing is that often it is activist writing. It seeks not only to inform the reader about, and to impress the reader with, nature’s beauty, but it seeks to rouse the reader. advocate for the well-being of our earth, says. In the introduction to American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau, the anthology that he edited, he writes, “As defined broadly by the pieces in this book, it [environmental writing] takes as its subject the collision between people and the rest of the world, and asks searching questions about that collision: Is it necessary? What are its effects? Might there be a better way?” 16 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

Then he makes a distinction that I would also like to make. But since he makes it so well, I’ll let him continue talking, “To a considerable degree,” he writes, “environmental writing can be said to overlap with what is often called ‘nature writing’…but it subsumes and moves beyond it, seeking answers as well as consolation, embracing controversy, sometimes sounding an alarm. While it often celebrates nature, it also recognizes, implicitly or explicitly, that nature is no longer innocent or invulnerable.” So, I would say that one of the hallmarks of environmental writing is that often it is activist writing. It seeks not only to inform the reader about, and to impress the reader with, nature’s beauty, but it seeks to rouse the reader. You can look at it this way: it’s hard to imagine an anthology of nature writing including a long essay on Louisiana land loss. But you’d have no problem imaging those pieces, and others like them, in an anthology of environmental writing. Put another way, environmental writing does not hesitate to talk about a sick or wounded earth—even a dying earth—while nature writing most often speaks about a brilliant, beautiful earth at its healthiest, most cheerful and robust. The nature writer often

Perspectives

describes the earth at its most vibrant, mysterious and inspiring. Many times these reveries come from solitary walks or solitary residencies in wooded outposts. Environmental writing, these days, describes an earth with the flu in bed, with a high temperature, groaning with aches and pains and looking miserable. Nature writing often calls for a poet. Environmental writing often calls for a doctor. It’s telling indeed, and informing, that both The Norton Book of Nature Writing and American Earth include writing by Rachel Carson. American Earth has a selection from Carson’s most famous book, the highly influential Silent Spring, which is about the use of pesticides and their grave effects. The Norton book includes a short lyrical selection from Carson’s book The Edge of the Sea. American Earth gives her ten pages; the Norton anthology gives her five. It’s clear where her major influence lies. Same writer, different goals. In fact, most often when the two anthologies include the same author—take Annie Dillard and Wendell Berry, for instance—the works selected are different. As they would be, given the two disparate missions.

Nature writing often calls for a poet. Environmental writing often calls for a doctor. I would say there is something else that distinguishes the two genres from one another— though of course there are exceptions to this “something else,” and sometimes glaring ones. And that difference is pronounal. I would associate the pronoun “I” with nature writing while I would associate the pronoun “we” with environmental writing. Nature writing is often about the individual writer’s encounter with nature and his or her reactions—often lyrical—to that encounter. Environmental writing has a collective

sense to it. McKibben brings in the idea of community when talking about this difference. Indeed, it’s much easier to think of movements, of people joi n i ng toget her to ef fect change emanating from an environmental writer’s words than from a nature writer’s words. The nature writer has a reverence for the earth, to be sure, but many of these writers—at least to my mind— are solitary beings, near hermits—even I would say, misanthropes. They often seem not to want to be with other people but to be by themselves, on the ice, on the water, in the forest, on the trail, in the canyon, on top of the mountain. While the nature writer stands in solitary awe of a sunset, the environmental writer wants the reader to join him or her, to look at that sunset together. Or, as is often the case, to look at that threatened, smog-covered sunset together. The nature writer often asks you to look inward in response to what you see. The environmental writes often asks you to look outward, to think and act collectively. Both approaches are important. This is not a matter of one being better or more important than the other, but a matter of distinction. It’s safe to say that environmental writing wouldn’t exist without the precedent of nature writing, of the recognition of the commune between nature and ourselves. Let me further distinguish environmental writing from scientific or academic writing.

 Rachel Carson. Wikipedia Commons.

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Perspectives

 Charles Darwin.

They may cover the same subjects, but scientific or academic writing makes no effort to reach, gives no concession to, the everyday reader. The communication is among fellow scientists or academicians. Reading one of these articles can be an exercise in deciphering a difficult foreign language, like Japanese—at least for someone like me with a liberal arts bent. Environmental writing is, to put it at its most reductive, science writing, whose subject is the earth, made accessible. Those writers who can do this are rare. I mean writers like Rachel Carson, Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, Barry Lopez, Elizabeth Kolbert, Bernd Heinrich, Peter Matthiessen, Kathryn Schulz and Bill McKibben—these writers have the rare ability to convey the most complex issues that require a deep understanding of science in a graceful, accessible manner. I don’t believe you can claim to have a firm grasp of any big subject like environmental writing unless you know about its past, its origins. This idea of environmental writing as distinct from nature writing I think can be traced to Charles Darwin. Before Darwin, monkeys—to cite one of the more controversial issues in Darwin’s

work, On the Origin of Species, prompted—had nothing to do with human beings, except when human beings gaped at them in a zoo. The only thing the two had in common was, according to believers, that God created them both. The idea that the two were linked in any other way? That a human being—an Oxford graduate, say, and a member of the Royal Society—was directly linked to a tree-climbing, howling, hairy and publicly defecating—among other unspeakable acts—monkey? Unimaginable! Absurd! But then this remarkable man, who made passage on the circumnavigating HMS Beagle by the skin of his teeth, changed all that. Not only did he claim that we were linked to monkeys, he said we were descended from them. Further, every living—and dead—creature was, and is, linked. Because we all of us arose from the same primordial slime. “Jeeves, bring the smelling salts for Aunt Gertrude, please. She’s been reading that lunatic Darwin.” Such was the radical and astonishing nature of this concept that even today, nearly 160 years after Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, it is still not fully accepted. It is contested even in some schools here in America where creationism is taught as an alternative. The Scopes trial in 1925, in which a teacher was accused of teaching Darwin’s theory—illegal in that state—was famously called “The Monkey Trial.” After the publication of On the Origin of Species, the British papers were full of caricatures of Darwin’s head with a monkey body. You can Google them. This distinction Darwin so brilliantly made is important here, because it makes unavoidable one of the lynchpins of environmental thinking and writing: that it is not us and them. Rather, it is one collective us. In other words, if Darwin

This then, is the first step toward one of the great underlying principles of environmental writing— responsibility.

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Perspectives

was right—and we know he was—you cannot separate yourself from your fellow creatures in the way you did before. Part of them—part of all of them—is part of you. This then, if the first step toward one of the great underlying principles of environmental writing—responsibility. By the way, Darwin published an account of his five-year journey on the HMS Beagle titled, The Voyage of the Beagle, published in 1839. It is as readable and accessible as the On the Origin of Species is not—at least for the everyday reader. I recommend it highly. There is no better companion than Charles Darwin—the book shows him to be curious, brilliant, sweet-natured, tolerant and tireless. Read this book, and you can follow him all over the world—including that most consequential stop at the Galapagos Islands where he encounters the famous finches—as he makes the preliminary discoveries on which his major opus will be based. The second great realization that opened the doors to the development of environmental writing is that not only are we creatures linked but everything is linked—animate and inanimate. That our fate, and the fate of the land, the sea, the skies, the rivers and lakes, the mountains and all those who inhabit these environs are connected. This idea is clearly present in Thoreau’s writing, especially in Walden, published in 1854, just five years before Darwin’s great book. “The pure Walden water,” he writes, “is mingled with the sacred water of the Ganges.” Crusty, judgmental, arrogant—called “the terrible Thoreau”—he nevertheless did not elevate himself above the animals of the world, or, for that matter, even above the trees. By the way, Thoreau read and admired Darwin’s Voyage of the Beagle. I consider Thoreau an environmental writer, despite his

I would associate the pronoun “I” with nature writing while I would associate the pronoun “we” with environmental writing

distaste for humankind, because he knew so much about his environment and because he wrote so well about it. The influence of Thoreau’s book, however, is not as wide, I don’t think, as some people imagine. He never was and I suspect never will be a national literary icon, like, say, Mark Twain or Robert Frost. E.B. White wrote that he did not find Walden wellliked among his acquaintances. White thought it might be the “oddest of our distinguished oddities.” But within a narrow, focused group, the influence was, and is, strong. By the way, the author of Charlotte’s Web wrote one of the best essays about Walden ever written, in my opinion. It’s called “A Slight Sound at Evening.” Try it. www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 19

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But it really wasn’t until the writers Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry and Rachel Carson wrote so compellingly and directly about the idea of responsibility in our encounters with the world that environmental writing was truly born. Leopold, as McKibben points out, urged that we develop an ethic that “includes everything, even the land.” These writers championed the idea that everything we do affects everything and everybody else, even if it’s at a hardly distinguishable level. The earth is our home, with emphasis on “our,” not on “my.” This sense of responsibility has produced a generation of writers who are expert diagnosticians. Environmental writers will use science and facts—that is, proof—far more than lyrical feelings in their writing. They come prepared. They don’t tell you the earth is wounded or ill. They show you the wounds, the illnesses. So, they are, in fact, diagnosticians of the earth. They have to know what they’re talking about, because almost every issue worth talking about is complex, sometimes mind-bogglingly so. Of course, the idea that everything is linked is every day becoming more and more dramatically apparent. We can now see all too clearly, for example, that the plastic bottle we drink from could kill a porpoise in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. That the extracting of oil to make the gasoline we require for our cars might cause an earthquake. Though, yes, I know some would disagree with this last claim. Environmental writers show us how these things have come to be, and why. So, environmental writing, as I said, is often a call to action. And that call to action can produce results. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring led to the eventual banning of DDT. McKibben’s own heroic, unstinting efforts in the form of articles and films were a major reason why the Keytstone Pipeline was not approved by President Obama. (Alas, that decision has been reversed.) This is not to say that nature writing doesn’t “do” anything. In fact, to be made aware of nature’s beauty, delicacy, strength, and variety is more than enough for one genre’s mission.

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I want to talk a bit about a real American hero I mentioned earlier, Rachel Carson, and her book Silent Spring. I doubt it’s read much these days or taught in schools. As I said before, her book was revolutionary. It was published in 1962, fifty-eight years ago, just seventeen years after the end of World War II and a mere three years after the gray decade of the 1950s. It is hard to imagine what it was like back then, but I am going to try here and now to conjure that era. It’s important to understand the cultural atmosphere at the time this book came into being. I was seventeen years old when Silent Spring was published. I’d grown up in southeastern Virginia. It was very apparent that two crops—tobacco and peanuts—were not just important to Virginia, but almost religiously iconic. The growing of tobacco and peanuts were noble enterprises. DDT was often used to keep these crops pest-free. The world I lived in was still under the sway of post-World War II optimism. People had fought and defeated tyranny, and now they wanted peace and, most of all, prosperity. The idea was implied, or even overtly declared, that America’s resources were inexhaustible. There was no environmental movement. The first Earth Day wouldn’t be until 1970, eight years after the publication of Rachel Carson’s book. So here she comes, this marine biologist from Springdale, Pennsylvania, who in Silent Spring wrote about the dangers of the popular and widely-used pesticide, DDT. When the book was published—and even before—chemical companies like Dow tried very hard to discredit Carson’s claims and her science. I can actually remember my father—not a farmer himself but a proud Virginian and an Eisenhower-loving Republican—sneering at Carson’s book and at the author herself and offhandedly dismissing both. He was not alone. I was a self-involved teenager only concerned with having a good time, so I remember thinking, well, Carson must be a menace, because everyone says so. But Carson was right. Her claim that, as an article published by Stanford University titled, “DDT and Birds” says, “DDT and its relatives

Perspectives

 Bill McKibben.

alter a bird's calcium metabolism in a way that results in thin eggshells. Instead of eggs, heavily DDT-infested Brown Pelicans and Bald Eagles tend to find omelets in their nests, since the eggshells are unable to support the weight of the incubating bird”—was true. And eventually there came to be a ban on the use of DDT—just one of the pesticides Rachel Carson called out. She died just two years after the publication of Silent Spring, in 1964, at the age of fifty-six. I would say that she, as much as any individual, is responsible for the birth of American environmental writing as distinct from nature writing. Her writing is both learned and lyrical. No scientific article, written in inaccessible scientific jargon, and with the same information and claims, would have had, I would say, the impact Carson’s book had. It took the combination of knowledge and grace to move the American public. Those who are concerned with the fate of the earth owe Rachel Carson a huge debt for her courage and her persistence and for Silent Spring. I think environmental writing itself might be divided into two big categories. In one category, I would put the call-to-arms writers, those who, like the fine Louisiana writer, Bob Marshall and

Vermonter Bill McKibben, tell us cogently and authoritatively about an imminent ecological problem that must be given attention—immediate attention. Both McKibben and Marshall publish articles of essays of this sort on a regular basis. In the other large category, I would put the writers who give us, in great, fascinating detail, a picture of how something in nature works, whether it be a peregrine’s flight or the movement of tectonic plates. I would put writers like Elizabeth Kolbert, and Nathaniel Rich—another brilliant Louisiana writer—in that category. If you want to read a good example of writing in this latter category, read Nathaniel Rich’s remarkable New York Times piece, “The Most Ambitious Environmental Lawsuit Ever.” I would also put writers like E.O. Wilson—though Wilson straddles both in his various books—Bernd Heinrich and Barry Lopez in the second category as well. If you want another good example of writing from that second category, I would turn to Barry Lopez’s book, Arctic Dreams. Check out his mesmerizing pages on the myriad kinds of ice in the Arctic and how each behaves, in a chapter of that book titled, “Ice and Light.” www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 21

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I don’t think you can help but feel a sense of attachment, of awe and even pride, after reading those pages of Lopez’s. And that can lead to a sense of responsibility. You say to yourself, “I live in this amazing place. I’m part of this astonishing world. I should probably do something to protect it.” This is writing based on science, based on great erudition. It’s not writing based on simple awe of ice, though that seems implied to me. Now, to bring close to (my) home the why of environmental writing. There is no better illustration of that than in southeastern Louisiana where I live. The environmental issues concerning land loss, for example, are layered and intricate, and cannot be understood and conveyed without a knowledge of science, history, business, culture and politics—to name a few of the influences. That’s why great environmental writers who can distill all this very different kind of information and write about it lucidly and authoritatively are few. One such writer is the aforementioned Pulitzer Prize-winner Bob Marshall, who lives in New Orleans, and who writes about pressing environmental issues here in southeast Louisiana in a way that the ordinary reader can easily access but who in no way sacrifices the solid science and research on which he bases these insights. I refer you to his online piece for The Lens and

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Propublica called “Losing Ground.” Marshall writes, “Scientists now say one of the greatest environmental and economic disasters in the nation’s history is rushing toward a catastrophic conclusion over the next 50 years, so far unabated and largely unnoticed. At the current rates that the sea is rising and land is sinking, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists say by 2100 the Gulf of Mexico could rise as much as 4.3 feet across this landscape, which has an average elevation of about 3 feet. If that happens, everything outside the protective levees — most of Southeast Louisiana — would be underwater.” Time is at our back now, and we need to be educated in a compelling and deep way about what is occurring to the world that we live in. The seas are rising. The storms are getting more ferocious. The ice caps are melting. This we are experiencing. This we can see. McKibben makes the point that environmental writing now has to become a larger sphere. He writes that “If it isn’t as much about economics, sociology, and pop culture as it is about trees, mountains and animals, it won’t in the end matter.” In other words, as he says about his anthology, “the insights expressed by the writers in this book will need to become mainstream, no longer a dissident creed.”

Perspectives

United Solution to a Global Crisis: a New International Body By Emilie Anne Jóhannsdóttir Salvesen & Christopher Kane

Natural Resource Scarcity To humanity, Earth has been kind with its bounty. Looking up, down, or in any other direction, this notion becomes increasingly evident as the fact of the matter reveals itself: It is nearly impossible to find any piece of civilization which has not been builtupon the foundations that are Earth’s natural resources. However crucial to humanity, these foundations, which have thus far supported the weight of society, are beginning to crack beneath the stress of our ever-expanding use. In some cases, they have already begun to crumble. The scientific literature supports this, that human-extraction of resources is, and has been for many decades, exponentially increasing. All the while Earth’s limited resource pool depletes in an equally exponential fashion; Three out of the six most important metals: copper, zinc, and manganese as well as silver, indium, and lithium are estimated to become scarce in as little as 20-30 years.1 Even helium, a vital element to the cooling process for various technologies, and part of what allows the barcode scanner in your local grocery store to operate, will reach scarcity in just 9 years. This exponential exaction of the

Earth’s finite reserves threatens to dismantle the very foundations upon which humanity relies. We, evidently, have indulged in Earth’s generosity beyond our means. If civilization stays this course, Earth will soon refuse to grant any more.

Overproduction, Consumption, and Waste by the OECD World While it is clear that the world must change its habits of exploiting natural resources, it can appear unclear how it should begin. The OECD, however, presents a promising place to start. The member countries of the OECD are some of the most economically influential nations in the world and as such are some of the largest consumers of goods produced from raw materials.2 In 2010, OECD countries made up for about 18% of the global population while accounting for 74% of global GDP,2 a value which is coupled with materials usage. In the next 50 years, OECD materials usage is expected to almost double.3 This notable material consumption also comes with an increase in material waste. While rates of recycling for municipal waste admirably and steadily increase (as high as 68% in Germany), www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 23

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recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) remains far too low at just 20% with cell phones in particular estimated at even less.4 In fact, waste mobile devices are the undisputed fastest-growing component of WEEE globally.5 WEEE contains many significant elements including the aforementioned at-risk metals and various rare earth elements, yet 40 million tonnes of WEEE are landfilled, burned, or otherwise wasted every year. 6 The source of this issue is a multifaceted one involving a lack of knowledge for the consumer with regard to how they can recycle, worries concerning data security, unsatisfactory collection points, lack of producer responsibility, and exclusionary recycling plants where only precious elements are retrieved while the rest are wasted.5 For all the components of WEEE, they are nearly 100% recyclable and thus a more comprehensive recycling system is justified. As powerful OECD countries represent such a significant proportion of WEEE consumption and waste, OECD countries should be an opportune stage on which to set a global example and initiate change toward sustainable resource management.

The proposed solution in this article is one that not only incentivizes the participation of manufacturers in the WEEE recycling process, but also the distributors and consumers of these products to return their recyclable devices.”

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The Feasibility of Recycling Mobile Phones The proposed solution in this article concerns updates and innovation with regards to policy for recycling waste mobile electronics. While political changes will be the focus, it is important to note that recycling the majority of raw materials within mobile electronics is feasible technologically and potentially economically as well. Strides are being made in comprehensive recycling of waste mobile phones on a large scale. For example, a recent study in Japan has concluded that the process of ‘remote recycling’, in which large-scale separation of recyclable materials is carried out by a human-operated machine, is a promising method of reducing the industrial costs of recycling while generating employment.7

Further Extending Producer Responsibility The proposed solution to combat resource depletion here is an expansion, or rather fulfillment, of a policy instrument already recommended by the OECD called extended producer responsibility. Extended producer responsibility (EPR has been presented as a solution to the rapid disposal and waste of consumer goods. It is a policy instrument through which manufacturers are given significant responsibility for not only the production of their goods, but also for the disposal and treatment of the product after it is done being used. An EPR policy should hold producers responsible, on both a physical and financial level, for the entirety of the product’s life cycle.8 In theory, an EPR policy should create the incentive for manufacturers to design the lifecycle of a product in such a way that its environmental and financial costs are minimized.9 In light of

Perspectives

the facts; that current recycling rates of mobile devices are as little as 20%5; that, upon recycling, many usable materials are cast aside; and that the current OECD EPR framework has allowed for this, it is clear that this framework must be expanded. In this article, a recycling and remanufacturing framework is proposed which incentivises, on both a producer and consumer level, the recycling of mobile devices to be entirely remanufactured into similar devices. This guarantees that the maximum amount of recyclable material from a device is reused. The goal of this proposition being a complete and idealized recycling loop; from producer to consumer and back again. The proposed solution in this article is one that not only incentivises the participation of manufacturers in the WEEE recycling process, but also the distributors and consumers of these products to return their recyclable devices.

their ability, to create ‘green’ electronic devices in collaboration with the original manufacturers. In the long term, the IRU will be funded by a taxation process described in the latter sections of this article. It is imperative, though, that the

The following 4 steps of this solution complete a framework that achieves this. 1. The first and most important The benefit of the IRU is that it allows for the funding of recycling/ baseline step of this framework is to pioneer and establish an interremanufacturing facilities to be a collective effort, reflecting the nationally collaborative recycling global nature of resource scarcity.” body into which all member countries of the OECD enter, perhaps extending to other countries as well. This body will henceforth be referred to IRU be given substantial authority and funding as the International Recycling Union; the IRU. This by governments involved, especially for the initial union will drive the enactment of a comprehen- construction phase. The benefit of the IRU is that sive policy framework. This policy will affect all it allows for the funding of recycling/remanufacmanufacturers and distributors of mobile elec- turing facilities to be a collective effort, reflecting tronics who operate within the member-countries the global nature of resource scarcity. An equitable of the IRU. This Union will also preside over and funding process amongst IRU countries ensures be responsible for the construction, operation, and that facilities are constructed in all localities where monitoring of new mobile electronics recycling they are needed. Inclusive of areas which might not plants which shall be located within the member afford it otherwise. countries. All materials from mobile electron2. The proposed IRU policy framework ics collected in this framework shall be fully presents an option of contractual agreement to remanufactured in these facilities, to the best of any mobile device manufacturer selling within www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 25

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member-countries of the IRU. Large-scale distributors of these manufacturer’s devices will also be subject to this agreement. The aforementioned policy will state that manufacturers and distributors who enter a contract with the IRU, henceforth referred to as IRU-aligned companies, will receive tax-subsidies or special corporate tax reliefs that exceed the benefits of non-participation. The sub-

This mechanism effectively renders companies who do not participate in sustainable resource management as less competitive, while it incentivizes and rewards companies who opt to contribute to the mitigation of resource depletion.” sidy may manifest in the form of income, sales and/or property tax subsidies. Once entered, the contract obligates the manufacturer to enter a partnership with IRU recycling/remanufacturing facilities to which collected waste mobile electronics will be transported. These facilities will then, in collaboration with the original manufacturer, create a similar product under the manufacturers brand name which re-enters the market. These remanufactured products will be sold as ‘green’ products by the irrespective brands.Should a

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manufacturer decide not to enter the agreement with the IRU they will be subject to a new kind of sales tax called a ‘resource tax’. This tax will be imposed on products sold by manufacturing companies who do not enter the partnership and it will be used to fund the IRU and its facilities. This mechanism effectively renders companies who do not participate in sustainable resource management as less competitive, while it incentivises and rewards companies who opt to contribute to the mitigation of resource depletion. 3. The policy states that any distributor who enters the agreement is obligated to act as a collection point for recyclable phones in-store as well. IRU-aligned manufacturers will receive their sales tax subsidies should they choose to sell to a distributor, while the aligned distributor will receive their subsidies on income tax. All IRU-aligned manufacturers who choose to sell directly to consumers via their own stores are obligated to provide their own collection point for recyclable mobile devices in-store also. The advantage of having in-store collection points is that the consumers will know exactly where they must go to recycle their devices. Thus, completing the consumer’s knowledge of their role in the issue. All waste mobile devices are then to be transported to a local IRU recycling facility as local facilities can work to reduce costs, in both emissions and capital.

Perspectives

4. Lastly, on devices sold to consumers by IRU-aligned companies, a robust deposit-refund system will be implemented. The definition of a deposit-refund system is that it combines a tax on product consumption with a rebate when the product is returned for recycling;10 the consumer pays a deposit when they purchase which they can receive back when they return the recyclable product. In the IRU framework, the deposit-refund system works by allowing the consumer, having purchased an IRU-aligned mobile device, to return to where they purchased it and offer the waste mobile device to be collected for recycling.A portion of this deposit will be used to fund the IRU and its facilities similar to the resource tax. The returning consumer can then choose to receive a portion of their deposit back as cash, or rather the full amount of the depositback as a ‘downpayment’ on a remanufactured, ‘green’ device. The deposit paid by the consumer on top of the retail price should be designed in consideration of the resource tax paid on non-IRU-aligned products. It should be designed so that the refund available on IRUaligned products appears to match the perceived value lost in paying for resource taxed products. This final, crucial step of the framework is designed to incentivize the consumer to return their recyclable mobile devices, and to doubly participate in using remanufactured devices over new ones.

These facilities will then, in collaboration with the original manufacturer, create a similar product under the manufacturers brand name which re-enters the market. is designed in such a way that the financial benefits of buying remanufactured mobile devices outweigh those of buying new ones. This will ensure inclusivity as it will appeal to both the consumer’s financial motives as well as their environmental conscientiousness. The use of in-storecollection points will eliminate any confusion that might arise from how and where toreturn waste mobile devices. By providing manufacturers and distributors the option of tax subsidies or a resource tax, this plan is able to create a double incentive that should motivate companies to take responsibility for their product’s full life cycle. Most importantly, an international body such as the proposed IRU, starting with OECD countries, will work to set a fantastic example on a global scale while significantly decreasing the waste materials generated by the countries involved. With an International Recycling Union, Earth’s resources can be sustained; with an IRU, the foundations of civilization may be stabilized. References 1. Sverdrup, H, Koca, D & Ragnarsdóttir, K. Peak metals, minerals,

Conclusions and Challenges The implementation of this large-scale policy will create significant challenges. The first and greatest barrier to overcome is in the establishment and logistics of the IRU. It will be a monumental challenge to unite so many nations who are willing to grant this body authority and funding. This is a task which must be met with vigor, responsibility, and decisiveness if the planet’s resources are to be sustained. Another challenge has to do with the fine-tuning and operation of the resource taxation system, as it is critical that each component is balanced appropriately. Lastly, the initial period of remanufacturing may prove quite difficult as such a technological feat has yet to be accomplished on such a large scale. Some amount of raw materials will need to be sourced and the problem of safely managing data security must be addressed further. Even in the face of these challenges, this policy

energy, wealth, food and population: urgent policy considerations for a sustainable society. Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering B2, 189-222(2013). 2. Steffen,Wetal. The trajectory of the anthropocene: the great acceleration. The Anthropocene Review 2, 81-98(2015). 3. www.oecd.org/environment/waste/highlights-global-materialresources-outlook-to-2060 4. worldatlas.com/articles/oecd-leading-countries-in-recycling.html 5. Gu,F,Summers,P&Hall,P. Recovering materials from waste mobile phones: recent technological developments. Journal of Cleaner Production 237(2019). 6. resource.co/article/weee-exports-under-spotlight-international-ewaste-day 7. Jun, O et al. A study on separating characteristics of metals towards remote recycling. 13th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing- Decoupling Growth from Resource Use 40, 274-279 (2015). 8. OECD https://www.oecd.org/env/tools-evaluation/ extendedproducerresponsibility.htm 9. Chang, Wu, Li, Fang. The joint tax-system mechanism incorporating extended producer responsibilityinamanufacturingrecyclingsystem.JournalofCleanerProduction210,821-836 (2019). 10. Walls, M. Deposit-Refund Systems in Practice and Theory, 2(2011).

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Challenges and Opportunities for Nonmarket Valuation of Water Among the Anishinaabe Nations of the Great Lakes Basin by James I. Price, Tracy A. Boyer & Margaret Noodin

ater provides services essential to livelihoods, leisure, ecosystem functions, community, and cultural and personal identity. Although some of these services are traded in markets, like potable water, most are not, and are thus likely to be allocated in a manner that does not afford the greatest possible benefit to society.1 To aid environmental policy decisions, and subsequently improve social welfare, economists have developed methods, collectively known as nonmarket valuation, for monetizing the benefits people receive from environmental resources. Nonmarket values are regularly used by national and subnational government entities, as well as by international organizations and in judicial proceedings.2

ď&#x192;&#x2DC; Lake Superior, 7/2016. Credit: Tracy Boyer.

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Few nonmarket valuation studies, however, have been conducted among indigenous peoples, so estimates of economic benefits that they derive from environmental resources are often not available to decision makers.3 The dearth of nonmarket values for indigenous communities is in part due to differences between indigenous and Western-based belief systems. Nonmarket valuation, developed within Western belief systems, is rooted in the assumption that individuals make choices to maximize their happiness (i.e., Utilitarianism), which depends, in part, on the wellbeing of other people, animals, and ecosystems. Contexts in which this framework does not apply exist in every society, but ethnographic and linguistic evidence suggests they are more common in indigenous cultures.3-5 The challenge to economists is to identify instances when nonmarket valuation can be effectively used to elicit indigenous values and where alternative methods are more appropriate. This paper considers the potential use of nonmarket valuation methods within Anishinaabe communities of the Great Lakes Basin, with an emphasis on water quality benefits. Many of the issues discussed below are also relevant to other US and Canadian indigenous peoples, but given the immense heterogeneity in beliefs and practices among these groups, we concentrate on the Anishinaabe, which, despite their cultural differences, hold sufficiently similar beliefs and shared experiences for the purposes of this assessment.

Anishinaabe Nations The Anishinaabe are culturally related indigenous peoples primarily located in the Great Lakes region, including the Algonquin, Odawa, Ojibwe, Oji-Cree, Potawatomi, and Saulteaux peoples. Oral histories, corroborated by freshwater archeology, describe the Anishinaabe as the descendants of caribou hunters who inhabited land now beneath Lake Huron over 7,000 years ago.6 Beginning 1,500 year ago, ancestors of the Anishinaabe began a centuries-long western migrating from the Atlantic coast.6 Archeological evidence traces Anishinaabe presence in the Great Lakes to 1200 BCE.6 Today there are 48 federally recognized sovereign nations situated on the Great Lakes coastline, another 115 within the watershed. By maintaining a contiguous relationship with the

coastline for such an extended period, scientists and citizens of these nations have a culturally dependent and sustaining relationship with land and water through seasonal harvest and maintenance activities.7 Water-based activities include subsistence and commercial fishing, wild-rice agriculture, and shoreline recreation. Although

Few nonmarket valuation studies, however, have been conducted among indigenous peoples, so estimates of economic benefits that they derive from environmental resources are often not available to decision makers. comprehensive data are unavailable, Kappen et al. report an annual substance-harvest of >19,000 pounds of fish from the Great Lakes.8 Similarly, Hudson et al. report that 245 Great Lakes commercial fishing licenses are issued annually by US indigenous nations.9 For the Anishinaabe, water is sacred and essential for all life on earth.10-12 Water itself is considered to have a right to a quality existence. These rights are viewed in a relational context with other living and non-living parts of the earth, where the overall balance, rather than the use of individual components, is of paramount importance. Basic geoscience information related to water (nibi) is embedded in the Anishinaabemowin language. For example, the morpheme “bii” appears in words focused on the use of water. A leaf, used by plants to store and process energy through water, is “niibiish.” This, and other linguistic evidence supports the representation of water as part of a holistic ecosystem and, therefore, focusing on individual aspects of nature is seen as shortsighted.13 In the US, federal agencies are required to consider the impacts of actions affecting the public and the environment, yet little attention has been given to indigenous relationships with land and water and how their perceptions and values for management differ from other user groups.14,15 In 2008, the Chiefs of Ontario drafted a “Water Declaration of the Anshinabek, Mushkegowuk and Onkwehonwe,” which emphasized the caretaking role of indigenous people with regard to the environment and decision making and the www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 29

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failure of government led solutions thus far to solve water related problems.11

Economic Values

Kayak, Boundary Waters Canoe Area, MN, 7/2016. Credit: Tracy Boyer.



What is the value of visiting a Great Lake beach or of improved wetland biodiversity? Most people are not accustomed to putting dollar values on environmental services. In markets for typical goods and services, such as bottled water, exchanges between sellers and buyers—based on sellers’ production costs and buyers’ willingness to pay—result in observable sales prices. A sales price is not equivalent to the economic value of a good or service, but when coupled with additional market information it can be used to determine value. Market information does not exist for many environmental services; thus, even though they provide considerable benefits, like an enjoyable day at the beach or sense of satisfaction knowing that a wetland is ecologically healthy, their values cannot be readily established. Nonmarket valuation describes the process economists use to estimate the economic value for goods and services not sold in markets. Some people object to nonmarket valuation on moral grounds or consider it inappropriate for certain cultural contexts, the main opposition being that the estimated values are anthropocentric and fail to account for biocentric or ecosystem needs (i.e., it prioritizes humans over other species).16 Yet, if no values are estimated, environmental services run the risk of not being considered in the policy decisions.

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Economists view environmental resources as having use and non-use values. Use values refer to the benefits derived from the active use of environmental resources; they are further divided into direct use values (i.e., benefits from the direct consumption of a resource), indirect use values (i.e., benefits received tangentially from a resource), and option values (i.e., benefits received from ensuring a resource is available for future direct and indirect uses). Non-use values are independent of these uses and refer to the benefits derived from preservation and existence, where preservation values pertain to the benefit associated with bequeathing resources to future generations and existence values the benefit associated with the knowledge that a resource exists. In this taxonomy, known as the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework, each benefit category is assumed to have distinct impacts on wellbeing, although, in practice, they are often difficult to separate. Several tools are available to monetize the direct and indirect use value described in the TEV framework, which can be broadly classified as revealed preference or stated preference approaches. Revealed preference methods infer values from observed choices made within labor, housing, and product markets, while stated preference methods infer values from choices made within hypothetical markets presented in surveys. Economic values in both approaches are reflected in people’s willingness-to-pay (or willingness-toaccept) for a change in an environmental resource.

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In effect, the amount of income that a person would exchange for a change in an environmental resource while maintaining their overall level of satisfaction serves as a monetary measure of a person’s welfare. Nonmarket valuation is grounded in rational choice theory wherein people make decisions to maximize their wellbeing. Consequently, nonmarket valuation depends on a set of assumptions about peoples’ preferences for environmental resources; most notably, the existence of stable well-defined preferences, the substitutability between environmental services and income, non-satiation (i.e., having more of a service enhances wellbeing), and transitivity (i.e., there are no preference cycles). In many instances, there is also an implicit assumption of some form of property right over an environmental resource.4

Challenges to Valuation: Theoretical Issues The extant literature identifies several theoretical issues with conducting nonmarket valuation in indigenous communities.4,5 We provide an overview of these issues, then, in the next section, concentrate on the technical concerns associated with nonmarket valuation methods as applied to water quality. A key theoretical concern is the lack of substitutability for some environmental services. Adamowicz et al. define classes of services where substitution is either taboo (i.e., sacrosanct and nonnegotiable) or is somehow restricted by the type or scope of trade-offs that can occur.4 Economic values for an environmental service cannot be estimated if substitution between the service and other sources of welfare, like income, is prohibited by social norms. When substitution is restricted, economic values can be estimated but the process is complicated by the need for additional information about the relevant constraints. The Anishinaabe ontological perspective, and the centrality of water to livelihood activities, suggest there are instances when, due to limited substitutability, nonmarket valuation is an ineffective and inappropriate tool for evaluating water resource management decisions.

Several related theoretical issues also hinder the use of nonmarket valuation in indigenous contexts. Indigenous views of governance, property rights over environmental resources, and intracommunal resource sharing may at times violate the underlying assumptions required for nonmarket valuation.4 The assumption that people have well-defined preferences over complex and uncertain environmental policy options has been increasingly scrutinized within the stated preference literature.17-20 Critics argue that preferences for such policies can only be formed through a process of social learning and negotiation—a process that is absent from standard valuation methods. This issue is especially pertinent to studies conducted in indigenous communities, where beliefs about environmental management policy are, relative to nonindigenous communities, determined collectively.

The Anishinaabe’s placed-based cultural identity and the importance of water to their way of life implies the existence of considerable cultural and spiritual values, which, in turn, pervade activities like subsistence fishing, commercial fishing, wild rice production, and waterbased recreation. Finally, as evidenced by their absence from the TEV literature, nonmarket valuation is largely unable to monetize cultural and spiritual values.21 The Anishinaabe’s placed-based cultural identity and the importance of water to their way of life implies the existence of considerable cultural and spiritual values, which, in turn, pervade activities like subsistence fishing, commercial fishing, wild rice production, and water-based recreation. From an Anishinaabe ontological perspective, water itself has an equal right to a quality existence. This right is viewed in a relational context with living and non-living parts of the earth which can result in water quality or the overall balance between the two being viewed as resulting in more happiness than individual use of water. Because this www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 31

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balance between use and non-use values and the importance of water as having its own standing, both revealed and stated preference methods are likely to underestimate the benefits associated with improved water quality.

Challenges to Valuation: Methodological Issues We identify methodological issues facing the nonmarket valuation of water quality changes to Anishinaabe communities. For revealed preferences, we consider the hedonic property, travel cost, production function, and averting behavior methods. We also consider discrete choice experiments, the preferred format for most stated preference surveys.22

 Queen of the Woods and Water, painting by David Shananaquet. Credit: Margaret Noodin.

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Hedonic Property Method The hedonic property method uses observed sales prices of residential housing properties, or occasionally sales prices of undeveloped land, to estimate the value property owners place on nearby environmental amenities. Given sales price data and information on the structural, neighborhood, and environmental characteristics of each home, it is possible to isolate how an environmental characteristic is related to a change in the property value. This estimated relationship is used to recover a willingness-topay value.23 Recent applications of the hedonic method find a positive relationship between property values and water quality, although the effect is mostly confined to waterfront and near-waterfront homes.24-27 Hedonic studies are typically conducted in urban and peri-urban areas; they are less common in rural areas due to insufficient numbers of property sales. The General Allotment Act of 1887, also known as the Dawes Act, allocated tribal lands to its members, with the intention of abolishing reservations and promoting the assimilation of indigenous people into non-indigenous society.28 Since this time, land tenure on indigenous reservations has mostly fallen into two categories: trust land and fee lands. Titles to trust lands are held by the US federal government, with either indigenous nations or persons holding the beneficial interest. Titles to fee lands are held by their owner, who may be indigenous or nonindigenous. Among Anishinaabe nations, there are considerable differences in the relative amounts of trust and fee land, where, for example, the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation is nearly all trust land while the Bad River Reservation is almost 50% fee land.29 This land tenure system largely precludes use of the hedonic property method. For many Anishinaabe communities, there are not enough property transactions on tribal lands for a hedonic analysis. Even where property transactions are more common (i.e., the sale of fee lands or private land adjacent to tribal lands), there are likely too few transactions, or the market may not be sufficiently competitive, to recover valid willingness-to-pay values for ambient water

Perspectives

 Eutrophic Wetland near Green Bay, WI, 11/2018. Credit: Tracy Boyer.

quality. Furthermore, the participation of nonindigenous people in these property markets means that estimated willingness-to-pay values do not uniquely reflect indigenous values. Travel Cost Method Travel cost studies estimate direct use values associated with recreational, historical, and cultural heritage sites. The costs incurred to visit a site (e.g., travel expenditures, access fees, time costs) provide information about its value that can be used, given a sufficiently large sample, to estimate willingness-to-pay. There are broadly two types of travel cost analyses. Single-site studies model the number of trips taken to a particular site over a fixed period; they are well suited to estimating total use value and assessing how changes in access fees affect visitors’ welfare. Multi-site studies model the choice of one site from a set of possible alternatives and are suited for valuing changes in site characteristics, such as water quality, angler’s catch rate, biodiversity, and forest typologies.30-34 Existing procedures for conducting travel cost analyses can be readily applied to sites of import to the Anishinaabe. Single-site models would be appropriate for valuing the adverse impacts from closing a park, beach, or lake due to unsafe water quality – such as a harmful algal bloom (HAB) event. Nearshore HABs, owing largely to excess nutrient loads and warmer temperatures, are now common in many water bodies of the Western Great Lakes region, including Lake Eire, Saginaw Bay, and Green Bay.35 The southern shore of Lake

Superior has also experienced historically large algal blooms in recent years, although toxins have not been found in hazardous concentrations.36 Multi-site models would be appropriate for valuing changes in water quality where there are notable differences in ambient water conditions between alternative sites. For single- and multi-site analyses, researchers need to evaluate how modeling assumptions and key parameters differ between indigenous and non-indigenous populations. Anishinaabe people, for example, may have less choice among alternative sites because of an inability to travel or an unwillingness to leave the space their tribes have inhabited for thousands of years. The two populations are also likely to differ in regard to time and vehicle costs, travel party www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 33

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 Chibinesiban, Jim Northrup, looking at the abundant manoomin (wild rice) on the surface of Perch Lake, Minnesota, August/2015. Credit: Ivy Vainio.

size, and the prevalence of multi-destination and multi-purpose visitations. Careful design of travel-cost survey instruments based on focus groups, one-on-one interviews, and pretesting can address these issues. Researchers will also need to identify an appropriate sampling procedure; in particular, determining whether it is better to use an exclusively indigenous sample, thus ignoring non-indigenous visitors, or to use a stratified sampling approach that would allow for comparisons between indigenous and nonindigenous respondents. Production Function Method Production functions are used to value nonmarket environmental resources that are inputs to the production of a marketed good or service. When nonmarket inputs (e.g., water quality, forest cover) are important components of the production process, willingness-to-pay values can be inferred from the contribution they make to the value of the marketed commodity. Production functions have been used to value the contribution of mangrove forests to fisheries, forest cover to potable water, and water quality

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to crop yields.37-39 For Anishinaabe communities, production functions could be used to value water quality’s contribution to commercial wild rice and fish harvests, where the former is susceptible to reductions in water clarity associated with eutrophication or sediment loading.40 It is often difficult, however, to estimate quantitative links between productivity and water quality, particularly for fisheries because of the natural fluctuations in fish stocks due to changes in currents, predator species abundance, and disease. The production function method should not be used unless clear links between productivity and water quality can be established. This method is also unable to value water quality’s contribution to subsistence wild rice and fish production, which is not sold in a market but consumed by the community. Subsistence production comprises a considerable share of the total harvests of commercial Anishinaabe harvesters in addition to household harvest. Averting Behavior Method Actions undertaken to mitigate the adverse effects of exposure to degraded environmental

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resources are known as averting behaviors. These behaviors are associated with expenditures and time costs that reveal information about willingness-to-pay to replace an environmental good. Averting expenditures represent a lower-bound estimate of the benefits that would accompany remediation of an environmental resource since it values only the use value of a good such as clean drinking water. For water quality, the averting behavior method is applicable mainly to potable water supply, where households may purchase bottled water, install water softeners, or boil water to avoid adverse effects from tap or private well water (e.g., health risks, mineral deposwits). Numerous studies use the averting behavior method to value improved potable water quality, but, to the best of our knowledge, no such studies have been conducted in US or Canadian indigenous communities.41-44 Existing survey frameworks and data analysis procedures could be readily applied to value water supply in Anishinaabe communities. Studies could target communities with frequent water quality issues. Drinking water advisories

Researchers must work closely with tribal leadership and natural resource experts to identity water quality issues where nonmarket valuation can inform management decisions. and poor drinking water quality pose a continued risk in many Canadian First Nations communities.11 In Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, community water systems in areas designated as Indian Country average more Safe Drinking Water Act violations than systems of similar size elsewhere, although the proportion of systems with serious health-related violations is comparable (calculation based on information available at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database).

Discrete Choice Experiments Discrete choice experiments are used to elicit preferences in the absence of observed behavioral data. Unlike revealed preference methods, discrete choice experiments can elicit bequest and existence values because researchers have full control over the choices people face. Survey respondents are presented with one or more choice scenarios, where they are asked to select their preferred policy from a set of hypothetical policy alternatives.45 For each scenario, respondents face tradeoffs between various policy attributes. Economists assume they select the policy that maximizes wellbeing, which permits the estimation of willingness-to-pay values for each attribute (e.g., increased water clarity, reduced risk of a HAB event). Discrete choice experiments are highly flexible; they have been applied within a wide range of ecological, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts. Numerous studies have used discrete choice experiments to value improvements in water quality, including several conducted in the Western Great Lakes region.46-49 Occasionally, choice experiments have been used to estimate the nonmarket values of US and Canadian indigenous populations. Haener et al. and González-Cabán et al. elicit preference for hunting site attributes in Saskatchewan and wildfire mitigation strategies in Montana, respectively.14,50 The former study finds substantial differences in preferences between indigenous and non-indigenous populations, but the latter does not. Duffield et al. evaluate preferences for river restoration among members of the Penobscot Nation.3 They found that respondents, on average, were willing to accept a one-time dollar compensation to forgo river restoration. Choice experiments offer a viable method for valuing water quality changes in Anishinaabe communities, but their limited application to indigenous settings means that additional research is needed to determine under what circumstances they are appropriate. However, choice experiments can be adapted to elicit preferences from the perspective of members’ beliefs about what the community values as a whole. Choice experiments also have the advantage of being

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Nonmarket valuation will not be an appropriate tool in some instances, and it will often underestimate the benefits of water resource to indigenous communities; however, when it can be effectively modified and employed, it is useful and meaningful to quantify how changes in water quality affect wellbeing. able to measure use and non-use (which includes bequest or existence values). Survey instruments using this method will require thorough testing to ensure their validity; namely, with regards to the crucial issues of consequentiality, incentive compatibility, appropriateness of payment mechanism, and attribute levels. The role of social preference formation will also require further study given the importance of water resources to the Anishinaabe cultural identity.

Opportunities for Valuation The challenges described above have led some researchers to reject the use of nonmarket valuation within indigenous communities, as have incidences where nonmarket valuation was misused to the detriment of indigenous populations.5 This literature has proposed alternative evaluation tools that circumvent many of the theoretical and methodological obstacles with estimating willingness-to-pay and account for place-based cultural values.5,51,52 We applaud these efforts but contend there is still a need for conventional nonmarket valuation to aid the water resource decisions of Anishinaabe tribal leadership and nonindigenous policy makers. Nonmarket valuation will not be an appropriate tool in some instances, and it will often underestimate the benefits of water resource to indigenous communities; however, when it can be effectively modified and employed, it is useful and meaningful to quantify how changes in water quality affect wellbeing.

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Anishinaabe nations, as sovereign entities, have ultimate authority in managing water resources. Researchers must work closely with tribal leadership and natural resource experts to identity water quality issues where nonmarket valuation can inform management decisions.53 The preceding sections suggest several solutions to the challenges of conducting nonmarket valuation in Anishinaabe communities. First, travel cost and discrete choice studies offer the most practical means of nonmarket valuation in Anishinaabe communities, but, in both cases, additional research is needed to ensure their validity. Second, survey instruments require thorough pretesting via focus groups and one-on-one interviews to safeguard against culturally inappropriate and ineffectual survey designs. Third, there is need for studies focusing exclusively on the economic values the Anishinaabe place on water quality, as well as for studies using stratified samples that allow for comparisons between indigenous and non-indigenous respondents. Finally, among the water quality issues affecting Anishinaabe communities, nonmarket valuation may be most suited to HABs, water-based recreation, wild rice production, and potable water supply. As noted above, these values would only form a lower bound estimate of environmental resource benefits, with many cultural or spiritual values being intangible or non-separable from other values and thus difficult to quantify. Researchers will likely have difficulties obtaining a random sample of respondents in Anishinaabe communities. Small convenience samples are the most feasible approach, although random samples may be possible with the assistance of tribal leadership. Market based research firms typically do not have enough indigenous members in their research panels to estimate nonmarket values. Regardless of the sampling method, it will be essential to develop survey instruments that are appropriate to the cultural and environmental context. The solution to this

Perspectives  Untitled birchbark art by Michael Zimmerman Jr. Credit: Margaret Noodin.

challenge is to partner with Anishinaabe tribal leadership, natural resource experts, and community organizations. Baird et al. found for their surveys of water governance in Canadian First Nations that the inclusion of community partners in all aspects of the survey process enhanced the legitimacy of the process.53 Furthermore, community participation facilitated the research by empowering the community and increasing the likelihood results would be used for water management. Current state-of-the-art in stated preference surveys also emphasizes extensive use of focus groups and one-on-one interviews to ensure not only that the survey is understandable, but that respondents feel their choices are consequential.22 Working with community partners, and obtaining approval from tribes’ research ethics boards, will ensure a study’s usefulness to the community while also enhancing the survey’s consequentiality and improving results.

5-9 (1997). 3. Duffield, JW, Neher, CJ & Patterson, DA. Natural resource valuation with a tribal perspective: A case study of the Penobscot Nation. Applied Economics 51, 2377-2389 (2019). 4. Adamowicz, W et al. In search of forest resource values of indigenous peoples: Are nonmarket valuation techniques applicable? Society and Natural Resources 11, 51-66 (1998). 5. Gregory, R & Trousdale, W. Compensating aboriginal cultural losses: An alternative approach to assessing environmental damages. Journal of Environmental Management 90, 2469-2479 (2009). 6. O’Shea, JM & Meadows, GA. Evidence for early hunters beneath the Great Lakes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 10120-10123 (2009). 7. Noodin, M in Narratives of Educating for Sustainability in Unsustainable Environments: An Edited Collection (Halady, J & Hicks, S, eds), Ch. 13, 245-260 (Michigan State University Press, Lansing, 2017). 8. Kappen, A, Allison, T & Verhaaren, B. Treaty Rights and Subsistence Fishing in the US Waters of the Great Lakes, Upper Mississippi River, and Ohio River Basins (Argonne National Laboratory. 2012). 9. Hudson, JC & Ziegler, SS. Environment, culture, and the Great Lakes fisheries. Geographical Review 104, 391-413 (2014). 10. Lawless, J., Taylor, D, Marshall, R, Nickerson, E & Anderson,

References 1. Birol, E, Karousakis, K & Koundouri, P. Using economic valuation techniques to inform water resources management: A survey and critical appraisal of available techniques and an application. Science and the Total Environment 365, 105-122 (2006). 2. Loomis, JB. Use of non-market valuation studies in water resource management assessments. Water Resources Update 109,

K. Meaningful engagement: Women, diverse identities and Indigenous water and wastewater responsibilities. Canadian Woman Studies 30, 81-88 (2015). 11. McGregor, D. Traditional knowledge: Considerations for protecting water in Ontario. International Indigenous Policy Journal 3, 1-21 (2012). 12. Perez, MA & Longboat, S. Our shared relationship with land and

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water: Perspectives from the Mayangna and the Anishinaabe. Ecopsychology 11, 191-198 (2019). 13. Noodin, M in Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment: Theory, Curricula, Institutional Structures (Melin, C, ed), Ch. 12,

Services Division, Helena, 2016). 29. Wisconsin Department of Administration. Tribes of Wisconsin (Wisconsin Department of Administration, Madison, 2020). 30. Phaneuf, DJ. A random utility model for total maximum daily

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14. González-Cabán, A, Loomis, JB, Rodriguez, A & Hesseln, H. A comparison of CVM survey response rates, protests and

36.11 (2002). 31. Von Haefen, RH. Incorporating observed choice into the

willingness-to-pay of Native Americans and general population

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15. Loomis, J, Ellingson, L, Gonzalez‐Caban, A & Seidl, A. The role of

32. Murdock, J. Handling unobserved site characteristics in random

ethnicity and language in contingent valuation analysis: A fire

utility models of recreation demand. Journal of Environmental

prevention policy application. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 65, 559-586 (2006). 16. Spash, CL. Ecosystems, contingent valuation and ethics: The case of wetland re-creation. Ecological Economics 34, 195-215 (2000). 17. Bunse, L, Rendon, O & Luque, S. What can deliberative approaches bring to the monetary valuation of ecosystem services? A literature review. Ecosystem Services 14, 88-97 (2015). 18. Howarth, RB & Wilson, MA. A theoretical approach to deliberative valuation: Aggregation by mutual consent. Land Economics 82, 1-16 (2006). 19. Lo, AY & Spash, CL. Deliberative monetary valuation: In search of a democratic and value plural approach to environmental policy. Journal of Economic Surveys 27, 768-789 (2013). 20. Shapansky, B, Adamowicz, WL & Boxall, PC. Assessing information provision and respondent involvement effects on preferences. Ecological Economics 65, 626-635 (2008). 21. Bilmes, LJ & Loomis, JB in Valuing US National Parks and Programs: America’s Best Investment (Bilmes, LJ & Loomis, JB, eds), Ch. 1 (Routledge, New York, 2020). 22. Johnston, RJ et al. Contemporary guidance for stated preference studies. Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists 4, 319-405 (2017). 23. Taylor, LO in A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation (Champ, PA, Boyle, KJ & Brown, TC, eds), Ch. 10, 331-393 (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003). 24. Liu, T, Opaluch, JJ & Uchida, E. The impact of water quality in Narragansett Bay on housing prices. Water Resources Research 53, 6454-6471 (2017). 25. Poor, PJ, Pessagno, KL & Paul, RW. Exploring the hedonic value of ambient water quality: A local watershed-based study. Ecological Economics 60, 797-806 (2007). 26. Walsh, P, Griffiths, C, Guignet, D & Klemick, H. Modeling the property price impact of water quality in 14 Chesapeake Bay Counties. Ecological Economics 135, 103-113 (2017).

Economics and Management 51, 1-25 (2006). 33. Kolstoe, S. & Cameron, TA. The non-market value of birding sites and the marginal value of additional species: Biodiversity in a random utility model of site choice by eBird members. Ecological Economics 137, 1-12 (2017). 34. Boxall, PC, Watson, DO & Englin, J. Backcountry recreationists’ valuation of forest and park management features in wilderness parks of the western Canadian Shield. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 26, 982-990 (1996). 35. Sayers, MJ et al. Satellite monitoring of harmful algal blooms in the Western Basin of Lake Erie: A 20-year time-series. Journal of Great Lakes Research 45, 508-521 (2019). 36. Hauser, C. Algae bloom in Lake Superior raises worries on climate change and tourism. New York Times (29 August 2018). 37. Barbier, EB & Strand, I. Valuing mangrove-fishery linkages–A case study of Campeche, Mexico. Environmental and Resource Economics 12, 151-166 (1998). 38. Núñez, D, Nahuelhual, L & Oyarzún, C. Forests and water: The value of native temperate forests in supplying water for human consumption. Ecological Economics 58, 606-616 (2006). 39. Khai, HV & Yabe, M in International Perspectives on Water Quality Management and Pollution Control (Quinn, NWT, ed), Ch. 3, 61-85 (IntechOpen, Rijeka, 2013). 40. Sierszen, ME, Morrice, JA, Trebitz, AS & Hoffman, JC. A review of selected ecosystem services provided by coastal wetlands of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management 15, 92-106 (2012). 41. Laughland, AS, Musser, LM, Musser, WN & Shortle, JS. The opportunity cost of time and averting expenditures for safe drinking water. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 29, 291-299 (1993). 42. Lloyd-Smith, P, Schram, C, Adamowicz, W & Dupont, D. Endogeneity of risk perceptions in averting behavior models. Environmental and Resource Economics 69, 217-246 (2018).

27. Walsh, PJ, Milon, JW & Scrogin, DO. The spatial extent of water

43. Pape, AD & Seo, M. Reports of water quality violations induce

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45. Holmes, TP & Adamowicz, WL in A Primer on Nonmarket Valuation (Champ, PA, Boyle, KJ & Brown, TC, eds), Ch. 6, 171-219 (Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2003). 46. Dupont, DP. CVM embedding effects when there are active, potentially active and passive users of environmental goods. Environmental and Resource Economics 25, 319-341 (2003). 47. Moore, R, Provencher, B & Bishop, RC. Valuing a spatially

in Northern Saskatchewan. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 83, 1334-1340 (2001). 51. Kant, S, Vertinsky, I & Zheng, B. Valuation of First Nations peoples’ social, cultural, and land use activities using life satisfaction approach. Forest Policy and Economics 72, 46-55 (2016). 52. Pascua, PA, McMillen, H, Ticktin, T, Vaughan, M & Winter, KB. Beyond services: A process and framework to incorporate

variable environmental resource: Reducing non-point-source

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in ecosystem service assessments. Ecosystem Services 26, 465-475 (2017).

(2011). 48. Welle, PG & Hodgson, JB. Property owners’ willingness to pay for

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Economics 12, 81-94 (2011). 49. Zhang, W & Sohngen, B. Do US anglers care about harmful algal blooms? A discrete choice experiment of Lake Erie recreational anglers. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 100, 868-888 (2018). 50. Haener, MK, Dosman, D, Adamowicz, WL & Boxall, PC. Can

Table 1: Classification of total economic value of water

Use Value

Non-Use Value*

Direct Use Value

Indirect Use Value

Option Value

Existence value

Domestic water supply

Ecosystem support

Potential future uses

Bequest

Irrigation (wild rice)

Erosion and flood control

Future information

Existence

Input to industry

Nutrient cycling

Input to fish stock (commercial, subsistence)

Pollution dilution

Hydropower

Climate stabilization

Culture/heritage**

Transportation Recreation Amenity Culture/heritage

*Non-use values are only obtainable through stated preference techniques such as discrete choice experiments ** For indigenous groups, subsistence fishing, hunting, and gathering activities have cultural importance not captured in direct use benefits. Some of these benefits are captured by bequest or existence values, but they cannot be separated from use-values. Ecosystem support and cultural benefits are also interlinked.

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On Becoming Solutionaries: The First Global Revolution by Kevin Danaher

he current global crisis could be seized as an opportunity to change course morally in the way we organize economic activity. We are moving from a system in which the economy has dominated people and nature to a new system in which economic decisions will be subordinated to the needs of people and Mother Nature: instead of money values ruling over the life cycle, life values will rule over the money cycle.

High moral standards are important but if they are not practiced on a regular basis and infused into the policies of our institutions, hypocrisy and cynicism creep into our lives.

The Global Values Revolution The nationalism, sectarianism and racism currently infecting our world make it important to clearly state the values that guide us in creating a sense of planetary responsibility in each of us.

Solutionary movements around the world are realizing that we must implement Mother Nature’s core operating principle, unity-of-diversity, or we may perish as a species. Every revolution until now has been a national revolution, with the revolutionaries seeking to run that country differently. Now we are in the early stages of the first global revolution. It is a revolution in values, seeking to switch from money values ruling over the life cycle (people and nature), to a system where life values rule over the money cycle. Instead of subordinating society and nature to the economy, we are learning to 40 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

subordinate the economy to people and nature. The global citizenship movement is diverse, yet there are certain core principles held in common. Biomimetic science is teaching us that nature's central operating principle is unity-ofdiversity, so a broad spectrum of social justice groups and environmental organizations are coming together to save humanity from itself. We can promote the following manifesto of principles while keeping in mind that specific conditions in each community influence how people set priorities. We seek to develop a sense of compassion and empathy that is at the core of grassroots internationalism, being able to feel deeply about injustice done against anyone, anywhere in the world. Grassroots internationalism has been spreading rapidly as more and more people understand that we have a responsibility to those who are suffering economic injustice. Global solidarity takes many forms: the climate change movement, the permaculture movement, sister cities, sister schools, the fair trade movement, the women's

Perspectives

movement, campaigns against corporate abuses, efforts to humanize U.S. foreign policy, and environmental activism. The Internet is helping us develop what some people are calling global brain: a heightened level of human connection and joint action never before seen in human history. Modern brain science has confirmed that our brains are hard-wired for solidarity: when you do an act of kindness toward others, your own internal chemistry improves, strengthening your immune system and making you feel better. The field of positive psychology is proving that caring about the welfare of others enhances your own health. We pledge to take the side of the poor and oppressed wherever injustices are being committed. During my 30 years at Global Exchange people would come into the office and ask us if we felt burdened by trying to "save the world," but in fact, working for social justice and environmental

sanity is quite uplifting. We have fun doing this work because we know we are standing on the shoulders of amazing justice-seekers such as Sojourner Truth, Mohandes Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. We feel rooted in a historic movement for emancipation from needless suffering, and this global justice movement will help change the course of history. Recognizing the debt we owe to the freedom fighters who preceded us, we need to constantly raise the question: What kind of ancestors will we be? We defend the universal rights to food, shelter, healthcare, education and employment, and the basic human rights of freedom of expression, assembly and religion. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, written in 1948, is the most comprehensive statement of humanistic values. The words of Article 1 —"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights"—make it clear that this

No Nature, No Future. Credit: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

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international document draws heavily on the rights established by the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Just because many governments have failed to implement many of the rights described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights does not mean they are irrelevant. Human ideals have always preceded implantation into policy and practice, often by centuries. We should all acquaint ourselves with the rights described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Earth Charter, and promote them whenever we get the chance. Each of us, in our own communities, can find people who are being denied their basic rights, and there are many organizations we can support who are working on these local struggles for full human rights. We believe in peace, and that international conflicts should be resolved through multilaterial institutions such as the United Nations. We call for sweeping reductions in military spending, with the money going to meet human needs such as housing, health care and education. The hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world are part of an old model of domination, militarism, and environmental contamination. Instead of protecting the United States, these bases have made us the target of animosity and attacks from groups opposed to the U.S. presence

The hundreds of U.S. military bases around the world are part of an old model of domination, militarism, and environmental contamination. Instead of protecting the United States, these bases have made us the target of animosity and attacks from groups opposed to the U.S. presence on their soil. on their soil. By inserting thousands of young, poorly educated yet well-armed Americans into foreign cultures they know little about, we are generating hostility and resentment that fuels the

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passions of those who would do us harm. The failures of the United States to impose solutions militarily in Iraq and Afghanistan prove that international conflicts should be resolved peacefully through multilateral institutions such as the United Nations. All governments—especially powerful ones—should strengthen the democratic and developmental aspects of the UN so it can live up to its original promise. Just one percent of the US military budget would be enough to massively expand the peacekeeping operations of the UN, which would help the United States get out of the role of global policeman. We shun the unbridled acquisition of material goods, and consumption without conscience. Corporate propaganda has led many of us to believe that more money equates with more happiness. Yet survey data shows that income and reported happiness rise together until roughly $70,000 per year and then reported happiness flattens out as income rises. This raises the question: how much do you really need? More and more people are realizing that the commodity culture amounts to counterfeit community. Real community comes from human relations based on compassion and caring, not from owning "stuff." If it were normal and natural to base our lives on buying commodities it would not be necessary for the corporations to bombard us with thousands of commercial messages every day. They would simply say "go shopping" and we would all run off to the mall. The good news is that a new sharing economy is being innovated from the grassroots. Internet technology is turning sharing into the new buying. AirBnB allows people to share living space. GetAround allows people to share their motor vehicles. LiquidSpace allows people to share workspace. Yerdle allows people to share their power tools, camping tents, lawn mowers, and every other commodity that only gets used occasionally. Everywhere you look, people are coming together to strengthen the local, resourcesharing economy.

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We support the rights of women everywhere to participate fully in the running of their societies. Seeing as women do most of the work in the world, shouldn't women have equal status and equal opportunity with men? Many decades of foreign aid experience have taught us that the single best investment in the development of a country is education for females. So we need a global campaign to elevate the status of women in all spheres. We all know about patriotism, feeling devotion to a particular part of the planet. But now we are developing matriotism: love of Mother Earth. Why do we refer to our planet as Mother Earth? Because she is the mother we all share, no matter which woman’s body you came out of. Mother Earth always practices abundance and generosity: she gives you oxygen for your lungs, the beauty of nature for your spirit, and the water and food you are made of. And in return she makes just one modest demand: don’t foul your own nest, or you will pay a price eventually. Matriotism involves creating a “solutionary”

More and more people are realizing that the commodity culture amounts to counterfeit community. Real community comes from human relations based on compassion and caring, not from owning "stuff." culture where women and men feel empowered to change the things that need upgrading: supporting organizations that educate our girls, electing leaders who believe in gender equity, promoting community empowerment, and fighting for the creation of good jobs. We support the right of workers to organize to defend their rights and press for better working conditions. Many transnational corporations moved their production facilities from wealthy countries like the United States to take advantage of low wages and desperately poor workers in countries such as China, Bangladesh and Cambodia. Many scandals of sweatshop fires and collapsing factory buildings have brought to our attention the terrible www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 43

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 Black Lives Matter. Credit: Nicole Baster on Unsplash

conditions suffered by workers who make clothes and other commodities for us. In many countries without an organized working class the rights and benefits we take for granted do not exist yet. Our support for workers must extend to family farmers and landless peasants who grow our coffee and chocolate: they need sufficient land, water and tools to grow food for their families. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23 says: "Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection." The implementation of just this one article requires a revolution in corporate capitalism. We can support these rights that are enshrined in international law by being conscious consumers: shunning companies that mistreat their

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workers; looking for the Fair Trade label that ensures fair treatment of workers and concern for the environment; investing only in companies that have a proven track record of fair treatment of their workers. We believe that international trade and investment should be based on mutual benefit, not profit-driven exploitation. People in power talk glowingly about the "free market" and "free trade," by which they mean the free movement of capital in all its forms (money, goods, services). But the most important "commodity" of all—human labor power—is not free to cross borders. A TV set made in Mexico has more freedom to cross the U.S. border than a Mexican human being does. This injustice is due to the fact that international economic treaties are made by wealthy elites who never experience the pain suffered by the poor of

Perspectives

the world. The rulers of the global economy never see their own children go hungry, so issues of global poverty seldom hit them at the gut level. We need to ask two question when discussing rule-making in the global economy: 1. who is sitting at the table—is it mainly wealthy white males or is it the bouquet of humanity?; and 2. what are the dominant criteria for the rule-making—is it maximize profits for transnational corporations or is it meet all social needs and save the environment? There is a growing understanding that the current economic system is creating more inequality and destroying the natural systems that sustain human civilization. We don't need tinkering with minor policy adjustments, we need a new economic system that puts the needs of the majority and of Mother Nature above the drive for corporate profits. We strive to overcome racism, sexism, homophobia and class prejudice. Each of us plays many social roles—parent, child, friend, worker, voter, citizen—and we participate in many institutions. So in addition to cleaning up our personal attitudes about racism, sexism and class prejudice, we can also pressure our institutions to address the structural inequalities that divide the human family. It takes courage to be an activist and speak up when we see injustices happening. But remember, it's the squeaky hinge that gets the oil; a closed mouth does not get fed. Everyone who ever affected positive social change had to muster the courage to speak up and convince others to mobilize and take action. The good news is that all forms of "rankism"— believing in a hierarchy of rights depending on a person's physical and economic status—are getting discredited with the expansion of the Internet and the belief in equal rights for all. Mother Nature's central operating principle is unity-of-diversity, and we humans are slowly learning how to implement that principle in our institutions and our personal behavior.

We affirm the right of all people to travel freely. Because the United States and Mexico are somewhat unique in having a long border between a rich country and a lower-income country, immigration has become a hot topic. Yet because the United States is a nation of immigrants we should have special understanding of this issue. Our parents and grandparents did not come here from other countries seeking a free ride: they came seeking an opportunity to work hard and build a better life for their families. Most migration in the world is labor migration: people seeking jobs that will allow them to send money home to their families. Criminalizing immigration leads to money wasted on fences, policing and prisons, and forces immigrants into an underground economy that leads to their exploitation or worse (hundreds of people die each year crossing the southwest desert of the United States). Our laws, such as NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), have removed U.S. manufacturing jobs and flooded the Mexican market with subsidized U.S. corn that sells for less than what a Mexican peasant can grow it for, which pushes thousands of Mexican farmers off their land and into the illegal immigration pipeline. Numerous studies have shown that immigrants bring far more to our country than they take. Many of our most innovative companies have been started by immigrants, and many of the most onerous jobs are ones that U.S. citizens will not take. Most immigrants would rather stay in their home country but poverty forces

Rainbow Flag. Credit: Max Böhme on Unsplash

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Perspectives

them to leave in search of work, so the real solution to the immigration issue is to eliminate poverty in the world. We have the technical means to do this; what we lack is the political will. We trust in democracy – the duty of all people to be actively involved in shaping the polices of the governments that claim to represent them. The greatest threat we each face is the cult of powerlessness: that little voice in our heads that says, "you can't succeed," "we're doomed to failure," and other negative thinking that drains our courage and leads us to accept the status quo. The word democracy comes from two Greek roots: demos (people) and kratos (rule). If the people don't currently rule it is our responsibility to make the changes necessary to achieve true democracy on a global level. Here is a source of inspiration and hope. With Internet technology we could have global voting. The majority of the human race could be asked questions such as: "Should we continue destroying the environment or should we save it?"; "Should we shut down ALL the militaries and put that money into education and healthcare?"; "Should women have equal opportunity with men?" In each of these cases the progressive answer would win the majority of votes. We should take strength from the fact that the majority of the world's people share humanistic, caring values that favor equality, democracy and justice. We must remember that we are borrowing this planet from our grandchildren, and the earth’s preservation is our sacred responsibility. We Americans have a special responsibility to promote "matriotism"– love of Mother Earth. We are less than 5 percent of the world’s population but we use 25 percent of the world’s resources, and we produce 25 percent of the world’s pollution. The current era is unique because the gap between what-is and what-could-be has never been this great, and that gap keeps expanding as the bad stuff gets worse and the good stuff gets better. When we do effective education-for-mobilization

and people realize that we can fix what is wrong with the world it releases psychological energy that is the greatest renewable resource we have: the human spirit. This is our opportunity to change the course of history. There is a growing movement that is enshrining "Rights of Nature" into our legal systems at the local, national and international levels. Countries such as Ecuador have created constitutional guarantees recognizing nature's right to "exist, flourish and evolve." A growing number of people around the world are learning from the nature-based spirituality of indigenous peoples whose science and spirituality are integrated, which is how they survived for thousands of years without destroying their habitat. We need a long-term perspective. The masons who built the foundation layers of the cathedrals in Europe that took centuries to build knew that they would not see the final product of their work. But they also knew that they had to do very solid, precise work because of all the weight that would eventually rest on the foundations they were creating. We are the modern equivalent of

The solutionary movement is unifying around shared principles in order to build a future world with no starving children, no endangered species, no clear-cut forests, and no wars for oil. It is important for us to enunciate these principles, discuss them, and see how they can be put into practice to create more joy and less suffering in the world. those masons. We are laying the foundations of a future sustainable global economy that will have no starving children, no clear-cut forests, no wars for oil, and no endangered species. The only questions are how long will that take and how will we muster the courage to save humanity from itself. Fortunately, we already have a prime directive to guide us on this challenging journey, from the green architect, William McDonough: “How do we love all the children, of all species, for all time?”

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Special Feature

The Future of Water A collection of essays on “disruptive” technologies that may transform the water sector in the next 10 years. by Glenn T. Daigger, Nikolay Voutchkov, Upmanu Lall & Will Sarni

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The Future of Water

In Brief Innovation is quickly and inevitably changing the way we think and provide infrastructure services. Processes are being transformed and boundaries across sectors shifted. In the era of smart homes and phones, big data and satellite imagery, how will innovation impact the water sector by 2030? This volume compiles the answers to this question from four experts on the field. In each individual essay, experts identify what they believe to be the key technological changes that will transform the sector and whether they have the potential to become “disruptive”. Attention is also paid to the context, as authors discuss which enabling conditions - e.g. regulation, policy, markets - would be necessary to encourage the adoption and mainstreaming of each technology. This compendium of expert views was originally prepared as background material for the forthcoming flagship publication of the Inter-American Development Bank, From structures to services: the path to better infrastructure in LAC .The work was coordinated by Luisa Mimmi and Fabiana Machado, authors of the introductory section. The original report can be found here: www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 49

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Introduction

nnovation is quickly and inevitably changing the way we think and provide infrastructure services. In many sectors, technology is disrupting processes and market structures. The ability to harness solar power at home has the potential to turn consumers of electricity into providers, or “prosumers”.

Solar-powered self-driving vehicles are blurring the boundaries between the energy and the transport sectors and is likely to significantly impact citizen mobility in the near future. In the water sector, however, despite the application of many of these new technologies, there are divergent views about the extent to which they have the potential to disrupt the sector. The collection of essays in this volume exemplifies this variety of perspectives. In the first essay, Dr. Glenn Daigger (Professor of Engineering Practice, at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Michigan and President and Founder of One Water Solutions, LLC) discusses the expected shift in urban water management and how emerging new challenges require rethinking the approach that was designed in the XIX and XX centuries. He foresees these large-scale and centralized water management systems giving way to more decentralized systems optimized to promote the reuse of water, including the recovery of resources and nutrients from the treatment processes. The One Water slogan encapsulates the idea of a future- proof water management approach that makes the most of water in all of its states (groundwater, rainwater, potable or used water) and serves multiple purposes adapted to local conditions. The second essay by Dr. Upmanu Lall (Professor of Engineering at Columbia University and the Director of the Columbia Water Center) agrees that traditional and centralized Water and Wastewater systems are likely to be replaced by revolutionary decentralized networks that rely on remote sensing and digital technologies

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to control water quantity and quality parameters to ensure safe and affordable drinking water. Dr. Lall also discusses the challenges posed by the risks of floods and droughts, which lead to significant annual average losses globally, and are projected to increase in frequency and impact. He foresees an increase in creative financial instruments to address climate risks (e.g., index insurance, or catastrophe bonds). Lastly, he discusses how a well- developed set of principles for water resource management and regulation (even when present) cannot guarantee effective environmental management and regulation. A more integrated and coordinated action could be promoted by participatory, adaptive approaches for monitoring and investment in watershed services that address the cumulative effects of human use on water quantity and quality. Nikolay Voutchkov, an internationally recognized desalination expert, President of Water Globe Consultants, LLC and Director of the International Desalination Association, defines “disruptive” as a solution that is at least 20% more efficient than the existing alternative. Based on this metric the author discusses a host of technological innovations and their expected impact on the sector. One key example of disruptive innovation in his view is the rapidly increasing efficiency, productivity and durability of membranes used in desalination. While considered by many a “niche solution”, the author argues that by 2030 desalination could provide approximately 25% of the municipal water supply of the urban coastal centers worldwide (currently estimated 10%). He argues further that

The Future of Water

similar technical improvements are happening in the water reuse field. Rapidly decreasing production costs are making these sustainable options, a viable alternative to cheaper, but finite conventional freshwater resources, thus enabling water stressed areas to “diversify the portfolio of water supply”. Some promising innovative solutions discussed in this essay (and relative enabling conditions) are in the fields of Digital water, Water reuse, Resource recovery, and Desalination. In the fourth essay, Will Sarni (Founder and CEO at Water Foundry, as well as a Former Deloitte Consulting Director) offers a deep dive into how digital technologies are progressively transforming the water sector by enabling real time water quantity and quality monitoring. Taking a closer look at the ongoing digitization of the water sector, the author explores its potential to strengthen the watershed—assets—consumers value chain. For upstream surface and groundwater monitoring, satellite imagery is already extensively used, as well as for flood forecasting. Moving along the value chain, the author points out that the most forwardlooking water suppliers have already started to use Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems to gather, process and analyze real-time data on pressure, flow, and water quality. Thanks to the insights from these data, incidents like corroded pipes, leaks or even contaminations can now be remotely predicted and addressed with significant improvements in efficiency. What is more, the author states that exploiting “digital twins” (providing a complete virtual model mirroring physical assets) is opening up new possibilities also for simulating modifications to the water systems before they are implemented in reality. With software like Dropcounte and WaterSmart, digitization can also become the tool to engage the end consumers in sustainable behaviors making them aware of individual water consumption patterns. A clear, albeit somewhat counterintuitive, insight

agreed upon by the experts is that technology, by itself, cannot bring radical change (let alone “disrupt” a pre-existing market solution). While, technologywise, the water sector seems ready to shift towards a more responsible, sustainable and transparent “One Water” approach to water management, the essays raise critical questions about two important elements in this process. The first is regulation. What are the necessary conditions for technological innovation to be widely adopted? Will the emerging technological advances push for the needed regulatory reforms, or is regulation reform a pre-requisite for the sector to seize the opportunities presented by innovation? Some familiar Silicon Valley stories (e.g. Uber or Airbnb) exemplify disruptive innovation happening prior to regulatory reform. As consistently pointed out in the papers, however, regulation plays a much more prominent role in a sector traditionally managed as a natural monopoly, and constrained by the recognition of water as a human right. The second element is one of scale. What would be the optimal level at which to promote and adopt such changes? Many of the innovations aligned with the concept of One Water are local and can be applied at a smaller and decentralized scale. Most of the best practices showcased are found at the city level: Singapore’s Public Utility Board (PUB) operates as a holistic smart water grid, while China aims to turn 16 flood- prone urban areas into “sponge cities” absorbing and reusing at least 70% of rainwater by 2020. In a generally water- rich region like Latin America and the Caribbean, certain cities especially hit by weather and water-related issues might have a stronger incentive to re-think their water management systems. Of course, whether municipal agencies have enough financial resources (or political will) to embark on the necessary retrofits and innovations remains a challenge. We hope this collection of essays will provide some food for thought and inspire continuous dialogue on these critical questions.

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The Future of Water

One Water and Resource Recovery: Emerging Water and Sanitation Paradigms by Glenn T. Daigger

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The Future of Water

I.1 Historical Perspective on Urban Water Management Development

he historical approach to urban water management (drinking water, rainwater, used water) has been “reinvented” many times over human history, most recently beginning in the industrialized cities of Europe and the United States (US) in the 19th and early 20th century.1,2 The spread of waterborne disease (e.g. cholera, typhoid) in urban areas caused by pollution of local water supplies lead to importation of uncontaminated water from remote sources.

While this largely addressed drinking water related public health issues, it created the “problem” of sewage resulting from significantly increased volumes of contaminated (used water). The issue of sewage was subsequently addressed, along with drainage and flooding issues, by transporting the contaminated water out of the urban area for remote discharge. Pollution problems caused by these discharges compromised the quality of some drinking water sources, leading to development of drinking water treatment, and environmental degradation caused by pollution discharges lead to the development of used water (often called wastewater by others) treatment. Due to economies of scale for construction of these large- scale conveyance systems, and the limited treatment technologies available at the time, these systems were implemented as large-scale centralized systems, consisting of extensive piping networks and a small number of relatively large treatment facilities. While this general approach remained the norm throughout the 20th century, changes are occurring in the 21st century as described below. The large-scale and centralized nature of the current urban water management system generally minimizes capital investment for the supporting infrastructure through economies of scale for facility construction, but often at the expense of efficient resource use. The large-scale, centralized systems are relatively energyintensive (compared to alternatives), and minimize opportunities for resource recovery. Transport of water (e.g. drinking, used, reclaimed fit-for- purpose

water) is energy-intensive, and these energy costs can be minimized if water supplies are produced locally and used water is treated for reuse locally. Combining various components of the used water stream for joint transport reduces resource recovery opportunities, as discussed below. While many factors were responsible for adoption of this approach during the 19th to early 20th century, two of the most important were the general availability of water and other resources, relative to demand, and the general lack of treatment technologies. During the time that our current approach developed the global population was growing from 1 billion at the beginning of the 19th century to 2 billion in the first quarter of the 20th century, compared to the current global population of over 7 billion.3,4 Economic growth, which is the true determinant of water demand, has grown much faster. Moreover, the urban population has grown from around 20 to more than 50 percent of the total.5 Thus, while water and other resources were generally available in the 19th and early 20th century, this is no longer the case. Today, available sustainable water resources are generally fully allocated, and in many regions of the world are over-allocated.6 In fact, the growing water stress experienced throughout the world may be considered a result of the water management systems historically adopted. Secondly, the general lack of technologies to reliably and cost-effectively treat contaminated water lead to the need to source relatively uncontaminated water supplies www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 53

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remotely, and to convey contaminated water for remote disposal. In contrast, treatment technologies are now available to treat relatively contaminated water to potable, and even higher, quality standards. Thus, the factors that principally resulted in development of the current urban water management system no longer exist.

I.2 DEVELOPMENT OF ONE WATER AND RESOURCE RECOVERY SYSTEMS Today we face increased resource scarcity (water and other resources), compared to the 19th and early 20th century when the current urban water management system evolved.7-9 Water resource scarcity is further exacerbated by climate change, which is decreasing available sustainable fresh water resources. Thus, it becomes necessary to implement systems that use available fresh water and other resources more efficiently. Fortunately, such systems exist and are being increasingly implemented.10-16 Table 1 contrasts some of the essential features of the historic approach to urban water management with the systems evolving to meet current and future needs. The evolving systems

are integrated, multipurpose in nature, and rely much more heavily on local as compared to remote water supplies. These systems incorporate both centralized and distributed system components (often referred to as hybrid systems), and optimize operational features such as water use, energy, materials, and operational labor, rather than simply minimizing infrastructure cost. These systems are much more integrated into the urban systems that they are a major component of, thereby requiring significant institutional and financial changes.17 They are also increasing integrated into the evolving circular economy.18 While the “Future” scenario described in Table 1 certainly does not yet represent the norm, leading cities around the world are increasingly adopting these system components. As a result important examples existing internationally. Important components of the emerging paradigm are referred to as “One Water” and “Resource Recovery” and are deployed as components of integrated urban water management systems.

I.2.1 One Water One important component of the evolving approach to urban water management can be referred to by many

Table 1. Comparison of Historic and Future Approach to Urban Water Management Item

Historic (19th and Early 20th Century)

Future (21st Century)

Relationship to Economy

Provide Cost-Effective Water Service

Integral Part of Circular Economy

Functional Objective

Comply with Regulations

Produce Useful Products

Optimization Function

Infrastructure Cost

Water Use, Energy, Materials, Labor

Water Supply

Remote

Local

System Components

Separate Drinking Water, Rainwater, and Used Water Systems

Integrated, Multipurpose Systems

System Configuration

Centralized Treatment

Hybrid (Centralized and Distributed) Systems

Financing

Volume Based

Service Based

Institutions

Single Purpose Utilities

Integrated, Water Cycle Utilities

System Planning

“Plumb up” the Planned City

Integrated with City Planning

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The Future of Water

names, but one frequently used (and the favorite of the author) is “One Water”. One Water is based on the concept that all forms of water in the urban area (rainwater, groundwater, surface water, drinking water, used water) are linked and form a system that is best managed in an integrated fashion to provide effective urban water service. It is further recognized that the urban water cycle is connected to the broader environment, especially including the watershed where the urban area is located. To provide effective service the system must address the extreme conditions of drought and flooding (e.g. “too little” and “too much” water). The One Water approach addresses these conditions using a portfolio approach consisting of a combination of options, each one performing well over different conditions so that the combined system is resilient over a wide range of conditions. The portfolio components relative to water supply include surface and ground water, conservation, rainwater harvesting, water reclamation and reuse, and (as a last resort) brackish and seawater desalination.19,20 Likewise, the portfolio components relative to excessive water (storms, potentially leading to flooding) consist of conventional stormwater systems (including storage, piped conveyance, and physical flood protection, e.g. dikes), natural systems which capture and infiltrate water (green infrastructure), and designing the urban form to provide locations such as parks, etc. which can flood and be returned to service quickly and with minimal damage. In all cases the system components, and their relative sizes, are determined by local conditions.

water), thermal, and chemical (such as the organic matter present in used water). We are all familiar with use of flowing water to generate electricity through hydropower systems. Thermal energy can be recovered from, or discharged to, water using existing heat exchange technology, including heat pumps. Organic matter can be captured from used water in the form of sludge produced through used water treatment and converted into biogas through anaerobic processes. Biogas can subsequently be used for a variety of purposes, such as in combined heat and power (CHP) systems, or upgraded to natural gas quality. Nutrients are recovered when biosolids products are produced for in agricultural use, and phosphorus is already being recovered as the slow release fertilizer product struvite (magnesium ammonium phosphate). Approaches to harvest other forms of carbon, nitrogen, and rare earth metals are also being investigated. Recovery and use of these resources can provide financial and strategic advantages to urban water utilities, along with broader life cycle advantages due to reduced need to extract these resources from the environment. Financial advantages result, both from the revenue generated by the recovered resources, but also because of the costs avoided in used water processing (such as reduced scaling in anaerobic digestion systems when struvite is recovered). Strategic advantages arise when desirable products are produced, rather than residuals (sludge) that are not perceived as useful to society. The result is increased public acceptance for the processing and management of these materials, rather than disposal.

I.2.2 Resource Recovery

I.2.3 Integrated Systems

The One Water approach is leading to urban water management systems using existing water supplies much more efficiently through conservation, rainwater harvesting, and reclamation and reuse. Other resources present in the urban water cycle can also be harvested, including energy, nutrients and other materials.13,15,21 Forms of energy include kinetic (the energy of flowing

The individual components of One Water and Resource Recovery systems are then combined into an integrated system that meets the needs of individual urban areas. As compared to the historic approach, forward-looking systems increasingly incorporate distributed components, along with traditional centralized systems.22 This arises because more recently www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 55

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Figure 1. Example Integrated One Water/Resource Recovery Hybrid Centralized and Distributed Urban Water Management System.

developed treatment technologies (addressed below) allow source waters of various qualities (surface, ground, rain, and used) to be treated to meet the quality requirements for various uses – the concept of “fit for purpose” (as opposed to treating all water to potable quality) water production and use. While the “fit for purpose” concept is compatible with a fully centralized system, it becomes even more economical with a hybrid centralized and distributed system. Water production facilities can be located close to local water sources and areas of demand. For example, used water can be diverted out of the collection system and treated to a quality level appropriate for particular uses, such as irrigation, cooling, and domestic non-potable. Residuals from treatment can be returned to the collection system and conveyed to a larger, centralized treatment facility where recovery of energy and nutrients can be accomplished economically at the larger scale of such facilities. Source separation (separately collecting grey, black, and yellowater) is also an emerging trend

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which can provide inherent benefits from both resource efficiency and recovery perspectives.23 Figure 1 provides an illustration of such an integrated system incorporating centralized and distributed components. Both potable and non-potable water supplies are provided to municipal, commercial, and industrial customers. This example illustrates these water supplies being provided by local non-potable and potable water aquifers. Water supplies are supplemented, either directly or by supplementing the non-potable aquifer, by rainwater harvesting, stormwater infiltration, and wastewater reclamation (largely from greywater). Blackwater and yellowater are collected separately for resource recovery. Heat is recovered from the used water stream and the non-potable aquifer. Salts added through water use are concentrated into a saline water stream that is exported to a saline water aquifer. While not all components incorporated in this illustration will be included in all systems, the concept is illustrated.

The Future of Water

I.3 ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES AND PRACTICES

New technologies and improved practices continue to develop and enable the integrated systems described above. While further technological advances are occurring and expected, Table 2 lists existing, well-developed technologies and practices that are currently enabling the systems described above. Technologies such as advanced oxidation, membranes, and ultraviolet (UV) treatment can be applied at various scales and with various water sources (ground, surface, rain, and used water) to produce product water meeting a wide range of fit-for-purpose quality requirements.24 The modular nature, performance resilience, and ability to remotely monitor performance allows these technologies to be applied at a wide range of scales, from small distributed to large centralized applications. Membranes can be coupled with biological treatment systems when treating waters containing biodegradable organics, forming the membrane bioreactor (MBR) and anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) processes.25 Anaerobic systems can also be applied to a wide variety of water types and scales (distributed to centralized) to remove biodegradable organics with minimal energy input and recover the embedded chemical energy by conversion to biogas. Thermal hydrolysis (THP) is used in larger-scale centralized systems to pre- treat organic material prior to anaerobic treatment, thereby increasing biogas yield and reducing anaerobic treatment system size. Struvite precipitation can be applied at local (distributed) or centralized scales to recover phosphorus through conversion to fertilizer. Source separation and fecal sludge management are alternatives to the traditional approach. Greywater is relatively uncontaminated (compared to blackwater and yellowater), and often represents the largest used water volume. Separate collection of greywater results in a water supply that requires less treatment than the combined used water stream, thereby allowing use of less energy- and chemical-intensive treatment

systems to produce fit-for- purpose water supplies. Implementing this approach using many small-scale, distributed collection and treatment systems minimizes piping to collect the separated greywater and distribute the product water produced by appropriate treatment systems. Yellowater represents less than 1 percent of the combined used water volume but contains about 60 percent of the phosphorus and nearly 80 percent of the nitrogen. Diversion of this small volume, high nutrient concentration stream simplifies treatment of the remaining used water, and allows for increased capture of the nutrients it contains for reuse. Blackwater contains much of the organic matter but in a smaller volume, making anaerobic treatment for biogas production more efficient. Fecal sludge management represents application of these concepts in locations where traditional water supply and used water collection are not provided.26 Fecal matter, either with or without urine, is collected and periodically transported to a centralized location for processing to recover energy and nutrients in a manner which is protective of public health and the environment. Separate collection of fecal matter and urine further enables resource recovery.

I.4 IMPLEMENTATION STATUS The system components, technologies, and approaches described above are in various stages of development and application, but most have a significant number of full-scale applications in numerous settings. Advanced oxidation, membrane systems, and UV technologies are now widely applied in a variety of applications. Advanced oxidation is increasingly applied in advanced water treatment and water reuse applications, and it is receiving increased consideration for the control of micro-constituents (e.g. pharmaceuticals, hormones) in used water discharges. Membrane systems (microfiltration, untra-filtration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis) have become standard technologies, applied in a wide range of treatment

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applications, and aerobic MBR’s have become a standard biological treatment technology, especially for water reuse applications. Anaerobic systems are widely used in industrial treatment applications and is a standard technology for the stabilization of the organic sludges produced in used water treatment. Interest in anaerobic systems for direct treatment of used water continues to grow. THP is increasingly used to pre-treat organic sludges produced in used water treatment prior to anaerobic treatment. A number of specific technologies to recovery phosphorus by struvite precipitation are available, and the number of installations is increasing rapidly. Distributed system components are increasingly being added to existing centralized systems to increase capacity, improve level of service, increase resilience to the impacts of climate change, improve resource use efficiency, and improve resource recovery. Distributed rainwater capture and natural rainwater treatment systems which infiltrate captured water into local aquifers add to local water supplies and mitigate flooding and pollution caused by uncontrolled runoff. A significant number of applications already exist, and further applications are progressing on a global basis. These systems provide further value to their subject urban areas, for example by improved recreation and aesthetics along with reduced heat island effect. Water reclamation and reuse facilities provide a drought-resistant water supply while reducing pollution discharges. Locating such facilities adjacent to fit-for-purpose water demands that can be met with available quantities of used water reduces used and reclaimed water conveyance requirements. The concept of “sewer mining”, i.e. locating a water reclamation facility to meet local fit-for-purpose water supplies, is a well-established practice in several locations, including the arid Southwestern U.S. and Australia. Adding distributed system components in this fashion can supplement existing centralized systems and allow them to serve increasingly dense urban areas without the disruption associated with expanding the centralized system water distribution and used water collection system. Source separation can be incorporated into new construction and as existing buildings are renovated. 58 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

Separate greywater collection and treatment for reuse has been applied in such diverse locations as China (Qingdao) and California (San Francisco). Fullscale examples of urine diversion are just beginning to appear, but include examples in the U.S. and Europe (i.e. Paris). Peri-urban areas can be served by distributed systems when a centralized system is either not present, or it is not cost-effective to extend the centralized system to the newly developing area. Fecal sludge management approaches can provide effective sanitation, resulting in the protection of public health and the environment. This approach is particularly applicable in locations such as informal settlements where conventional water supply may not be available, but is also certainly applicable when greywater is separately collected and

A period of 15 to 20 years is generally required for new technologies to become material in the water sector. managed as a local water supply. Examples are emerging rapidly, for example in sub- Saharan Africa. Combining distributed and centralized system components allows for phased upgrade and expansion of the urban water system as demand and the desired level of service increases. The success of these hybrid centralized and distributed systems is resulting in greatly expanded implementation. These systems are expected to become the norm over the next decade or two.

I.5 FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS While new technologies will continue to develop, current technology is sufficient for the continued implementation of the One Water and Resource Recovery focused hybrid centralized and distributed approaches described above. A period of 15 to 20 years is generally required for new technologies to become material in the water sector, and significant changes in practices require even longer.27 Thus, it is unlikely that newly developing technologies will become material over the next 10 to 15 years, say by 2030. Technologies

The Future of Water

Table 2. Technologies and Practices Transforming Urban Water Management Technology

Description Application of a combination of oxidants, such as ozone

Advanced Oxidation

or hydrogen peroxide and UV, which produce high reactive oxygen species.

Anaerobic Treatment

Fecal Sludge Management

Membranes

biologically activated carbon (BAC).

in used water treatment, a wide range of processes are

organic matter in

available and continue to be developed to treat lower-

biogas (methane and CO2)

strength wastewaters of various types.

Low-water sanitation where fecal matter (and also

Provides for proper management of feces and urine in

potentially urine) is collected in a semi-solid form and

areas where conventional wastewater collection systems

transported for treatment and reuse.

are not present.

Polymeric (usually) membranes of various configurations

Wide variety of applications, ranging from quite small-

able to separate particles (micro- and ultrafiltration) or

scale to large centralized systems. Can also be coupled

dissolved substances (reverse osmosis and nanofiltration)

with and provide the necessary liquid-solids separation for

from water.

biological systems, such as membrane bioreactors.

scale. In source separation approaches the separation is conveyed to treatment separately.

A historical practice which is re-emerging in a variety of contexts. Greywater is relatively uncontaminated and can be efficiently treated for fit-for-purpose use while blackwater contains most of the chemical energy (organic matter) and yellowater the nutrients. Facilitates resource recovery and use.

Precipitation of phosphorus and ammonia as MgNH4PO4 . 6 Struvite is a slow release fertilizer that can be recovered H2O (struvite) Steam explosion of organic matter to convert particulate and colloidal organic matter into dissolved form.

The application of particular wavelengths (e.g. 254 nm) of Ultraviolet (UV)

to allow metabolism in downstream process, often

Widely used historically for treatment of sludges produced

maintained and these individual streams are collected and

Thermal Hydrolysis (THP)

to CO2 and H2O, or partially to increase biodegradability

terminal electron acceptors to convert biodegradable

greywater, blackwater, and yellowater at the household

Struvite Precipitation

Oxidation of recalcitrant organic compounds, either fully

Biological processes excluding oxygen and nitrate as

Conventional used water is actually formed by combining Source Separation

Application

light to water to inactivate pathogens and/or as a component of an advanced oxidation system.

from used water streams. Subject conversion increases the rate and extent of biodegradation of organic matter, particularly prior to anaerobic treatment.

Easily applied at a wide variety of scales for fit-for-purpose water production.

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currently being translated into practice are generally consistent with the overall approach described above and, consequently, are unlikely to change the general direction of change and, most likely, will accelerate it. One trend that is expected to become material within this timeframe is the broader application of sensors, coupled with “big data” approaches to manage and optimize the use of both centralized and distributed infrastructure. Already a trend, these developments will serve to enable and accelerate implementation of these more complex and integrated, but higher performing, systems. Improved monitoring and analysis will also result in increased insights relative to superior approaches for integrating system components, leading to further improvements. These advances, coupled with the general learning resulting from the increasingly widespread application of these approaches, will further accelerate their evolutions and rate of adoption. References 1 Schneider, D. Hybrid Nature: Sewage Treatment and the Contradictions of the Industrial Ecosystem. (The MIT Press, 2011). 2 Sedlak, D. Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource. (Yale University Press, 2014). 3 World Population Estimates, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_ population_estimates> ( 4 Population Division, <https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/ population/index.asp> (2017). 5 World Urbanization Prospects, <https://population.un.org/wup/> (2018). 6 Managing Water Under Uncertainty and Risk: The United Nationals World Water Development Report 4. (Paris, 2012). 7 Steffen, W. K. R., J. Rockström, S. E. Cornell, I. Fetzer, E. M. Bennett, R. Biggs, S. R. Carpenter, W. de Vries, C. A. de Wit, C. Folke, D. Gerten, J. Heinke, G. M. Mace, L. M. Persson, V. Ramanathan, B. Reyers, S. Sörlin. in Science 736 (2015). 8 Hoekstra, A. Y. a. T. O. W. in Science 1114-1117 (2014). 9 Rockström, J. et al. A safe operating space for humanity. Nature 461, 472475, doi:10.1038/461472a (2009). 10 Wang, X. et al. Evolving wastewater infrastructure paradigm to enhance

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harmony with nature. Sci Adv 4, eaaq0210, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaq0210 (2018). 11 Larsen, T. A., Hoffmann, S., Luthi, C., Truffer, B. & Maurer, M. Emerging solutions to the water challenges of an urbanizing world. Science 352, 928-933, doi:10.1126/science.aad8641 (2016). 12 Hering, J. G., Waite, T. D., Luthy, R. G., Drewes, J. E. & Sedlak, D. L. A Changing Framework for Urban Water Systems. Environmental Science & Technology 47, 10721-10726, doi:10.1021/es4007096 (2013). 13 Daigger, G. T. in In Water-Energy Interactions in Water Reuse (ed V. Lazarova, Choo, K-H, and Cornel, P.) (IWA Publishing, 2012). 14 Daigger, G. T. in In Water Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities: China and the World (ed X. Hao, Novotny, V., and Nelson, V.) 11-21 (IWA Publishing, 2010). 15 Daigger, G. T. State-of-the-Art Review: Evolving Urban Water and Residuals Management Paradigms: Water Reclamation and Reuse, Decentralization, Resource Recovery. Water Environment Research 81, 809-823 (2009). 16 Daigger, G. T. Wastewater Management in the 21st Century. Journal of Environmental Engineering 133, 671-680 (2007). 17 The IWA Principles for Water Wise Cities, <https://iwa-network.org/ publications/the-iwa-principles-for-water-wise-cities/> (2016). 18 Water Utility Pathways in a Circular Economy, <https://www.iwanetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/IWA_Circular_Economy_ screen.pdf> (2016). 19 Using Graywater and Stormwater to Enhance Local Water Supplies: An Assessment of Risks, Costs, and Benefits. (The National Academies Press, 2016). 20 Water Reuse: Potential for Expanding the Nation’s Water Supply Through Reuse of Municipal Wastewater. (The National Academies Press, 2012). 21 State of the Art Compendium Report on Resource Recovery From Water, <https://iwa-network.org/publications/state-of-the-art-compendiumreport-on-resource-recovery-from-water/> (2016). 22 Siegrist, R. L. Decentralized Water Reclamation Engineering: A Workbook. (Springer, 2016). 23 Daigger, G. T. in In Toward a Sustainable Water Future: Visions for 2050 (ed W. M. Grayman, Loucks, D. P., and Saito, L.) (American Society of Civil Engineers, 2012). 24 Zodrow, K. R. et al. Advanced Materials, Technologies, and Complex Systems Analyses: Emerging Opportunities to Enhance Urban Water Security. Environ Sci Technol 51, 10274-10281, doi:10.1021/acs. est.7b01679 (2017). 25 Judd, S. a. C. J. The MBR Book: Principles and Applications of Membrane Bioreactors for Water and Wastewater Treatment. 2nd edn, (Butterworth-

The Future of Water

Disruptive Innovation in the Water Sector by Nikolay Voutchkov

he water industry today faces multiple challenges—from accelerated population growth, to exhaustion of our traditional water sources, and water scarcity driven by climate change and inefficient management of our available water resources. According to a recent United Nations report, almost half of the world’s population— some 3.6 billion people—currently live in areas vulnerable to water scarcity and nearly 2 billion people could suffer water shortages by 2025.

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In response to these challenges, the water supply planning paradigm in the next 10 to 15 years will evolve from reliance on traditional fresh water resources towards building an environmentally sustainable diversified water portfolio where low-cost, conventional water sources (e.g., rivers, lakes and dams) are balanced with more costly but also more reliable and sustainable water supply alternatives such as water reuse and desalination. Nature teaches us that sustainable existence of closed systems such as our planet has to rely on efficient circular path of use of resources such as energy and water – so the key lesson learned from nature is that circular economy is the only path forward towards sustainable economic growth worldwide. Water leaders have the responsibility to transform water from one-time resource to a renewable precious commodity, and to incorporate this commodity into a robust circular economy. Circular economy and rational, responsible, renewable and sustainable use of water resources are closely intertwined. Looking beyond the current takemake-dispose extractive industrial model, circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling of economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources and water reuse, the circular model builds economic, ecological, and social capital. Experience to date has demonstrated that in order to incorporate seamlessly sustainable water management into circular economy we have to apply next-generation water management tools and water service models based on a combination of technological and nontechnological solutions. In the next 15 years the water industry focus will be on closing the water loop and using alternative water resources, while decreasing energy consumption and closing material cycles where possible by extraction of energy and valuable compounds as much as possible. The tools of creating a sustainable one-water management and incorporating water management into circular economy by year 2030 are: digital water; water reuse; resource recovery and desalination. A number of disruptive technologies that are expected to accelerate the process of water utility transformation towards sustainability are presented below. These technologies are expected to result in exponential acceleration of the utility transition

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process towards sustainability by disrupting the status quo. In order for a technology to be disruptive it has to be: (1) unique and (2) significantly (at least 20%) more efficient than the existing technologies it replaces.

II.2 DIGITAL WATER One of the key future trends of the water industry is in digitalization and the conversion of data into actionable insights. Digital water provides water management solutions that leverage the power of real-time data collection, cloud computing and big data analytics to minimize water losses in the distribution system and maximize operational efficiency, and asset utilization. The digital water management approach provides an integrated platform, which includes water production and supply asset management, water management

The Future of Water

software, intelligent controls, and professional expertize to drive down operating costs and water losses. Digital water is transforming the way cities will use and manage water resources in the future. By 2025, about 80% of utilities in large cities of advanced countries and half of the utilities in large cities of developing countries are expected to have water supply systems incorporating Digital Water features such as advanced metering infrastructure.1

II.2.1 New and Emerging Technologies Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Systems AMI systems are computerized systems, which gather, process and analyze real time data of the water use in a given area serviced by the water utility. Water flow data from the customers and key points of the distribution system are collected on an hourly basis and are used not only for automated customer billing and fee collection but also for identifying locations which experience leakages and for quantifying and ultimately eliminating water losses expeditiously. Such systems have a key advantage that they can detect leaks before they burst and significant loss of water and disruption of water supply occur. These systems automatically generate work orders to address the identified operational challenges (leaks, malfunctioning equipment and instrumentation). With sensors becoming smaller and cheaper, utilities can deploy and link them into a smart water monitoring grid that requires minimal human intervention. Data analytics can help make sense of the vast amount of data from these sensors. AMI systems are widely adopted by forward-looking utilities. For example, the Public Utility Board of Singapore (PUB) manages the entire water network as a system, including its design, operation and maintenance for 24/7 water delivery.2 PUB has developed a comprehensive smart water grid with three main objectives: asset management, promoting water conservation and providing good customer service. The grid uses more than 300 wireless sensors in the water mains to collect data on real- time pressure, flow, and

water quality. Risk assessment and predictive software tools help identify the top 2% of high-risk pipelines for replacement annually. An online leak detection system monitors critical large mains for leaks, locates them to within 10-meter accuracy and alerts operators within 24 hours of the leak occurrence. Moreover, an automated meter reading system monitors and collects domestic water consumption data continuously, while home water management systems inform residents about their usage patterns and alert them to possible leaks and over-consumption. PUB also remotely monitors the water consumption of Singapore’s top 600 commercial and industrial customers, and plans to develop water efficiency benchmarks and good practice guidelines for different sectors. In addition, PUB is planning to deploy sensors for quicker and more accurate detection of contaminants, better data analytics to filter out false alerts, and batteries to match the smart meters’ 15-year lifespan. Another example of AMI implementation is the Macao Water Supply Utility which has implemented an oversight system called Aquadvanced, which monitors consumption data collected from Macao’s water network and alerts customers and operators to abnormalities.3 The system is easy to navigate and facilitates follow-ups after an abnormal event. For example, numerous staff might trace the reason behind an unusually high flow rate, but their different clearance levels mean only certain users have the authority to confirm and/or close events. User profiles are divided in the system for greater management and organization. In Malta, the Water Services Corporation (WSC) has recently installed an automated meter management system, using technology from SUEZ Smart Solutions, to improve its network performance.4 With the system, WSC can keep an eye on the water network, carry out more efficient and preemptive maintenance, warn customers early about possible leaks, improve its analysis of water consumption patterns, and reduce water theft. WSC also plans to develop reports and software to analyze data from smart meters. www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 63

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Satellite Monitoring Systems of Water Distribution Systems and Catchments An alternative trend to AMI systems emerging in recent years is the use of satellites in outer space to monitor leaks in water distribution systems and environmental health of river catchments. Two leading companies offering such technologies – Utilis and Satelytics – have developed software that analyzes satellite images to detect leaks in the distribution system and identify areas in the river catchment that experience environmental challenges.5,6 The satellite emits electromagnetic waves, which penetrate the earth and are reflected by electrically conductive media such as wet ground and create image that identifies locations where pipe leakage is identified. The satellite image is analyzed and web- based map is generated identifying the location of leaks. Leaks as small as 0.1 L/min could be pinpointed by the satellite monitoring system and single image can cover area of 3,500 m2. Utilis offers such satellite monitoring service on a monthly and bi- annual basis and has already been adopted by utilities in the UK, Germany, Romania and South Africa. While at present, the use of satellite images for leak detection is relatively costly (US$160/mile per year), it is expected that in the next ten years, the price to task a satellite to collect specific information from outer space is expected to diminish significantly and to make this technology more affordable and easy to use. However, even at present the cost of this leak the savings from lost revenue due to water leaks can offset detection service. The US-based company, Satelytics uses geospatial image analysis from satellites, nanosatellites, drones and planes to monitor water quality in watersheds. The company monitors the health of vegetation sites using bi-monthly satellite image analysis and identifies whether the vegetation has been damaged or negatively impacted as well as where are the potential 64 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

“hot spots” of pollutants such as phosphorus or nitrogen that could trigger algal bloom and damage the ecosystem. In Singapore, the national water agency - PUB - uses robotic swans to complement its online monitoring system for large-scale watershed management.The swans monitor different physical and biological parameters in Singapore’s freshwater reservoirs to provide real-time water quality information more quickly. This allows PUB to react to cases of outbreak or contamination more swiftly, compared to the previous time-consuming approach of using manpower to collect samples. To manage storm water, PUB also uses CCTVs and image analytics to monitor silt discharges at construction sites. It also correlates information from water-level sensors and flow meters to provide timely alerts and support drainage operation and planning needs.

II.2.2 Enabling Conditions for Digital Water In order for digital water to become reality, the water utilities have to complete digitization of their water supply systems (pipe networks) and deploy sensors in the field to monitor the pressure, flow and water quality in key points of the water distribution system. The game changing technologies in the water sector in the next 10 to 15 years will be these that allow realtime water quality monitoring and predict and prevent water quality challenges before they occur. The future emphasis should be not as much on enhancing utilities ability to generate and process data collected online as much as on the implementation of analytical tools and software that swiftly identify leaks and other water

The Future of Water

losses and provide information needed for planned preventive and predictive maintenance. At present, the main point at which the potable water quality is measured online and continuously monitored is the point at which this water leaves the drinking water plant. Deployment of such water quality monitoring technology in the distribution system and real-time tracking of changes in water quality for such key parameters as content of pathogens, disinfectants and corrosion indicators is expected to transform the digital water industry in the future. One of the key challenges of embracing the word of digital water by utilities worldwide is the lack of standardization between various data collection, storage and monitoring digital platforms, equipment and instrumentation. Therefore, the water industry is working towards the development of international standard for hardware and software platforms that allow to seamlessly integrate data generated from sensors of a number of sensor providers. In order to achieve interoperable solutions, the water industry needs the creation of smart water platforms with hybrid architectures that enable integration of data, services and, billing and work order processing software as well as a catalogue of best practices for data management and use. At present the efforts on the standardization of various digital platforms available on the market place is in its infancy and it is likely that such standardization would take at least 10 years to complete. At this time, these is a big gap of the level of adoption of digital water in developed and developing countries, which is mainly limited by resources and availability of sophisticated workforce needed to operate and maintain the digital water platforms and associated field equipment and instrumentation.

II.3 WATER REUSE Water Reuse is becoming a cornerstone of sustainable water management and urban planning and a key chain-link of circular economy. Advances in science and technology greatly contributed to the implementation of new more efficient and reliable wastewater treatment. Producing reclaimed water of a specified quality to fulfill multiple water use objectives is now a reality due to the progressive evolution of water reclamation technologies, regulations, and environmental and health risk protection. Today, technically proven water reclamation and purification technologies are producing pure water of almost any quality desired including purified water of quality equal to or higher than drinking water. The critical analysis of the state-of- the-art of water reuse confirms that the beneficial use of recycled water is a global trend with sustainable growth worldwide. Technology is playing a critical role as an enabler of water reuse and diversification of water reuse practices. Growing concerns of water scarcity, climate change impacts and promotion of circular economy are becoming major drivers for the increasing use of recycled water for non-potable application (e.g., agricultural irrigation and cooling water for power production) as well as for indirect and direct potable reuse. Water reuse practices can be classified into two main categories: non-potable and potable water reuse. The most important characteristics, key issues and lessons learned for alternative water reuse practices are summarized in Table 1. The most common applications of non-potable reuse of recycled water include: agricultural irrigation, landscape irrigation, industrial reuse and groundwater recharge.7

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Table 1. Categories of Municipal Wastewater Reuse Applications and Related Issues or Constraints Category

Potential Application Food crop eaten raw

Agricultural Irrigation

Food crop processed or cooked

Water quality impacts on soils, crops, and groundwater

Pastures for milk production

Runoff and aerosol control

Health concerns Orchards, vineyards with or without contact with edible fruits Farmers acceptance and marketing of crops Fodder and industrial crops Unrestricted or Ornamental plant nurseries restricted Golf courses and landscape public parks, school yards, playgrounds, private gardens

Landscape Irrigation

NON POTABLE WATER USE

Issues/Constraints

Storage requirements Water quality impacts on ornamental plants Runoff and aerosol control Health concerns

Public acceptance Roadway medians, roadside plantings, greenbelts, cemeteries Water quality control in distribution systems In-building recycling for toilet flushing

Health concerns

Landscaping (see irrigation) Urban uses

Control of water quality and Air conditioning, Fire protection biological growth in distribution Commercial car/ trucks washing systems Sewer flushing Driveway and tennis court washdown

Cross-connection control with potable water Cost of distribution systems

Lessons Learned Good practices available to mitigate adverse health and agronomic impacts (salinity and sodicity) Storage design and irrigation technique are important elements Numerous reported benefits Successful long-term experience Good agronomic practices On-line water control can ensure health safety Numerous benefits

Dual distribution systems require efficient maintenance and cross-connection control No health problems reported even in the case of crossconnections (for tertiary disinfected reclaimed water)

Snow melting Recreational impoundments

Environmental/ Recreation uses

Environmental enhancement (freshwater or seawater protection)

Unrestricted or Wetlands restoration restricted Fisheries

Health concerns Eutrophication (algae growth) due to nutrients Toxicity to aquatic life

Artificial lakes and ponds

Emerging application with numerous benefits for the cities of the future: improving living environment, human wellbeing, biodiversity, etc. On-line water quality control can ensure health safety.

Snowmaking Cooling water

Industrial Reuse

Boiler feed water

Scaling, corrosion and fouling

Process water

Biological growth

Heavy construction (dust control, Cooling tower aerosols concrete curing, fill compaction, Blowdown disposal and clean-up)

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Water quality to be adapted to the specific requirements of each industry/process. Request for high reliability of operation, cost and energy efficiency.

The Future of Water

Table 1. Categories of Municipal Wastewater Reuse Applications and Related Issues or Constraints Category

Potential Application

POTABLE WATER USE

Aquifers

Indirect potable reuse with replenishment of: Reservoirs

Surface reservoir augmentation Blending in public water supply reservoirs before further water treatment

Groundwater replenishment by Health concerns means of infiltration basins or Groundwater contamination direct recharge by injection wells Toxicological effects of organic Barrier against brackish or chemicals seawater intrusion (direct Salt and mineral build-up recharge) Public acceptance Ground subsidence control

Lessons Learned Successful practice since 1970s Multiple barrier treatment ensures safe potable water production Efficient control by means of advanced modelling tools

Successful practice since 1970s

Health concerns Public acceptance Eutrophication (algae growth) due to nutrients

Pipe-to-pipe blending of purified water and potable water Direct potable reuse

Issues/Constraints

Purified water is a source of drinking water supply blended with source water for further water treatment

Multiple barrier treatment ensures safe potable water production Improvement of water quality

Health concerns and issues of unknown chemicals Public acceptance Economically attractive in large scale reuse and chronic water scarcity Environmental buffers

Multiple barrier treatment ensures safe potable water production No health problems related to recycled water in Namibia since 1968 Cost efficient compared to indirect potable reuse

II.3.1 New and Emerging Technologies

II.3.2 Direct Potable Reuse

Innovation will play a key role for the development of circular economy with water reuse. In the next 10 to 15 years, the technology innovation in water reuse would be focused on development of reliable “practical” solutions, in order to unlock the regulatory, economic and social barriers for building cost competitive water reuse market. The major focus will be on: (1) improvement of reliability, performance, flexibility and robustness of existing technologies, (2) development of new cost effective and energy efficient technologies, (3) new tools and methods for improved water quality and process performance monitoring and (4) advancement and implementation of “soft science” innovation to resolve the socio-economic challenges of water reuse.

Potable reuse is production of drinking water from highly treated municipal wastewater. Potable reuse is practiced in two forms – indirect potable reuse, where the treated municipal wastewater is conveyed to a potable water aquifer, retained in this aquifer for 6 months and then recovered from the aquifer and used as drinking water. In direct potable reuse, the highly treated wastewater is released directly into the drinking water distribution system or it is conveyed to a reservoir used for production of drinking water. Indirect potable reuse has been practiced worldwide for over two decades. Direct potable reuse, is expected to emerge as a main source of alternative water supply by year 2030. At present, a number of US states, such as

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California, Texas, Arizona and Florida as well as other countries such as Israel and Australia have developed or are under way of developing regulatory framework and advanced technologies which are expected to facilitate the industry-wide adoption of direct potable reuse as alternative source of drinking water supply.8 Direct potable reuse is becoming of age worldwide because most of the economically viable non-potable reuse opportunities have already been exploited in most countries worldwide. For example, the typical cost for parallel distribution of tertiary-treated recycled water is US$0.3 to 1.7/m3 whereas the typical cost for highly treated purified water, which could be delivered directly into the distribution system, is US$0.6 to 1.0/m3, which is comparable to the cost of seawater desalination. As compared to conventional drinking water plants which use source water from reservoirs, lakes and rivers, treatment plants for direct and indirect potable reuse include at least two to three additional treatment processes which serve as barriers for pathogens and trace organics and allow to consistently achieve drinking

 Figure 1 - Technologies Most Commonly Applied for Potable Reuse

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water quality (Figure 1). Dual membrane treatment by low- pressure membranes (microfiltration or ultrafiltration) and reverse osmosis, followed by advanced oxidation (e.g. ultraviolet irradiation combined with hydrogen peroxide treatment of the water) is becoming very popular and is being considered as the best available technology worldwide. The management of brine generated from the reverse osmosis treatment of the purified is the main problem for such schemes, in particular in inland locations. For this reason, an increasing interest is reported in conventional advanced treatment trains for trace organics removal by combination of ozonation, biological activated carbon, ultrafiltration or nanofiltration and advanced oxidation instead of reverse osmosis separation.

II.3.3 New Advanced Oxidation Processes A key challenge in adopting potable reuse as a mainstream source of drinking water supply is the removal of man-made micropollutants (e.g., pharmaceuticals, endocrine disruptors, personal care products,

The Future of Water

nano-materials, perfluorinated substances) which are not easily and completely separated from the source wastewater by conventional WWTP technologies and membrane processes such as ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis. Removal of such micro-pollutants is typically achieved by advanced oxidation technologies, which combine alternative ozonation, peroxidation and UV irradiation processes (AOPs) for removal of such compounds. Development of AOP process that has high reliability, performance, efficiency and cost-effectiveness along with simple and easy to use online monitoring of micropollutants and pathogens in the purified water are the two key obstacles to industry-wide acceptance and adoption of direct potable reuse. The Centre for Water Research at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed an emerging advanced oxidation process called Electro-Fenton, which received the Most Disruptive Technology Award at the 2016 Singapore International Water Week.9 The team’s invention degrades a wide variety of contaminants, turning 99.9% of the pollutants in non-biodegradable wastewater into simpler and harmless substances such as carbon dioxide and water. Unlike some wastewater treatment processes, it also produces virtually no sludge, has an easy plug-and-play set-up, and uses electricity instead of chemicals, making it more affordable and environmentally friendly.

period before achieving full UV radiation. UV-LED systems can be turned off to save energy, and turned back on for instant operation. At present the production of UV-LED systems is more costly than conventional UV installations. However, in the next 5 to 10 years, the technology is expected to evolve into very competitive and yield significant life cycle cost savings.

II.3.5 Automated Water Quality Monitoring Systems

II.3.4 UV-LED Systems

A critical component of the advancement of potable water reuse is the development of online monitoring instruments and software platforms that allow to identify and control water quality in real-time and to adjust the water treatment processes in response to water quality variations. Recently introduced innovative technologies, which have advanced online water quality monitoring include: Island Water Technologies –which has developed the world’s first real-time bio- electrode sensor for the direct monitoring of microbial activity in wastewater treatment systems. Microbe Detectives - applies advanced DNA sequencing to identify and quantify nearly 100% of the microbes in a sample of water, and provides comprehensive microbial evaluations for water quality and disease management. TECTA-PDS – has created the world’s first automated microbiological water quality monitoring system, which considerably lowers the cost of monitoring.

As indicated previously, UV irradiation is widely used in advanced oxidation systems, which a critical component of plants for indirect and direct potable reuse and is often used for disinfection of the effluent water from wastewater plants or drinking water facilities. Conventional UV systems typically utilize fluorescent lamps that contain mercury and are susceptible to breakage. The UV-LED systems are systems that contain light- emitting diodes (LEDs), which generate ultraviolet irradiation using significantly less energy than conventional UV installations.10 LEDs are powered by movement of electrons in semiconductors that are incorporated into the diodes. They are smaller and more robust than conventional UV lamps, and can be configured and used in a much wider variety of applications, such as AOC systems, and ballast water disinfection. Another drawback for traditional UV systems is the inability to turn the system on and off without diminishing the life of the lamps, which require a warm-up

Enabling Conditions for Water Reuse The key issues related to the implementation of water reuse, their ranking and some of the foreseeable impediments depend on specific local conditions. The major water reuse challenges are: • Economic viability, • Social acceptance: public perception and support by users and local authorities, • Policy and regulations, • Technical issues and energy efficiency, • Innovation and fast implementation of new tools, technologies and good practices. Securing economic viability is an important challenge for majority of water reuse projects. Unfortunately, water reuse feasibility is often suppressed by the use of undervalued and/or subsidized conventional water resources. Full-cost recovery is a desirable objective but depends on ability to pay. The cost-benefit analysis of water reuse projects must include other management www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 69

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objectives and socio-environmental criteria, based on a holistic approach and catchment scale. Similar to the development of any other utilities, the implementation of waste water reclamation facilities generally requires a substantial capital investment. While water reuse is a sustainable approach and can be cost-effective in the long run, the additional treatment and monitoring, as well as the construction of recycled water distribution systems could be costly as compared to water supply alternatives such as imported water or groundwater. In the context of circular water economy with sustainable water resources management of the region, government grants or subsidies may be required to implement water reuse. Unfortunately, institutional barriers, as well as varying agency/community priorities, can make it difficult to implement water reuse projects in some cases. Independent of the type of reuse application and country, public’s knowledge and understanding of the safety and suitability of recycled water is a key factor for the success of any water reuse program. Consistent communication and easy to understand messages need to be developed for the public and politicians explaining the benefits of water reuse for the long term water security and sustainable urban water cycle management. To date, the major emphasis of water reuse has been on non-potable applications such as agricultural and landscape irrigation, industrial cooling, and on residential or commercial building applications such as toilet flushing in large buildings. From these applications gray water reuse in residential and commercial buildings has not shown high promise and worldwide acceptance because of its high costs, odor emissions and 70 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

complexity of the recycling and storage of gray water. Potable reuse raises however, has been most difficult to implement worldwide, because of public concerns and the need for elaborate regulatory framework that allows to cost-effectively protect public health. The development and enforcement of water reuse standards is an essential step for the social acceptance of water recycling. However, in some cases, regulations could be a challenge and burden for water reuse, as for example in the case of very stringent requirements based on the precautionary principle. Water reuse standards must be adapted to the country’s specific conditions (administrative infrastructure, economy, climate, etc.), should be economically viable and should be coordinated with country’s water conservation strategy. The technical challenges facing water reuse are not yet completely resolved. In particular, for industrial, urban and potable water reuse applications it is extremely important to improve performance, efficiency, reliability and cost-effectiveness of treatment technologies. Water recycling facilities are facing tremendous challenges of high variation of raw water quality, salinity spikes due to seawater or brackish water intrusion into sewers, as well as variation in water quantity caused by extreme conditions of very limited water demand, flooding or need for alternative disposal of recycled water. In this context, the technology advances and innovation in the next 10 to 15 years will enable the development of reliable practical solutions, that would allow to unlock the regulatory, economic and social barriers for building cost competitive worldwide water reuse market. Key directions for innovation in water reuse technology in the next 10 years include:

The Future of Water

1. 2.

Improvement of performance, reliability, energy efficiency and robustness of existing wastewater treatment and water reclamation processes.

Development of new more efficient treatment technologies with improved performance, lower carbon footprint and competitive costs. Specific focus is needed for the scale-up of new technologies.

Development of innovative, efficient, robust and low cost tertiary treatment (filtration and disinfection) for water reuse allowing seasonal operation for irrigation and other uses with intermittent water demand.

New tools and methods for monitoring of chemical and microbial pollutants and development of on-line (real-time) monitoring of water quality and process performance. A specific challenge is the monitoring of pathogens in raw wastewater and complex matrixes (sludge and soil), as well as new pollutants (nanoparticles, micro-plastics, antibiotic resistance).

Develop of robust database that allows for a better understanding of pathogen removal efficiencies and the variability of performance in various unit processes of multi-barrier wastewater reclamation trains.

II.4 RESOURCE RECOVERY & ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENCY Resource recovery entails extraction of energy, valuable nutrients, minerals and rear earth elements from influent wastewater and sludge (biosolids) of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and from concentrate (brine) generated by desalination plants. Resource recovery from wastewater and brine is a critical component of the circular economy. A recent trend is changing the view of water industry on wastewater treatment plants from facilities that process liquid waste to protect the environment into water resource recovery plants, which turn energy and organics contained in wastewater into valuable resources such as energy, fertilizers and purified water. Energy efficiency, carbon and environmental footprint mitigation of WWTPs are expected to gain pivotal importance over the next 15 years. The ambitious goals

of sustainable development and of achieving zero net carbon and pollution emission footprint of WWTP by year 2030 call for a new holistic approach to the management of the water cycle with increased role for water reuse.7 With the further growth of megacities and increasing efforts to optimize energy efficiency, water recycling is of growing interest and will take a leading role in the future of circular economy. Technologies for energy self-sufficiency aim to recover energy contained in the influent wastewater of WWTPs and to use this energy for wastewater treatment and solids handling. In the next 10 to 15 years it is expected that a new wave of technologies will be developed, which have the potential to make the WWTPs energy self-sufficient, producing as much energy as they use. At present, most WWTPs deploy technologies that can recover energy from wastewater sludge that cover only 20 to 25% of the plant total power demand. New technologies expected to be developed www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 71

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by year 2020 would increase self-sufficiency to 75%, and further energy recovery and reuse technology development is projected to be able to make WWTPs 100% energy self- sufficient by year 2030.7 Energy self-sufficiency and sludge management are inextricably linked. The near-term goal of 75% self-sufficiency would be possible to achieve by the development of advanced technologies for harnessing the biogas generation potential of sludge. The target WWTP 100% energy self-sufficiency by year 2030 is projected to be achieved by using technologies that dramatically reduce energy use for biological wastewater treatment such as nano-size air bubble aeration systems, applying anaerobic treatment processes such as Anammox, as well as using solar and heat power generation systems installed at the WWTP site.

II.4.1 New and Emerging Technologies Over the next 10 to 15 years, the wastewater management innovations will focus on advanced membrane- based treatment technologies, anaerobic digestion of sludge, energy reduction for wastewater treatment, and new membranes from biomaterials. Aerobic granulation, for instance, is touted as the future standard for industrial and municipal wastewater treatment due to its energy-effectiveness and cost- efficiency. It has also been noted that plate and frame membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems with higher permeability, less biofouling and outstanding chemicals and temperature resistance will become mainstream wastewater treatment and resource recovery technology by year 2030.11

II.4.2 Phosphorus Recovery from WWTP sludge Sludge generated from the WWTP processes contains valuable nutrient – phosphorus, which could be recovered and organo-mineral fertilizer. A number of wastewater treatment plants in Europe at present are planning or already applying phosphorous recovery installations, which incorporate technologies such as crystallization reactors that precipitate the phosphorus contained in the liquid sludge as a phosphorous mineral compound – struvite, or in the sludge ash, if the sludge is dewatered and incinerated. In addition of recovery of valuable nutrient, the removal of phosphorus from the sludge in the form of struvite reduces operational costs because it significantly reduces the scaling problems

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caused by struvite on the downstream piping and equipment processing sludge by anaerobic digestion. Germany has taken a leading position in this initiative and a number of other countries in central and northern Europe are expected to follow suit in the next five years.

II.4.3 Enabling Conditions for Resource Recovery Recently adopted regulations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria mandate phosphorus recovery from wastewater sludge, thereby promoting the recovery of this valuable resource. These regulations are essentially phasing out land application of nearly all use of sludge from WWTPs and mandating phosphorus recovery from this sludge by 2029 for plants over 100,000 people equivalents (p.e.) and by year 2032 for plants serving over 50,000 p.e.. While technologies for extraction of valuable nutrients such as phosphorus already exist, the regulations allowing the use of the recovered nutrients as fertilizers are still under development or non-existent. The European Union (EU) currently is developing revised Fertilizer regulations, which are expected to shorten and simplify the path of the use of products, made from secondary raw materials such as organic and organo-mineral fertilizers, composts and digestates. These regulations are expected to be promulgated by the end of 2018. Two to three more years will be needed before the regulations apply and these products are EU certified for safe use.

New technologies are aimed at reducing energy consumption (by 20 to 35%), reducing capital costs (by 20 to 30%). Anammox Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment Anammox stands for Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation. The process was discovered in the early nineties and has great potential for the removal of ammonia nitrogen in wastewater. The responsible bacteria transform ammonium (NH +) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) into nitrogen gas (N2) and water (H2O). This saves costs as less energy for aeration and no organic carbon sources (e.g. methanol or recirculated sludge) are required. During the last 20 years, many research

The Future of Water

projects were conducted on the Anammox process. In 2007, the first large-scale Anammox reactor was built in Rotterdam. It displays the vast possibilities of this new process. It is expected that this game-changing disruptive technology will become a mainstream wastewater process in majority of WWTPs by year 2030.

II.5 DESALINATION Over the past decade seawater desalination has experienced an accelerated growth driven by advances in membrane technology and material science. Recent technological advancements such as pressure- exchanger based energy recovery systems, higher efficiency reverse osmosis (RO) membrane elements, nanostructured RO membranes, innovative membrane vessel configurations, and high-recovery RO systems, are projected to further decrease the energy needed for seawater desalination and be a backbone for disruptive decease in the cost of fresh water produced by desalination of saline sources (seawater, brackish water and treated wastewater). The steady trend of reduction of desalinated water production energy and costs coupled with increasing costs of conventional water treatment and water reuse driven by more stringent regulatory requirements, are expected to accelerate the current trend of reliance on the ocean as an attractive and competitive water source. This trend is forecasted to continue in the future and to further establish ocean water desalination as a reliable drought-proof alternative for majority of the coastal communities worldwide in the next 15 years. While at present, desalination provides approximately 10% of the municipal water supply of the urban coastal centers worldwide, by year 2030 this percentage is expected to reach 25%.12

II.5.1 New and Emerging Technologies Near and long-term desalination technology advances are projected to yield significant decrease in

costs of production of desalinated water by year 2030. In desalination, innovative technologies have been addressing longstanding issues that have hampered the development of this alternative resource. New technologies are aimed at reducing energy consumption (by 20 to 35%), reducing capital costs (by 20 to 30%), improving process reliability and flexibility, and greatly reducing the volume of the concentrate (brine) discharge. Some of the technologies with high cost-reduction potential are equally suitable for desalination and advanced wastewater treatment for reuse are discussed below. Nano-structured Membranes A recent trend in the quest for lowering the energy use and fresh water production costs for desalination is the development of nanostructured (NST) RO membranes, which provide more efficient water transport as compared to existing conventional thin-film membrane elements.13 The salt separation membranes commonly used in RO desalination membrane elements today are dense semi-permeable polymer films of random structure (matrix), which do not have pores. Water molecules are transported through these membrane films by diffusion and travel on a multi- dimensional curvilinear path within the randomly structured polymer film matrix. This transport is relatively inefficient in terms of membrane film volume/surface area and substantial energy is needed to move water molecules through the RO membranes. A porous membrane structure, which facilitates water transport would improve membrane productivity. NST membranes are RO membranes which contain either individual straight- line nanometer-size channels (tubes/ particles) embedded into the random thin-film polymer matrix, or are entirely made of clustered nano-size channels (nanotubes). NST membrane technology has evolved rapidly over the

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past 10 years and recently developed nanostructured membranes either incorporate inorganic nanoparticles within the traditional membrane polymeric film or are made of highly-structured porous film which consists of densely packed array of nanotubes. These nanostructured membranes reportedly have much higher specific permeability than conventional RO membranes at practically the same high salt rejection. In addition, nanostructured membranes have comparable or lower fouling rate than conventional thin-film composite RO membranes operating at the same conditions, and they can be designed for enhanced rejection selectivity of specific ions. For example, a US membrane supplier NanoH2O, recently acquired by LNG, has developed thin-film nano-composite (TFN) membranes, which incorporate zeolite nanoparticles (100 nanometers in diameter) into a traditional polyamide thin membrane film. These new TFN membranes have been commercially available for seawater applications since September 2010.

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The new membrane elements have 10 to 20% higher productivity than other currently available RO membranes or to operate at approximately 10% to 15% lower energy use while achieving the same productivity as standard RO elements.14 Over the last 5 years, researchers worldwide have focused on the development of RO membranes made of vertically aligned densely packed array of carbon nanotubes (CNT) which have the potential to enhance membrane productivity up to 20 times as compared to the state-of-the- art desalination membrane elements available on the market at present. While CNT based desalination membranes are not commercially available as of yet, it is very likely that such membranes will be released for full-scale application by year 2030. Recently, grapheme has been focus on significant research efforts because compared to nanotubes and carbon fiber it has a higher aspect ratio and surface area, which infers higher permeability and salt rejection, and lower fouling propensity.

The Future of Water

Nano-structured membranes hold the greatest potential to cause a quantum leap in desalination cost reduction because theoretically, they can produce an order of magnitude more fresh water from the same membrane surface area, than the state-of-the-art RO membranes commercially available on the market at present. Such dramatic decrease in the membrane surface area needed to produce the same volume of desalinated water could reduce the physical size and construction costs of membrane desalination plants over two times and bring this cost of production of desalinated water production to the level of that of conventional water treatment technologies. A potential challenge with higher productivity membrane elements is that their efficiency and productivity due to fouling of the membrane surface because the rate of fouling will increase proportionally to the rate of membrane fresh water productivity (membrane permeate flux). Therefore, the development of higher productivity membranes would likely require the modification of the membrane structure, geometry and the configuration of the entire RO system to combat the accelerated fouling and scaling processes that accompany the use of membrane of fluxes that are significantly higher than these of RO systems with conventional membrane elements. A step forward in this direction is the use of close-circuit desalination systems which allow to lower the membrane fouling rate by the slow increase in RO system recovery rate via concentrate recirculation loop. Forward Osmosis (FO) In forward (direct) osmosis a solution with osmotic pressure higher than that of the high-salinity source water (“draw solution”) is used to separate fresh water from the source water through a membrane. Forward osmosis process holds the potential to reduce energy use for salt separation. A number of research teams in the US and abroad are working on the development of commercially viable FO systems. These systems mainly differ in chemical composition of the draw solution and the method of recovery of the draw solution from the desalinated water. Existing conventional thin-film composite RO membranes are not suitable for FO applications mainly due to their structure, which leads to low productivity. Development of high-productivity low-cost FO membrane

elements of standard size is one of the current greatest challenges and most important constraints in creating commercially- viable FO systems that could ultimately replace exiting RO systems while reusing most of the existing RO system equipment. Most of the existing full-scale installations applying forward osmosis have been used mainly for industrial reuse. The use of this technology for drinking water applications is under development but from a total energy use point of view may not provide a significant competitive advantage to RO because of the high energy demand needed to separate the draw solution from the FO permeate to an extent where this permeate can meet potable water quality requirements. Several companies such as Modern Water, Hydration Technology Innovation, and Trevi Systems have developed commercially available FO membrane desalination technologies, which to date have only found application for treatment of waste waters from oil and gas industry and high salinity brines. The Trevi systems FO technology is of potential interest because it uses draw solution that can be reused applying solar power – it is the main innovative technology considered for the ongoing solar power driven desalination research led by Masdar in the United Arab Emirates. The main potential benefit of the development of commercially viable FO technologies for production of desalinated water is the reduction of the overall energy needed for fresh water production by 20 to 35%, which energy savings could be harvested if the draw solution does not need to be recovered and the salinity of the source water is relatively high. Such energy reduction could yield cost of water reduction of 20 to 25% by year 2030, especially for non- drinking water production applications.15 Membrane Distillation (MD) In membrane distillation water vapor is transported between “hot” saline stream and “cool” fresh water stream separated by a hydrophobic membrane. The transport of water vapor through the membrane relies on a small temperature difference between the two streams. There are several key alternative MD processes, including air-gap, vacuum and sweeping gas membrane distillation. The sweeping-gas MD has been found to be more viable than the other alternatives. A sweeping-gas is used to flush the water vapor from the permeate side

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of the membrane, thereby maintaining the vapor pressure gradient needed for continuous water vapor transfer. Since liquid does not permeate the hydrophobic membrane, dissolved ions/non-volatile compounds are completely rejected by the membrane. The separation process takes place at normal pressure and could allow achieving approximately two times higher recovery than seawater desalination (80% vs. 45 to 50%). It is also suitable for further concentration of RO brine from (i.e., concentrate minimization). Membranes used in MD systems are different from the conventional RO membranes – they are hydrophobic polymers with micrometer- size pores. However, flux and salt rejection of these membranes are usually comparable to these of brackish water RO membranes.16 Currently, MD enjoys a fairly high academic interest because of its very high recovery (as compared to RO) and lower energy use (as compared to conventional thermal evaporation technologies). The viability of this technology hinges upon the development of contactor geometry that provides extremely low-pressure drop and on the creation of membranes, which have high temperature limits. Because of its current limitations, membrane distillation holds promise mainly for concentrate minimization and for fairly small size applications. However, this technology has potential to be scaled up and become a mainstream process widely used for desalination, industrial water reuse and brine management by year 2030. At present, MD systems are commercially available from Memsys, which have focused the advancement of this technology application mainly for treatment of produced water waste streams from oil and gas industry. Other companies, such as Memstill, Keppel Seghers, and XZERO MD have recently commercialized MD systems mainly for industrial wastewater treatment and reuse applications. The main cost savings that can result from the application of this technology for large-scale desalination plants is lowering the cost of fresh water production from highly saline seawaters such as these of the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea and

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the costs for concentrate management and disposal for brackish desalination plants and RO systems used for potable reuse by 15 to 20%. Commercialization and industry-wide adoption of such systems is highly likely to transform the water industry by year 2030. Electrochemical Desalination Developed by Evoqua (formerly Siemens) under a Challenge Grant from the Government of Singapore, this continuous electrochemical desalination process is based on combination of ultrafiltration pretreatment, electrodialysis (ED) and continuous electrodeionization (CEDI) and is claimed to desalinate seawater to drinking water quality at only 1.5 kWh per cubic meter. This energy consumption is lower than the energy use of conventional SWRO desalination systems. The electrochemical desalination has two key advantages as compared to RO desalination (1) it does not require high pressure for desalination and therefore the equipment and materials used for the process are mechanically and structurally less demanding and therefore, less costly; (2) the ED process is more efficient by its nature, because it separates and moves a much smaller mass of material (ions of salts) through low pressure membranes as compared to RO membrane separation where much larger number of water molecules are moved through thicker and more robust and complex high pressure membranes. Although thermodynamically the theoretical amount of minimum energy needed for separation is the same, the auxiliary energy use inherently is lower when a process moving smaller mass of matter is used. This process is currently under full- scale development and has been able to achieve energy consumption of 1.8 kWh/m3 when desalinating seawater of salinity of 32,000 mg/L at 30% recovery. The process operates at low pressure (2.8 to 3.4 bars), the equipment can be produced from plastic, and the membranes used for ED and CEDI are chlorine resistant. The potential reduction of desalinated water costs this technology can yield is 15 to 20% by year 2030.17

The Future of Water

Capacitive Deionization (CDI) This technology uses ion transport from saline water to electrodes of high ion retention capacity, which transport is driven by a small voltage gradient. The saline water is passed through an unrestricted capacitor type CDI modules consisting of numerous pairs of highsurface area electrodes. Anions and cations contained in saline source water are electrosorbed by the electric field upon polarization of each electrode pair by a direct current (DC) power source. Once the maximum ion retention capacity of the electrodes is reached, the deionized water is removed and the salt ions are released from the electrodes by polarity reversal. The main component, which determines the viability of the CDI, is the ion retention electrodes. Based on research to date, carbon aerogel electrodes have shown to be suitable for low salinity applications. This technology holds promise mainly for RO permeate polishing and for low- salinity brackish water applications. The fresh water system recovery for such applications is over 80%. With recent development of new generation of highly efficient lower-cost carbon aerogel electrodes, CDI may out- compete the use of ion exchange and RO forgenerationofhighpuritywater. Several commercially available CDI systems are available on the market (Enpar, Aqua EWP, Voltea). However, these systems have found applications mainly for small brackish water desalination plants and mainly industrial applications due to the limited specific ion adsorption of current carbon materials.18 The technology holds promise because it could theoretically reduce the physical size and capital costs of desalination plants with over 30%. Current carbon electrode technology however limits salt removal to only 70 to 80%, uses approximately two times more energy than conventional RO systems and is subject to high electrode cleaning costs due to organic fouling. New electrode materials as grapheme and carbon nanotubes may potentially offer solution to the current technology challenges and are very likely to become readily available by year 2030.

Biomimetic Membranes Development of membranes with structure and function similar to these of the membranes of living organisms (i.e., diatoms) may offer the ultimate breakthrough for low-energy desalination (specific energy use below 2.0 kWh/1,000 gallons). In these membranes water molecules are transferred through the membranes through a series of low- energy enzymatic reactions instead of by osmotic pressure. The permeability (e.g., the volume of fresh water produced by unit surface area) of such membranes could theoretically be 5 to 1000 times higher than that of currently available RO membranes.19 Aquaporins are example of such membrane structures. They are proteins embedded in the cell membrane of many plant and animal tissues and their primary function is to regulate the flow of water and serve as “the plumbing system for cells”. While osmotic pressure driven exchange of water between the living cells and their surroundings are often the key mechanism for water transport, aquaporins provide an alternative mechanism of such transport. Aquaporins selectively conduct water molecules in and out of the cell, while preventing the passage of ions and other solutes. Also known as water channels, aquaporins are integral membrane pore proteins. Some of them transport also other small, uncharged solutes, such as glycerol, CO2, ammonia and urea across the membrane, depending on the size of the pore. However, the water pores are completely impermeable to charged species, such as protons. One key advantage of aquaporin- based membranes, which is not found in conventional RO membranes, is that they combine both the ability to have high permeability and to exhibit high salt rejection at the same time. Conventional RO elements have inverse relationship between permeability and salt rejection. The smaller the molecular pores of the higher the salt rejection of the RO membranes but the lower the membrane permeability and vice versa. So practically, it is not possible to create a RO membrane that has high salt rejection and high productivity at the same time.

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 Figure 2 - One-Water System for Joint Desalination and Reuse

Currently researchers at the US, Singapore and Australia are focusing on advanced research in the field of biomimetic membranes and in July 2018, the company Aquaporin introduced the first commercial FO membrane with embedded aquaporins. These aquaporins are installed into spherical artificial vesicles referred to as polymersomes, which are incorporated on the surface of the conventional membranes. Such aquaporin-enhanced membranes are expected to operate at low feed pressures (5 to 15 bars) and to yield significant energy savings and enhanced fresh water production. Although this research field is projected to ultimately yield high-reward benefits (e.g., overall desalinated water cost and energy use reduction with over two times), currently it is in early stages of development – further research is focused on the formation and production of aquaporin structures, which are incorporated into robust and durable commercial membranes – such products are expected to be commercialized by year 2030.20

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Joint Desalination and Water Reuse A new trend towards adopting the One- Water concept is the development of technologies for joint desalination and water reuse, where the desalination plant and the potable reuse plant are combined into One-Water Plant producing drinking water at disruptively (25 to 35%) lower cost as compared to seawater desalination alone. The One-Water technologies, such as that presented in Figure 2 present an opportunity for reduction of the energy and cost needed for desalination by feeding highly treated secondary effluent or RO reject from wastewater treatment plant into the feed water of SWRO desalination plant. Because the discharge from advanced water reclamation plants has an order of magnitude lower salinity than the source seawater, the SWRO system’s feed water salinity and energy cost for desalination could be reduced by 20% or more. Such treatment process is referenced as joint desalination and water reuse or One- Water process. An example of such joint desalination and water reuse

The Future of Water

facility is the Hitachi’s Remix system, which has been extensively tested at the 40,000 m3/day Water Plaza Advanced Treatment Plant in Japan.21 At present, joint desalination and reuse is in its infancy and its practical implementation to date has been exclusively for industrial water supply. The use of joint desalination and water reuse systems for production of drinking water requires further development as well as promulgation of regulations for direct potable reuse. However, as direct potable reuse matures and gains worldwide acceptance in the next 10 years, joint desalination and water reuse facilities are likely to become a mainstream trend and attractive low- energy alternative for production of desalinated water. The benefits and potential challenges of joint desalination and reuse plants in terms of efficiency, reliability, costs and product water quality are currently undergoing thorough investigation in demonstration plants in Japan and South Africa.

II.5.2 Enabling Conditions for Desalination The advance of the reverse osmosis desalination technology is closest in dynamics to that of the computer technology. While conventional technologies, such as sedimentation and filtration have seen modest advancement since their initial use for potable water treatment several centuries ago, new more efficient seawater desalination membranes and membrane technologies, and equipment improvements are released every several years. Similar to computers, the RO membranes of today are many times smaller, more productive and cheaper than the first working prototypes. The future improvements of the RO membrane technology which are projected to occur by year 2030 are forecasted to encompass: • Development of Membranes of Higher Salt and Pathogen Rejection, and Productivity; and Reduced Trans- membrane Pressure, and Fouling Potential; • Improvement of Membrane Resistance to Oxidants, Elevated Temperature and Compaction; • Extension of Membrane Useful Life Beyond 10 Years; • Integration of Membrane Pretreatment, Advanced Energy Recovery and SWRO Systems; • Integration of Brackish and Seawater Desalination Systems;

•

Development of New Generation of HighEfficiency Pumps and Energy Recovery Systems For SWRO Applications; • Replacement of Key Stainless Steel Desalination Plant Components with Plastic Components to Increase Plant Longevity and Decrease Overall Cost of Water Production. • Reduction of Membrane Element Costs By Complete Automation of the Entire Production and Testing Process; • Development of Methods for Low- Cost Continuous Membrane Cleaning Which Allow to Reduce Downtime and Chemical Cleaning Costs; • Development for Methods for Low-cost Membrane Concentrate Treatment, In- Plant and Off-site Reuse, and Disposal. Although, no major technology breakthroughs are expected to bring the cost of seawater desalination further down dramatically in the next several years, the steady reduction of desalinated water production costs coupled with increasing costs of water treatment driven by more stringent regulatory requirements, are expected to accelerate the current trend of increased reliance on the ocean as an attractive and competitive water source by year 2030. This trend is forecasted to continue in the future and to further establish seawater desalination as a reliable drought-proof alternative for many coastal communities worldwide. These technology advances are expected to ascertain the position of SWRO treatment as viable and cost– competitive processes for potable water production and to reduce the cost of fresh water production from seawater by 25% in by year 2022 and by up to 60% by year 2030 (see Table 2). The rate of adoption of desalination in coastal urban centers worldwide would be highly dependent on the magnitude of water stress to which they are exposed and availability of lower-cost conventional water resources. In the future, desalination is likely to be adopted as main water supply in most arid and semi-arid regions of the world such and the Middle East, North Africa, the Western United States, and Australia and in locations of concentrated industrial demand for high quality water such as Singapore, China, and Northern Chile.

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II.6 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS While the water industry faces diverse challenges it is making significant progress towards finding cost effective and sustainable water management solutions and disruptive technologies, which by year 2030 are expected to transform water management and elevate its reliance on alternative water resources such as water reuse and desalination. Water professionals worldwide are united in building a future where water is recognized and treated as precious, highly valuable resource, and as a cornerstone of circular economy. The main transformational change of the water industry is that it is entering a new era of water management where the old barriers of water and wastewater are slowly fading and where water in all of its states is looked upon as a valuable commodity and precious resource that has to be closely monitored, digitalized, accounted for, and reused rather than being considered just a simple source of supply or waste that has to be disposed of. Traditionally water utilities have managed water supply and treatment of wastewater, minimizing the

impact on the environment by removing nutrients and using the waste generated in a beneficial manner. In order to adopt to the challenges they face in the next 10 to 15 years, utilities have to develop diversified portfolio of water supply in which conventional and direct potable water reuse and desalination have comparable share to that of conventional water treatment sources such as rivers, lakes and dams. In order for such fundamental transformation of the water industry to occur by year 2030, the fundamental legal framework, which currently regulates water and wastewater separately (e.g., in the US they are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act) has to be transformed into a unified One-Water Act that recognizes water as a valuable resource in all of its forms and uses. References 1. Smart Cities: Digital Solution for a More Livable Future. (McKinsey Global Institute, 2018). 2. Singapore, P. U. B. o. Managing the water distribution network with a smart water grid. Smart Water Journal, 1:4 (2016). 3. Suez. Conserving Macao’s Water – Case Study, https://www.suezwater. co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Macao_web_SUEZ-Fiches-A4-DEF. pdf> (2017).

Table 2 Forecast of Desalination Energy Use and costs for Medium and Large Plants Parameter for best-in class Desalination Plants

Year 2018

Year 2022

Year 2030

Total Electrical Energy Use (kWh/m3)

3.5 – 4.0

2.8 – 3.2

2.1 – 2.4

Cost of Water (US$/m3)

0.8 – 1.2

0.6 – 1.0

0.3 – 0.5

Construction Cost (US$/MLD)

1.2 – 2.2

1.0 – 1.8

0.5 – 0.9

Membrane Productivity (m3/membrane)

28-48

55-75

95-120

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The Future of Water

4. Suez. Smart Metering Infrastructure, <http://www.solutionsforwater. org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ENG_Fiche_SMART_infra.pdf> (2011). 5. Utilis. UTILIS Earns Honors As A Most Innovative Company In Israel, As Fast Company Announces World’s Most Innovative Companies, <https://www.wateronline.com/doc/utilis-earns-honors-as-a-mostinnovative-%20company-in-israel-as-fast-company-0001> (2018). 6. Satelytics Uses Big Data to Tackle Environmental Issues, <https:// weare.techohio.ohio.gov/2017/07/06/satelytics-uses-big-data-to-tackleenvironmental-issues/> (2017). 7. Lazarova, V. Water-Energy Interactions in Water Reuse. (International Water Association (IWA), 2012). 8. Agency, U. S. E. P. Mainstreaming potable water reuse in the United States: Strategies for leveling the playing field. (2018). 9. He, H., Zhou, Z. Electro-Fenton process for water and wastewater treatment. Journal of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 47, 2100-2131 (2017). 10. Hansen, M. How LEDs will change water purification. Journal of Environmental Protection Online (2016). 11. Luo, W., Phan, H., Xie, M., Hai, F., Price, W. Osmotic versus conventional membrane bioreactors integrated with reverse osmosis for water reuse:

13. A Multidisciplinary Introduction to Desalination. (River Publishers, 2018). 14. Gude, V., G. Desalination and Sustainability: An Appraisal and Current Perspective. 87-106 (2016). 15. 15 Hilal, N., Wright, C. J. Exploring the Current State of Play for CostEffective Water Treatment by Membranes. Nature Partner Journals, 1:8 (2018). 16. Alkhudhiri, A., Darwish, N., Hilal, N. Membrane Distillation: a Comprehensive Review. Desalination, 2-18 (2012). 17. Shaw, M., LeTurnea T., Liang L., S., Ng, K. Low Energy Desalination: Siemens Solution to Global Challenge. (IDA World Congress, Perth, Australia, 2011). 18. Voutchkov, N. Desalination Project Cost Estimating and Management. 1st edn, (CRC Press, 2018). 19. Giwa, A., Hasan, S.W., Yousuf, A., Chakraborty, S., Johnson, D., J., Hilal, N. Biomimetic membranes: A critical review of recent progress. Desalination 420, 403-424 (2017). 20. Tang, C. Y., Zhao, Y., Wang, R., Helix-Nielsen, C., Fane, A. G. Desalination by Biomimetic Aquaporin Membranes: Review of Status and Prospects. Desalination, 34-40 (2012). 21. Kurihara, M., Takeuchi, H. SWRO-PRO System in “Mega-ton Water

biological stability, membrane fouling, and contaminant removal,

System” for Energy Reduction and Low Environmental Impact. Water,

<https://ro.uow.edu.au/eispapers/6242/> (2017).

48 (2018).

12. IDA Desalination Yearbook 2017-2018. (Global Water Intelligence (GWI) and International Desalination Association (IDA), Oxford, UK, 2017).

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The Future of Water

Positive Water Sector Disruptions by 2030 by Upmanu Lall

III.I Overview

ater security has emerged as a global concern over the last two decades. This creates the impetus for a broad range of innovations that should disrupt water and wastewater services. The most significant disruption I expect to see is that a much greater role will emerge for the private sector, which will in turn modify processes in use by this public sector dominated area. This will come through: the provision of water and wastewater services, from the bottom up – highly decentralized yet networked solutions;

the use of financial instruments to securitize water, climate and environmental risks;

management services that try to leverage the value of water for other sectors, such as mining, energy and agriculture; and

pressure for reforms in regulatory processes that lead to adaptive environmental and resource management that is informed by data, active trend mapping and attribution.

Increasing concern with climate variability and change, as climate extremes coupled with existing stresses lead to an increasing demand for adaptation and risk mitigation for supply chains, cities and populations.

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The Future of Water

Absent the role of the private sector, NGOs and finance/development organizations, given the conservative nature of the water sector it is not likely that tremendous changes will emerge by 2030. In the sections that follow, potential disruptive strategies (ones that would significantly change the way things are done now, and translate into higher water system effectiveness and resilience) are sketched for 3 areas: 1. Water and Wastewater systems: revolutionary decentralized networks with remote sensing and control of water quantity and quality parameters, ability to use rainwater, surface, ground water or wastewater as source water, and assure safe, affordable drinking water at the point of use. 2. Flood & Drought Risk: The use of parametric financial instruments such as index insurance to address preparation, as well as rapid response to climate extremes to help leverage probabilistic seasonal and longer climate forecasts for risk prediction, water allocation and system operation. 3. Environmental Management and Regulation: The intersection of the engagement of Environmental NGOs with watershed stakeholders, and Green Bonds issuers to devise participatory, adaptive approaches for monitoring and investment in watershed services that address the cumulative effects of human use on water quantity and quality in a changing world. A significant departure from the current resource allocation and environmental permitting and regulation model may emerge.

III.2. WATER AND WASTEWATER SYSTEMS Large, centralized infrastructure systems were developed in the 20th century for storage, treatment and distribution of piped water, and for the collection, treatment and disposal of wastewater in urban areas. Economies of scale, and the need for specialized technicians to operate such systems led to the development of such systems. Typically, projections of future population growth and demand 10-30 years into the future are made when such systems are being planned, leading to designs that are oversized relative to the demand when

implemented. The capital costs of these systems are consequently high and require financing for most communities. Since these are upfront costs, they determine the financial viability of the projects. Several challenges are now seen with such infrastructure. The maintenance and operation of the systems is usually expensive, especially when they are oversized. Concerns as to raising water and wastewater rates lead to financial constraint. As a result, maintenance and upgrades are deferred and the systems degrade over time, in developed as well as developing countries. The USA currently faces a challenge of finding nearly $1 trillion to replace aging water and wastewater infrastructure. Water and wastewater leaks are common, and given the low price charged for water, often addressing leakage is more expensive than the value of water loss in the system. Further, as has been illustrated by the serious issues with lead in drinking water in Flint, Newark, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere, even in first world settings there is no assurance that water delivered to the consumer will meet safe drinking water standards even if the water produced at the treatment plant does. In developing countries, such as India, piped water supplies from the public system are intermittent – an hour or two in the morning and a similar duration in the evening. Affluent consumers use PVC storage units augmented by pumps in their houses, and RO systems for water purification in the kitchen to adapt to this situation. This translates into a private expense in a personal water system for some and lack of service for others. Even so, there is no testing or verification of the drinking water quality. Israel, Australia and parts of India now mandate that property owners capture rain water and store or recharge it. Many countries practice rainwater harvesting or capture in urban areas and wetlands to recharge aquifers or even to alleviate floods. However, examples of systems that allow the integration of piped, centralized systems and rain water systems are few. Typically, rivers, lakes and aquifers are primary water sources. Wastewater treatment systems discharge treated effluent into rivers or lakes, and in the process many

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chemicals whose effects on aquatic species may or may not be known are discharged.1 Biological systems used for wastewater treatment can be energy intensive and also require relatively large land areas. The current thinking is that wastewater should be seen as a resource and purified water as well as energy and other products should be recovered from it, in the spirit of a circular economy. Decentralized wastewater treatment systems have also been promoted in many areas. Their potential advantage is that they can be added as needed, and do not require the potentially large investment in sewer systems and pumping. A traditional example is the use of septic tanks with or without additional treatment. The success of such systems has been quite mixed.2 They require periodic renewal at an expense comparable to the original cost. They can lead to high nutrient loadings to groundwater, unless the density is rather low. Nitrogen control for septic systems has also been explored and several solutions have been identified, but have met with a variety of reliability challenges in real world applications.1,3 Newer decentralized systems consider constructed wetlands as well as membrane bioreactors and miniaturized versions of centralized wastewater systems.4 The membrane based and miniature systems can also include thermal exchange and energy recovery. Wastewater treatment and reuse occurs indirectly nearly everywhere where the drinking water source is downstream of another town’s wastewater (treated or not) discharge.5 Direct treatment and re-use directly from the wastewater has largely been for agricultural or non-potable water use. Exceptions include Singapore, Texas, California, Namibia, Jordan, India, Australia, and the Philippines, where the treated wastewater may be used directly, or used to recharge an aquifer for subsequent withdrawal. Drinking water is typically a very small fraction of even household water use, and consequently, even if energy intensive technologies such as nanofiltration are used to finally purify treated

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wastewater, the total expense for treatment will be significantly lower than the cost of bottled water. To summarize, centralized systems have high capital costs, and face maintenance challenges to preserve the integrity of the network. Decentralized systems, enabled by digital technologies (e.g., real time monitoring) can be added as needed, and locally maintained, but posed high transaction and reliability challenges for the operators in the past. In both cases, at present the quality of the water provided at the point of use is not pervasively tested or assured. Wastewater reuse is feasible, and the level of treatment needed may depend on the intended (re-)use.

III.2.1 Potential Disruption Smart Decentralized Networks In a utopian world, one would be able to use any local water source – rain water, surface water, ground water or “wastewater”, assure its storage, including during droughts, treat it and supply it locally at an affordable cost with high reliability as to quantity and quality at the point of use. In this paper, the argument is that such a utopia may soon be technically and economically achievable, in much the same way that solar electricity has emerged as a decentralized, renewable energy source with widespread application at different scales, with an accompanying growth of the private sector and service industry. Examples of pioneering companies who are leading the way for such a disruption include Natural Systems Utilities (NSU), based in New Jersey, and Ketos, based in California. NSU has developed and operated onsite water and wastewater treatment and reuse systems in a variety of settings including dense urban infill buildings, and resorts for more than the past 20 years. The systems installed in several high rise buildings in New York City are fully automated, and remotely monitored and treat wastewater to near drinking water quality at a unit cost that is competitive with centralized wastewater systems. Ketos focuses on real time,

The Future of Water

automated and smart- connected monitoring of water quantity and quality. Research in this area is getting to the point that many of the key contaminants of interest can be sensed in real time and in-pipe, and the information can be transmitted to central servers for processing and response.6-16 Ketos is developing such an ecosystem. These are just two of many companies that are developing similar products, including units of major corporations such as Fluence, Xylem, Veolia and Suez. Others of note are Aqwise, and Organica Water. A large number of vendors including Suez, Veolia, Waterfleet, Applied Membranes, Aquamove, Culligan Matrix Solutions, and Envent have mobile water treatment operations that brings the treatment plant to the site. This is a rapidly growing area that serves the hydraulic fracking industry, military operations, and emergency relief for plant failure or after natural disasters. A range of technologies ranging from filtration membranes to reverse osmosis to ion exchange to electrocoagulation are in use, with scales that could serve a small cluster of houses all the way to neighborhoods.17-21 Quotations for water and wastewater treatment from several of the mobile operators translate into numbers that are very competitive with current water charges. Residential water demand could be met with greater than 90% reliability over much of the USA from rainwater collected from the typical roof area.22 Rainwater was used to serve the typical home demand in each county in the USA, considering over 60 years of daily climate data, and a 70% reuse of the wastewater generated domestically. In related, unpublished work, the technical and economic feasibility of rainwater collection and use at large buildings in Mexico City was demonstrated, even factoring in the current subsidies for water costs. Where, the subsidies are not considered, rainwater harvesting and local potable and non-potable use becomes competitive. Given the grave water, flooding and wastewater situation in Mexico City, a strategy that embodied decentralized networks,

at neighborhood and/or building scales, and leveraged rain water collection, storm water collection and wastewater collection locally could be very effective. Parking structures and roofs installed with solar panels could also double as water collection systems, and local storage could be created using existing domestic and public tanks as well as subsurface tanks in areas with parks. The convergence of the following elements translates into a strategy for the disruption of the water and wastewater systems: • The high cost structure and performance of existing centralized systems, and their operation largely in the public sector or by private companies. • The need for infrastructure renewal, and new infrastructure globally, that comes with a high financing need, and questions as to affordability. • The availability of real time water quality, system integrity monitoring and remote control to assure point of use performance. • The availability of a range of advanced, yet affordable water and wastewater treatment systems that cover different scales and contaminants, and could be operated remotely and semi- automatically. • The potential to develop and add decentralized networks of systems as needed instead of developing a large, oversized system at the outset. This translates into an economic advantage, that is further enhanced by the reduction in hard infrastructure needed for piping and pumping, and by the ability to rapidly deploy replacement systems with lower operating costs, and economies of scale derived through mass manufacturing. This economic efficiency translates into faster return on investment and efficiency in capital deployment, leading to easier financing. • The large number of small and large companies and innovators entering this space www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 85

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Successful examples of business models for decentralized treatment systems at some scales. Pilots to assess best scales and network designs are still needed. • The willingness of middle and higher income consumers and corporations to embrace alternatives to traditional water utilities by installing their own treatment and storage systems that are serviced by third parties. • Much higher sustainability and resilience given the ability to develop effective water reuse strategies, including thermal energy exchange, thus reducing outflows and pollution to water bodies, as well as intake of water from natural water bodies. This translates into higher ecological performance and eligibility for impact investing. • Substantially lower and more efficient utilization of real estate by smaller systems that can be installed in building basements or below grade in parks and green space. The obstacles to the disruption are similar to what was experienced in the electricity industry. Large scale centralized electric system operators, initially did not respond to the opportunity of solar and other renewable sources, and were primarily concerned with revenue loss. Subsequently, as the prices for delivered solar and wind systems dropped, operators started considering these alternatives, but in many cases still want control so that they can assure grid reliability. The water situation is more complex, since there are rarely national or regional water utilities, and local utilities have little interaction with each other, or innovation potential and hence tend to be insular and resistant to change. They have used health concerns as an issue to block on site wastewater treatment and use as drinking water, and have generally resisted decentralized systems as well as pervasive real time monitoring. They

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have embraced digital metering and smart metering for leak detection, as these show promise for revenue enhancement. It would be quite reasonable to integrate remote water quality sensing at the point of use directly into emerging smart meters. This may start happening at utilities where significant drinking water quality concerns emerge.23 find significant increases in safe drinking water violations in the USA, especially in rural and smaller communities, where the financial health of the utilities is also a concern. Companies such as Rotoplas in Mexico are well primed to develop such a convergent strategy for decentralized water and wastewater and apply it in Mexico. A key obstacle they face is that as a private water and wastewater services provider they are unable to compete with the subsidized prices of water services available to the public, even if they can deliver a higher quality and more sustainable product. A direct benefitcost analysis for Mexico City, and potentially for other cities would likely show that a transition to high technology water and wastewater networks could rapidly become cost effective and transformative, if a apples to apples comparison of the full capital and operating costs of the systems was done. This means that either the public utilities or large system operators need to rethink their strategy, or the same subsidy has to be made available to the private water and wastewater service developer, especially to serve areas that are economically disadvantaged. This is a challenging problem in most locations, that could be solved by public-private partnerships financed by Green Bonds. Some initial experiments need to be done to understand the types of public-private business models that could be successful in terms of governance and economics, to deliver an unprecedented quality and range of service to meet the growing need of communities worldwide.

The Future of Water

III.3. FLOOD AND DROUGHT RISK Floods/storms and Droughts lead to significant annual average losses globally, and are projected to increase in frequency and impact. In the 20th century, the primary water sector responses to these stresses were: • Flood control infrastructure, zoning and reservoir/ dam construction • Traditional insurance programs and catastrophe bonds. • Drought and flood planning, early warning and response strategies. These were typically pursued by different actors, with little integration, and the basis for risk analysis was typically the use of relatively short at site climate records to develop a statistical rating of the annual risk or probability of exceedance of a “design” event. With growing populations, changing social preferences, increasing economic activity, and changing land use and climate, the inefficiency of this traditional approach has become increasingly apparent, as impacts increase and are not effectively managed. Further, a consequence of globalization is that supply chains or even a single company may experience significant flood and drought risk across their portfolio of global assets in the same year, due to the space-time clustering of climate extremes.24,25 This clustering emerges from the nature of the underlying climate variability – a combination of nearly cyclical climate patterns at global scales with preferred time scales of recurrence every 3-7 years (El Nino), 8-12 years (North Atlantic Oscillation), 16-20 years (Pacific Decadal Oscillations), 40-80 years (Atlantic Meridional Oscillation) in addition to the trends imposed by anthropogenic climate change. Thus, a company’s exposure may be 3 to 10

times more than what may be expected by the traditional risk estimation process. This is very different from the random extreme event assumption made in traditional risk analyses, designs and insurance pricing. To an extent, periodic climate regimes and their impacts are predictable, and a large body of academic literature has emerged around this topic. This is getting translated into the consulting and insurance industry, as well as into water system operation (N.E. Brazil, Philippines, USA).26-30

III. 3.1 Potential Disruption Financial Instruments Gaining impetus from the dramatically increased awareness of climate induced risks, and the growing perception of climate impacts on cities (e.g., the Day zero analyses following Capetown), and the limitations of existing insurance- like instruments, a dramatic increase in creative financial instruments to address climate risks is likely. Take floods for example. Insurance companies are developing global flood risk models and integrating climate change aspects. However, most of this work does not address the potential prediction of flood risk changing cyclically over the next few years or decades, or of the local or global spatial correlation of risk. It is primarily designed to serve traditional insurance contracts (that require financial loss verification), or local zoning rules that work off a point estimate of a 100- year event (or similar). Such estimates continue to have significant uncertainty and potential for mispricing risk in the near and long term. An alternative that has been emerging and could see widespread application is the use of parametric instruments, e.g., index insurance, or catastrophe bonds. A key aspect of such an instrument is the definition of a parameter or an index associated with the event of concern. If such an index is triggered the instrument

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pays off without the need for actual loss verification. The premium is priced based on the probability of event occurrence, rather than on loss. The transaction costs are consequently substantially lower, with improved pricing. Further, information on the changing/predicted risk of event occurrence can be used to update premium pricing thus sending a risk signal that could help users and markets prepare for the potential loss. An example of one of the early applications of such an idea was in Peru where the central banks were insured from floods, through a parametric index linked to the El Nino conditions.31,32 Similar products have been developed and applied for drought and also to securitize water market option contracts and utility finances, including their use as ex ante or forecast insurance, that pays

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out potentially even before an event occurs in many different settings and countries.33-39 The Caribbean Risk Facility developed by the World Bank provides an example of a regional risk pooling and indexing approach. Such instruments are emerging as disruptive tools for water/climate risk management for the following reasons: • They can be offered to farmers, individuals, corporations, or nations (i.e., easily customize to scale). Donor countries/organizations, and relief programs can use such instruments to provide a mechanism for rapid emergency response in affected countries or areas, without waiting to mobilize resources to effect a response. • They offer the opportunity to deal with financial needs when a catastrophic risk is manifest. This addresses a key bottleneck for a rapid emergency response. • They can be designed to cover multiple types of hazards and potential losses through an appropriate choice of indices in the same contract, and hence a buyer can much more clearly evaluate what their risk exposure pathways may be and seek an instrument that provides an appropriate coverage at a lower cost. This is especially important for water markets or water futures contracts. A product like this could have allowed Capetown, Sao Paulo or Santa Barbara to have the financial resources to rapidly acquire alternate water sources or invest in technologies when their supply became constrained, if the underlying reason had been diagnosed, indexed and priced. The risk covered in this way need not just be of climatic origin. It only needs to be indexed to a risk- related parameter for which data is collected by a third party. • Water utilities and managers are often reluctant to act on probabilistic climate forecasts, and their conservatism can lead to a loss of opportunity to mitigate risk. If the risk of using such forecasts were also indexed, then managers would be able to take such opportunities recognizing that the potentially adverse consequences are financially covered. This can stimulate demand for the product, and also provide resilience to water operations. • A variety of organizations, not just insurance companies, could start offering such products, if

The Future of Water

basic data on climate parameters of interest were publicly available and forecast. This has now become possible due to the interest in climate change with both public and private sector providers. There are no apparent barriers to the development of such products, other than the ability to collect the data related to the index of interest, by a neutral third party and link it to a payment mechanism as well as a risk analysis.

III.4. RESOURCE/ ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT/ REGULATION A well-developed set of principles for water resource management and regulation of its quantity and quality are now in place in most countries. However, their effectiveness is continually questioned. Let’s take environmental regulation as an example. Companies and cities are asked to file environmental impact statements (often expensive), prior to new development. Using sparse information on baseline conditions as well as potential impacts, a discharge permit may be granted. Subsequently, there is compliance reporting, and fines if there is a violation of the permit. Separately, the regulator, or more often, a science agency may collect data on ambient water quality at a few places on the water body. Over time, the cumulative effects of pollution from multiple dischargers, and the climate induced cycles of sediment production and deposition, accompanied by contaminant attachment, resolution, and deposition may occur, threatening the ecological function of the water body that was protected. Rarely is the monitoring and emissions data brought together to assess the reason the problems emerged and to reallocate permits. One can visualize a corresponding example for water rights allocation based on a few years of data, and subsequent severe, sustained drought. These situations emerge as serious concerns, with media attention, and little ability to address when they are manifest. Many of the conflicts related to mining and water in S. America and elsewhere can be traced to such regulatory and allocation failures. How should one address the changing conditions in such settings? Some of the innovations that emerged around anthropogenic climate change provide an interesting example of a potential for disruption in environmental

regulation and resource allocation. First, there has been a movement towards assessment and voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions and footprints by public and private entities. Second, intensive analyses of trends in emissions, greenhouse gas concentrations, and climate impacts across many sectors emerged. Third, attribution of climate events and impacts to potential causes using causal and statistical modeling emerged. The resulting awareness of the causal chain and its impacts has started shaping the behavior of the actors responsible as well as public policy. While this process is far from complete or successful, it provides an interesting paradigm for local and regional action on water quantity and quality regulation. While climate change impacts projected for the mid to late 21st century are a significant concern, the associated uncertainties and the long time horizon contribute to the political stalemate. On the other hand, water quantity and quality are a current and emerging concern over most of the world, and this provides impetus for immediate action.

III.4.1 Potential Disruption Data driven adaptive, participatory regulation and investment Environmental NGOs (e.g. The Nature Conservancy, The World Wildlife Fund), their innovation partners (e.g. Techstars) and citizen scientists are increasingly active in creating data portals and analyses related to water conditions in many ecosystems, as well as in developing stakeholder participation processes to implement ecosystem or watershed services. Corporations and governments are drawn into these processes, thus influencing the overall environmental regulatory process and water allocation decisions. So far these activities have been restricted to actions in specific locations, and to specific local issues. Given the interest in Green Bonds, the NGO activity promoting their use, and the interest of governments in using these instruments, there is an opportunity for a radical transition in the way environmental regulation is financed and implemented.40,41 Green Bond issuers would require mechanisms and data to verify that the environmental investment objectives were met. From a watershed management perspective, this would require monitoring of emissions, mitigation actions and outcomes, followed by analyses of attribution to the instruments used. This could change the paradigm from passive regulation to active investment and management driven by environmental goals with

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both short and long term objectives. Modern data collection and sensing tools could significantly reduce the cost of monitoring, and also the changes in the system could potentially reduce the burden, the cost and the time and effort involved in initial permitting actions. Since a significant convergence of players and actions is needed to enable this transition, I expect that by 2030 only a few examples may develop in areas where there is an obvious and critical need. These would be in places where there is a push by both the financial and the NGO communities, and the government is receptive. However, in the long run, enabled by data and interest, and the continuing pressure on license to operate for major global companies, and their competition for water and land, disruption of the water sector in this direction will take place. References 1. Oakley, S. M., Gold, A. J., & Oczkowski, A. J. (2010). Nitrogen control through decentralized wastewater treatment: Process performance and alternative management strategies. Ecological Engineering, 36(11), 1520–1531. http://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECOLENG.2010.04.030 2. Naik, K. S., & Stenstrom, M. K. (2016). A Feasibility Analysis Methodology

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34. Carriquiry, M. A., & Osgood, D. E. (2012). Index Insurance, Probabilistic

doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-2075-2017 25. Bonnafous, L., Lall, U., & Siegel, J. (2017b). An index for drought induced financial risk in the mining industry. Water Resources Research. 26. Asefa, T., Adams, A., & Wanakule, N. (2015). A Level-of-Service Concept for Planning Future Water Supply Projects under Probabilistic Demand and Supply Framework. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 51(5), 1272–1285. http://doi. org/10.1111/17521688.12309 27. Clayton, J. M., Asefa, T., Adams, A., & Anderson, D. (2010). Interannual-toDaily Multiscale Stream Flow Models with Climatic Effects to Simulate Surface Water Supply Availability. In Watershed Management 2010 (pp. 529–540). Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers. http://doi. org/10.1061/41143(394)49 28. Sankarasubramanian, A., Lall, U., Devineni, N., & Espinueva, S. (2009). The Role of Monthly Updated Climate Forecasts in Improving Intraseasonal Water Allocation. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 48(7), 1464–1482. http://doi.org/10.1175/2009JAMC2122.1 29. Sankarasubramanian,A.,Lall,U.,SouzaFilho,F.A.,&Sharma,A.(2009).

Climate Forecasts, and Production. Journal of Risk and Insurance, 79(1), 287–300. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539- 6975.2011.01422.x 35. Chantarat, S., Barrett, C. B., Mude, A. G., & Turvey, C. G. (2007). Using Weather Index Insurance to Improve Drought Response for Famine Prevention. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 89(5), 1262– 1268. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8276.2007.01094.x 36. Goes, A., & Skees, J. R. (2003). Financing Natural Disaster Risk Using Charity Contributions and Ex Ante Index Insurance. Retrieved from http://globalagrisk.com/Pubs/2003 Financing Natural Disaster RiskCharity Contributions-Index Insurance ag jrs.pdf 37. Zeff, H. B., & Characklis, G. W. (2013). Managing water utility financial risks through third- party index insurance contracts. Water Resources Research, 49(8), 4939–4951. http://doi. org/10.1002/wrcr.20364 38. Bjerge, B., & Trifkovic, N. (2018). Extreme weather and demand for index insurance in rural India. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 45(3), 397–431. http://doi.org/10.1093/ erae/jbx037 39. Maestro, T., Bielza, M., & Garrido, A. (2016). Hydrological drought index insurance for irrigation districts in Spain. Spanish Journal of Agricultural

Improvedwaterallocation utilizing probabilistic climate forecasts: Short-

Research, 14(3), e0105. http://doi. org/10.5424/sjar/2016143-8981

term water contracts in a risk management framework. Water Resources

40. Dupont, C. M., School, H. K., Levitt, J. N., & Bilmes, L. J. (2015). Green

Research, 45(11). http://doi.org/10.1029/2009WR007821 30. Souza Filho, F. A., & Lall, U. (2003). Seasonal to interannual ensemble streamflow forecasts for Ceara, Brazil: Applications of a multivariate, semiparametric algorithm. Water Resources Research, 39(11). http://doi. org/10.1029/2002WR001373 31. Khalil, A. F., Kwon, H.-H., Lall, U., Miranda, M. J., & Skees, J. (2007). El Niño-Southern Oscillation- based index insurance for floods: Statistical risk analyses and application to Peru. Water Resources Research, 43(10). http://doi.org/10.1029/2006WR005281

Bonds and Land Conservation: The Evolution of a New Financing Tool Faculty Research Working Paper Series. Retrieved from http://ssrn.com/ abstract=2700311 41. Shishlov, I., & Morel, R. (2016). Beyond transparency: unlocking the full potential of green bonds EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4. Retrieved from https://www.i4ce.org/wp-core/wp- content/uploads/2016/06/I4CE_ Green_Bonds-1.pdf 42. Analytical Chemistry, 89(17), 8748–8756. http://doi.org/10.1021/acs. analchem.7b00843

32. Skees, J. R., Hartell, J., & Murphy, A. G. (2007). Using Index-Based Risk Transfer Products to Facilitate Micro Lending in Peru and Vietnam.

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The Future of Water

The Future of Water is Digital by Will Sarni

ur relationship with water is undergoing a transformation in response to increased demand for water (e.g., human consumption, energy and food production, etc.), the impacts of climate change and poor water quality.

Digital technologies (e.g., information communication technologies or ICT) are leading the transformation through the emergence of technologies such as remote sensing, inexpensive sensors, smart devices (e.g., internet of things), machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality and blockchain. This digital transformation of water is currently enabling real time water quantity and quality monitoring, vastly improved management of infrastructure assets, direct consumer engagement and facilitating the adoption of off-grid and localized infrastructure technologies (e.g., air moisture capture, neighborhood scale treatment systems, etc.). Not only will water utilities be transformed by digital technologies but the public sector will benefit through improved knowledge of

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water supply, demand and quality to better inform public policy and investments. The private sector will be positioned to ensure the efficient and effective use of water in their supply chains, operations, and with products (e.g., water efficient personal care products, washing machines, etc.). Several organizations have already acknowledged the potential of digital water technologies. The World Economic Forum frames the adoption of digital technologies in all industrial sectors as the Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR and the digital transformation of water is part of this revolution,1 the water utility sector is framing the “digital utility”2 and the Aspen Institute and Duke University framed the “Internet of Water.”3

The Future of Water

Digital technologies have the potential to democratize access to water data, actionable information and, in turn, to safe drinking water. Achieving SDG 6 may be within reach through digital technologies and their ability to facilitate the adoption of other innovative water technologies. By 2030 we will see digital water technologies as commonplace just as we have seen digital technologies become integrated into the energy (e.g., Nest) and transportation sectors (e.g., Uber and Lyft). Moreover, digital technologies will enable leapfrogging of traditional infrastructure (e.g., centralized systems) to hybrid (e.g., centralized and decentralized) and new systems (e.g., off- grid) by providing real time access to water quantity and quality data for consumers, technology providers and regulators.

IV.2 WHY DIGITAL? Currently, approximately 4 billion people live in water-scarce and water-stressed regions, with nearly 1 billion people without access to safe drinking water and almost 1 million deaths per year from waterborne diseases. The World Economic Forum projects that, under business-as-usual policy and technology practices, the world faces a 40 percent gap between water supply and demand by 2030. In addition to water scarcity impacts, the world also faces negative effects from flooding and poor water quality to economic growth, business continuity, ecosystem health and social well-being. In particular, cities are vulnerable to the impacts of water scarcity and extreme weather events. These impacts are currently being realized in many global cities and, as a result, cities are looking to increase their resiliency to changing hydrologic conditions. Research by CDP Water highlights the response of global cities to these water risks.4 This research indicates the cities most concerned about their water supply are in Asia and Oceania (84 percent), with serious risks also identified

in Africa (80 percent) and Latin America (75 percent). One hundred ninety-six cities reported risks of water stress and scarcity, 132 a risk of declining water quality, and 103 a risk of flooding. Another recent study analyzed 70 surface water supplied cities with populations exceeding 750,000.5 The results indicate that, “in 2010, 36 percent of large cities are vulnerable as they compete for water with agricultural users. By 2040, without additional measures, 44 percent of cities are vulnerable due to increased agricultural and urban demands. Impacts from water scarcity on a regional and national scale were also evaluated and presented in a 2016 report from the World Bank, indicating that that: “water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions up to 6 percent of their GDP, spur migration, and spark conflict and the combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes, and expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain.”6 Current public policies and infrastructure will not be sufficient to keep pace with needs from an increasing global population. The global population is currently increasing by approximately 70 million people each year. As a result, the total global population is projected to reach 9.6 billion by the year 2050.7 The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that by 2050, demands for water, energy, and food will increase by 55, 80, and 60 percent, respectively.8 Digital technologies will be transformational in positioning the water industry, other commercial sectors and governments for expanded resilience from increased demand for water and the impacts of climate change (e.g., loss of stationarity and extreme weather events). The water industry has the opportunity to take the lead in addressing 21st century water risks through the adoption of digital water technologies.9

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focusses from the paradigmatic economies of scale to those of economies of efficiency. Second, moving from a system of large, stand-alone water resources to one of dynamically integrated micro-systems affords an entirely new level of resource allocation and utilization. And third, introducing new incentives, payment systems, and engagement initiatives would transform the interface between utility and customer and in turn create a new generation of engaged water consumers. Additionally, digital innovation in this sector would foster an environment in which water is no longer managed in an insular manner, but rather a collaborative one together with other resources, particularly in the energy sectors.

IV.3 DIGITAL WATER TECHNOLOGIES An overview of several digital water technologies transforming water are summarized below.

IV.3.1 Watershed and Consumer Connectivity

IV.2.1 Digital Water Roadmap As is the case with so much of modern life, the global water sector is adapting to the information age and data-driven innovations. Disruption in the coming decade will be delivered by digital water technologies that allow for the decentralization of large, traditional water utilities and the incorporation of smaller, remote systems. Similarly, innovations in water collection and distribution would foster a new generation of blended or hybrid utilities to diversify the means by which drinking water is collected (e.g. rain collection, air moisture capture, etc.) and wastewater is treated (e.g. natural treatment systems). The global water sector can look to other industries for reasons to embrace digital technologies such as energy and transportation. First, harnessing digital technologies will allow water utilities to shift their 94 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

Surface and groundwater data within watersheds can now be collected and shared at the local, regional, and even global scales. The digital technology toolkit now includes satellite imagery for surface and groundwater evaluation and flood forecasting. Drones can also be deployed to assess real-time conditions upstream as a preventative measure and not merely for periodic planning as extant protocol usually dictates. Just as blockchain applications have been used to increase the transparency of supply chains in other sectors, they could potentially be employed to generate permanent, collective record-keeping of water use and transactions for a range of stakeholders. There is now the ability to acquire water data at the global, regional, watershed, and local scale to provide a vastly improved understanding of surface and groundwater supplies. Data acquisition and analytics technologies that address these needs include satellite imagery and analytics for groundwater resource evaluation (e.g., NASA GRACE) and for flood predictions (e.g., Cloud to Street). In addition, there is demand for national-scale water data acquisition and management (e.g., AKVO Foundation) to track progress against Sustainable Development Goal 6 (universal access to safe drinking water), inform public policies (e.g., California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act), develop watershed scale monitoring

The Future of Water

of hydrologic conditions (University of Berkeley California Hydrologic Monitoring), and tackle global water challenges (e.g., Earth Genome Project). Connectivity also includes the use of remote sensing. For example, in Crete and Sardinia, satellite data are being used to improve upstream water-quality monitoring.10 These types of data provide water utilities the ability to monitor natural systems on a real-time basis. In general, water utilities use hydraulic models for planning and expanding purposes only once every few years. Blockchain applications also have the potential for collective record-keeping of water quantity and quality data, allowing multiple groups of stakeholders to create an immutable record of data collected by each and allowing open access to that data by all parties. Blockchains, which are already at work in making transparent supply chains, could be used in the water sector to improve mapping of tap-water quality.11 Digital water technology solutions will also change the relationship water utilities have with customers as society increasingly embraces digital technologies in all aspects of their lives (e.g., mobility, communication, and entertainment) and it is reasonable to conclude service providers such as water utilities will now be part of the mix. With new efforts toward sustainability and water conservation efforts, water utility companies are beginning to establish innovative strategies to help engage consumers and restructure the way people think about water use. Companies and products such as Rachio, HydroPoint, Dropcountr, and WaterSmart utilize digital technology to promote sustainable water use and allow customers to access utility data and information with ease. Dropcountr and WaterSmart use digital technology to create reports using real-time monitoring from smart sensors to deliver data to customers. Rachio utilizes smart sensing technology, monitoring devices that essentially operate with an on/off switch and can use weather patterns to conserve water.12 The company also offers smart irrigation and sprinkler-control functions that are user-friendly, easy to install, and compatible with already existing at-home watering systems. HydroPoint allows customers to save both

water and money through smart irrigation, leak and flow monitoring, and professional services.13 Companies that take advantage of these developments in customer service are benefiting. With new digital technologies such as AI chatbots, customers can ask questions and get answers whenever they want, opening vast possibilities for consumer engagement, providing customer alerts, and also water consumption and conservation information. Utility companies that embrace these technologies are improving their customer service and meeting the high demands of consumers.

Blockchain applications also have the potential for collective record-keeping of water quantity and quality data, allowing multiple groups of stakeholders to create an immutable record of data IV.3.2 Asset Management The most obvious opportunity for digital water technology adoption is in asset management and the ability to monitor water utility infrastructure performance in real time.14 Digital water technologies can vastly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of infrastructure repair and capital investments. Utilities now have the opportunity to have every asset recorded within their GIS system with structured and unstructured data from across all departments for actionable insights to decrease costs and risks (e.g., Redeye). Today, most hardware companies (e.g., pump manufacturers) also provide software services as part of the product enriched with data analytics for insights, optimization, and future automation. The integration of critical data across utility departments, such as the finance department, work order systems, GIS system, and SCADA, will provide more accurate predictive asset management and an extension of asset life. Utilities will also be able to couple data with VR and AR tools for asset assessment and preventative maintenance (e.g., Fujitsu). In addition, utilities can utilize satellite imaging for costeffective leak detection, (e.g., Utilis) and wastewater

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utilities can use smart remote sensing products to provide early detection and prediction on wastewater conditions (e.g., Kando). Asset management now also includes AI applications to manage infrastructure assets. There are several data- analytical companies armed with data scientist and application developers focusing on the water sector (e.g., EMAGIN). Several utilities are also moving towards adopting “digital twin” applications, a pairing of the virtual and physical worlds that allows analysis of data and monitoring of systems to avoid problems before they even occur, prevent downtime, develop new opportunities and plan for the future by using simulations.15 The digital twin approach uses sensors to gather data about real- time statuses, working conditions, or positions that are integrated with a physical item. Digital twin applications allow lessons to be learned and opportunities to be identified within a virtual environment, which can be applied to the physical world—ultimately transforming asset management and operations. Other benefits to digital solutions for the water utility sector include the ability to monitor water quality on a real-time basis at the tap or within the environment. Digital technologies allow citizen scientists to collect real-time water data with low-cost sensors (e.g., the US Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Georgia), open-source data platforms (e.g., California Open and Transparent Water Data Platform), smart residential irrigation and water management systems (e.g., Rachio), water quality testing at the tap (e.g., Microlyze), and blockchain applications to promote transparency and facilitate transactions (e.g., Power Ledger). There is also the potential for digital technologies to facilitate the use of off-grid and localized solutions for water and wastewater treatment, along with strategies to build hybrid decentralized-centralized systems. Real- time water system performance and water quantity and quality monitoring are currently facilitating the adoption of off-grid air moisture water generation (e.g., Zero Mass Water) and localized treatment technologies (e.g., Organica). Digital technologies facilitate the adoption of off-grid and decentralized technologies by eliminating or reducing the need for centralized testing and reporting. Real time monitoring allows infrastructure technologies

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to become independent and more directly connected to the needs of the customer and consumer.

IV.4 A DIGITAL WORKFORCE The development of digital technologies now requires the water utility workforce to adapt and learn new skills in order to keep up with the pace of evolution within the global economy and systems of commerce. In addition to recruiting new talent proficient in information technology, companies need to train existing employees and attempt to continue to operate and adjust to new systems seamlessly. Another way to frame the digital workforce is how the “no-collar” workforce will be incorporated into company operations.16 In this scenario, robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) will likely not displace the majority of workers. Instead these digital tools offer opportunities to automate some repetitive, low-level tasks. More importantly, intelligent automation solutions may be able to augment human performance by automating certain parts of a task, thus freeing individuals to focus on more human- necessary aspects, ones that require empathic problem- solving abilities, social skills, and emotional intelligence. Digital technologies can enable water utilities to collaborate with utilities in different states to identify solutions to infrastructure problems. For example, the White House Utility District (WHUD), which serves approximately 90,000 consumers and businesses in northern Tennessee, saved more than $20 million by identifying leaks in their infrastructure system with digital technologies.17 WHUD collaborated with data collected from the California Public Utilities Commission to determine leakage costs with comprehensive data analysis and comparisons of the regions.18 VR and AR applications can also benefit the water utility workforce by reducing risk and saving in maintenance costs, engineering tests, and innovation, and allow users to test or simulate real-world situations without the usual dangers or costs associated with large engineering projects. With VR, asset maintenance professionals can immerse themselves to fully and accurately experience what a situation would be like in real life. VR also allows the identification of design flaws or other potential problems with efficiency, which can then be solved before any problems actually occur

The Future of Water

IV.5 CHALLENGES While the digital water technology toolkit offer considerable promise, there are challenges in scaling adoption of these technologies at scale. Two of the challenges are highlighted below.

IV.5.1 Workforce capacity and training Whether, real or perceived the water sector and users are slow to adopt new technologies due to; a lack of incentives, risks from adoption and siloes of data owners/ departments. As a result, proven technologies are strongly favored over unproven or emerging technologies. However, there are now strategies to de-risk new technologies by water technology hubs and accelerators working closely with utilities (e.g., Imagine H2O, Water Start, and Current). In general, water workforces are not trained in digital technology solutions and workforce transformation will be necessary to scale the adoption of digital technologies.19 A Harvard Business Review article offers valuable insight on the workforce challenge in adopting water data technologies: “Using and interpreting data is not only a search for insights; it’s also about enlisting the hearts and minds of the people who must act on those insights.”20

V.5.2 Cybersecurity Because utilities are critical infrastructure, cybersecurity is a high priority, and often one reason utilities insist on not using cloud-based solutions and requiring on- premise solutions instead. Utilities need to constantly strengthen their operations with innovative cybersecurity solutions as well (e.g., Siga, and Radflow). The water utility sector is not alone in having to keep pace with the ever-increasing assault on public- and

private-sector enterprises in the form of data theft and business disruption. In 2015, the US Department of Homeland Security responded to 25 cybersecurity incidents in the water sector (8.5 percent of the total incidents reported) which marked a nearly 80 percent increase in water-sector incidents over the previous year.21

IV.6 ACCELERATORS While challenges remain, there are new tools to accelerate the adoption of digital water technologies. For example, new business service models such as pumps as a service, operations as a service, and platforms as a service—are emerging in other sectors and are slowly having an impact in the water sector (e.g., Grundfos Cloud-connected pumps). Also, there are large volumes of water data collected by utilities from video, satellite images, social media sources. As a result, water utilities need the capacity to process these data for more informed decision making. We can also not underestimate the impact of a digitally savvy workforce and consumers. Digital solutions are prevalent in the retail, transportation, and energy sectors, which has raised the expectations of workers and consumers that other aspects of their lives will be “digitally enabled.” The water sector is no exception to this trend. Also, entrepreneurs outside the water sector are now engaged and motivated to bring new ideas to solving water challenges. In many cases the solutions are focused on digital technologies. These entrepreneurs are being brought into the water sector by organizations such as; Imagine H2O, Current, WaterStart, 101010, The Nature Conservancy/Techstars partnership and ABInBev/ZX Ventures.

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IV.7 CONCLUSIONS In developed economies, access to water has been taken for granted and this acquiescence manifests itself first and foremost in a lack of transparency. Customers almost never think about their water supply until there is a problem, and this in turns sends a message to their providers that transparency is neither a priority nor even expected. Modernized, developed society is disconnected from the idea that water is a valuable and strategic resource to be monitored and managed. Instead, their perception of water is dissociative, thinking of water in the contexts of its different manifestations (i.e. drinking water, gray water, storm water). In the future, these perceptions need to coalesce into a singular view of a singular resource and the best way to achieve that is through transparency between the utility and the customer. Transparency at this level is most quickly achieved through customer engagement and education. This means sharing information about water supplies that is not always favorable, like supply shortfalls and quality issues, topics that utilities have long been hesitant to share. Digitizing data collection and employing open exchanges of information will both engage and inform water customers, which will in turn foster a new culture of transparency. Innovations in technology, most particularly on the digital front, have made rapid changes in the energy sector like the adoption of renewables and the trend toward micro-grids. The water sector would reap substantial benefits by taking pages from these play books. Blending or hybridizing water utilities by incorporating the positive attributes of large, centralized water systems with those of off-grid, localized systems would power the optimization of water management and yield

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reliable, equitable distribution. An additional benefit hybridization offers is redundancy, the reliance on multiple smaller resources that can be reconfigured to accommodate repairs and renovations, emergency protocol, and even quarantines. The catalysts necessary to bring about next generation water practices are in many ways cultural changes—increased expectations of transparency and the education of water customers and policy makers. One example is the rise of innovative business models that permit and even encourage technology ventures to share the risks of rolling out new technologies with their utility partners. Expanding on the trend of providing “Anything as a Service” (XaaS) that is perhaps most familiar in the cellular communications arena (e.g. smart phones as a service), technological advances in hardware become advances in services (e.g. pumps as a service, sensors as a service). Generational change is another, extremely powerful enabling force because new, more sophisticated customers already expect digital solutions to so many other areas of their lives from personal communications and social media, to transportation (e.g. congestion pricing) and even their dwellings (e.g. Nest thermostats). The emergence of a no-caller workforce is made up of individuals with expectations of “digital instantaneity,” people who demand real-time information and solutions and possess an affinity for self-service. More than anything, efforts on these fronts will power continued innovation that will in turn drive modern regulation. Ultimately, this means reinventing how water is shared and 205 Strafford Avenue Wayne, PA delivered, without losing sight of the overarching goal—a safe, reliable water supply accessible by all.

The Future of Water

References 1. Sarni, W., Stinson, C., Mung, A., & Garcia, B. (2018). Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Water. Retrieved from http://www3. weforum.org/docs/WEF_WR129_ Harnessing_4IR_Water_Online.pdf 2. Karmous-Edwards, G., & Sarni, W. (2018, June 11). What is a Water Utility in a Digital World? Water Finance and Management. Retrieved from https://waterfm.com/water-utility- digital-world/ 3. The Aspen Institute. (2017). Internet of Water: Sharing and Integrating Water Data for Sustainability. Retrieved from https://assets. aspeninstitute.org/content/ uploads/2017/05/Internet-of-Water-ReportMay-2017.pdf 4. CDP. (2017). 2017 Cities Water Risks. Retrieved from https://data.cdp. net/Water/2017-Cities- Water-Risks/qaye-zhaz/data 5. Padowski, J. C., & Gorelick, S. M. (2014). Global Analysis of Urban Surface Water Supply Vulnerability. Environmental Research Letters, 9(10), 8. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748- 9326/9/11/119501 6. The World Bank. (2016, May 3). Climate-Driven Water Scarcity Could Hit Economic Growth by Up to 6 Percent in Some Regions, Says World Bank. Retrieved from http://www. worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2016/05/03/climate-driven-water-scarcity- could-hit-economicgrowth-by-up-to-6-percent-in-some-regions-says-world-bank 7. Sarni, W. (2015). Deflecting the Scarcity Trajectory: Innovation at the water, energy, and food nexus. Deloitte Review, (17), 130–147. Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte. com/content/dam/ insights/us/articles/water-energy-food-nexus/DUP1205_DR17_ DeflectingtheScarcityTrajectory.pdf 8. International Union for Conservation of Nature. (2013). The WaterFood-Energy Nexus: discussing solutions in Nairobi. Retrieved from https://www.iucn.org/content/waterfood-energy-nexus-discussingsolutions-nairobi 9. Sarni, W., Stinson, C., Mung, A., & Garcia, B. (2018). Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Water. Retrieved from http://www3. weforum.org/docs/WEF_WR129_ Harnessing_4IR_Water_Online.pdf 10. International Water Association. (2018, August). Launch of SPACE-O, the Decision Support Platform. Retrieved from http://www.iwanetwork.org/press/launch-of-space-o-the- decision-support-platform/

11. Weisbord, E. (2018). Demystifying Blockchain for Water Professionals: Part 1. Retrieved from http://www.iwa-network.org/demystifyingblockchain-for-water-professionals-part-1/ 12. Rachio. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.rachio.com/ 13. HydroPoint. (2018). Manage Your Water Indoors and Out. Retrieved from https://www.hydropoint.com/ 14. Karmous-Edwards, G., & Sarni, W. (2018, June 11). What is a Water Utility in a Digital World? Water Finance and Management. Retrieved from https://waterfm.com/water-utility- digital-world/ 15. Marr, B. (2017, March). What is Digital Twin Technology-And Why is it so Important? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ bernardmarr/2017/03/06/what-is- digital-twin-technology-and-why-isit-so-important/#51ef5d722e2a 16. Abbatiello, A., Boehm, T., Schwartz, J., & Chand, S. (2017, December). No-collar Workforce: Humans and Machines in One Loop-Collaborating in Roles and New Talent Models. Deloitte Insights. 17. Kanellos, M. (2017, December). Digital Water: How One Community Saved More Than $20 Million by Finding Leaks With Data. Water Online. Retrieved from https://www.osisoft. com/News-and-Press/ Digital-Water--How-One-Community-Saved-More-Than-$20- MillionBy-Finding-Leaks-With-Data/ 18. Kanellos, M. (2017, December). Digital Water: How One Community Saved More Than $20 Million by Finding Leaks With Data. Water Online. Retrieved from https://www.osisoft. com/News-and-Press/ Digital-Water--How-One-Community-Saved-More-Than-$20- MillionBy-Finding-Leaks-With-Data/ 19. Krause, A., Perciavalle, P., Johnson, K., Owens, B., Frodl, D., Sarni, W., & Foundry, W. (2018). The Digitization of Water. Retrieved from https:// www.ge.com/sites/default/files/GE- Ecomagination-Digital-Water.pdf 20. Cespedes, F. V., & Peleg, A. (2017, March). How the Water Industry Learned to Embrace Data. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/03/how-the-water-industry-learned-to-embracedata 21. Clark, R. M., Panguluri, S., Nelson, T. D., & Wyman, R. P. (2017). Protecting Drinking Water Utilities From Cyberthreats. American Water Works Association, 109(2), 50–58. https://doi.org/10.5942/ jawwa.2017.109.0021

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Idea Lab Noteworthy

Cap-and-Trade in California: Health & Climate Benefits Greatly Outweigh Costs By Marc Breslow, Ph.D. & Ruby Wincele

alifornia has an economy-wide cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases (GHG) that began in 2012 and now covers electricity, transportation, industry, and heating. About 45% of the revenues from capand trade are invested in programs to further reduce greenhouse gases across economic sectors through the California Climate Investments initiative.

Our research shows that California Climate Investments has immense benefits—beyond reducing heat-trapping gases and tackling the climate crisis—the most important of which is improving local air quality and public health. We also find that when emission reductions and health co-benefits are combined, they are close to five times greater than the cost of the programs— totaling $19.7 billion in benefits versus $4.1 billion in costs as of November 2019. (See figure 1).

Health co-benefits The health co-benefits, measured in reduced deaths from air pollution, are far larger than the benefits of reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The same sources that emit greenhouse gases also release other toxic air pollutants, such as particulate matter and ozone. Poor air quality and exposure to pollution from those toxins have been linked to asthma, decreased lung function and other respiratory issues, cancer, increased risk of heart attack, and associated premature death. 100 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

Reducing greenhouse gases therefore also lowers these pollutants, resulting in significant public health benefits—these can be measured through reduced premature mortality, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and avoided emergency room visits from pollution exposure. Most of the reduction in deaths comes from lower emissions of small particulates that lodge in the lungs, and ground-level ozone, which also reduce the number of cases of non-fatal heart attacks, aggravated asthma, and lost days of school. Several studies for the U.S. and internationally have estimated these benefits, based on the associated cuts in other air pollutants that accompany burning of fossil fuels, such as diesel fumes from buses and trains. One study estimates that an economy-wide carbon pricing program for the U.S. would save 1,129 lives and decrease asthma-related emergency room visits by 1,947 visits per year.1 This reduction in mortality is turned into monetary savings, which goes into our benefit-cost analysis, by using the U.S.

Idea Lab Noteworthy

Benefit-Cost Ratio for California Climate Investments All Projects

California Climate Investments Programs $20

Transportation

$15

4.0

$, Billions

Benefit-Cost Ratio

5.0

3.0 2.0

$10

$5 1.0 0.0

Program

Figure 1: Costs and Benefits of Implemented Programs

Department of Transportation’s estimate of the value of extending a human life, which is $9.6 million.2 California has devoted about 45% of the revenues from its cap-and-trade program to California Climate Investments. A majority of funds invested to date has gone to transportation programs, including electrifying bus lines, extending train lines, and providing rebates to purchase electric cars and trucks. The investments in transportation produce large benefits, due to cutting air pollution in densely-populated urban areas.

Similar benefits from other carbon pricing programs We can expect to see benefits similar to those found for California in carbon pollution pricing programs, whether cap-and-trade or carbon fees, for other states or regions of the U.S., including states currently considering the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. In fact, TCI states have produced a preliminary estimate that health benefits for the region will be approximately $10 billion a year by 2032 and 1,014 premature deaths avoided (based on a 25% reduction in emissions, the strongest program that the states modeled).3 While TCI may invest all of its revenues in transportation, regulation or legislation in other states would devote substantial portions of funds to rebates, encouraging acceptance of the policy by the public and businesses. California

Implemented funding

GHG reduction benefits

Health co-benefits

GHG and health co-benefits

Figure 2: Benefit-Cost Ratios for Implemented Cap-and-Trade Investments

Our research shows that California Climate Investments has immense benefits—beyond reducing heat-trapping gases and tackling the climate crisis—the most important of which is improving local air quality and public health. has spent 50% of its funds on rebates or exemptions to households, small businesses, and large industries. Doing so has likely allowed the state to tighten its cap on emissions, raising the price of allowances (permits) per metric ton of CO2e to $17 per metric ton in 2019.

Additional benefits Besides health co-benefits, the California Climate Investments programs have a long list of other benefits stemming from greenhouse gas reduction. These include job creation, cost savings for commuting to work and other travel, energy and fuel cost savings, and community engagement. For example, a Luskin Center for Innovation report found that California Climate Investments creates 8.8 jobs per $1 million invested.4 This may be compared to 1.6 jobs created per $1 million invested in the oil and gas industry. The value of these other benefits has not been studied as much as the health benefits, but, would presumably add greatly to the benefit-cost ratio of the investment programs. (See figure 2) Note: The benefit/cost ratio divides the benefits by the costs of projects, so www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 101

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California communities most affected by pollution and socio-economic challenges, by census tract. Derived from CalEnviroScreen 3.0 data.

that if the ratio is greater than 1.0, the benefits are greater than the costs. This graph shows that while all programs have benefits far larger than their costs, non-transportation programs have, on average, greater benefits relative to costs than do transportation programs.

Priority Populations California also mandates that a total of 35% of its cap-and-trade investment funds benefit “priority populations,” which includes both disadvantaged communities (based on environmental and socioeconomic criteria) and low-income communities and households, which make up about half the state’s population.5 For 2019, the state estimated that 60% of projects implemented since August 2017 are located in, and benefit priority populations.6 However, projects that span multiple census tracts, such as bus and train lines, can classify 100% of project funds as “located in and benefiting” priority populations—as long as any portion of the project falls within at least one priority census tract. For this reason, we find that the state may be overestimating what portion of investment is truly benefiting priority populations. California, and other states considering such programs, need to more carefully examine the benefit to disadvantaged communities and households from their spending. 102 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

Conclusion The goal of our study is to compare the costs of the greenhouse gas reduction programs to the social value of both reducing the worldwide dangers of the climate crisis and of improving public health outcomes—to determine whether the programs are a cost-effective means for spending large amounts of state residents’ and employers’ funds. Our findings should also be a useful guide to other states or regions contemplating the use of carbon pricing to create a price incentive to reduce emissions and to generate funds for programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to provide co-benefits. The results of our study show that California’s investments from its cap-andtrade dollars provide climate outcomes and health benefits close to five times their costs. This indicates that the cap-and-trade system is highly successful, both in reducing the severe planetary dangers of climate change, and in aiding the health of the state’s own population. It is therefore valid to conclude that continuing to ramp down the level of allowed emissions, as California plans to do, thereby generating greater revenues for investment, will continue to bring extensive benefits both in-state and worldwide. It also follows that any other program to price carbon pollution, when designed well, can expect similar outsized climate and health benefits, as compared to its costs. References 1. Balbus, J, Greenblatt, J, Chari, R, Millstein, D & Ebi, Kl. A wedgebased approach to estimating health co-benefits of climate change mitigation activities in the United States. Climatic Change 127, 199–210 (2014). 2. U.S. Department of Transportation. Revised Departmental Guidance on Valuation of a Statistical Life in Economic Analysis (2016). 3. Transportation and Climate Initiative. Webinar: Draft Memorandum of Understanding & 2019 Cap-and-Invest Modeling Results [online], 3740 (December 2019). https://www.transportationandclimate.org/sites/ default/files/TCI%20Public%20Webinar%20Slides_20191217.pdf 4. DeShazo, J, Karpman, J, Kong, W & Callahan, C. UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation. Employment Benefits from California Climate Investments and Co-investments (2018). 5. Author derived using data from: California Air Resources Board. Annual Report to the Legislature on California Climate Investments Using Cap-and-Trade Auction Proceeds, 11-12 (2019); California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. CalEnviroScreen 3.0 Results Spreadsheet (2018). 6. California Air Resource Board. Annual Report to the Legislature on California Climate Investments Using Cap-and-Trade Auction Proceeds (2019).

Idea Lab Noteworthy

Water Innovation Clusters as Solution Stewards By Marianne Langridge, Ph.D.

hat does it take to provide clean water for our communities? Tens of thousands of people dedicating their careers to managing our water systems. This is a job that requires understanding the dynamic nature of our environment and adjusting operating and treatment protocols based on a variety of conditions.

It takes a network of people with diverse backgrounds to continually treat water to the standards expected by the public. And, the conditions are continually changing due to new weather patterns, aging infrastructure and the introduction

If it is risky to adopt a new entrepreneurial solution developed outside your organization, and the organization does not have the time or resources to develop their own innovations, how will solutions be brought to market? of new substances into our environment and waterways. Fortunately, there is no shortage of new solutions being imagined by entrepreneurs and academic researchers across the globe. The question facing us now is what it will take to get appropriate solutions implemented?

The water industry is conservative by nature due to the importance of protecting public health, regulatory restrictions, and financial constraints. Given the large number of utilities in the country it is not economically efficient for each to develop their own solutions. Therein lies the dilemma. If it is risky to adopt a new entrepreneurial solution developed outside your organization, and the organization does not have the time or resources to develop their own innovations, how will solutions be brought to market? It was with this context that in 2012 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed a Technology Innovation Roadmap 1 and began to initiate the coordination of Water Innovation Clusters in 2012. This model was based on the work of Michael Porter on “Clusters of Innovation” 2 which demonstrates the economic development benefits to a region that has a rich www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 103

Idea Lab Noteworthy

 Left & Right: NEWEA Innovation Pavilion January 2020. Credit: NEWEA.

network of industry partners from business and academia such as technology in Silicon Valley and the pharmaceutical industry in Boston. The intent of the program was to foster collaboration between cluster organizations and support creation of partnerships between business, gov-

Water innovation clusters with stewardship from WEF and its vast network, are poised to have a significant impact in ensuring innovation efforts are focused on the areas of most need and with greatest potential impact. ernment, academic and non-profit organizations to develop and bring to market innovative water technologies that are both good for water policy and good for the economy. Nearly 20 water innovation clusters have been formed in the US, each created with the support of government, business and academic partners in their region, and with their own focus, staff, funding and governance models. Another partner of the water innovation clusters has been the Water Environment Federation

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(WEF). This 92 year old not for profit organization has a membership base of 35,000 people and with 75 regional Member Associations sharing a passion for protecting public health and the environment. WEF’s mission is “to connect water professionals; enrich the expertise of water professionals; increase the awareness of the impact and value of water; and provide a platform for water sector innovation.” 3 Since their inception WEF has supported and included the water innovation clusters in innovation activities including the Innovation Pavilion at their annual conference, WEFTEC. In 2018 WEF took over the stewardship of the clusters from EPA, and the collaboration continues to expand as new clusters and innovation organizations such as water technology incubators are created across the globe. In January of 2020 one of the original clusters, the Northeast Water Innovation Network (NEWIN) merged with the WEF Member Association the New England Water and Environment Association (NEWEA). This merger is an opportunity to bring together stakeholders with a common interest in preserving and protecting water and quality of life by fostering connections to put innovative solutions into

Idea Lab Noteworthy

practice. One of the primary goals of the newly formed Innovation Council of NEWEA is to plan and lead activities and communications that foster innovation in the industry. In particular, to build connections between utilities, regulators, academics and innovators to facilitate experimentation and adoption of new technologies, methods and policies that will improve the industry. With all of these partnerships to foster understanding and collaboration we are at an exciting point in the evolution of the water industry. Some of the key metrics often used to measure the success of an innovation cluster are the number of jobs created and the amount of revenue generated by the newly formed companies. However, this is only a fraction of the benefits. The water industry has a reputation for being too slow to adopt innovations. Continually following older methods can result in problems persisting longer, costing rate payers more, putting our infrastructure at greater risk and impacting public trust. These costs are

difficult to quantify and can have a much greater impact on our communities than job creation and revenue. Water innovation clusters with stewardship from WEF and its vast network, are poised to have a significant impact in ensuring innovation efforts are focused on the areas of most need and with greatest potential impact, and also in facilitating faster acceptance and adoption of new technologies, methods and processes. If you are an innovator or a water professional not aware of these collaboration opportunities with the clusters or with WEF, you are encouraged to contact Marianne Langridge or Bri Nakamura for more information. References 1. https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/envirofinance/ innovation_.html 2. Porter, Michael J, “Clusters of Innovation: Regional Foundations of U.S. Competitiveness”, October, 2001, Council on Competitiveness 3. https://www.wef.org/about/about-wef/

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Reviews

BOOK REVIEW

Ray Anderson’s Legacy, Evolved By John A. Lanier

n a word, Ray Anderson’s story is legendary. As the founder of Interface, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of modular carpet, he was an accomplished businessman and entrepreneur. He was your classic small-town kid who happened to make it big and create a global manufacturing company from scratch. He was the American dream. Despite his business success though, it was his 1994 personal epiphany that made him famous.

 Courtesy of the author. Mid-Course Correction Revisited by Ray C. Anderson and John A. Lanier.

That year, after reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, Ray came to see the dark side of his business. He understood that his business, and the entire industrial world, was rapidly degrading the biosphere. Literally overnight, he began to believe that Interface must pursue a new purpose much grander and aspirational than returning value to shareholders. He believed that Interface must become a sustainable, and eventually regenerative, enterprise. Then he wanted Interface to inspire businesses around the world to create an industrial re-revolution. In 1998, Ray wrote his first book, titled Mid-Course Correction. In that work, he laid out his vision for what a sustainable company might look like, and he called it the “prototypical company of the twenty-first century.” It was a compelling vision then, and no less compelling now. Read for yourself how Ray originally conceived of the sustainability journey that Interface was on more than two decades ago. EXCERPT FROM PAGE 67 I have used [a] simile to describe sustainability as a mountain to be climbed. Let me expound. I have this mental picture of a mountain that is higher than Everest. It rises steeply out of a jungle that surrounds it. Most of us, people and companies, are lost and wandering around in that jungle, and don’t know the mountain exists at all. Rather, we are preoccupied with the threatening, competitive “animals” all around us. A few have sensed the upward slope of the mountain’s foothills under

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Reviews

their feet. Still fewer have decided to follow the upward slope to see where it leads. And a very few are far enough along to have had a glimpse of the mountain through the leaves of the trees, to realize what looms ahead and above. Very few indeed have set their eyes and wills on the summit. I am thankful that the people of Interface are in that small group. We have found the mountain’s seven faces that must be scaled. Moreover, we have a compass, The Natural Step, to help us stay focused and on track to the summit, and we’re developing EcoMetrics to measure our progress…. What will the view from there, from the vantage point of sustainability, be like? I believe it will be wonderful beyond description, and I hope to see it before I die. I also hope others, still lost in the jungle or just becoming conscious of the upward slope, even beginning to explore it, will hear our cries of joy through the foliage and rush ahead to follow our path, someday soon to join us at the summit (or better yet beat us there). There’s room there for everyone, and certainly anyone headed in that direction welcomes the companionship, as we seek to create the prototypical company of the twenty-first century, of the next industrial revolution. Ray and Interface accomplished so much in their climb up Mount Sustainability, proving that when done right, sustainability was incredibly good for business. Unfortunately, Ray did not live to see Interface summit the mountain. His passing in 2011 was not the end of his legacy though, but rather a turning point. His company continues to climb and show that sustainability offers a better way. His family, of which I am honored to be a part, has also joined in the effort. We are advancing Ray’s legacy through the work of the Ray C. Anderson Foundation. Last year, we were proud to re-issue Ray’s first book with new content, now titled Mid-Course Correction Revisited. We preserved Ray’s original seven chapters, and I wrote six new ones that brought his story up-todate and turned an eye toward the future of sustainable business. If Ray was still with us today, he would

[A]fter reading Paul Hawken’s The Ecology of Commerce, Ray came to see the dark side of his business. He understood that his business, and the entire industrial world, was rapidly degrading the biosphere. celebrate the good work that has been done to make sustainability mainstream in the corporate world. He would also say that, collectively, we all need to do more. Here is another excerpt from the book, this time from one of the new chapters that I wrote. It’s my effort to describe the “more” that we need to do. EXCERPT FROM PAGES 173-174 By now I hope you are convinced that the prototypical company of the twenty-first century just makes good sense. Resource efficiency, game-changing innovations, an engaged workforce, and a loyal marketplace are all rather persuasive. Yet those reasons do not account for perhaps the most compelling argument for creating such prototypical companies: They can help lead humanity away from the environmental abyss. Obviously, we need more Interfaces, and on that front there is some good news. Quite a few companies are committed to pioneering truly sustainable enterprises, and they have benefitted much as Interface has. The problem is, I do not think we can achieve sustainability at a truly global level just by replicating what Interface and its peer enterprises—Patagonia and Unilever, for instance—are doing. All of business and industry exists and operates in a broader economic system, so we need change at a systems level for it to be sufficiently significant and expedient to avoid catastrophe. We do not know how much time is left on the clock, but we know it is ticking. Put another way, the creation of the prototypical company of the twenty-first century is not enough. We must also, collectively, create the prototypical economy of the twenty-first century.

Ray and Interface accomplished so much in their climb up Mount Sustainability, proving that when done right, sustainability was incredibly good for business. Unfortunately, Ray did not live to see Interface summit the mountain.

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Perspectives

Join me in a thought experiment. Let us compare the present day to the time of America’s founding fathers, focusing in on two general metrics: human quality of life and the health of natural systems. From a quality-of-life standpoint, the differences are dramatic. Life expectancy is significantly longer today, driven primarily by lower infant mortality rates. Even with a global population that has grown tenfold, a higher percentage of people have easy access

[Ray Anderson] showed that so much good could come from one company authentically committing to sustainability, from increased profits to better products to more empowered employees to a healthier planet. Just imagine if an entire economy was dedicated to the same values! to daily essentials like food and water. Technological developments have radically transformed humanity’s capabilities in terms of mobility, communications, and education. If I had to guess, there aren’t many of us, in the developed world at least, who would trade in the present day for life 250 years ago. From the standpoint of natural systems, the differences are just as dramatic. In the present day we have lost millions of acres of forestland. Rates of biodiversity loss have spiked as human development destroys

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ecosystems. Agricultural lands are losing topsoil at alarming rates. Stocks in fisheries around the globe are at critical levels. Toxic chemicals are now dispersed around the world, most of which had not even been invented 250 years ago. While I cannot say conclusively, I doubt that even a single natural system at the global level is healthier today than a quarter millennium ago. Human quality of life has been increasing while natural systems have been declining, and these two trends are not coincidental. To the contrary, our current economic system is structured to drive these trends. It is urgent that our economic system evolve, and I believe that creating the prototypical economy of the twenty-first century is one of humanity’s most pressing challenges. It’s also one of our greatest opportunities. As proof, I need look no further than Ray Anderson’s example. He showed that so much good could come from one company authentically committing to sustainability, from increased profits to better products to more empowered employees to a healthier planet. Just imagine if an entire economy was dedicated to the same values! I am convinced that it is possible for not only individual businesses to deliver on the triple-bottom line, but for economies to do that as well. We just need the collective will to imagine a better way, and then make that vision a reality.

On The Ground

The Winners of the George Barley Water Prize Pilot Stage Competition Are… by G. Melodie Naja, Sabrina Ternier, Thomas Van Lent, Nicole Gibson, Marvin Patani, Andrew Amiri, Koos Baas, Mike Irish, Leon Korving, Greg Möller, C. Ptacek, P. L. Sibrell, Ed Weinberg, Yanyang Zhang

In Brief Phosphorus is a major nutrient impairing rivers and lakes worldwide with reported environmental, health and economic impacts. Several possible solutions already exist to remove excessive phosphorus discharged into a freshwater body. However, the current technologies are prohibitively expensive, owing to large land requirements, expensive materials, and/or high capital, operating, and maintenance costs. Through the George Barley Prize, nine technologies were tested under the same conditions and performance compared for their total phosphorus (TP) removal cleaning 9,464 liters per day for two 30-day periods, and 32,176 liters per day for one 30-day period of Holland Marsh canal water in Ontario, Canada. The testing occurred during the snow melt season. Collectively during the three periods of testing, the nine teams treated 10,962 m3 of water and removed 2.79 kg of TP, representing an average TP loading decrease of 65%. Some teams reached an average TP loading decrease of 86% over the three testing periods. Teams F (U.S. Geological Survey), I (Green Water Solution), and G (University of Idaho-blueXgreenNexom) achieved the lowest TP-Flow Weighted Mean (FWM) concentrations among all nine teams during the three-month testing period. Even though the top teams did not achieve the 10 µg/L TP-FWM criterion, the three teams achieved very low orthophosphate levels below 10 µg/L when sampled.

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On The Ground

The goal of the George Barley Water Prize competition is to find a breakthrough total phosphorus (TP) removal technology that is radically cheaper to build and run than currently available removal technologies.

Phosphorus and Innovation Lakes, rivers and wetlands in Canada hold 7% of the world’s renewable freshwater resources with 10.8% of Ontario covered by freshwater. The 250,000 lakes, 500,000 km of rivers and streams, and vast groundwater resources in Ontario provide water supply and environmental and recreational benefits. However, water quality in some of these lakes and rivers has been affected by multiple stressors that have altered the ecology of these ecosystems1. Land use change2, increased nutrient loadings3, and climate change4 are often cited as the three major culprits impacting these fragile ecosystems. Excessive phosphorus loadings reaching freshwater bodies have been the leading cause of impaired rivers and lakes in Ontario and worldwide5, 6. Impacts of excess phosphorus algal blooms, low dissolved oxygen, proliferation of invasive species, fish kills, and ultimately, ecological collapse. Economic and health impacts from phosphorus-driven algal bloom events have also been reported7, 8. There is a need for reducing phosphorus loads through innovative practices. Several possible solutions already exist to remove excessive phosphorus discharged into a freshwater body9, 10 . These solutions range from implementing best management practices at the source level to downstream integration of constructed wetlands that filter water through natural processes11, 12. However, the current technologies are prohibitively expensive, owing to large land requirements, expensive materials, and/or high capital, operating, and maintenance costs. Furthermore, costs dramatically increase when treating water at relatively low phosphorus

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concentrations and under different conditions (variable temperature, flows, concentrations, etc.). There is a worldwide urgent need to invest in innovation to incentivize the development of new, cost-effective approaches to remove phosphorus and achieve low concentrations13. The $10 million George Barley Water Prize, led by The Everglades Foundation and designed by international experts, aims to drive this innovation process. The goal of the competition is to find a breakthrough total phosphorus (TP) removal technology that is radically cheaper to build and run than currently available removal technologies. The winning technology would remove phosphorus under variable conditions while not impacting the environment. The prize was designed in stages, emulating the development of any new technology, with technologies tested in a laboratory environment and at a pilot scale, before being tested at a large scale. Technology evaluation criteria consist of TP flow weighted mean (TP-FWM) at the outflow, environmental sustainability, scalability, and total costs. Experts in chemical engineering, hydrology, water quality, and ecology selected 9 promising teams from the first two stages of the George Barley Water Prize to enter the pilot phase competition. The chosen teams were: University of Idaho-blueXgreen-Nexom (USA), Econse Water Purification Systems (Canada), ESSRE RePleNish (USA), Global Phosphate Solutions (USA), Green Water Solution (USA), MetaMateria (USA), University of Waterloo (Canada), USGS (USA), Wetsus (The Netherlands), and ZeroPhos (China).

George Barley Water Prize Pilot Phase Competition During the pilot phase, the nine teams were challenged to treat 9,464 liters per day for two 30-day periods, and 32,176 liters per day for one 30-day period of Holland Marsh canal water for TP removal. In addition to the technology evaluation criteria, technologies had to fit within a 9 m2 footprint. Due to the significance of the Holland

On The Ground

Marsh phosphorus loading to Lake Simcoe, the Art Janse Pumping Station (Fig. S-1) was selected as the location where the nine teams tested their technologies, treating the Holland Marsh canal water (Figs. S-2 and S-3). This type of pilot testing, where several technologies compete at the same time and from the same source of influent water to achieve an effluent TP target, while not impacting the background water quality characteristics, had never been done before at this scale. The objective of this paper is to present the TP removal performance of the nine technologies and the results from the three months of testing, including factors which may have influenced the efficiency or operation of the competing technologies.

George Barley Water Prize Pilot Phase Competing Teams Econse Water Purification Systems technology (Team D) is an integrated electrocoagulation system (Fig. S-4) that combines various technologies into a compact mechanical based unit that is scalable and treats water from a variety of applications, including food and beverage, industrial, agricultural and small to medium sized communities. At the core of the technology is a reactor, using electrolysis (a proprietary anode) in combination with liquid/solid separators. Anodic dissolution of the metal electrode in contact with the polluted water would form a cation that would bind dissolved phosphorus and generate a precipitate settling in the tanks. No filtration was used in this process. The ESSRE RePleNish technology (Team E) uses nano-enhanced adsorptive media, which is Hybrid Ion Exchange (HIX) resin beads dispersed with immobilized Fe(III) or Zr(IV) oxide nanoparticles with a strong affinity for phosphate ions over the other common anions in water (Fig. S-5)14,15. These hybrid ion exchange nano resins are

also amenable to regeneration and reuse for tens of cycles, thus reducing the product cost of commercially available HIX-Nano. Unlike conventional ion exchange disposal issues of a waste brine, HIX-Nano regeneration results in high-strength phosphate solutions that can be customized as N-P-K liquid plant food used by hydroponic and greenhouse growers16. Multi-media pressure and cartridge filters were used upstream of HIX-Nano resin to keep the media free of solids that could foul or plug the bed of resin. Global Phosphate Solutions (Team C) use a “Phosphate Sponge”, which is a porous pellet composite that integrates a patented polyacrylonitrile binder with a composite material to create a system that can effectively remove phosphate contamination (Fig. S-6). The sponge can be easily regenerated to be reused. The material is most efficient at pH 6-7 and can be regenerated at pH 12-13. No filtration was used in this process.

TP removal performance of nine technologies and the results from the three months of testing in Canada, including factors which may have influenced the efficiency or operation of the competing technologies are presented. Green Water Solution’s approach (Team I) was invented and improved over the last 7 years in collaboration with Dutch and German science institutes. This team applied a two-stage process for their solution: removal of particulate phosphorus by filtration followed by adsorption of dissolved phosphorus by the BioPhree® system (Fig. S-7). BioPhree® uses a proprietary high-affinity composite resin (a proprietary polymer with P-affine coating) combined with www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 111

On The Ground



Fig S-1. Maps showing the location of the Canadian provinces (1a), Ontario (1b), Lake Simcoe as well as the location of the testing location for the George Barley Water Prize (1c).

Fig. S-2. Overview of the pilot site.

 Fig. S-3. Water distribution system components inside the distribution container.

 Fig. S-4. Econse's process using electrocoagulation for phosphorus removal.

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On The Ground

 Fig. 1. Turbidity (FNU) and precipitation (mm) levels during the pilot stage testing.

metal hydroxides and iron oxides to reversibly adsorb inorganic and organic phosphorus. In the regeneration cycle, the captured phosphorus is released together with co-captured organic carbon. The regeneration liquid can be re-used in following regeneration cycles to significantly lower the operating costs of the treatment, then be purified and used as a fertilizer. A pre-treatment with cartridges and bags were used in this process targeting particulates. University of Idaho-blueXgreen-Nexom (Team G) used a hydrous ferric oxide (HFO) reactive filtration process with a high-efficiency for adsorptive removal of dissolved phosphorus in addition to particulate phosphorus removal (Fig. S-8)17, 18. Along with iron metal salt dosing, the process can also add micronized, Ca-Mg-Fe modified biochar from bioenergy pyrolyzed greenwaste to the flowing water for P recovery. The flow moves through a continuous-backwash, up-flow moving bed sand filter operated as an HFO coated-sand reactive filter. The influent water was first mixed with a recycled reactive filter continuously rejecting water containing particulates into separation tanks equipped with particle separators before continuing to the reactive filters. Periodic settling tank purged solids were collected in bag filters. For phosphorus recovery, the recovered biochar rejected solids mixture is recovered with the process water solids. The recovered phosphorusupcycled biochar is then applicable for use as a slow-release fertilizer and soil amendment. The University of Waterloo PhosphexTM system (Team A) incorporated a by-product of the steel industry (Basic Oxygen Furnace – BOF-slag) to

adsorb and precipitate phosphorus (Fig. S-9)19, 20. Although the system was designed to be gravity driven, space limitations required the use of pumps and holding tanks. Once saturated with phosphorus, the slag can be used as a soil additive or in construction applications. During the trial, this team used bags and cartridges filters targeting particulates. The U.S. Geological Survey- Leetown Science team (Team F) used iron oxide-based sorption media in a fixed bed process (Fig. S-10)21. The media is composed of ochres generated by the treatment of mine drainage. The process offers the possibility of significant reductions in capital and operating costs for the removal of phosphorus because of the economy of the by-product media coupled with elimination of solid-liquid separation and sludge disposal required by conventional iron or aluminum-based coagulation processes. An additional feature of the technology is the capability to recover phosphorus as a potentially marketable fertilizer, thus closing the phosphorus loop. Pre-filtration cartridges and flocculants were used in this process targeting particulates. Wetsus NaFRAD (Team B) used a “total solution” to total phosphorus pollution, using a combination of adsorption and flocculation to remove total phosphorus and recover phosphate (Fig. S-11). In the first step, natural organic flocculants agglomerate particulates into flocs that are collected in fixed bed sand filters. The captured particulates are removed periodically through backwashing and collected from the washing liquid in a gravity separator. Soluble phosphorus is removed through adsorption on

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On The Ground  Fig. S-5. ESSRE RePleNish team process using HIX-nano hybrid ion exchange for phosphorus removal.

 Fig. S-6. Green Water Solution approach using the BioPhree® system.

 Fig. S-7. GPS’s Phosphate Sponge solution to reduce phosphorus. SEM stands for Scanning Electron Microscope.

 Fig. S-8. The University of Idaho Team machine and process used to compete on site.

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On The Ground

iron-based adsorbents with a high phosphorus sorption22. The phosphorus saturated adsorbent can be regenerated in an on- or offsite facility with sodium hydroxide to release the phosphate. The phosphate is recovered from the regeneration liquid in a crystallizer as pure calcium phosphate through controlled addition of calcium hydroxide. In this way, the regeneration liquid can be used multiple times. Zerophos (Team H), from the University of Nanjing, used a Lanthanum-based polymeric nanocomposites adsorbent (denoted as “La-201”) developed specifically for deep treatment of phosphorus contaminated water (Fig. S-12)23. La-201 takes advantages of the high mechanical strength and hydraulic properties of the polymeric host, and the high activity of the embedded hydrous lanthanum oxide nanoparticles. The material could be regenerated and reused repeatedly without significant capacity loss. The small spherical beads could fit into many fast filtration systems such as fixed-bed columns. The technology is flexible and of small footprint and land-use; the whole system is stable with easy operation and maintenance. Pre-filtration cartridges and bags were used in this process targeting particulates. Description of the monitoring protocol, site set-up and flow distribution is detailed in the supplemental information.

upstream agricultural practices; most fields in the marsh are cultivated close to the edge of the canals with no riparian buffers. Each spring to facilitate planting, agricultural producers actively pump water off their fields into tile drains and ditches which feed into the West Holland River. Most producers started planting around the first week of May, thus explaining the high turbidity peaks observed during the first week of May. Of particular note, the site was closed from April 15 to April 19 because of freezing rain and on May 4 because of winds (>90 km/hr) and tornado warnings.

Even though the top teams did not achieve the 10 µg/L TP-FWM criterion, the three teams achieved very low orthophosphate levels below 10 µg/L when sampled.

Teams Performance Over the duration of the pilot, air temperatures averaged -1.8⁰C during the first period of testing, 1.4⁰C during the second period of testing, and reaching 12.4⁰C during the third period of testing. The minimum temperature was -6.6⁰C on March 16 and the maximum temperature was 20.2⁰C on May 2. The total precipitation during the pilot testing was around 217 mm. The maximum precipitation occurred on April 14 with 26.9 mm. Precipitation amounts greater than 10 mm per day occurred on March 29, April 3, April 13, April 14, April 15, April 16, April 25, and May 15. During and immediately after snow fall events (February and March), no visually recognizable change was observed in the influent water quality. During and immediately after rainfall events (April and May), influent water became substantially more turbid (Fig. 1). This is likely attributed to

 Fig. 3. Orthophosphate levels frequency of occurrence at the outflows from the different teams.

Inflow Water Chemistry Characteristics The Holland Marsh agricultural drainage canal site chosen for the pilot phase presented a unique set of agro-environmental and water quality challenges. The Holland Marsh is a muck soil growing region containing 20-80% organic matter24. The muck-specific gravity equivalence with water inhibits settling relative to silt and

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On The Ground  Fig. S-9. University of Waterloo Team Phosphex process. BOF stands for Basic Oxygen Furnace.

 Fig. S-10. The equipment used by the U.S. Geological Survey - Leetown Science team (S-10a) and the ochres derived from mine drainage treatment systems (S-10b).

 Fig. S-11. The Wetsus Natural Flocculation Reversible Adsorption (NaFRAd) process used to remove soluble and particulate phosphorus.

Teams

Inflow

Team F

Team I

Team G

Team A

Team B

Team H

Team E

Team D

Team C

TP-FWM (µg/L)

394

249

268

330

 Table S-3. Total Phosphorus Flow Weighted Mean (TP-FWM) (µg/L) results for all teams.

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On The Ground  Fig. 2. Teams phosphorus removal performance.

clay soil particles24. Holland Marsh soil turnover, fertilization, and rainfall-driven active periods of surface/subsurface water pumping have demonstrated 4-5 times increases in TP runoff and 40-50 times increases in nitrate-N runoff25. During the three-month testing period, the average daily inflow TP concentration was 410 ± 205 µg/L with a maximum concentration of 1,494 µg/L and a minimum concentration of 190 µg/L. The inflow ortho-phosphate was not measured as frequently as the TP with a level of 407±217 µg/L with a maximum concentration of 920 µg/L and a minimum concentration of 40 µg/L. Surprisingly, the ortho-phosphate concentrations during the same period did not differ much from the TP levels. A long-term monitoring program at the same location indicated a TP level of 520±150 µg/L and an ortho-phosphate fraction of 75% of TP. Influent total suspended solids varied between 0.25 to 26 mg/L. The daily influent pH ranged from 7.2 to 8.3 with an average of 7.84±0.24. In situ daily influent conductivity and turbidity averaged at 1,168 µS/cm and 10.15 (FNU), respectively. The inflow water had a high total organic carbon content with an average of 22.7 mg/L. The average total nitrogen was at 7.9 mg/L with the nitrate fraction representing 75% of the total nitrogen. Total alkalinity was at 271.5 mg/L (total as CaCO3). Chloride concentrations, particularly important because of de-icing, were around 121.3 mg/L during the three testing periods. The average water temperature was at 4°C, 8.5°C, and 17°C during the three testing periods, respectively.

Total Phosphorus and Orthophosphate Collectively during the three periods of testing, the nine teams treated 10,962 m3 of water and removed 2.79 kg of TP, representing an average TP loading decrease of 65%. Some teams reached an average TP loading decrease of 86% over the three testing periods. Table S-3 summarizes the TP-FWM for all teams with an inflow TP-FWM around 394 µg/L (with a spike of TP levels during the second testing period when the rain/drainage started). When checking the TP performance, it was apparent that the nine teams can be easily separated into four categories based on the TP concentration at the outflow and on Fig. 2. The first category presented in Fig. 2 and Fig. S-13a is the top performing class (Teams F and I) consistently achieving low TP concentrations at the outflow and high TP loading removal even when jumping from low to high flow rates. The second category is the good performing class (Teams A, B, G, and H) achieving low TP concentrations and high TP loading removal but not consistently when flows increased (Fig. 2 and Fig. S-13b). It is worth mentioning that the flow rate into Team A pod was highly variable, due to restrictions in the inflow line providing water to this pod (situation rectified near the end of the high flow period). The third category formed by Teams C and E is not capable to achieve low TP levels or high TP loading removal (Fig. 2 and Fig. S-13c). At high flows, some of these teams’ filters got clogged very fast. At one point, Team E’s filter needed to be changed every 15 minutes

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because their flow rate would significantly drop. Team D would belong to a fourth category with TP concentration and TP loading removal levels fluctuating from one day to another (Fig. 2 and Fig. S-13d), with high Total Suspended Solids – colloidal materials that were not settling down during the treatment process. Even though the teams did not achieve the 10 µg/L TP-FWM criterion, note the performance of Team G achieving very low orthophosphate levels below 15 µg/L 79% of the time (Fig. 3). Additionally, Team G demonstrated consistent performance achieving a TP average of 10 µg/L TP for the 15-day period of March 13 to 27. It is worth mentioning that this team had some problems during the first few weeks of testing where inflow water was mistakenly routed into their final effluent

 Fig. S-13. Teams performing steadily with increasing flows during the 3 months of testing (a), Teams didn’t perform steadily with increasing flows during the 3 months of testing (b), Teams not performing well under any conditions during the 3 months of testing (c), and Performance of Team D during the 3 months of testing (d).

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line, resulting in high TP outflows. The team was able to correct the problems which immediately enhanced their technology performance. Teams A, D, F and I also had low orthophosphate levels when sampled (thus emphasizing the particulateP skewing the TP levels results for Team D). Those four teams achieved orthophosphate levels lower than 30 ppb more than 75% of the time. When sampled, Teams B and H achieved 10µg/L orthophosphate concentration multiple times but not consistently. Teams C and E performance were not to the same level when compared to the other teams. The six teams (A, B, F, G, H and I) had a TP removal ranging from 79% to 86%. Teams D and E reached a 35-37% TP removal. Team C removed 13% of the TP.

On The Ground

 Fig. S-12. ZeroPhos team’s solution to remove and recover phosphorus.

Toxicity and Byproducts Inflows and all teams’ effluents were tested for chronic and acute toxicity to determine the IC25 and LC50 for Ceriodaphnia Dubia (CD) and Pimephales Promelas (PP). All teams passed the tests except Teams D and E. Team D failed the chronic toxicity for CD with an IC25 of 15.6% (IC25 for PP and LC50 for both species exceeded the 100% level). Team E failed the chronic and acute toxicity tests for both species. However, the inflow for this team also didn’t pass the toxicity tests. Team E IC25 for CD was 86.3% higher than the 24.1% for the influent, indicating that Team E outflow was less toxic than the influent water. Results of the NASM test showed that all teams (except Team C) generated byproducts that could be potentially land applied (Table S-5). Teams I and B were the only teams with byproducts satisfying the nutrient content condition (plants available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium exceeding 13,000 mg/kg). Observations During the three months of testing and because of the high turbidity of the inflow waters, competitors experienced flow drops and spikes, impacting their treatment technologies mainly

during high flow period. The onsite engineers identified several problems causing the flow drops such as a clog in the influent hose and clogging of the screen inside the supply pump with duckweed and sediment. In order to improve parallel testing of several technologies, some important insights can be shared. First, a historical long-term water quality monitoring of the site was needed to help the teams better design their filtering process for the testing conditions. Moreover, teams needed a longer period to set-up their system and calibrate their process before launch. This would have dramatically improved the performance of the technologies as they would be better prepared for the site water quality conditions. Another important factor is the engineering set-up to be carefully considered based on the quality of the water at the site. In the present case, flow meters clogged and regular cleaning was required. The third important aspect is that the site tours were extremely useful to engage the teams with a variety of interested stakeholders. Stakeholders enjoyed the tours and peaked their interest to follow up for results/reports. The tours were also a good opportunity to bring in media and build awareness via articles/videos/social media.

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On The Ground

Byproduct

CM2 eligible

CM1 eligible

CP2 eligible

NASM eligible

Team F (solid)

Yes

Yes TOM 18%

Team E (liquid)

Yes

Yes >99% water with 3.2 µg/mL TP PAN+PAP+PAK= 94 mg/L

Team C (solid)

Yes

No TOM: 13.51% PAN+PAP+PAK= 1,968 mg/kg

Team G (solid)

Yes

Yes TOM: 73.43% PAN+PAP+PAK= 9,524 mg/kg

Team D (solid)

Yes

Yes TOM: 42.64% PAN+PAP+PAK= 7,054 mg/kg

Team D (liquid)

Yes

Yes >99% water with 39.96 µg/mL TP PAN+PAP+PAK= 113 mg/L

Yes

Yes TOM: 39.59% PAN+PAP+PAK= 13,552 mg/kg

Team I (solid)

Yes

Team I (liquid)

Yes

Yes TOM: 33.78% pH=12.49 PAN+PAP+PAK= 2,269 mg/kg

Team B (solid)

Yes

 Table S-5. Eligibility of the teams’ byproducts under the Ontario NonAgricultural Source Material (NASM) regulations. CM1 and CM2 classes are for heavy metals and CP1 class is for bacterial count..

In short Teams F, I, and G achieved the lowest TP-FWM concentration levels among all nine teams during the three-month testing period. Even though the top teams did not achieve the 10 µg/L TP-FWM criterion, the three teams achieved very low orthophosphate levels below 10µg/L when sampled. The phosphorus removal and water quality performance of the teams, as well as cost considerations, which have not been discussed in this paper, were used to identify the four teams to move to the Grand Stage. The results and lessons learned from this testing will help inform stakeholders as they explore future breakthrough and innovative phosphorus removal technology 120 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

applications in waterbodies that have challenges with phosphorus pollution. Acknowledgements Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Everglades Foundation. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Detailed acknowledgments are included in the Supporting Information.

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On The Ground

and Systematics 2004, 35, 257-284. 3. Watson, S. B.; Miller, C.; Arhonditsis, G.; Boyer, G. L.; Carmichael, W.; Charlton, M. N.; Confesor, R.; Depew, D. C.; Hook, T. O.; Ludsin, S. A.; Matisoff, G.; McElmurry, S. P.; Murray, M. W.; Richards, R. P.; Rao, Y. R.; Steffen, M. M.; Wilhelm, S. W., The re-

and Use Thereof. 2013. 15. Sengupta, A. K.; Cumbal, L. H. Hybrid Anion Exchanger Impregnated for Selective Removal of Contaminating Ligands from Fluids and Method of Manufacture Thereof. 2007. 16. Weinberg, E.; Sengupta, A. K.; Shepsko, C. In Novel hybrid

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4. Robertson, D. M.; Saad, D. A.; Christiansen, D. E.; Lorenz, D. J., Simulated impacts of climate change on phosphorus loading to Lake Michigan. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2016, 42, (3), 536-548. 5. Carpenter, S. R.; Caraco, N. F.; Correll, D. L.; Howarth, R. W.; Sharpley, A. N.; Smith, V. H., Nonpoint pollution of surface waters with phosphorus and nitrogen. Ecological Applications 1998, 8, (3), 559-568 6. Stammler, K. L.; Taylor, W. D.; Mohamed, M. N., Long-term

(Nitrogen) N and Phosphorus (P), Nutrient Symposium, 2017; Water Environment Federation: 2017; pp 408-425. 17. Newcombe, R. L.; Rule, R. A.; Hart, B. K.; Moller, G., Phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater by hydrous ferric oxide reactive filtration and coupled chemically enhanced secondary treatment: Part I - Performance. Water Environment Research 2008, 80, (3), 238-247. 18. Newcombe, R. L.; Strawn, D. G.; Grant, T. M.; Childers, S. E.; Moller, G., Phosphorus removal from municipal wastewater by

decline in stream total phosphorus concentrations: A pervasive

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pattern in all watershed types in Ontario. Journal of Great Lakes

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Research 2017, 43, (5), 930-937. 7. Brooks, B. W.; Lazorchak, J. M.; Howard, M. D. A.; Johnson, M. V.

Environment Research 2008, 80, (3), 248-256. 19. Baker, M. J.; Blowes, D. W.; Ptacek, C. J., Laboratory development

V.; Morton, S. L.; Perkins, D. A. K.; Reavie, E. D.; Scott, G. I.; Smith,

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greatest inland water quality threat to public health and aquatic ecosystems? Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 2016, 35, (1), 6-13. 8. Dodds, W. K.; Bouska, W. W.; Eitzmann, J. L.; Pilger, T. J.; Pitts, K. L.; Riley, A. J.; Schloesser, J. T.; Thornbrugh, D. J., Eutrophication of US freshwaters: Analysis of potential economic damages. Environmental Science & Technology 2009, 43, (1), 12-19. 9. Benafqir, M.; Anfar, Z.; Abbaz, M.; El Haouti, R.; Lhanafi, S.; Azougarh, Y.; El Fakir, A. A.; Ez-zahery, M.; El Alem, N., Hematite-titaniferous sand as a new low-cost adsorbent for orthophosphates removal: Adsorption, mechanism and Process

Science & Technology 1998, 32, (15), 2308-2316. 20. Hussain, S. I.; Blowes, D. W.; Ptacek, C. J.; Jamieson-Hanes, J. H.; Wootton, B.; Balch, G.; Higgins, J., Mechanisms of phosphorus removal in a pilot-scale constructed wetland/BOF slag wastewater treatment system. Environmental Engineering Science 2015, 32, (4), 340-352. 21. Sibrell, P. L.; Montgomery, G. A.; Ritenour, K. L.; Tucker, T. W., Removal of phosphorus from agricultural wastewaters using adsorption media prepared from acid mine drainage sludge. Water Research 2009, 43, (8), 2240-2250. 22. Kumar, P. S.; Korving, L.; Keesman, K. J.; van Loosdrecht, M. C. M.;

Capability study. Environmental Technology & Innovation

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Technology 2016, 50, (3), 1447-1454. 24. Visser, B. Impact of Muck Soils on Water Treatment Systems; Holland Marsh Growers Association: 2015; p 4.

Trentman, M. T.; Sowa, S. P.; Herbert, M. E.; Ross, J. A.; White, M.

25. Nicholls, K. H.; Maccrimmon, H. R., Nutrients in subsurface

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implementation of the two-stage ditch. Ecological Engineering 2017, 108, 358-369. 12. Nairn, R. W.; Mitsch, W. J., Phosphorus removal in created wetland ponds receiving river overflow. Ecological Engineering 2000, 14, (1-2), 107-126. 13. Dillon, P. J.; Evans, D. O.; Gharabaghi, B.; Longstaff, B.; Molot, L.; O’Halloran, I.; Pond, B.; Wesley-Esquimaux, C.; Winter, J. G. Recommendations for Lake Simcoe and its watershed; Minister of the Environment and Climate Change: 2012. 14. Sengupta, A. K.; Padungthon, S. Hybrid Anion Exchanger Impregnated with Hydrated Zirconium Oxide for Selective

Environmental Quality 1974, 3, (1), 31-35. 26. VanderMey, A., And the Swamp Flourished: The Bittersweet Story of Holland Marsh. Vanderheide Publishing Company: 1994; p 145. 27. Maccoux, M. J.; Dove, A.; Backus, S. M.; Dolan, D. M., Total and soluble reactive phosphorus loadings to Lake Erie A detailed accounting by year, basin, country, and tributary. Journal of Great Lakes Research 2016, 42, (6), 1151-1165. 28. McDonald, M. R. Muck Vegetable Production in Ontario. Available at: https://www.agrireseau.net/documents/ Document_91278.pdf

Removal of Contaminating Ligand and Methods of Manufacture

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In Brief Ten years after its creation the success of Eau de Paris is beyond any question and no more contested. Contrary to the prevailing bias against the public entities, EDP shows that it can be very innovative in all fields and fully accomplish its obligations of public service. Several actions plans and initiatives have been implemented to improve the quality of the service and to cope with new challenges. In a real democratic approach providing citizens with the opportunity to be truly involved a new water service was set up to tackle future challenges in a sustainable and resilient way. In these troubled and worrying times, we have to reaffirm the need to ensure the provision of essential goods and services to humanity. For this purpose, water has to be managed not as a commodity but as a common good.

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On The Ground

A new water policy for Paris: Democratic and Socio-environmental Sustainability By Anne Le Strat

rom 2001 to 2014, a new water policy was implemented in Paris when I was in charge of this sector. We carried out a major overhaul of the water policy, not only on the organizational level but also in terms of perspectives, taking a holistic and integrated approach committing all the stakeholders. We decided to take back the control of the water system by creating a new publicly- owned company. It came along with a broader designing of the guidelines and areas of focus: Water is a common good, vital to humanity, and as such needs to be managed according to fundamental values and human rights, e.g., performance and quality of course, but above all transparency, solidarity and sustainability.

A new publicly-owned operator, Eau de Paris From the mid-80s to 2010, three different operators were in charge of Paris water services, with the municipality of Paris as the organizing authority. Two private operators – subsidiaries of Suez and Veolia – were in charge of the distribution and the billing, one for the Left Bank, the other for the Right Bank. The water production (catchment, transportation) was assured by a mixed ownership company, whose capital was shared between the city of Paris (70%) and the two private distribution companies. The Ministry for health, through a municipal laboratory (CRECEP), ensured that the water quality was consistent with the regulations. This service organization was strongly criticized by numerous independent oversight regional and national authorities. The

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fragmentation between three different operators generated a splintering of responsibilities. An information asymmetry between the municipality and a lack of transparency from the two multinationals on both the financial and operational level were noticeable. Hence the monitoring and the evaluation of the quality of the service by the municipality were partial and deficient. It was quite impossible to get a genuine and effective control on the service. To give an example, the margin declared in their annual reports was actually at least the double. There were many unjustified costs and water price raised more than 175% between 1985 and 2008 for the sole drinking water part. In 2001, when a new political coalition (Left and Greens) took office in Paris, we decided to carry out a complete overhaul of Paris water policy, guided by strong principles: providing the best water at a fair cost; placing users at the heart of the service; guaranteeing equal access to water for all; ensuring thorough and transparent management, and developing a sustainable and long-term vision.

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After several stages including negotiations with the two multinationals companies, the municipality of Paris took the decision in 2008 not to renew the Suez and Veolia contracts and to instead create a new public operator, Eau de Paris (EDP), which took over all water operations. The challenge was huge; we should merge three private entities into a public one. We had to deal with a lot of very complicated administrative, juridical, technical, financial, human resources stakes. We succeeded to accomplish this merger process with an exceptional mobilization of the staff at every level. On 1st January 2010, EDP became totally operational and took control of the Parisian water service, from the catchment through to the billing and the end-consumer service. This ambitious reform programme was guided by a strong political belief that water needs to be managed as a common good and not to make profits, but also by the goal to set up a new model for the public local services. We wanted to not only lead a successful remunicipalisation, but also to demonstrate that we could operate in a more

On The Ground

efficient and sustainable way with a public-owned company than with the former private companies. Eau de Paris, the largest drinking water utility in France, is currently a 100% publicly-owned company without any private shareholders. It has legal and managerial autonomy and its own ring-fenced budget. All its income exclusively comes from the water bills. There are no taxes or subsidies coming from the municipality. The economic choice of a sole public authority operator favours financial equilibrium. The profits are systematically reinvested in the development of the enterprise, in the assets management, research program and so on. Contrary to what happened in the previous situation, there is now an entirely transparent policy of purchasing and works due to bidding procedures with public procurement that guarantee ethics and the best value for money. Most of the staff (around 900 employees) has permanent employment contracts. Contracting out is kept to a minimum. One of the first important changes is related to the governance framework. The political will was to involve all the stakeholders of the water sector and to introduce transparency, integrity and a check-and-balance system. Instead of having three private operators, including two big corporations, which steered the water policy by controlling all the information and the leverage actions, we have now a new governance model with the municipality of Paris as a genuine organizing

authority and many diverse representatives of civil society. Thus the municipality of Paris fully plays its role by defining the objectives and the policy framework, and by ensuring assessment and control of its water operator. The democratization of governance means that civil society is an effective partner in decision-making and can play a role of counter power to the local government.

A participative governance of the new public company The political principle was to set up new governance structures to allow the active engagement of all water service stakeholders and to place citizens at the heart of the service. Eau de Paris has opted for a board of directors open to civil society and to employees representatives as well. It was a first in France. A board of directors open to all the stakeholders Traditionally the Board of Directors of Eau de Paris is only made up of elected officials from the municipality. The political decision has been taken to expand the board with representatives of civil society and EDP’s workers. There are currently twenty seats on the board: nine city councillors appointed by the municipal majority party, four city councillors appointed by the municipal minority, three representatives from civil society (the main consumers’ association, www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 125

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the largest environmental foundation and the Parisian Water Observatory) and two representatives from Eau de Paris staff, who are elected within the company’s works council. All have the same right to vote. Two additional members are experts, a scientist and a specialist of local participatory methods with consultative rights. No member of the Board receives financial compensation. The president is nominated by the mayor, subject to approval by City Council. The president can cast the deciding vote in case of a tie. EDP’s board of directors examines and approves all the main decisions related to the operational and management’s activities. They have complete access to all information, data, reports and so on, so that they can decide with full background knowledge. All board members can request that any item, be it very specific or more widely strategic, be discussed in the board. The core democratic principle that underpins the new governance of Eau de Paris is to associate the employees and the civil society in the long-term and strategic decisions. Specifically, it means that the budget, the business plan, the pluri-annual investment programming, and many other strategic policies are discussed and decided by the board. Hence the workers’ representatives, the citizens and associations all play a role in structural decisions and the major issues faced by the company. An important point to note is that the two major civil society associations initially accepted seats on the new board on the condition of being non-voting members with consultative power. They indeed were not willing to be accountable for decisions taken by the EDP board which they felt could undermine their independence with respect to the municipality of Paris and Eau de Paris. After working on the Board, they changed their mind once they realised and appreciated their absolute freedom of speech and vote on the board. As the board position allowed them access to all the information they need to carry out their mandate

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of independent administrators, they were convinced that they could enjoy complete autonomy within the board. Eventually, they requested to have the same voting rights as the workers and political representatives. The check and balance principles, a key element for economical democracy, guide the governance insofar as all stakeholders have their own interest which are not always convergent. The power and counter-power game, even if it is more compl ic ate d a nd time-consuming in the decision-making process, is a necessary condition for an economic democracy, as it sustains the legitimacy of the decisions taken. In the case of Eau de Paris it is a very beneficial experience. It allows a real debate between all the stakeholders in the public water service with a diversity of points of views. It also allows the points of views of actors other than water specialists and managers to be taken into account. In this new governance model we also strengthened the check and balance principles and the role of civil society thanks to an innovative participatory democracy body, l'Observatoire parisien de l'eau (OPE), the Paris Water Observatory.

On The Ground

The Parisian Water Observatory In 2006, the municipality created l'Observatoire parisien de l'eau following a demand of a local association. This participatory democracy body is an extra-municipal commission, and its current status was fixed by a municipal decree of 22 March 2013. At first it was a means of communication from the municipality towards the civil society associations. In the framework of the new water policy, I decided to transform it into a platform for information, discussion and debates on water issues including oversight functions on the service. The Observatory is composed of four colleges of experts. This is a minima list of members drawn from civil society associations, trade unions, experts, academics, elected officials, etc., which does not exclude any other candidature. In addition to institutional and professional actors,

individuals can be members in an individual capacity and all associations are welcome to apply for membership. It is not chaired by a Councillor of Paris but by a member of the OPE elected among its peers and not chosen at administrative or political levels. The Observatory assists the City government in defining and implementing its water and sanitation policy. It is a consultation platform where citizens can raise concerns and transmit their requests to the municipality regarding waterrelated topics (like resources protection, water production, waste water treatment, rain water management, etc.). The Observatory draws up an annual work programme: it covers all the water issues on which the Paris Council will have to take a decision, as well as any other topics that its members judge appropriate. It can present new items for the city council to debate and decide. It www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 127

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organises many meetings in plenary session and also thematic working groups. The municipality can also ask the Observatory to work on a specific issue to provide input to municipal debate and decision-making. Although it is only an advisory body, it has real oversight functions over the water service. Thus, all the deliberations regarding the water policy voted at the City Council must be debated within the observatory before being examined by the council. There are many reasons why it is difficult to build genuine democratic participation. The asymmetry of information and the partial lack of knowledge and/or technical skills of some parties – users and citizens mostly, are the main ones. In the context of our governance reform we gave more resources for civil society to access information, to fully grasp the water-related issues via the OPE and the board, and thus to grow into effective partners. A performance agreement In this new organisation of the water system a new evaluation tool was created to allow true control over the activities of the service by the elected representatives, municipal administration but also by the citizens. It is the performance contract signed between the municipality of Paris and EDP every five years. The first one was negotiated in 2010 with the creation of Eau de Paris. This document is not confidential, and it is debated among the members of EDP's board, within the Parisian Water Observatory and the local government. This performance agreement has several fixed objectives and designs the missions of EDP within the municipality’s policies. Ten main social, environmental, economic and technical goals are defined and backed by forty more detailed performance indicators, ranging from “Ensure the supply of good quality water in any circumstances and a transparent management,” to “Users are placed at the heart of the water service” through a commitment towards a socially advanced corporation model.

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The contract also covers the city’s control over the operator and how success is evaluated. The public company reports on its management to the municipal administration, through regular reporting based on performance indicators. These are defined in the contract that binds the company to its organising authority. While the municipality of Paris couldn’t carry out proper control over private companies concerning the financial and technical aspects of the service provided by them, the activities of Eau de Paris are monitored in a transparent and continuous way. In June 2017, Eau de Paris was awarded the United Nations Public Services Award in the category ‘Promoting transparency, accountability and integrity in public services.’

A sustainable and resilient water policy for Paris Among the natural resources, water resources are most impacted by climate chaos and by pollution. The Paris’s water supply is provided by half from surface waters (two rivers, la Seine and la Marne) and by half from groundwater resources around Paris with catchment areas located in intensive farming lands. On the scale of the Parisian watershed basin, climate change could have a strong impact on aquatic environments. According to a number of scientific studies this could lead by 2100 to an increase in stream temperature – ~2° C in average –, with significant consequences for the biological and chemical quality of the water. This increases the water stress by declining water availability, some scenarios forecasting a decrease by 30% of the flow of the Seine and Marne rivers. The trend is already towards decreasing water resources and lower groundwater levels. In parallel we already notice an increase of frequency, duration and intensity of rain storms and floods. Paris is still threatened by a centennial-type flood, as experienced in 1901, which could today impact up to 5 million of inhabitants in the Parisian agglomeration and cause 5 billion euros worth damages.

On The Ground

In this context, the city of Paris and Eau de Paris are committed to making Paris and the surrounding area a sustainable and resilient territory, able to face the consequences of climate change, the loss of biodiversity and pollution. For this purpose, the remunicipalisation of the Paris water utility was accompanied by a complete redefinition of municipal water policy. The goal was to have an operator able to take a long-term perspective and to integrate wider social and environmental concerns. A publicly-owned entity furthers a long-term vision and places present and future generations’ best interests at the core of decision-making. The absence of private shareholders and short-term returns on capital constraints allow EdP to invest and manage without pressure to maximise profits and return dividends. In the opposite of the big corporations, which are more guided by a financial rather than an industrial logic, Eau de Paris has to fulfil public service obligations over time. From the start, it was planned that the new water system in Paris would encompass technical, democratic and economic issues with consideration of social and environmental sustainability. The new policy with its different phases was elaborated by the Paris municipality in collaboration with Eau de Paris and in consultation with the Water Observatory, before being eventually adopted by the City Council. This vote provided politically legitimate guidelines for the Paris water policy. Two years following the creation of the public company, in 2012, the municipality published after

discussion and vote the « Blue Book » (Livre Bleu). For the first time in Paris we had a comprehensive report about all water-related policies, actions and perspectives for the city of Paris. It draws up action plans to deal with the increased risks associated with floods, heat waves and pollutions, but also presents cross-cutting policies integrating the water system as a key element. Paris benefits from the different types of water circulating in the city (drinking, non-drinking, wastewater and rainwater) with different networks. Giving water, in all its forms, the rightful place it deserves, this Blue Book designs urban planning by integrating water as well-being factor in the local amenities and infrastructures, essential in a context of climate change. Water accessibility and promotion Water accessibility is a major issue, and a social policy of water has been set up. A commitment was taken by the municipality to decrease the price of water in the context of the remunicipalisation. We wanted the consumers to pay the price that reflects transparently the sole cost of water. As early as 2010, after a debate within the both the Paris Water Observatory and the Board, we took the decision to lower the price of water by 8%. In 2020 the price is still very affordable and controlled (in fact less than 1% annual increase), one of the lowest prices in France. At the same time, water cuts have been prohibited in homes (it was the case long before 2013’s Brottes law prohibited water cuts nationwide) and even for squats. No flow rate restrictors have been installed. Eau de www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 129

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Paris makes an annual €500,000 contribution to the Housing solidarity fund (FSL), which allocates funds to help people keep their housing and pay their water bills. In 2012 a Water Solidarity fund was created for individual subscribers. We have also developed an “on-street water access” action for the homeless (flasks and jerrycans distributed along with water access maps in the city). Since 2010, Paris increased the presence and the visibility of public drinking water fountains 130 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

accessible to everybody throughout the city. Many free public drinking fountains have been installed in public spaces (gardens, squares, and so on). Currently 1,200, and numerous public fountains are kept in working order during winter to enable homeless people to access water. We developed an innovative concept with the creation of « La Pétillante ». It is a sparkling water fountain which supplies tap water made carbonated by a simple process. This initiative was very much appreciated by Parisians. In the framework of the city’s participatory budget, Parisians voted to finance ever more new fountains in public spaces. In its overarching policy to promote tap water versus bottled water, Eau de Paris with the municipality launched many campaigns and sensitization programmes to encourage the use of tap water, which is cheaper and better for the environment. It enhances responsible consumption by promoting the value of tap water in schools and among the young, targeting actions on the less well-off, supplying water during major cultural and sporting events. It has developed an education and awareness-raising policy to help people, especially children and the less well-off households, to understand water related issues and to offer advice on how to limit water consumption. Each of these initiatives is an opportunity to prove that tap water is a natural everyday resource for people wishing to consume responsibly. Furthermore, in 2007 we opened a venue dedicated to water, the Pavillon de l’eau. It is a unique place to alert, inform and debate about water and environmental issues. Many free exhibitions, conferences and school programmes are organised there. In July 2011, all board members voted unanimously to insource customer service, which marks an important milestone in the new relationship the municipal service aims to establish with its customers and users. In the former organisation of the water service, the fragmentation between three different operators made it impossible for users to identify who was responsible for the service. Furthermore the commercial management of the billing operated by the multinationals

On The Ground

was very lucrative and totally non-transparent. Bringing the service in house allowed EDP to innovate technologically by designing a new range of free services that everyone can access: real-time information to consumers, leak alerts and over-consumption alerts. Called NOVEO this new array of services was targeted to help the consumers manage their consumption and their bills of water. A single entry-point center was launched to answer every question of all users and subscribers. The new customer service ended up winning the award for Best Customer service of the Year (water distribution) for seven years in a row, with 97% customer satisfaction. This shows the performance of the new public water operator in Paris. That also demonstrates the ability of a public company to innovate and to improve the management of a water service. The commitment of Eau de Paris and the municipality in an ambitious strategy to address environmental issues has resulted in the implementation of several innovations. Resource protection and biodiversity strategy The protection of underground and surface water resources preserves the common natural heritage and landscape and makes it easier to provide quality drinking water. Intensive farming impacts the quality and quantity of water resources as well as biodiversity. Eau de Paris, thus, has to address the issue of water pollution by chemical inputs. In this context it takes many measures to encourage the transition to agro-ecological practices, which are better able to preserve water quality. The public operator partners with farmers to contribute to more responsible water management, helping redirect farming practices towards a more sustainable and agro-ecological model. EdP provides expertise to help farmers use less chemical inputs, change their agricultural methods. It

also purchases farmland plots and makes them available to farmers through land leases (rural and environmental) and encourages organic farming with low chemical inputs, working hand in hand with local stakeholders and the watershed basin agency – bassin Seine-Normandie. It has a staff team specially dedicated to this actions’ program. This is a medium to long-term project, essential not only to protect water quality but also to anticipate and adapt to climate chaos. It enables Eau de Paris to improve the quality of water extracted and to reduce production costs and environmental impacts of treatment processes for making water drinkable. Beside to the resources preservation, the public company carries out actions to safeguard biodiversity and to protect the diversity of ecosystems. Through its installations (aqueducts, production plants, catchment areas), Eau de Paris works with local stakeholders to help establish green and blue belts, which are ecological continuities essential for the welfare of inhabitants as well as for the fauna and flora. It modified its practices of maintenance on its catchments areas in favour of ecological management and restoration. EDP is involved in the municipal policy for the revegetation of the public spaces and for the development of urban agriculture. Hence it has mobilised 10,000 square meters of some reservoirs and plants for this purpose. Water/Energy nexus and urban planning The public company is dedicated to reducing the ecological footprint generated by all its water production and distribution activities, deploying an ambitious climate-energy plan setting numerous ambitious climate change-related targets. The goals were to reduce by 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by 15%, energy consumption by 12%, and to increase the share of renewables in total energy consumption up to 95%. In addition to the 4,000 m2 photovoltaic panels already in operation on EdP installations 11,000 m2 new ones have been

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planned. They are 2,100 Mwh produced thanks to solar panels. Eau de Paris also experiments with innovative technologies to create renewable energy. For example a production site of geothermal energy from the Albien underground Aquifer provides 17.500 MWh renewable energy. This process will cover 83% of the heating needs of a new neighbourhood which will house 6,500 inhabitants and 260,000 square meters of offices. Another innovative energy production process uses calories from water network to provide heat or air-conditioning thanks to the flow and the difference in temperature. The water department of Paris has also set up an innovative system for getting heat recovery from the sewer network. The process turns wastewater into a resource. Compared to other traditional energies, the one harnessed from the sewers shows numerous benefits: it is a renewable, locally and continuously

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available, clean and repurposing energy resource. To make the city of Paris more resilient to face the impacts of climate change we decided to use water resources as an asset. This leads to the creation of more islands and cooling paths, with new green and natural open spaces for protecting biodiversity as well as developing a cooling network. There is a medium- to long-term plan to transform schoolyards into cooling and wellbeing island “oases”. It will aim at gradually replacing asphalt walkways with trees and vegetation, test new materials (porous and permeable) and new methods to cool schoolyards thanks to the non-drinking water network and rain water. In addition many initiatives have been launched to significantly increase the revegetation of buildings, walls, rooftops and to adapt urban spaces to high temperatures.

On The Ground

We are all just walking each other home by Kathleen R. Smythe

 On the road to downtown Kumasi. Credit: Unknown/ Students.

K: Where did you go to look for a girl? N (an elderly man): Formerly we went round

to look for girls. When we found them, we sat on one side and they sat on the other side. And we asked them in turn which boy they liked. If one agreed, they shook hands. K and N: Laughter K: Did they love just by looking at each other? N: Yes, it was just like that. After this it was not yet marriage. One had to go and ask about the character of the girl. The elders would not advise to marry if for example a certain girl was a thief or lazy….

In my mid-twenties living in southwestern Tanzania, I was learning about the Fipa people and their history for my doctoral dissertation. In eighteen months, I conducted over two hundred interviews across much of the northern portion of the Fipa plateau, sandwiched between Lakes Rukwa and Tanganyika. I was curious how their lives had changed as a result of Catholic missionaries who had declared 100% success after two generations of evangelizing. I was drawn to this work for a number of reasons but one of them was the need to learn about their lives so as to construct a narrative that

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On The Ground reflected their experience and added to scholarly understanding of the colonial experience in Africa. I was, as many scholars do, also seeking integration and wholeness for myself. What did I need to know about the lives of rural Africans in order to be a better North American? In order to do so, I had to talk to people in a language other than my own and to listen, really listen to what they were telling me. I learned KiSwahili in graduate school and used it as an intermediary language to learn KiFipa (the local language) when I got to Tanzania. But language was just part of the equation. Listening is not easy in one’s own language and culture. We do not learn to listen in any formal way in our education. If we are lucky, we have role models in our families and among our friends of people who really listen. I learned about listening from a fellow graduate student who had just returned from her fieldwork while I was still in school. She showed me some of her interview transcripts and the way she sought to draw her interlocuter out and allow for her ideas and train of thought as much as possible. To allow the person with whom I was speaking to direct the conversation as much as possible, she counseled, insert my own direction as little as possible. This is not as easy as it sounds, as I always had an agenda, a set of questions I sought to ask. But it was quickly clear that if I let them talk about what they wished my data would be far richer.

But it was quickly clear that if I let them talk about what they wished my data would be far richer.

 Smythe weaving near Kumasi, GhanaCredit: Unknown/Students.

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I was, as many scholars do, also seeking integration and wholeness for myself. What did I need to know about the lives of rural Africans in order to be a better North American? K: At what age did you get religious instruction? E (an elderly woman): Formerly we were

baptized at about ten years of age and some were even twelve years, already big girls with breasts already. We followed instruction for three weeks. K: At Kasu or? E: At Kasu we were already going every day. It was there we were selected and came here and followed religious instruction for three weeks. K: Here at Chala? E: Yes, it was then that the teacher selected so and so you go for the Holy Communion instructions. K: At Chala? E: Yes, at Chala. There were many people….we were very many… The mission station was only here.

On The Ground

Just repeating back the last phrase or words that I had heard from the person with whom I was speaking was often enough to encourage them to continue telling the story they were telling, to bring to life a certain understanding of the meaning and import of their own experience.

Without fail, my hosts, after hours together already, would “give me a push” home. The verb, “sindikiza” means to escort in KiSwahili. M (elderly woman): When we were working

[for the Catholic sisters] we got 400 shillings a month. K: Was that much money? M: Yes, very much. I bought clothes and everything [pins, shoes] and some of it remained. I gave the remainder to Kontwa’s wife to keep it for me. When my father came from Mpanda and took some of this money, I cried. It was feast day and I wanted to buy clothes…. I cried very much. I felt much grief. K: No buying clothes! M: No buying clothes. I felt very sorry and spent the feast [Christmas] without clothes.

Interviewing was just a small part of the “listening” project that was my historical and anthropological research. My work there was a dance of accompaniment, of merging my agenda with theirs. Learning from and about Fipa often involved walking to their homes miles from where I was living and an interview of an hour or more. Usually, the interview was followed by a meal. I often re-played the interview so that we could all hear what had been produced. Fipa loved hearing their own words again. The walking was an integral part of the experience as I learned much by being out and observing people in their fields and around their homes. The paths were narrow, often surrounded by fields or bush, forged over decades to connect people to markets and churches. Without fail, my hosts, after hours together already, would “give me a push” home. The verb, “sindikiza” means to escort in KiSwahili. But when someone gives you their time for your work and then walks a few meters, sometimes a kilometer or more with you as you return home, there is something more going on than escorting in the common North American understanding of the term. Many have been deeply moved by Ram Dass’s declaration that “We are all just walking each

 Hemmings, Clare and Fanselows. Credit: Kathleen Smythe.

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The resonance between Dass’ oftquoted statement and the KiSwahili verb helps us to see that we can accompany each other home long before the last stages of our lives on earth. other home.” But it has often been interpreted as accompanying each other through the end of life process. In this case, I think that the resonance between Dass’ oft-quoted statement and the KiSwahili verb helps us to see that we can accompany each other home long before the last stages of our lives on earth. It is such a beautiful sentiment that it seems to shortchange its power if we do not consider that our lives are a long journey toward home, not just in terms of death but in terms of discovering who we are and the promises that we have to keep to ourselves, each other and the earth. My Tanzanian acquaintances, in literally bridging the distance between their home and mine, were enacting Dass’s revelation. While each of us has a self and a way of being and giving in the world, that this being and work is separate from anything is an illusion. When a Tanzanian walked with me from her home toward mine, I felt the hospitality of our time together enveloping the landscape through which we passed. It was a material recognition of our common home and our similar need to belong with each other and where we find ourselves. They were, perhaps, recognizing the long distance I had come, both geographically and metaphorically, to be at their home and speak to them in their language. They also sought to continue the dialogue that I had initiated by seeking an interview. And were as interested in listening to me as I was in listening to them. As with so much of my experience in eastern

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

Africa, this practice illuminates something that we have lost in Western civilization. Usually, an invitation to visit has discrete boundaries both in space and time, marking territory and belonging. So guests come to my home as interlopers and then cross some void to return to their home. The invitation and acceptance might be generous but the generosity is bounded and scarce. Usually little more than what was promised (dinner, drinks) is delivered. But from the beginning of the process in Ufipa, arriving at their home to being given a push toward mine, there was no script. If one were to re-imagine the dinner party in light of my interviewing experience and Tanzanians’ giving others a push, guests would be escorted at least to their cars, leisurely, extending the evening’s celebration and the space that each of us calls home and the opportunity to listen to each other’s stories and experiences. We are all walking each other home, or giving each other a push, not just at the end of our lives, but every day of our lives.

Friends. Credit: Kathleen Smythe.

On The Ground

Leaving a place better than you found it;

Making a difference and restoring ecosystems on the Great Barrier Reef by Anna (Anya) Phelan, Jack F. Ward, Kathleen Doody, Zheng Yen Ng, Ebony Watson, Lily Fogg, Kate Dutton-Regester, Rocio Vargas Soto, Karla Ximena Vazquez Prada, Annaleise Wilson, Hongmin Yan, Timothy Vanden Berg, Jessica Bugeja, Alexander Arkhipov, Matthew Allen & Stefan Hinkelmann

Great Barrier Reef, North Queensland Australia. Credit: Wikipedia Creative Commons

In Brief



Lady Elliot Island is a coral cay on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, and it is considered to be one of world’s best examples of marine ecotourism. With t he implementation of solar and gas technology, water desalination and strategic behavioural adaptations, this multi award-winning ecotourism destination has committed to sustainable operations on a long-term basis. The Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort has also played a lead role in achieving a ‘Green Zone’ designation for the island and surrounding waters from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which is the statutory protected area management agency responsible for the reef. The island is managed jointly by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and in close collaborative lease arrangement with Peter Gash, who is considered by many to be a leader in ecotourism conservation and an ‘environmental crusader’.

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On The Ground  Figure 1. Reef walking tours are offered at LEI, where visitors can explore areas of reef uncovered at low tide, guided by members of their dedicated activities team

Introduction To ‘leave a place better than you found it’ is easier said than done. Yet on a small island at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), one visionary with a team of dedicated individuals is doing just that. Part of the GBR World Heritage Area, Lady Elliot Island (LEI), is a coral cay situated within a highly protected Marine National Park (Green) Zone. The Green Zone is a ‘no-take’ area where extractive activities like fishing or collecting are not allowed without a permit. LEI is a sanctuary for over 57 species of migratory birds, 1,200 species of marine life, including an abundance of large marine fauna such as manta rays, turtles, sharks, and dolphins, and a pristine coral reef. A relatively short time ago, however, this island’s ecosystems were on the brink of collapse. LEI’s soils, enriched with guano from migratory birds, were mined for phosphorus and fertilizer between 1863 and 1873. 1 The majority of the vegetation and all of the guano was removed, the natural ecosystems were destroyed, and the island was left barren and inhospitable with only a flock of introduced goats remaining. Since then, LEI remained uninhabited for almost 100 years. Today LEI is home to the famous Lady Elliot Island Eco-Resort (LEIER). Considered to be one of the world’s most sustainable examples of marine ecotourism, this resort actively monitors the health of the island and surrounding reef, promotes environmental conservation, and runs almost exclusively on renewable energy. Awarded the Advanced Ecotourism Certification in 2009, Climate Action Business Certification in 2014, Climate Action Business Leader in 2017, 138 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

and Australian Tourism Awards in 2017, LEIER has developed strict policies and guidelines to ensure that it operates with minimal environmental impact and actively supports and protects marine and coastal ecosystems. Among other achievements in environmental stewardship, LEIER has reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions by introducing a combination of solar and gas technology, water desalination and various strategic behavioural adaptations on the island. In conjunction with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), the LEIER has developed the first dedicated Climate Change Trail and Tour education program to highlight the impacts of climate change on coral reef ecosystems (Fig. 1). Coral reefs are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth.2-5 These ecosystems contain over 3 million species and support approximately 25% of all marine life 6,7. Reef islands are also critical ecological reservoirs: they provide nesting grounds for turtles, resources for birds to build nurseries and habitable space for reptiles, mammals and terrestrial amphibians.8-10 Importantly, coral reef ecosystems are essential for human wellbeing, directly benefiting hundreds of millions of people around the world.3,4,11-13 Coral reef ecosystems not only provide coastal protection, raw materials, cultural and recreational benefits, they also support livelihoods and food systems, regulate climate and water quality, and are closely associated with spiritual values.14,15 Some estimates suggest that coral reefs provide close to US$30 billion each year in goods and services including fisheries, coastal protection and tourism.4,16-19 In fact, the social, cultural and economic benefits of coral reefs globally has been conservatively estimated at US$1 trillion.20,21 The richly biodiverse Great Barrier Reef includes the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, and is home to approximately 600 species of coral, 30 species

On The Ground

of dolphins and whales, 1625 types of fish, 13000 dugong, 6 species of turtle and 133 varieties of rays and sharks.22,23 The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park generates more than US$5 billion in revenue per year.24 Despite their remarkable biodiversity and economic significance, coral reefs occupy less than 600,000 km2 of Earth’s surface.12 This is equivalent to just 5% of Earth’s rainforest area and 0.07% of Earth’s ocean surface.7,25,26 Globally, the health of these unique ecosystems is rapidly declining. Pertinent threats to coral growth and reef accretion include overfishing, pollution and rising atmospheric CO2 levels that cause ocean warming and acidification, and ultimately, coral bleaching and mortality.3,7 Some scientists believe that there are no unharmed reefs left on Earth.27-29 Recent estimates suggest that up to 90% of coral-dominated ecosystems may be lost if global temperatures rise by more than 1.5 °C, an amount that has already been exceeded in several regions 22,30. Climate change-driven coral bleaching resulted in the loss of 50% of shallow water coral in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef in the last three years alone.22,31 Moreover, because most reef islands are founded upon sediments derived from the surrounding coral reef,

natural and anthropogenic changes of seawater chemistry, seawater temperature, sea level and reef growth affect the health of both coral reefs and islands.10 The link between natural resource conservation and the competitiveness of an ecotourism destination is an important one.32 For example, Boley and Green 33 point out that without environmental conservation ecotourism would simply be a form of nature-based tourism focused on commodifying nature for economic gain. Efforts to link ecotourism to conservation have been made throughout the world including in Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, Zanzibar, South Africa, the United States, Tanzania, Kenya and Australia.32,34-36 Literature shows that socioeconomic and environmental benefits derived from successful ecotourism may include: scientific research funding, improved ecological and cultural sensitivity, boosted infrastructural development and enhanced protection of vulnerable, fragile and delicate ecosystems.36,37 However, not all ecotourism ventures result in conservation outcomes. LEIER is a unique case. In less than a couple of decades, LEI has been transformed from an inhospitable, rocky landscape to a premier example of best practice in ecotourism and  Figure 2. The biodiversity and health of the coral reef ecosystem at Lady Elliot Island is almost unparalleled across the Great Barrier Reef. A. Branching corals (Acropora sp.) surrounding the island. B. Damselfish (Family: Pomacentridae) traversing the reef in the early morning. C. Multiple species of soft and hard corals in full health (i.e. completely unbleached). D. A green turtle (Chelonia mydas) resting beneath branching coral. Image credit: Lily Fogg (A, B and C) and Jack Ward (D)

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ecosystem restoration. Its extraordinary success can arguably be attributed to a handful of dedicated individuals.

LEI Eco Resort 4 E Philosophy

The man and the vision

2. To be efficient

In 1980, a young Australian motorcycle racer, Peter Gash, and his girlfriend Julie (now wife of 35 years) sailed off Queensland’s Fraser Coast to LEI. At the time the island had virtually no trees or bird life. It was isolated, rocky and barren, and its future appeared bleak. Despite this, the pair immediately fell in love with this stark yet beautiful coral cay. While at the time Peter and Julie had very little money, they had plenty of dedication and a willingness to make a difference. Peter initially learned to fly seaplanes and saw the potential that aviation and tourism offered. After many years of returning to the island while running a chartered flight service called Seair Pacific, Peter took over operations of LEI in 2005. A new era for this remote coral cay had begun. Today, LEI is considered one of the “jewels in the crown” of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Peter’s commitment to conservation and sustainability is unwavering, and he humbly refers to himself as the long-term steward of the island. Peter speaks of how the Australian Indigenous people have been telling the story of the GBR for tens of thousands of years and how their ancestors

1. To look after our Environment

3. To be economically sustainable 4. To educate effectively  Table 1. Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort 4E Philosophy

retreated further west as the seas rose - “Australian Aboriginals were the ultimate sustainable managers. Like Native Americans, they didn’t just think about their children’s future, they thought about the future of multiple generations”. For Peter, ‘custodianship’ is very personal – “it’s about long-term thinking, preserving and protecting”. His primary aim is to bring people to the island and immerse them in the experience of being on the GBR so that they can fall in love with its uncharacteristic beauty, and perhaps also be inspired to help protect and preserve it for future generations. In Peter’s own words, “If we help people to fall in love with the Great Barrier Reef and play with it…. they go away, they get inspired, and maybe make a difference to the planet in their own way”. To help achieve his vision for LEI, Peter has developed the ‘4E Philosophy’ (Table 1),  Figure 3. Peter Gash and Prince Charles on LEI.

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On The Ground  Figure 4. Peter Gash on Lady Elliot Island “We’re in desperate need to protect the whole planet for the future of our children and grandchildren. If we don’t, they might not have a future. So for us, we are very blessed, it’s an opportunity for us – we are doing something we’re passionate about” – Peter Gash

stating that “to look after our environment we must be efficient, economically sustainable and able to educate effectively….. We’re all interconnected, we need to look after each other”. Peter’s approach includes continuous reinvestment of the profits generated by LEIER into new sustainability initiatives, and sharing the insights and knowledge gained with everyone who visits the island. His enthusiasm for conservation is contagious and has inspired many people. The LEIER also employs a dedicated team which includes rangers, naturalist, marine biologists, divers, and botanists among others. Everyone on the LEIER team is encouraged to incorporate their own ideas for further impact on making positive change and to share their knowledge with visitors. Peter hopes that when visitors and other tourism operators see what is possible, they will also be inspired to implement similar sustainable practices. Peter reflects back that as a young man he did not necessarily see the world through a sustainability lens. He admits that his ‘long-term thinking philosophy’ evolved from working on LEI for many years and observing what it means to operate in balance with the natural environment. “The more I give to this island, the more it gives back to me” – Peter Gash Who inspires a man like Peter Gash? While the list is long, and includes previous visitors to LEI such as David Attenborough and Jane Goodall, the one individual who stands out for Peter is Prince Charles. “I was very fortunate to have him come out, he’s very inspirational to me - his heart, his values and principles…” Peter explains that although Prince Charles comes from a privileged background, he sees it as his duty to do what he can to help others. This is a philosophy Peter and Charles clearly share, as Peter says “we can all make a difference,

we are all in this together”. What is unique about Peter’s approach is that his ecotourism business focuses on ecological restoration. LEIER not only protects an existing area and mitigates future damage, but it also actively assists the recovery of previously damaged ecosystems.

How do you restore a coral cay ecosystem? Coral cays such as LEI are unique habitats composed of calcium-rich sediments that are cemented by carbonate upon a reef platform.38 Carbonate cements may also lithify clastic sediments such as sand, leading to the formation of ‘beachrock’.39 The accumulation of sand and calcium-rich sediment, which occurs over thousands of years, may generate conditions favorable for the occupation of birds and other migratory animals. In turn, faunal excrement adds nutrients to the weathered parts of the cay. The culmination of this process is the creation of a soil profile that allows for the growth and development of vegetation, and ultimately, a functioning ecosystem. The original founder of the LEIER, Don Adams, described 1960s LEI as “a desolate place with only a few gnarled Pisonia trees”, (Figure 6A).40-42 In an effort to revegetate the island, Adams began to repopulate LEI with over 80 species of seedlings and shrubs sourced from nearby islands of the Great Barrier Reef and mainland Australia. As a www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 141

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result, bird diversity quickly recovered, with 32 species being recorded on LEI in 1986.42,43 Although several of the plant species were not native to Australian coral cays, Adams’ revegetation efforts sparked the revival of LEI’s ecosystem and laid the foundation for Peter Gash’s Re-Greening program. The LEI Re-Greening program, which is conducted in collaboration with Queensland Parks and Wildlife and the GBRMPA, and with support from the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s Reef Islands Initiative aims to restore the natural ecology of LEI to pre-mining conditions. To date, 5.6 ha have been cleared of invasive plant species, and the island has been revegetated with over 6,000 coral cay natives. A particular focus has been placed on re-establishing a mature Pisonia Grandis forest on LEI (Figure 6C).44 The forest also includes shrub land, grassland and coastal vegetation to provide habitat for a range of various seabirds species and nesting sea turtles. Although these type of forests support 75% of the breeding seabirds in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, they are listed as ‘of concern’ under the Vegetation Management Act 1999, being found on only a few of the Capricornia Cay islands.45 The Re-Greening Program is part of the ‘Lady Elliot Island Ecosystem Resilience Plan’ which  Figure 5: (A) Lady Elliot Island circa 1973; showing the barren state of the island caused by guano mining in the 1800’s; (B) Lady Elliot Island in 2017; showing the success of revegetation program; (C) Pisonia grandis, a major focus species in the revegetation program; (D) Red-tailed tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda), one of the threatened bird species currently found breeding on Lady Elliot Island.

is based on a regional ecosystem model. This program includes removing weeds and planting native species to create major vegetation communities. Approximately 8,000 more plants are currently awaiting transplantation in LEI’s established nursery. Compost used to fertilize the plants is produced in the On-Site Composting Apparatus (OSCA), which combines soil and lime with resort waste products including food scraps, paper, and cardboard. Treated greywater is also used to water plants during extended dry periods. The careful monitoring of vegetation and proactive rehabilitation strategies implemented on LEI have led to a significant increase in terrestrial biodiversity.41 LEI is now home to approximately 150 plant species including the ‘vulnerable’ Redtailed Tropicbird (Phaethon rubricauda; Figure 6D). LEI’s location makes it an important site for migrating seabirds to access the rich food supply of the southern GBR. Today, LEI hosts the second highest diversity of breeding seabirds in the GBR, with more than 200,000 birds arriving during breeding season.44 Consequently, the health of the environment has benefited from the deposition of fresh bird guano, which has improved soil quality, encouraged seed dispersal and contributed towards re-establishing a healthy and functional

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 Figure 6. The re-vegetation program at Lady Elliot Island provides habitats for nesting seabirds. A. Peter Gash educating resort guests on the re-vegetation program. B. Black noddies (Anous minutus) nesting on LEI. Image credit: Jack Ward (A) and Coral Watch (B).

ecosystem. The health of the Island has also benefited from the presence of weed species such as lantana which contributed to the redevelopment of the island’s soil profile. Now, however, lantana and other weeds are dominating and inhibiting the growth of native species and disrupting sea bird nesting. Weed removal is a key priority of the Re-Greening Program. Coral reefs occupy low nutrient environments.46,47 Elevated concentrations of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous can reduce reef calcification, alter coral growth rates, and, ultimately, cause shifts from coral to algal domination.46,48,49 Because revegetation and fertilization can lead to increased contributions of nutrients to the surrounding coral reef, the use of insecticides and herbicides is avoided on LEI, and the composition of wastewater outlet material is closely monitored. In addition to the Re-Greening program, other initiatives are undertaken by the LEIER to protect and manage the island’s environment. LEI is located within a GBRMPA Green Zone, from which the extraction of marine flora and fauna is banned. ‘No-take’ zones (such as those surrounding LEI) significantly contribute to sustaining fisheries, enhancing habitat quality and

maintaining ecosystem services on the GBR.50-53 Guests are informed of these bans and educated via signage and information sessions that explain how they can minimize their impact on the environment during their stay. Additionally, only 100 day visitors and 150 overnight guests are permitted on the island at any one time. As a means of further minimizing potential damage to the reef that surrounds LEI, designated mooring sites have been made available and anchoring is prohibited on certain parts of the reef. Ongoing research collaborations actively monitor populations of ecologically significant marine organisms and provide valuable insight into how regulations may be adjusted to better favor the survival of these species. For example, LEIER is a partner with the University of Queensland in Project Manta; a multidisciplinary research program investigating the population biology and ecology of manta rays in eastern Australia. The LEIER assists in facilitating the citizen science component of the research by educating the broader community about this species and their marine environment. Resort patrons and visiting researchers are also encouraged to participate in other active reef monitoring programs such as Eye on the Reef, the Rapid Monitoring Survey, www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 143

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Reef Search, and Coral Watch. Moreover, because of its conservation practices, environmental significance and strategic positioning, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation54 selected LEI as the first island of the 2018 Climate Change Arks for the Reef - Reef Island Initiative. This 7-year project aims to demonstrate how expanding upon and accelerating LEI’s on-ground and in-water practices can minimize the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems. The initiative brings together local businesses, government, community and Traditional Owners together to establish a series of climate change refuges in key sections of the GBR.

What about power and water? Running a sustainable tourism operation 80 km out to sea on the edge of the outer Great Barrier Reef is no simple feat. When Peter Gash obtained custodianship in 2005, the Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort was solely dependent on the daily burning of 550 litres of diesel fuel to power vital services including power, water desalination and wastewater treatment. “That was almost 200,000 litres per year at approximately $300,000 per annum. The fact that the fuel was barged out from the mainland added more diesel burn and another 540 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per annum to the environment” explains Peter. Soon after the IPCC released the 2007 report on the impacts of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions,55 Peter decided to transition LEIER from diesel power to solar power. In 2008, LEIER invested in 140 square meters of photovoltaic cells integrated with 4 banks of commercial battery storage and inverters, reducing the diesel consumption of the resort from 550 to 300 liters daily. The pioneering hybrid solar power system produced approximately 120 kWh, reducing LEIER’s fossil fuel emissions by approximately 40%. In order to minimise demand, energy efficiency measures were implemented including the replacement of halogen globes with compact fluorescents and removing clothes dryers. In 2009, LEIER estimated

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that it had reduced energy demand by 24%. Today, the resort has more than doubled its return on investment, and through further expansion of the system, is powered entirely by solar energy. Sustainable development on the island was further supported through the utilisation of integrated water desalination and waste management systems. The island’s reverse osmosis (RO) desalination plant generates up to 25,000L during a 9-hour solar window, outputting 1L of potable water for every 3L of ocean water processed. The resulting 2L of hypersaline water is returned to the ocean beyond the coral cay’s perimeter, provided its salinity does not exceed 0.005ppm. To reduce daily water demand, water saving initiatives have also been implemented. LEI handles blackwater and greywater waste onsite using an Orenco® Effluent Sewer and AdvanTex® Treatment System, an energy-efficient system which removes microorganisms and impurities using a series of filters. The treated water is subsequently used to irrigate the island’s airstrip, infrastructure vital to the continued success of the resort. The sustainable management of organic waste on a coral cay such as LEI is crucial to ensure minimal impact to the reef. LEIER policy is to minimize the use of single-use consumables. Each item that is brought to the island is carefully assessed for its longevity, ability to be repurposed and ultimate disposal method. In 2012, the resort ceased its sale of plastic water bottles and removed the use of straws from food and beverage facilities. There are a number of sources of organic waste on the island including food, green waste and cardboard. Food and green waste were formerly decomposed on the island using a trenching system to produce composting material. Compost can improve soil health by increasing soil microbial biomass and nutrient and moisture availability.56,57 This has been a valuable resource in the success of LEI’s revegetation efforts. In 2016, the composting system was updated to a solar-powered, automated

On The Ground  Figure 7: Lady Elliot Island from SeaAir Pacific on approach

continuous-batch composter system. In addition to the efficiency associated with automation, the on-site composting system also benefits the island by providing odourless compost material in 10 - 14 days. With the absence of feasible alternatives at present, all other waste including glass, aluminium and tin cans is sorted on the island prior to exportation by barge every three months to the closest resource recovery facilities on mainland Australia.

Conclusion Located on the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, Lady Elliot Island was unsustainably mined for guano in the 1860s. The destructive practice led to the removal of all the vegetation on the island leaving it barren. Following an initial revegetation program in the late 1960s, a succession of tourism ventures were licensed to operate on the island. Since securing the lease on LEI and its small resort in 2005, Peter Gash has transformed this coral cay island into a shining example of best practice in innovative ecological tourism. Leaving a place a little better than you found it is an inherently difficult task. Peter’s passion for conservation and long-term sustainability, along with dedication and care, is creating positive environmental, social and economic impact. Sustaining a coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef as a tourist destination requires three basic necessities: electricity, clean drinking water and sustainable waste management. Peter Gash and

the LEIER team have not only met these needs, they have transformed the once desolate island into what it was always meant to be: a refuge for native plants and animals. In ten years, the resort has greatly reduced its dependence on fossil fuels and lowered the production of material waste through the installation of solar power, innovative waste management technologies and environmentally-sustainable policies. The reintroduction of native species of flora, which are fertilised by composted material, has lured native seabirds back to the island and sparked a remarkable recovery of the island’s biodiversity. The business strategy of ecological tourism has allowed for a sustainable revenue stream and the rehabilitation of the island to go together. The story of LEIER promotes sustainable development through education, energy efficiency, waste reduction, environmental monitoring and restoration. The enthusiastic approach taken in maintaining the island has put it at the forefront of innovative ecotourism. It can be seen as a major inspiration to the global tourism industry and an excellent example of ‘leaving a place a little better than you found it’. What’s next for Peter and the LEI team? They hope to continue to revegetate the island; to establish a formalised volunteer program which will include accommodations and research hub; to continue collaborating with research projects and initiatives; and to work in harmony with all stakeholders for the future of the island and the surrounding ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Peter Gash and the staff of Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort for sharing their story, including Chelsea Godson, and the amazing LEI rangers and staff. The authors would also like to thank Oladipupo Adiamo, Shaikat Debnath and Md.

12. Smith, S. Coral-reef area and the contributions of reefs to processes and resources of the world’s oceans. Nature 273, 225 (1978). 13. Rasheed, A. R. Marine protected areas and human well-being–A systematic review and recommendations. Ecosystem Services 41, 101048 (2020).

Shazib Uddin for their important contributions, comments and

14. Hoegh-Guldberg, O. et al. The ocean. (2014).

suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript. And finally,

15. Duraiappah, A. K. et al. Ecosystems and human well-being:

the authors would like to sincerely thank the University of Queensland’s Global Change Scholars Program for providing the

biodiversity synthesis; a report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. (2005).

opportunity to visit LEI and for supporting this project.

16. Salvat, B. Coral reefs—a challenging ecosystem for human

References

17. Spalding, M. D. & Brown, B. E. Warm-water coral reefs and

societies. Global environmental change 2, 12-18 (1992). 1. Chivas, A., Chappell, J., Polach, H., Pillans, B. & Flood, P. Radiocarbon evidence for the timing and rate of island development, beach-rock formation and phosphatization at Lady Elliot Island, Queensland, Australia. Marine Geology 69, 273-287 (1986). 2. Connell, J. H. Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Science 199, 1302-1310 (1978). 3. Hoegh-Guldberg, O. et al. Coral reefs under rapid climate change and ocean acidification. science 318, 1737-1742 (2007). 4. Moberg, F. & Folke, C. Ecological goods and services of coral reef ecosystems. Ecological economics 29, 215-233 (1999). 5. Odum, H. T. & Odum, E. P. Trophic structure and productivity of a windward coral reef community on Eniwetok Atoll. Ecological monographs 25, 291-320 (1955). 6. Spalding, Ravilious & Green. World atlas of coral reefs. (Univ of California Press, 2001). 7. Spalding & Brown. Warm-water coral reefs and climate change. 350, 769-771 (2015). 8. Roy, P. & Connell, J. Climatic change and the future of atoll states. Journal of Coastal Research, 1057-1075 (1991). 9. uentes, M., Limpus, C. & Hamann, M. Vulnerability of sea turtle nesting grounds to climate change. Global Change Biology 17, 140-153 (2011). 10. Hamylton, S. Will coral islands maintain their growth over the next century? A deterministic model of sediment availability at Lady Elliot Island, Great Barrier Reef. PloS one 9, e94067 (2014). 11. Spurgeon, J. P. The economic valuation of coral reefs. Marine Pollution Bulletin 24, 529-536 (1992).

climate change. Science 350, 769-771 (2015). 18. Cesar, H., Burke, L. & Pet-Soede, L. The economics of worldwide coral reef degradation. (Cesar environmental economics consulting (CEEC), 2003). 19. Bruckner, A. W. Life-saving products from coral reefs. Issues in Science and Technology 18, 39-44 (2002). 20. Hoegh-Guldberg, O. Reviving the Ocean Economy: the case for action. (2015). 21. Costanza, R. et al. Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global environmental change 26, 152-158 (2014). 22. Pendleton, L. et al. The Great Barrier Reef: Vulnerabilities and solutions in the face of ocean acidification. Regional Studies in Marine Science, 100729 (2019). 23. Reid, C., Marshall, J., Logan, D. & Kleine, D. Coral Reefs and Climate Change: The guide for education and awareness. (2012). 24. Deloitte. Economic contribution of the Great Barrier Reef, prepared for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. (2013). 25. Reaka-Kudla, M. L. The global biodiversity of coral reefs: a comparison with rain forests. Biodiversity II: Understanding and protecting our biological resources 2, 551 (1997). 26. Knowlton, N. et al. Coral reef biodiversity. Life in the world’s oceans: diversity distribution and abundance, 65-74 (2010). 27. Pandolfi, J. M. et al. Global trajectories of the long-term decline of coral reef ecosystems. Science 301, 955-958 (2003). 28. Jackson, J. B. et al. Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems. science 293, 629-637 (2001). 29. Hughes, T. P. et al. Climate change, human impacts, and the resilience of coral reefs. science 301, 929-933 (2003).

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30. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, I. Global Warming of 1.5°C. (2018). 31. Hughes, T. P. et al. Global warming and recurrent mass bleaching of corals. Nature 543, 373 (2017). 32. Donohoe, H. M. & Needham, R. D. Ecotourism: The evolving contemporary definition. Journal of Ecotourism 5, 192-210 (2006). 33. Boley, B. B. & Green, G. T. Ecotourism and natural resource conservation: The ‘potential’for a sustainable symbiotic relationship. Journal of Ecotourism 15, 36-50 (2016). 34. Samia, D. S. et al. in Ecotourism’s Promise and Peril 153-178 (Springer, 2017). 35. Cobbinah, P. B. Contextualising the meaning of ecotourism. Tourism Management Perspectives 16, 179-189, doi:https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tmp.2015.07.015 (2015). 36. Honey, M. Ecotourism and sustainable development: Who owns paradise? , (Island Press, 2008). 37. Carr, L. & Mendelsohn, R. Valuing coral reefs: a travel cost analysis of the Great Barrier Reef. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 32, 353-358 (2003). 38. Yamano, H., Miyajima, T. & Koike, I. Importance of foraminifera for the formation and maintenance of a coral sand cay: Green Island, Australia. Coral Reefs 19, 51-58 (2000). 39. Vousdoukas, M., Velegrakis, A. & Plomaritis, T. Beachrock occurrence, characteristics, formation mechanisms and impacts. Earth-Science Reviews 85, 23-46 (2007). 40. Heatwole, H. Terrestrial vegetation of the coral cays, Capricornia section, Great Barrier Reef marine park. The Capricornia Section of the Great Barrier Reef: Past, Present and Future, 87-139 (1984). 41. Rae, N. & Carter, S. Rock to riches: The revegetation of Lady Elliot Island. Australian Journal of Multi-disciplinary Engineering 5, 33-38 (2007). 42. Walsh, A. & Anthony, W. Lady Elliot: First Island of the Great Barrier Reef. (Boolarong Publications, 1987). 43. Batianoff, G. in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland. 5-14. 44. DSDIP. Department of State Development, Infrastructure & Planning; State of Queensland, jointly prepared with the

45. Day, J. The great barrier reef marine park: The grandfather of modern MPAs. Big Bold Blue: Lessons from Australia’s Marine Protected Areas, 65-97 (2016). 46. Kinsey, D. W. & Davies, P. J. Effects of elevated nitrogen and phosphorus on coral reef growth 1. Limnology and oceanography 24, 935-940 (1979). 47. Knowlton, N. The future of coral reefs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98, 5419-5425 (2001). 48. Stambler, N., Popper, N., Dubinsky, Z. & Stimson, J. Effects of nutrient enrichment and water motion on the coral Pocillopora damicornis. (1991). 49. 49 Harrison, P. & Ward, S. Elevated levels of nitrogen and phosphorus reduce fertilisation success of gametes from scleractinian reef corals. Marine Biology 139, 1057-1068 (2001). 50. McCook, L. J. et al. Adaptive management of the Great Barrier Reef: a globally significant demonstration of the benefits of networks of marine reserves. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, 18278-18285 (2010). 51. Graham, N. A. et al. From microbes to people: tractable benefits of no-take areas for coral reefs. Oceanography and Marine Biology-an Annual Review 49, 105 (2011). 52. Harrison, H. B. et al. Larval export from marine reserves and the recruitment benefit for fish and fisheries. Current biology 22, 1023-1028 (2012). 53. Emslie, M. J. et al. Expectations and outcomes of reserve network performance following re-zoning of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Current Biology 25, 983-992 (2015). 54. Foundation, G. B. R. Great Barrier Reef Foundation. Great Barrier Reef Foundation “Climate change arks for the Reef: Reef Islands Initiative Causes”. [Online]. Available:

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barrierreef.org/science-with-impact/reef-islands 2019]. 2019). 55. Pachauri, R. K. & Reisinger, A. Synthesis report. Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 151165 (2007). 56. Oldfield, E. E. et al. Positive effects of afforestation efforts on the health of urban soils. Forest Ecology and Management 313, 266273 (2014). 57. Tong, J., Sun, X., Li, S., Qu, B. & Wan, L. Reutilization of Green

GBRMPA, 2013. “Island Management: Demonstration case” in

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Crafting the Post COVID World By Hunter Lovins, Sandrine Dixson-Declève & Mamphela Ramphele

We will emerge from this emergency. When we do, what kind of a world do we want to create?

OVID-19 is killing hundreds of thousands of us. The lockdown that governments hope will stem its spread has revealed the fragility of the global economy with devastating impacts on vulnerable populations.

The unfolding tragedy for millions of people is far from over. Yet several things are clear: • This will hurt the poorest among us worst, and • We will emerge from this emergency. When we do, we will have to answer several urgent questions: What has the pandemic taught us about the structural failures of our prior world? And can we now build a better one? People will be desperate to “return to normal” but normal was a horrible world for many people. In the west, levels of teen suicide1 are high and rising. Deforestation, biodiversity loss, and climate change are already killing people. Vulnerable populations across the developing world already suffer the ravages of 148 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

climate change, ecosystem destruction, chronic diseases and epidemics from Ebola to HIV-AIDS. The UN Global Environmental Outlook Six estimates “nearly one quarter of all deaths globally in 2012 could be attributed to modifiable environmental risks, with a greater portion occurring in populations in a vulnerable situation and in developing countries.”2 The systematic trashing of our home planet makes pandemics more likely.3 Deforestation drives wild animals closer to human populations, increasing the likelihood that zoonotic viruses4 will make the cross-species leap and infect us. Industrial agriculture likely created the conditions that enabled COVID-19

Envisioning to flourish.5 Likewise, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global warming will likely accelerate the emergence of new viruses. The inequality created by industrial capitalism already causes appalling death rates among the millions of slum-dwellers in the megacities of Asia, Africa and Latin America.6 We need a new normal. But whose ideas will lead the creation of the new world? And most importantly, what kind of a world do we want to craft? Arundhati Roy, describing the impact of COVID_19 on India,7 observed: "Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it." Our challenge is to emerge from this emergency with new social and economic systems that will deliver a world that works for everyone. If, in a rush to return to business as usual, we paper over the inadequate systems of yesterday and try to muddle on, we will be confronted by crisis after crisis until our ability to cope will be exhausted. If we try to maintain the same failed economic model that got us here, future shocks will exceed the capacity of governments, financial institutions, and corporate crisis managers to respond. Indeed, the “coronacrisis” has already done so. The Club of Rome warned of this in its famous 1972 report, The Limits to Growth,8 and again in 1992 in Beyond the Limits.9 As lead author, Donella Meadows, noted back then, unless we shift to dramatically more sustainable systems, humanity’s future will be defined not by a single emergency but by compounding separate crises stemming from our failure to live sustainably. These, she warned, will overwhelm us. This echoes the description by historian Patrick Wyman of how empires fail.10 He observes: “When the real issues come up, healthy states, the ones capable of handling and minimizing everyday dysfunction, have a great deal more capacity to respond than those happily waltzing toward their end. But by the time the obvious, glaring crisis arrives and the true scale of the problem

“We need a new normal. But whose ideas will lead the creation of the new world? And most importantly, what kind of a world do we want to craft?” becomes clear, it’s far too late. The disaster—a major crisis of political legitimacy, a coronavirus pandemic, a climate catastrophe—doesn’t so much break the system as show just how broken the system already was.” He concludes, “The pull of the past is strong. The mental frameworks through which we understand the world are durable, far more so than its actual fabric….We don’t have to wait decades for all this to sink in. The nature of the problem and its scale are clear now, right now, on the cusp of the disaster.” www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 149

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The coronavirus pandemic is a wake-up call.11 We simply must stop exceeding the planet’s limits. We must rebuild, not by bailing out oil companies and real estate moguls, but by investing in shared prosperity on a healthy planet. The world of yesterday wasn’t working.

“The coronavirus pandemic is a wake-up call. We simply must stop exceeding the planet’s limits. We must rebuild, not by bailing out oil companies and real estate moguls, but by investing in shared prosperity on a healthy planet. The full force of the current catastrophe has only begun to hit. Roy describes how the lockdown unemployed many of the 460 million Indian workers, and turned them out of the work camps: “They knew they were going home potentially to slow starvation. Perhaps they even knew they could be carrying the virus with them, and would infect their families, their parents and grandparents back home, but they desperately needed a shred of familiarity, shelter and dignity, as well as food, if not love.” Rounded up, beaten for violating curfews, they 150 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

huddle now by the roads, or try to return to the cities because there is nowhere else for them to go. Roy describes how broken supply chains have left thousands of truckers idle on the highways as food rots unharvested in fields. Roy suggests that Prime Minister Modi request the French prime minister to allow India to renege on Its plan to buy fighter jet and use the €7.8bn to feed a few million hungry people. “Surely,” she says, “The French will understand.” Dr. Jacqueline McGlade, former Chief Scientist of UNEP describes a similar if somewhat less dire situation in Kenya, as anyone who can flees back to the bush. Lockdowns are hard to enforce if there is no food. More than half of Africa regularly faces food insecurity, and COVID-19 will make this worse. Many in urban areas depend on the informal economy for their food and other necessities. The report, “Why Africa is at risk of a coronavirus catastrophe,” noted:12 If – or when – a broader outbreak develops, the continent does not have anything approaching the resources necessary to fight it on a broad scale. African nations have some of the least developed health systems in the world, both because of extreme poverty across the continent and because of fraught relations between federal governments

Envisioning

and traditional tribal groups drawn together by European cartographers who cared about little more than their colonistic enterprises a century ago. “The pandemic is testing the health systems in Africa especially around the readiness to handle public health emergencies. The capabilities of handling a large number of critically ill patients would be the most challenging especially in countries with poor health systems,” said David Meya, an infectious disease expert at the College of Health Sciences at Makerere University in Uganda. On our little planet, all species, countries, and geopolitical issues are ultimately interconnected. We are witnessing how the outbreak of a virus in China can wreak havoc on the whole world. The other looming crises, climate change, biodiversity loss, and financial collapses, like COVID-19 do not observe national or even physical borders. These problems can be managed only through collective action that starts well before the crisis is upon us.

Three things are obvious:

•

We’re all in this together. The virus respects no border, no class, no racial category. Perhaps for the first time in our existence, humanity is united in a struggle for our future. In any emergency it is natural to think first of yourself, your family. But our globalized world demands that we think next of everyone else. This crisis will hit poorer people, developing countries far harder than it will impact the wealthy in the Global North. Humanity must come together now to ensure that everyone is as protected as possible, and has the same ability to rebuild, or the virus will resurge and we will be right back into the mess.

•

econd, now is the time to dream big, to S envision the finest future we can co-create. If we are going to rebuild everything from scratch, now is the time to do it right the first time. We have all of the technologies we need, all the resources to craft a world that works for everyone. Although the tragedy is still unfolding, now is the time to put in place the policies to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes that brought this catastrophe on us, and that we do not create far worse challenges like dictatorships. Governments are spending trillions of dollars, and transforming human societies more or less overnight. We now all know that power will act forcefully when it is motivated. We can do this again. We must do it, if we are to avoid far worse crises to come. Third, the crises to come, like this one, are global, but they will be worse. The pandemic is only a symptom. Had the world listened to the warnings of the scientists, had leaders acted on the best medical advice, the pandemic could have been mitigated.

“We’re all in this together. The virus respects no border, no class, no racial category. Perhaps for the first time in our existence, humanity is united in a struggle for our future.”

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The world’s scientists have been warning of such pandemics for years, and yet countries like the US dismantled its pandemic early warning systems. Similarly, scientists are warning us about the climate crisis, the loss of biodiversity, the dangers of extreme inequality. They have been warning us for years. Unless we act fast, these still looming threats will wreck everything, even perhaps ending civilization as we know it.13 Now is the time to learn from today’s experience and implement systemic economic change, both to build shared prosperity, and to forestall the worst of the crises to come. COVID-19 forced entire countries into lockdown, terrified citizens, and unleashed a financial-market meltdown. Forceful, immediate responses will be needed for months. But crises end. We will emerge. As we do, it is essential that we harvest the learnings from this experience, and prepare for the even worse crises to come. The pandemic has exposed the broken nature of many of our systems. Arundhati Roy warns: "Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normal”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality."

Lessons to be learned: The global economy is incredibly efficient at flowing money to the richest people but this has left us dangerously vulnerable: eight men have as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity.14 At the same time, we allow half of the world’s population to live below the minimums necessary to sustain dignity and a quality of life. It is time for us to institute what Kate Raworth calls Doughnut Economics.15 This is the only way to create a “safe and just operating space for all of humanity.” We

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have the chance now to inhabit the sweet circle within the planet’s natural limits (the outer boundary of the doughnut) while ensuring that marginalized communities do not fall behind (into the doughnut hole). Interestingly, both Amsterdam and Costa Rica are using Doughnut Economics as the basis of their COVID recovery.16 The crushing inequality of today, warns Thomas Piketty and many others17 put the economic system at risk of collapse long before the virus struck. Modern supply chains are efficient servants of the capital-owning class. They badly serve ordinary people in the communities from which the raw materials are sourced, or even poorer residents of the consuming communities. We achieved the unlimited ability to buy cheap pink fuzzy slippers from China by trading away the resilience to source our own surgical masks, ventilators, food, and the basics of life. This fixation on consumption placed us far beyond the planetary boundaries, but failed to include everyone. By using the Earth’s resources faster than they can be restored, and by releasing wastes and pollutants faster than they can be absorbed, we set ourselves up for disaster. Well, it’s here. Now let’s fix it. Governments that contain epidemics all tacitly follow the same mantra: “Follow the science and prepare for the future.” Now is the time to do just that, and then to do much better. Rather than simply reacting to disasters, we can use science to design economies that will mitigate the threats of pandemics, climate change, biodiversity loss, and inequality. We start investing in what matters, by laying the foundation for a green, circular economy that is anchored in nature-based solutions and geared toward the public good. It will be based on renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, a circular economy and fair and inclusive development. A regenerative economy18 moves beyond exploitation of fossil energy to use solar, wind, responsible biomass and the other clean sources

Envisioning

to deliver the electricity, heat, industrial power and mobility we desire. It accepts the science that we can power the entire world abundantly on renewable energy by 2030,19 and the market economics that such sources are now cheaper than coal, gas and oil.20 This is what the market is doing, anyway. In the first three months of 2020, Germany got more than half of its power from renewables.21 In the United States over the same time frame, utilityscale renewables delivered more power than coal.22 Renewable energy now surpasses fossil energy in developing countries, as well.23 South Africa’s Eskom utility is finding it increasingly hard to offload power from its coal plants, as its neighbors turn to lower cost solar.24 Botswana, Namibia and Zambia are all installing utility scale solar. In recognition, the African Development Bank has announced that it will no longer finance coal plants. India recently cancelled 14 large coal

plants because they could not compete with solar.25 China, the country long thought to be the salvation of the global coal market is shifting to renewable energy as rapidly as it can. President Xi recently reiterated that the economy should not be developed at the cost of destroying the environment.26 In the first three months of 2018, China installed 10 nuclear plants worth of solar.27 It’s coal fleet, though growing, is increasingly uneconomic, with half of its capacity losing money in 2019. Globally coal generation fell by 3% in 2019.28 California’s Climate Center has laid out the playbook to displace all fossil energy with renewables:29 1. Accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuel development, production, and use, by moving to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Mobility must be affordable and zero emission. Buildings must be electrified. www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 153

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2. Invest in community resilience, using the principles outlined by Michael Shuman30 and others 3. Supplying sufficient funding to ensure the transition, using proceeds from carbon markets. 4. Sequester carbon using nature-based solutions like regenerative agriculture. The global regenerative agriculture movement has shown how to nourish the soil on which all life depends, especially the microbial life that sequesters carbon in the earth. Shifting from industrial to regenerative agriculture is immediately feasible, and would allow us to sequester enough carbon in the soil to reverse the climate crisis.31 Moreover, doing so would increase farm profits, enhance economic and environmental resilience, create jobs, and improve nutrition and wellbeing in both rural and urban communities. 154 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

Both the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)32 in 2013, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2015 published reports concluding that only organic, smallholder farms could feed the world.33 The FAO report found that protecting and empowering such bottom-of-the-pyramid growers who produce most of world’s food has enabled half of the world’s countries to meet the Millennium Development goal of cutting malnutrition in half.34 Soil health is the key to this vision. It is key to rural prosperity, to food security, to community health, and nutrition for a growing population. It is also essential to solving the climate emergency. Yet agriculture as currently practiced is losing soil to the point that UN FAO estimates we may have only 60 more harvests. Examples abound across the world. In North Dakota, in the U.S, Gabe Brown switched from

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producing commodity corn and soybeans to eight different crops and livestock, grown using regenerative agriculture practices. This shift cut his costs and enabled him to transition from going broke to comfortably profitable.35 Gabe and other regenerative producers who sell direct to consumers are now experiencing increased demand in the virus lockdown.36 But more important, the shift turned his 2,500-acre farm from an eroding sink for fertilizer and pesticides, to a massive carbon sink. Over ten years’ time, =Gabe increased the soil organic matter on his farm: from 1.7% to more than 11%. Gabe is rolling climate change backwards at a profit. Every 1% increase equates to roughly five tons of carbon, durably sequestered in the soil.37 In healthy soil mycorrhizal fungi mineralize the carbon that comes from animal manure and other biomass. This is why Microsoft just committed a billion dollars to nature-based solutions to enable the company to sequester as much carbon as it has emitted over its lifetime.38 A diversified farm in Zambia, using pigs and other grazing animals39 has increased soil organic matter from approximately 0.5%, typical for that part of Zambia, to 2.5%, which represents an increase of 24 tons of carbon per hectare. Sequestering that amount of carbon across Zambia would remove 1.8 gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere. Each additional percent soil organic matter added to the soil also increases water holding capacity by 50,000 gallons per hectare.40 In India, Dr. Vandana Shiva’s Navdanya Center is expanding its Gardens of Hope program across India to help mitigate the looming food crisis in the pandemic.41 In Kenya, goatherding children with slingshots and hot air ballooners are using charcoal-wrapped seed balls to plant trees and counter deforestation.42 Marc Barasch’s Green World Campaign is finalizing negotiations with the Kenyan government to plant Moringa trees. Moringa is considered by many as a superfood, loaded with protein, vitamins, minerals that some believe will strengthen immune systems.

Barasch’s Regenerative Kenya Moringa Moonshot would combine reforestation, agro-ecology education complementary currencies and elders’ biocultural knowledge. These communitybased value/supply chains will seek to provide food security, smallholder income, and carbon sequestration in trees and soil organic matter.43 In the South Bronx, one of America’s poorest communities, school teacher, Stephen Ritz’s Green Bronx Machine has pivoted from creating gardens to facilitate classroom teaching to use his gardens to feed inner city people in the food deserts of New York City in the COVID crisis.44 Stephen has just returned from Dubai, where the Emirates are interested in helping to spread this model to schools and cities around the world. Regenerative agriculture features prominently in many of the new economic models that are now being explored by governments around the world. The necessary policy blueprints all are based on the principle of meeting basic human needs while living within our planetary boundaries. These include the European Commission’s European Green Deal,45 the similar Green New Deal in the United States,46 South Korea’s Green New Deal,47 and Costa Rica’s Green New Deal.48 Such policies support the communities and businesses most at risk from the current crisis. These proposals, some supported by all political parties, show that policies addressing environmental and social wellbeing are not ideological footballs. They are recognized as essential ways to deliver climate protection, resilience, jobs creation and health. They offer the way to rebuild from COVID, and insulate ourselves from the other looming crises. A regenerative economy may seem unobtainable, a dream. Don’t believe it. What is unrealistic is the fantasy that the status quo can endure. Our current degenerative system is destroying life on earth, endangering the stability of our life support systems, and creating the conditions for collapse. It is not easy to envision a new system. William Allen, former Chancellor of the Delaware Court

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of Chancellery, notes, “One of the marks of a truly dominant intellectual paradigm is the difficulty people have in even imagining an alternative view.” The current crisis has shown, however, that we really do not have a choice. Policymakers responding to the current crisis must pivot from49 war, environmental destruction and corrupt economics to support citizens’ livelihoods. Now is the time to start redirecting subsidies toward green infrastructure, reforestation, and investments in a more circular, shared, regenerative, low-carbon economy. With the recent oil-price plunge (oil prices just went negative, as extractors pay users to take oil of their hands)50, the $5.2 trillion of perverse annual fossilfuel subsidies51 can and should be eliminated. The G7 and many European countries have pledged to eliminate perverse energy subsidies by 2025;52 they should do it now. To power the recovery, it makes more sense to use such largesse to deploy the renewable energy technologies that are now globally available and cheaper everywhere than fossil fuels.53 The $1 million a minute in subsidies 156 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

to industrial agriculture could help a lot of farmers transition to regenerative practices. We know what we need to do. Books from Regenerative Urban Development54 to A Finer Future describe the measures that need to be implemented to solve the interlinked crises facing us and deliver shared prosperity on a healthy planet. Now is clearly the time to do this. There is grave concern that the race to return to normal will focus on restoring the old system. This would be bad policy and bad business. There is a strong business case for using this crisis to usher in global systemic change. As investment companies from Domini Impact Investments55 to Change Finance56 have shown, the companies and communities that shift to resilient, regenerative practices will be the first to the future. More than 1,800 global companies, representing one quarter of global GDP with market capitalization exceeding $24 trillion have already committed to take bold climate action. One sixth of the global economy is now covered by net-zero commitments.57 These will be the companies that

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young people want to work for. They will have lower costs, better brand recognition, fewer risks and higher employee engagement. Statistics from OECD, Gallup Healthways, and numerous other entities show that these companies are more profitable, perform better in the market and are best prepared for the future we want to create.58 In the global North, we worry about the politics of ventilators and unavailability of toilet paper. It is time to realize that COVID-19 is a global crisis. The sooner we act as humanity to solve it, the sooner we can implement the solutions that are in our hands. The COVID-19 crisis shows us that it is possible to make transformational changes overnight. We suddenly entered a different world with a different economy. Humans are resilient and entrepreneurial. We are perfectly capable of beginning again. If we learn from our failings, we can build a brighter future than the present tragedy that is afflicting us. Let us embrace this moment of upheaval as an opportunity to start investing in resilience, shared prosperity, wellbeing, and planetary health. We have long since exceeded our natural limits; we have allowed far too many of our fellow humans to suffer. it is time to build a Finer Future.59

“We have long since exceeded our natural limits; we have allowed far too many of our fellow humans to suffer. it is time to try something new”

ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap11_FINAL.pdf 7. Roy, Arundhati, ‘The pandemic is a portal’ Financial Times, 3 April 2020, https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea95fe-fcd274e920ca 8. Meadows, et al, The Limits to Growth, http://www. donellameadows.org/wp-content/userfiles/Limits-to-Growthdigital-scan-version.pdf 9. Meadows, et al, Beyond the Limits, http://donellameadows.org/ archives/beyond-the-limits-to-growth/ 10. Patrick Wyman, “How Do You Know If You Are Living Through the Death of an Empire?” Mother Jones, 18 March 2020, https:// www.motherjones.com/media/2020/03/how-do-you-know-ifyoure-living-through-the-death-of-an-empire/ 11. Sandrine Dixson-Declève, et al, “A Green Reboot After the Pandemic”, Project Syndicate, 24 March 2020, https://www. project-syndicate.org/commentary/covid19-green-deal-bysandrine-dixson-decleve-et-al-2020-03 12. Wilson, Reid, “Why Africa is at risk of a coronavirus catastrophe,” The Hill, 4 April, 2020, https://thehill.com/policy/ international/491048-why-africa-is-at-risk-of-a-coronaviruscatastrophe 13. Spratt, David, Dunlop Ian, “What Lies Beneath,” Breakthrough: National Centre for Climate Restoration, 2018, https:// climateextremes.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/What-Lies-

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agriculture and family farming,” Food and

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with Pigs, Medium, 16 January 2020, https://

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of electricity,” Progress in Photovoltaics, 29 August 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3189, https:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pip.3189 54. Caniglia, Beth, et al, Regenerative Urban

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42. Kirui, Dominic, “Kenyans are replenishing their

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28. Jones, Dave, “Global coal generation fell by a record amount in 2019, while COVID-19 may cause bigger

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43. Personal Communication, Marc Barasch to Hunter

Regenerative-Development-Routledge-AdvancesResearch/dp/1138556920 55. Domini Impact investments, https://www.domini. com/ 56. Change Finance: Investing in Service to Life, http:// change-finance.com/ 57. We Mean Business, https://www. wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/ 58. Randall, Steve, “Companies that Prioritize Sustainability Outperform for Investors,” Wealth

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29. “Climate Safe California” The Climate Center,

44. Ritz, Stephen Green Bronx Machine, https:// greenbronxmachine.org/

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45. “A European Green Deal,” European Commission,

Mar-30-2020.pdf 30. Shuman, Michael, “Comparative Resilience: 8 Principles for Post-COVID Reconstruction,”

Economy in Service to Life, New Society Publishers,

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2018, https://www.amazon.com/Finer-Future-

2019, https://www.sunrisemovement.org/greennew-deal

2020, http://michaelhshuman.com/?p=456 31. Wozniacka, Gosia, “Can regenerative agriculture

47. “South Korea’s Green Deal,” Asia Economic

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outperform-for-investors/325241] 59. Lovins, Hunter, et al, A Finer Future, Creating an

11 March 2020, https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/ 46. Green New Deal, Sunrise Movement, 7 February

Commentary on Community Economics, 7 April,

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Creating-Economy-Service/dp/0865718989

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Coping with COVID-19, Acknowledging The Real Plague by William E. Rees

odern society is ecologically dysfunctional: When cultural norms are radically anomalous, ‘normal’ is pathology and its solutions merely reproduce the problem. As I watch the CoViD-19 saga unfold, I have to keep reminding myself that humans are shortsighted by nature. We are mostly concerned about whatever affects us right here and right now. (Economists say we ‘discount’ both future possibilities and distant events.) Moreover, as social animals, we ‘socially construct’ what we take to be real. Our cultural norms and narratives, religious doctrines, political ideologies, scientific paradigms, economic theories, etc., however deeply entrenched by social convention, are all essentially ‘made up’. Regrettably, many complex constructs do not faithfully represent important dimensions of the biophysical world.

If you think this is just academic babble, think again: the sobering fact is that humans necessarily live more out of their social constructs than they do from objective reality. This, too, is fundamental human nature. Maturing individuals cannot help but acquire the foundational values, beliefs and narratives fashioned by the culture in which they grow up. Indeed, it is generally advantageous to do so – shared cultural norms contribute to a sense of belonging and thus to both group cohesion and individual identity. So far so good, but in these turbulent times, it is worth reminding ourselves that that the www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 159

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pre-formed constructs – the cultural lenses – through which we perceive the world determine what kind of world we perceive. Consider, then, that for the past half-century we inhabitants of techno-industrial society have been deliberately socially-engineered to be selfinterested accumulators beholden to markets and fine-tuned to corporate economic goals.1 This ensures that we perceive efficiency as the ultimate value, perpetual growth (facilitated by advancing technology) as the primary objective, and GDP as the dominant measure of national well-being. In this framing, most people, led by government officials and policy wonks, perceive the CoViD-19 pandemic solely in terms of human health and its impact the national economy. Consistent with the prevailing vision, mainstream media call almost exclusively on physicians and epidemiologists, financiers and economists to assess the public health outcomes and economic consequences, respectively, of the viral outbreak.

The human enterprise is in extreme overshoot; we are using nature’s goods and life-support services faster than ecosystems can regenerate. Fair enough – rampant disease and looming recession are genuine immediate concerns; society has to cope with them. That said, our narrow perceptual lens – further fogged by short-term panic – has blinded us to a more important reality: however horrific the CoViD-19 pandemic may seem, it is merely one symptom of gross human ecological dysfunction; the prospect of economic implosion is a secondary consequence. The overarching reality is that the human enterprise is in a state of overshoot; we are using nature’s goods and life-support services faster than ecosystems can regenerate. There are simply too many people consuming too much stuff. Even at current global average levels of consumption (about a third of the Canadian

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average) the human population far exceeds the long-term carrying capacity of Earth. We’d need almost five Earth-like planets to support just the present world population indefinitely at Canadian average material standards.2 Gaian theory tells us that life continuously creates the conditions necessary for life; humanity has gone rogue, rapidly destroying those conditions. When will the media call on systems ecologists to explain what’s really going on? If they did, we might learn that the current pandemic is an inevitable consequence of human populations everywhere expanding into the habitats of other species with which we have had little previous contact (H. sapiens is the most invasive of ‘invasive species’)3; that it results from sometimes desperately impoverished people eating ‘bushmeat’, the flesh of wild species carrying potentially dangerous pathogens;4 that contagious disease is readily propagated because of densification and urbanization – think Wuhan or New York – but particularly (as we may soon see) because of the severe overcrowding of vulnerable people in the burgeoning slums and barrios of the developing world; that it thrives because three billion people still lack basic hand-washing facilities and more than four billion lack adequate sanitation services.5 A population ecologist might even dare explain that, even when it comes to human numbers, whatever goes up must come down. None of this is visible through our neoliberal economic lens. Prevailing myth notwithstanding, nothing in nature can grow forever. When, under especially favourable conditions any species’ population balloons, it is always deflated by one or several forms of negative feedback – disease, inadequate habitat, self-pollution, food shortages, resource scarcity, conflict over what’s left (war), etc., – i.e., various countervailing forces that are triggered by excess population itself. True, in simple ecosystems certain consumer species may exhibit regular cycles of uncontrolled expansion. We sometimes refer to these outbreaks

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as ‘plagues’—think swarms of locusts or rodents.6 However, the plague phase of the cycle invariably ends in collapse as negative feedback once again gains the upper hand. Bottom line? There are no exceptions to the 1st law of plague dynamics: the unconstrained expansion of any species’ population invariably destroys the conditions that enabled the expansion, thus triggering collapse. Now here’s the thing. H. sapiens has recently experienced a genuine population explosion. It took all of human evolutionary history, at least 200,000 years, for our population to reach its first billion early in the 19th Century. Then, in just two hundred years, (less than 1/1000th as much time) we blossomed to over seven billion at the beginning of this century. This unprecedented outbreak is attributable to H. sapiens’ technological ingenuity, e.g., modern medicine and especially the use of fossil fuels. (The latter enabled the continuous increases in food production and provided access to all the other resources needed to expand the human enterprise.) The problem is that Earth is a finite planet,

There are no exceptions to the 1st law of plague dynamics: the unconstrained expansion of any species’ population invariably destroys the conditions that enabled the expansion.

a human Petri dish on which the seven-fold increase in human numbers, vastly augmented by a 100-fold increase in gross world product (consumption),7 is systematically destroying prospects for continued civilized existence. Overharvesting is depleting non-renewable resources; land degradation, pollution, and global warming are destroying entire ecosystems; biophysical life support functions are beginning to fail.8 With increasing real scarcity, growing extraction costs, and burgeoning human demand, the prices for non-renewable metal and mineral resources have been rising for 20 years (from historic lows at the turn of the century). 9 Meanwhile, petroleum, that most vital of depletable industrial resources, may have peaked in 2018 signalling the pending www.thesolutionsjournal.com | Spring 2020 | Solutions | 161

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The explosion of human population and consumption is beginning to resemble the plague phase of what may turn out to be a one-off human population cycle. implosion of the oil industry (ironically abetted by falling demand and prices resulting from the CoViD-19 recession).10 These are all signs of resurgent negative feedback. The explosion of human population and consumption is beginning to resemble the plague phase of what may turn out to be a one-off human population cycle. If we don’t manage a controlled contraction, chaotic collapse is inevitable. Which brings us back to society’s restricted focus on CoViD-19 and the economy. Listen to the news, to elected politicians, to economic and political pundits in this time of crisis. You will hear virtually no reference to climate change (remember climate change?), wild-fires, biodiversity loss, ocean pollution,

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sea level rise, tropical deforestation, land/soil degradation, human expansion into wild-lands, etc., etc., and there is no hint of understanding that these trends are connected to each other and to the pandemic. Discussion in the mainstream focusses doggedly on defeating CoViD-19, facilitating recovery, restoring growth and otherwise getting back to normal. After all, “That is the paradigm: Treat the symptom to make the world safe for the pathology.”11 Let that sink in: ‘Normal’ is the pathology. The reason is simple. Humanity’s recent 200year growth spurt – the period we take to be the norm – is arguably the most abnormal period in human history. The ecosphere is reeling from the human onslaught. There is no reasonable possibility of supporting even today’s 7.8 billion people indefinitely on the productivity of the only planet we have; current average levels of consumption are excessive, yet half the human family are still impoverished and three quarters of a billion live in extreme poverty (<$US 1.90/

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day).12 The socially-constructed notion that we can sustainably accommodate two or three billion more while maintaining ecosphere integrity is mass delusion. In these circumstances, ending the current pandemic and returning to the economic ‘normal’, guarantees a repeat performance – there will be other pandemics, potentially worse than CoViD19. (Unless, of course, some other form of negative feedback gets to us first – as noted, there is no shortage of potential candidates.)

Humanity’s recent 200-year growth spurt – the period we take to be the norm – is arguably the most abnormal period in human history.

Surely the time has come to reconsider what seems to have become a “self-terminating experiment with industrialism”.13 To avoid full-on negative feedback, we must stand back and refocus. This means consciously overriding humans’ natural myopia, thinking generations ahead and abandoning our perpetual growth narrative. To thrive on planet Earth, society must acknowledge limits to human technological wizardry, accept biophysical constraints on material growth, and recognize that Earth is over-populated. This last point stands out. The ‘population issue’ has long been taboo, but if we do not soon

control our numbers there is little hope of a smooth transition to post-plague one-planet living. To save itself, society must adopt an eco-centric lens. This would enable us to see the human enterprise as a fully dependent subsystem of the ecosphere. We need to script a new cultural narrative consistent with this vision, a grand strategy for a controlled contraction of the human population and global economy. We must reduce the human ecological footprint to eliminate overshoot – this is a curve that really needs flattening (See figure below.) Our cultural re-set cannot end there. As medical supplies/equipment run out and supply chains stretch or break, people everywhere are becoming conscious of hazards associated with today’s increasingly unsustainable entanglement of nations. We will have much to celebrate if community self-reliance, resilience and stability are once again valued at least as much as interdependence, efficiency and growth. Specialization, globalization and just-in-time trade in vital commodities have gone too far; CoViD-19 has shown that future security may well reside more in local economic diversity. In times of crisis, nations will hoard vital commodities. (Right on cue on 3 April, one Donald Trump, president of Canada’s largest trading partner, began pressuring 3M to suspend exports of essential medical respirator masks to Canada and Latin America.)14 We need permanent

Figure 1: Managing the Greater Plague

 Figure 1: Flattening the curve: Let’s start with a 50% reduction in energy and material throughput, as implicit in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

Flattening the curve: Let’s start with a 50% reduction in energy and material throughput, as implicit in the 2015 Paris climate accord.

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policies for the re-localization of vital economic activities through a strategic approach to import displacement. We might also build on the better side of human nature as ironically invigorated by our collective war on CoViD-19. In many places, society’s fear of disease has been leavened by a revived sense of community, solidarity, compassion, and mutual aid. Recognition that disease strikes the impoverished hardest and that the pandemic threatens to widen the income gap has renewed calls for a return to more progressive taxation and implementation of a national minimum wage. It also draws attention to the importance of the informal care economy – child rearing and elder care are often voluntary and historically subsidize our paid economy. And what about renewed public investment world wide in girls’ education, women’s health and family planning? Certainly individual actions are not enough. We are in a collective crisis that demands collective solutions. To those still committed to the pre-CoViD-19 perpetual-growth-through-technology paradigm, economic contraction equates to unmitigated catastrophe. We can give them no hope but to accept a new reality. Like it or not, we are at the end of growth – the pandemic will certainly induce a recession and possibly a global depression including a +/- 25% reduction in GWP.15 And there are good reasons to think that there can be no ‘recovery’ to pre-CoViD ‘normal’ even if we were foolish enough to try. Ours is/was a debt-leveraged economy. Thousands of marginal firms will be bankrupted; some will be bought up by others with deeper pockets

(further concentrating wealth) but most will disappear; millions of people will be left unemployed, possibly impoverished without ongoing public support. If it weren’t for fossil fuels’ complicity in climate change, the carnage in the oil patch would be particularly alarming.16 Energy prices have plunged, bankruptcies are surging, and investment in exploration and development has dried up.17 The US fracking industry is in bankruptcy shambles. Canada’s tar sands producers who need $US 25-$US 40/barrel to survive are being offered < $US 4.00/barrel, less than the price of a mug of beer.18 Meanwhile, oil production may have peaked and older fields upon which the world still depends are declining at 6%/yr. And this heralds a future crisis: GWP and energy consumption have historically increased in lock-step; industrial economies depend utterly on abundant cheap energy. After the current short-term demand-drop surplus dries up, it will be years (if ever) before there is adequate new supply to replicate pre-pandemic levels of global economic activity—and there are no adequate ‘green’ substitutes.19 Much of the economy will have to be rebuilt-to-size in ways that reflect this emergent reality. And this is a good thing. Herein lies the great opportunity to salvage global civilization. Clearing skies and cleaner waters should inspire hopeful ingenuity. Indeed, if we wish to thrive on a finite planet, we have little choice but to see the CoViD-19 pandemic as preview and our response as dress rehearsal for the bigger play. Again, the challenge is to engineer a safe, smooth, controlled

If we wish to thrive on a finite planet, we have little choice but to see the CoViD-19 pandemic as preview and our response as dress rehearsal for the bigger play.

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contraction of the human enterprise. Surely it is within our collective imagination to socially construct a system of globally networked but self-reliant national economies that better serve the needs of a smaller human family. The ultimate goal of economic planning everywhere must now turn to ensuring that humanity can thrive indefinitely and more equitably within the biophysical means of nature.

6. See for example: https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Farmingfood/Invasive-pests/Mouse-Census 7. https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth 8. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/ nature-decline-unprecedented-report/; https://www.nrdc.org/ stories/report-million-extinctions-and-ecological-collapse-are-way 9. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-rising-cost-ofresources-and-global-indicators-of-change 10. https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/29458/peak-oildecline-coronavirus-economy/; 11. Gregory Bateson (1991) A Sacred Unity, p.296. 12. https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty

References 1. For starters see: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/ powellmemo/; https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powellmemo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/ 2. Estimated from data compiled by Global Footprint Network at https://data.footprintnetwork. org/?_ga=2.245797059.617818760.15851830231508465399.1522539523#/ 3. https://e360.yale.edu/features/quammen_the_next_pandemic_ will_come_from_wildlife; https://www.bbc.com/news/ health-51237225 4. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/18/ tip-of-the-iceberg-is-our-destruction-of-nature-responsible-forcovid-19-aoe 5. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/18-06-2019-1-in-3-

13. https://www.readblip.com/ 14. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/3m-n95-masks-1.5520326 15. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/23/21188900/coronavirus-stockmarket-recession-depression-trump-jobs-unemployment 16. https://srsroccoreport.com/chronology-of-collapse-global-oildemand-plummets-threat-to-storage-capacity/; https://oilprice. com/Energy/Energy-General/Goldman-The-Oil-Industry-WillNever-Be-The-Same-After-Coronavirus.html 17. https://srsroccoreport.com/the-energy-disaster-kicking-into-fullgear-world-is-totally-unprepared-for-whats-ahead/; 18. https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/oilsands-producers-in-the-red-asblended-bitumen-price-dips-below-4-per-barrel-1.4874401; 19. https://economics21.org/inconvenient-realities-new-energyeconomy; https://www.manhattan-institute.org/green-energyrevolution-near-impossible

people-globally-do-not-have-access-to-safe-drinking-waterunicef-who

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COVID-19 and the transition to a sustainable wellbeing economy by Robert Costanza

he ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on human health in the short term. How do we slow the spread of the virus and contain the damage? It has also revealed the dependence of the global economy on long supply chains and high demand for services.

The likelihood of a global economic crisis caused by the virus is high. Governments around the world are putting in place emergency stimulus packages aimed at preventing this, but we may be missing the real lessons the crisis has to teach. The first is that human health and sustainable wellbeing should be the real goals of our increasingly interlinked and interdependent economic, social, and natural systems. The headlong pursuit of GDP growth at all costs has blinded many countries to the other factors that contribute to sustainable wellbeing and the hidden costs of 166 | Solutions | Spring 2020 | www.thesolutionsjournal.com

GDP addiction. Countries are investing massive amounts to keep GDP from falling in the short run, while ignoring the fact that GDP was never designed to measure societal wellbeing and is an increasingly poor guide to real progress. The vast majority of GDP growth is now going to the top 1% of the population and growing inequality is having severe negative effects on community wellbeing. People who are just scraping by cannot afford health care and cannot afford to miss work, even when they are sick. This is a major issue during the current COVID-19 crisis. It should

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be obvious that a more equitable distribution of income and wealth and a stronger social safety net would help control future pandemics and would also improve sustainable human wellbeing at all times. The other major problem with our blind pursuit of GDP growth is that it ignores the damages to our ecological life support system that our current approach to growth causes. Climate disruption is only the best known of these. Natural ecosystems provide non-marketed benefits that support sustainable human wellbeing in a complex variety of ways, including flood and storm protection, water supply, recreation, carbon sequestration, and many others. The value of these services globally has been estimated to total $US 125 trillion in 2011, significantly larger than global GDP at the time. In addition, we are losing $US 20 trillion a year of ecosystem services due to changes in land use and mismanagement, including desertification, loss of wetlands and coral reefs, deforestation, flooding, and bushfires. To address these problems, we need a fundamental shift in our economic paradigm and our approach to development. We need an economy and society based achieving sustainable wellbeing with dignity and fairness for humans and the rest of nature. This is in stark contrast to current economies that are wedded to a very narrow vision of development – indiscriminate growth of GDP that is not shared and has severe negative side effects. A wellbeing economy on the other hand is embedded in society and the rest of nature. It must be understood and managed as an integrated, interdependent system of social relations that pursues balance and prosperity, rather than the maximization of production and consumption. It is an economy that values both social and natural dimensions as fundamental components of national wealth and as critical factors in determining wellbeing. Wellbeing is the outcome of a convergence of factors, including good human mental and physical health, equitable access to government and community institutions, racial and social justice, good social relationships and a flourishing natural

environment. Only a holistic approach to prosperity can achieve and sustain wellbeing. A system of economic governance aimed at promoting wellbeing will therefore account for all the impacts (both positive and negative) of economic activity. This includes valuing goods and services derived from a healthy society (social capital) and a thriving biosphere (natural capital). Social and natural capital are part of the commons. They are not (and should not be) owned by anyone in particular, but instead belong to everyone and make significant contributions to sustainable wellbeing. Transformative change often happens when a crisis opens the door. Can we use the COVID-19 crisis to confront the questions now being asked of the current system, which has caused ongoing economic, financial, social, and ecological problems? To make this transformation we need to galvanize a critical mass and promote tested alternatives that can achieve our common goals. In order to achieve the transformation to the new economy and society we all want, we need to work together as a unified front. The new Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) is designed to help facilitate that transformation. WEAll is a global movement of individuals and organizations coalescing around the need to shift economies away from a narrow focus on marketed goods and services (i.e. GDP) to one more broadly focused on sustainable wellbeing. These include activists, NGOs, academics, governments, and entrepreneurs of various types from around the world. There are many espoused versions of these basic ideas using different approaches and languages, but sharing a common goal. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an important step in articulating this common goal. The challenge is to acknowledge, harmonize, and amplify these many initiatives, while allowing a diversity of language to communicate with a variety of audiences. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis may have a silver lining if it opens the door for the long overdue transition to a world focused on the sustainable wellbeing of humans and the rest of nature - the world we all want.

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Join the urban leaders who are fighting the climate emergency by disrupting business-asusual and embracing business-as-possible.

The Bonn Forum for Urban Leaders Taking on the Climate Emergency Bonn, Germany | 3 - 5 June 2020 For more information: daringcities.org