We deliver speed-to-market NEW-TECHNOLOGY solutions, products and services to
the global water market.
Key Findings and ObservationsOur team of experts have developed a unique global collaboration platform to deliver effective new-technology solutions to mitigate
water risks and to improve resource efficiency.
We focus on water quality and water supply issues, identify
and assess the most relevant risks for the business community, and suggest
actions companies can and should take and empower individuals with knowledge how to implement practical new-tech solutions.
Ultimately, we deliver focused, simple, and affordable new-technology
tools, methods and practices, for sector- and
industry-specific water risks.
In recent years, experts in the public and the private sector have
reviewed the likely impacts of climate change on water resources and have
concluded that climate change is likely to have a range of impacts on freshwater
resources including changes to availability of water supplies, increases in
specific water pollution problems, and significant impacts on coastal areas.
Declining water quality, availability of clean and safe drinking water, and
water stress has emerged as a critical issue affecting economic activity,
development, and business operations around the world. Small to multinational
corporations have faced and will face business interruptions, closure of
factories, or changes to operations because of poor water quality and
insufficient access to freshwater.
Effective risk management program is a vital and invaluable resource to
help the business and investment community, as well as policymakers to
understand and address the growing risks posed by water quality and water
stress.
We encourage greater corporate attention to water risk
and resource efficiency, and industry and geographic locations specific to
PPP's for efforts to address these issues. Business leaders and policymakers
seeking expert advice, as well as opportunities can join our local working groups to learn how they can implement new-technology solutions to mitigate water risk
and improve resource efficiency. We provide effective new-tech tools,
solutions, training and contacts enabling companies, institutions and
policymakers to take action to protect their companies, investors, communities,
and ultimately the planet from the increased risks posed by global water
quality and resource problems. International Independent H2o New-Technology Marketplace
ATC is a vibrant must visit business to business mart. It delivers a diverse range of new-technology solutions, companies and professionals
to international customers. It is a place for the experts, leaders and
learners to meet, collaborate, learn, trade, network, negotiate and conduct
business 'under one roof'. ATC is located in Finland, a convenient gateway between East and West.
Companies and organizations can
efficiently, effectively and productively find solutions and gain
immediate competitive advantage for their business and stay abreast
with the latest developments in water technology. ATC brings
together worldwide buyers and sellers from every industry, and make
speed-to-market solutions easily available to the buyers. ATC plays
an integrated role in structured global promotion, support, sales,
knowledge and training.
ATC business partners are the
leading experts in water risk mitigation and crisis management, and
resource efficiency. These companies and individuals have, through
agreement with H2oAlliance Global, committed to providing their
solutions, products and services to industrial water users and water
suppliers in the developed and developing countries.
ATC
brings together experts, leaders, and learners from around the world.
This independent global business center serves customers throughout
the Americas, Europe, Africa, Russia, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. It generates business opportunities to all partners and organizes a wide
range of events, including conferences, congresses and meetings. ATC's
portfolio of products, services and events serves diverse industry
sectors.
ATC
works closely with companies, professional bodies, trade associations,
governments and NGO's. It is part of H2oAlliance Global, a strategic
global initiative, and a business venture, for integrated water quality
and resource management, research projects, technology, innovation, and
science.
While declining water quality and water scarcity will affect water-intensive business sectors in particular, these problems will also have implications for all businesses, especially those that rely heavily on freshwater in their supply chain.
Effective water management plans, programs and policies are vital and invaluable resource to help the communities, businesses, investors, as well as policymakers to understand and address the growing risks posed by declining water quality and water stress.
Through integrated and
independent business approach, ATC is pioneering to serve the global
water market demonstrating tremendous benefits to companies and
communities.
The following water market sectors are our prime focus:
To mitigate risks and manage crisis; promoting drinking water safety, and security from floods, droughts, pollution and other water hazards.
To meet the basic needs; recognizing that access to safe and sufficient water, and sanitation are the basic human needs, and are essential to health, and well-being.
To secure the food supply; enhancing food security, particularly of the poor and vulnerable, through more efficient mobilization and use of water and the more equitable allocation of water for food production.
To protect ecosystems; ensuring the integrity of ecosystems through sustainable water resources management.
To share water resources; promoting peaceful cooperation and developing synergies between different uses of water at all levels, wherever possible, within and - in the case of boundary and transboundary water resources - between concerned states, through sustainable river basin management or other appropriate approaches.
To value water; managing water in a way that reflects its economic, social, environmental and cultural values in all uses, with a move towards pricing water services to reflect the cost of their provision. This approach should account for the need for equity and the basic needs of the poor and the vulnerable.
To govern water wisely; ensuring food governance, so that the involvement of the public and the interests of all stakeholders are included in the management of water resources.
Mission:
ATC seeks to make a positive impact with respect to the emerging global water crisis by promoting speed-to-market new-technology solutions, products and services and making them available to businesses, government agencies, NGO's, organizations and consumers worldwide.
ATC advances the use of new-technology and sustainability solutions in partnership with its stakeholders, companies, organizations and governments.
ATC offers a unique action platform to share best and emerging practices and to forge multi-stakeholder partnerships to make new-technology solutions easily available to the water market worldwide.
ATC partners recognize that through individual and collective action they can contribute to ATC's vision.
Vision:
To help companies and their supply chains and organizations create more goods and services with ever less use of resources, waste and pollution.
Purpose:
To promote new-technology, products and services to the global water market;
To make speed-to-market solutions easily available to businesses, government agencies and consumers.
Short Title:
ATC (Advanced Technology Center).
General:
ATC identifies, promotes and advances the use of new-technologies, products and services in order to reduce freshwater use; to reduce the strain on water, wastewater, and storm water infrastructure; to conserve energy and materials used to pump, heat, transport, and treat water; and to preserve water resources for future generations, through sales of products and services that meet the highest eco-efficiency and performance standards.
Duties:
ATC shall promote technologies, products and services to the global marketplace as the preferred new-technologies and services for reducing water, energy and material use and ensuring product and service performance.
ATC works to enhance public awareness of the new-technology and eco-efficiency through public collaboration, outreach, education, and other means. Public Education Platform 2010-2013
ATC will establish and maintain performance standards so that products and services labeled as 'new-technology' and 'eco-efficient' perform as well or better than their 'traditional' counterparts.
ATC will publicize the importance of new-technology and eco-efficiency and products by a certified or, if certification guidelines do not exist, licensed ATC vendor or contractor, and audit of a solution to ensure optimal performance.
ATC will preserve the integrity and transparency of new-technology and eco-efficiency and the brand.
ATC will regularly review and, when appropriate, update new-technology and eco-efficiency criteria for categories of products and services, and industries at least once every four years.
ATC will regularly collect and make available to the public summary data on the relative market shares of new-technology and eco-efficiency labeled partner products and services, at least annually.
ATC will regularly estimate and make available to the public the water, energy and material savings attributable to the use of new-technology and eco-efficient products and services, at least annually.
ATC will solicit comments from stakeholders and interested parties and the public prior to establishing or revising a new-technology or eco-efficient category, specification, or criterion (or prior to effective dates for any such category, specification, or criterion).
ATC will provide reasonable notice to founding partners and interested parties and the public of any changes (including effective dates), on the adoption of a new or revised category, specification, or other criterion, along with and an explanation of changes and as appropriate, responses to comments submitted by founding partners or interested parties.
ATC will provide appropriate lead time (as determined by the ATC Administrator) prior to the applicable effective date for a new or significant revision to a category, specification, or criterion, taking into account the timing requirements of the manufacturing, marketing, training, and distribution process for the specific product or service category addressed.
ATC will identify and, where appropriate, implement other voluntary approaches, such as labeling technologies, tools, devices, practices, methods, products and services that perform the same function as a more water, energy and material consuming product encouraging reuse, reclamation, and recycling technologies, in commercial, institutional, residential, municipal, and industrial sectors to improve eco-efficiency or lower water, energy and material use while meeting the performance standards.
ATC Business Rationale
Our business rationale for water and eco-efficiency is straightforward: it makes good business sense. Being efficient is always a high priority for every company. But if it includes creating economic value and reducing environmental impact and resource use at the same time, the value added becomes even more significant.
The business case for new-technology, eco-efficiency and transparency applies to every area of activity within a company - from eliminating risks and finding additional savings through to identifying opportunities and realizing them in the marketplace.
Financial markets have also started to look at new-technology, water-efficiency, eco-efficiency, resource-efficiency and water risk aspects of business performance. Forward-looking analysts are selecting the sustainability pioneers and leaders because they know that the companies that have developed a water sustainability strategy and have implemented eco-efficiency as a business concept outperform their competitors significantly.
We make more visible the link between water and resource-efficiency excellence and the value of a company for its stakeholders.
Our customers achieve more value from lower inputs of freshwater, materials and energy and with reduced emissions; it applies throughout a company, to marketing and product development as much as to manufacturing or distribution.
The key elements that ATC partners use to improve Water, Resource and Eco-Efficiency:
Reduce water intensity;
Reduce material intensity;
Reduce energy intensity;
Reduce dispersion of toxic substances;
Enhance recyclability;
Maximize use of renewables;
Extend product durability;
Increase service intensity.
ATC's Broad Objectives:
Reduce the consumption of resources: This includes minimizing the use of water, energy, materials and land, enhancing recyclability and product durability, and closing material loops.
Reduce the impact on nature: This includes minimizing water discharges, air emissions, waste disposal and the dispersion of toxic substances, as well as fostering the sustainable use of renewable resources.
Increase product or service value: This means providing more benefits to customers through product functionality, flexibility and modularity, providing additional services (such as maintenance, upgrading and exchange services) and focusing on selling the functional needs that customers actually want. Selling a service instead of the product itself raises the possibility of the customer receiving the same functional need with fewer materials and less resources. It also improves the prospects of closing material loops because responsibility and ownership, and therefore concern for efficient use, remain with the service provider.
Implement Management Systems that are integrated with existing business management systems in order to drive the eco-efficiency approach: A Management System ensures that all the risks and opportunities relating to sustainability are properly identified and efficiently managed.
Develop and implement common composite indicators that are relevant to the water sector. Eco-efficiency brings together the two eco-dimensions of economy and ecology to relate product or service value to environmental influence.
Focus on the development of Composite Water Indicators (CWI) and Resource Efficiency Indicators (REI) due to the absence of global standards that specifically address water quality, resource efficiency, eco-efficiency and environmental issues. Currently companies and organizations gain their information thru formal and informal means without standards which leads to a lack of agreement and collaboration of critical water issues. Business leaders and policymakers must quickly learn about water issues and risks through reliable indicators and we must reach them in a way that they respond, through technology.
Help companies and organizations develop their own composite indicators and implement monitoring and measuring platforms that measure and report overall performance of a process, plant or company. The framework is flexible enough to be widely used and easily interpreted across industries, businesses, organizations and countries while providing a common set of definitions, principles and indicators.
Customize water indicators and management platforms that will meet specific requirements of each business or organization to keep their reporting system flexible. This permits more efficient decision-making internally and fulfills stakeholder requirements.
Develop new composite indicators that are widely relevant to a common measurement approach; related to environmental concerns or business value; relevant and meaningful to virtually all businesses; and use methods for measurement definitions accepted globally.
ATC's Contributions and Benefits to the Private Sector and the Public Sector:
ATC is the path business and industry can take towards the goal of ecologically sustainable water development - one of the greatest challenges facing governments, business, industry and the community.
Ecologically sustainable development aims to meet the needs of companies and communities today while conserving water and other natural resources for the benefit of future generations.
We go beyond simply preventing pollution and limiting the use of resources in manufacturing and production. We provide for the competitive needs of business by enabling increases in the value of goods and services.
Our concept as waste minimization, cleaner production and pollution prevention, can continue to contribute to environmental improvement while also building up economic viability.
We recognize that the private sector must play a leading role in working towards eco-efficiency, because their day-to-day decisions have significant impacts on water sources and the environment.
For business and industry, ATC means 'doing more with less' - increasing efficiency in using water and other resources and in reducing waste and pollution, leading to lower business costs as well as fewer adverse effects on the environment.
The concept of eco-efficiency is supported by the ATC global business community because it does not focus exclusively on environmental outcomes.
ATC challenges the belief that economic objectives and environmental concerns are in conflict, and recognizes the simultaneous and complementary benefits of combining environmental and economic objectives.
Opportunity
ATC helps stakeholders and clientele to identify opportunities and provides speed-to-market access to new-technology solutions.
ATC experts and working groups assist companies re-engineer their processes to reduce the consumption of resources, reduce pollution and avoid risks, while at the same time saving costs. Experience shows there are manifold possibilities, some straightforward, some less obvious. Invariably, the whole workforce has to be involved in identifying opportunities and in making the changes necessary to seize them. Process changes may be related to delivery or to supplier operations, as well as to distribution, customer use or disposal.
All stakeholders, experts, leaders and learners can collaborate through ATC.
We create new creative ways to re-valorize byproducts. In striving for zero-waste or 100%-product targets, companies may find that the so-called waste from their processes can have value for another company. Sometimes by-products have become a real cash-generating product of a production process. Zero waste targets and by-product synergies lead to the more effective use of the resources in a process and create an additional cash benefit. In short, they are eco-efficient because they allow creating more value with fewer resources.
Our product experts and designers and procurement managers play a key role. Their influence is not only crucial to product functionality and price but also has a big effect on costs and the environmental impact in production, product maintenance and disposal.
We can help companies redesign their products and manufacturing processes. Products designed to ecological design rules are frequently cheaper to produce and use. They are smaller and simpler in their design. They include a smaller variety of materials and are easier to disassemble for recycling. Often, too, they encompass higher functionality, better serviceability and easier upgradeability. Because they can provide a higher value for their users, while the environmental influence related to their use is minimized, they are eco-efficient products.
We just not only re-design a product, we find new ways of meeting customer needs. We work with customers or other stakeholder groups to re-think their markets and re-shape demand and supply completely. Too many customer needs today are met in a water, energy and material- intensive way. There are different, and better, ways of satisfying those needs. For example, it is possible that by providing a service instead of selling the product, the overall water, material or energy intensity may be reduced. This also opens up opportunities for new economic growth and higher profitability. (innovateblue)
We contribute to increasing eco-efficiency in operations, procurement, R&D, sales, marketing and management. Many companies, recognizing this, have made eco-efficiency part of their overall business strategy. We realize that key eco-efficient opportunities lie not just in manufacturing but also along the entire supply chain as well as in the use of their product and services. Eco-efficiency for us has become a major driver of innovation and progress, a vehicle that helps us meet the economic and environmental targets we have set. (eco-efficiency)
We believe that it is of vital importance that top management buys into the concept of eco-efficiency. Those corporations where eco-efficiency has entered into the CEO s agenda become able to make real progress. Their performance path is not limited to some incremental improvements in specified aspects. Instead, they begin to leapfrog eco-efficiency with innovative products, new services and a changed business strategy toward sustainability.
Definitions:
ATC - The term 'ATC' has the meaning given that name 'Advanced Technology Center'.
Eco-efficient product or service - the term 'Eco-efficient product or service' means a product or service that is rated for eco-efficiency under the ATC program.
ATC program - the term 'ATC program' means the program established by ATC.
ATC product - the term 'ATC product or service' means a product that is developed and delivered by independent ATC stakeholder company or companies.
ATC Administrator: The term 'Administrator' means the management team and advisory board of the ATC.
Eligible Entity: The term 'eligible entity' means a company, organization, state government, local or county government, tribal government, wastewater or sewage utility, municipal water authority, energy utility, water utility, or nonprofit organization that meets the requirements of ATC.
Incentive Program: The term 'incentive program' means a program for administering financial incentives for ATC partners or purchases of ATC partner products and services.
Eco-efficiency: The term 'eco-efficiency' means creating more goods and services with ever less use of resources, waste and pollution.
Eco-efficient Product or Service: The term 'Eco-Efficient product or service' means a product or service for an industry, company, organization or its supply chain that is rated for eco-efficiency and performance by the ATC partner; or by an incentive program and approved by the ATC Administrator.
Categories of eco-efficient products and services: These may include technology solutions, products and services such as nanosensor monitoring and measuring systems, mobile devices, desalination solutions, irrigation systems, chemicals, point-of-use water treatment devices, reuse, reclamation, and recycling technologies, toilets, faucets and showerheads etc.
ATC program: The term 'ATC program' means the program established by ATC.
The terms 'resource efficiency' and 'eco-efficiency' are new approaches to widespread water problems. Utilizing innovative management practices and new technologies, efficiency aims to reduce the demand and the costs for water, energy, and materials. The results are monetary savings which benefit the local economy, reduced environmental impact, and conservation of resources.
The terms 'efficiency and conservation' are often used interchangeably, but in fact they have different meanings. Efficiency means getting the same or better service while using less resources. Conservation means simply using less and reducing waste; without efficiency, conservation generally implies a reduction in the level of service.
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