The innovation buzz from Stockholm World Water Week

In my view, this year’s Stockholm World Water Week (SWWW) in late August was a bit of a turning point. The community there moved measurably closer to fully embracing innovation and entrepreneurs as critical to contributing to solving water challenges. I was energized by the weeklong program and plans for the coming year.

During the week, I mostly focused on the meetings and sessions that were about innovation. It was clear that innovation is not just focused on technology. There were discussions on innovation in water stewardship and quantifying the business value of water, as well as a small working group session convened by WWF and the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN). All of these efforts were focused on accelerating and scaling solutions to water scarcity and quality.

First, the interesting discussions on corporate water stewardship and strategy.

WWF convened a breakfast working session to discuss its progress in water stewardship and solicit input on the state of stewardship. Part of the discussion was about how water stewardship — or water strategy, as I frame it — can create greater value for corporations, society and other stakeholders. A similar conversation was part of the separate IUCN working session: an assessment of the current state of water stewardship and how to accelerate engagement of the private sector in scaling solutions.

This question of “why has water stewardship stalled?” was a key part of my conversations at the event. I was clearly not the only person asking the question and challenging stakeholders to take stock of what is working and what is not working. I believe the coming year will see this question take hold and move corporations to be more creative in defining a more expansive view of their role and opportunity in solving water challenges.

The question of ‘why has water stewardship stalled?’ was a key part of my conversations at the event.

A few speakers that had an impact on my view of innovation (worth reading their abstracts and presentations):

All of the presenters were impressive, and I only flag these presenters as they had a personal impact on my view: Innovation is much more than technology.

Also, the last session of the seminar consisted on pitches by entrepreneurs to judges. Everyone was a winner in my view as they were creative, passionate and committed to moving beyond business as usual.

The companies pitching were (and worth taking a closer look at):

A few of my takeaways from the seminar:

Finally, second annual Imagine H2O Urban Water Challenge, sponsored by 11th Hour Racing and Bluewater, showcased these finalists: 

The cohort and winners — WatchTower, Indra and Zilper — were very impressive, and I suspect we will see more of them.

My key takeaway from the week is that we are moving away from “business as usual” and starting to understand how to scale innovation.

Technology will not be the game-changer in water. It will come down to a community of diverse people from both within and outside the water community that will get us to achieving SDG 6. I remain optimistic after this year’s gathering.