H2OAlliance Resource Efficiency Working Group
This working group is an independent New-Tech Business Forum focusing on Resource Efficiency. We invite you to join us.
Benefits
When
people consume resources - through the manufacture of goods, driving a
car or turning on a tap - there are associated impacts on the
environment. For many resources, consumption levels have historically
been linked to economic growth. As societies become richer we buy more
goods, travel further and demanded greater convenience. If this
continues we risk causing irreparable harm to the environment with
serious consequences such as increased flooding due to climate change
and human health impacts resulting from poor water quality.
The
scale of this problem should not be underestimated. Some have suggested
we would need over two planets' worth of resources to sustain our
current level of consumption across the globe, particularly if
countries like India and China were to follow the Western route to
prosperity.
In order to continue to enjoy prosperity but not
exceed environmental limits, we must break the link between economic
growth and environmental degradation. In other words, we must increase
the efficiency with which natural resources are used to generate
economic wealth dramatically, perhaps by as much as a factor of ten.
This means consuming fewer resources and producing less waste whilst
delivering the same end services or products. This will save businesses
and consumers money as well as benefiting the environment.
In
some areas, breaking the link between economic growth and pollution has
started to happen. Emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides
from energy production, for example, have been declining in some
countries for many years. It is true that this is partly due to some of
our industry being exported, but it is also because industry has found
ways to produce more goods whilst cutting effluent and cleaning up
emissions. However, for many areas this challenge remains. Energy
consumption (including transport), waste production and water
consumption are all still increasing.
Companies and consumers
making small, incremental changes have achieved many of the
improvements made so far. Whilst these simple changes are important,
much more radical, structural change will be required to achieve
improvements on the scale needed, such as widespread adoption of new
innovative technologies such as renewable energy technologies.
Manufacturing
The share of total water withdrawn by the manufacturing sector is rising fast in emerging economies. Manufacturing’s share of total water consumed is much lower than its share of net withdrawals, as most of the water is used for cooling, waste assimilation, and other process purposes, and subsequently returned to groundwater or surface water bodies.
The impact of the manufacturing sector on the availability of clean water can be huge. Quantity, quality and timing of water supplies are important; just how important varies from one sub-sector to another. For some industrial processes—cooling, for example—brackish or salt water will do, and at least at the input-side water scarcity risks can be mitigated. Other manufacturing processes, however, require better quality freshwater.
The impact of water scarcity and pollution on industry sectors largely depends on their water use efficiencies. Efficiency improvements and their investment implications differ greatly across countries, sectors and companies. For example, on average,
pulp and paper mills consume about 50 cubic meters of water per ton of
paper or pulp produced. Since the pulp and paper industry uses so much
water, and produces so much waste water and recycling water,
controlling water consumption throughout the production process is
crucial to avoid and eliminate problems. As an other example, steel companies in a developing country can consume about 10-80 cubic meters of water to produce a single ton of steel - producing a ton of steel in the US, consumes 5-10 cubic meters.
Working Groups
Climate Change
Contact our working group administrator
Solutions
It is
imperative to make people, communities and the private sector fully
aware of available new-technology solutions, methods and
practices, in order to reduce use of water, materials and energy.
Our working group can help industrial water users and water suppliers reduce water and sewer bills, and use of materials and energy. On a global scale,
water consumption varies greatly. It is estimated that, in order to
survive, a person needs 4 to 5 gallons of water per day, this includes
water for drinking, cooking and sanitation. The average water use per
person per day, just for domestic purposes in the United States and
Canada is estimated around 150 gallons. In Europe, with roughly the
same standard of living, the average resident of the United Kingdom
uses 31 gallons per person per day. In the developing world, the
average person living in Africa uses 5 gallons per person per day, and
in many areas, people are getting even less water than that. Globally,
a staggering 25,000 people die daily from lack of access to clean
water.
Oil
prices
have fallen from their recent peaks, but concerns about the
availability of freshwater show no sign of abating. Goldman Sachs, an
investment bank, estimates that global water consumption is doubling
every 20 years, which it calls an "unsustainable" rate of growth.
Water, unlike oil, has no substitute. Climate change is altering the
patterns of freshwater availability in complex ways that can lead to
more frequent and severe droughts. This will affect all industries, as
the demand for freshwater and price of water is expected to increase.
We educate individuals and professionals how to implement efficiency plans, and provide new-technology solutions to customers:
- Water Stress
is calculated as the percentage of a country’s territory affected by
over-subscription of water resources. The target for each country is to
have no area of their territory affected by over-subscription. Water
use is represented by local demands summed by domestic, industrial, and
agricultural water withdrawals and then divided by available water
supply to yield an index of local relative water use.
- Societies,
economies, and environment use water for variety of purposes. For the
most part , however, we do not want water; we want the services that
water provides; clean clothes and dishes, healthy lawns, etc. Many of
these services however, can be accomplished with substantially LESS
water than is currently used, a concept that lies at the heart of water
conservation, and efficiency.
- The term
'water conservation and efficiency' refers to actions and technologies
that reduce water use without compromising services.
- Conservation
efforts can be either short- or long- term. Most conservation programs
are based on temporary measures, such as water restrictions during
severe droughts.
- Implementation
of water-efficiency technologies and water conservation activities are
vital to effectively capture potential savings.
- Water
conservation and efficiency programs will reduce water use without
reducing services by improving efficiency and reducing waste.
- It is much cheaper to encourage efficiency and conserve water, than to build new water supplies or expanding existing ones.
- Therefore, in
every community on earth, water-efficiency and education is of great
importance. Water-related problems need to be discussed in order for
everyone to take action.
- Water users
can contribute to the World Water Crisis by improving water-efficiency,
conserving water and energy, reducing use of chemicals in industrial
processes, and monitoring waste water quality and the environment.
- Communities,
governments, politicians, and the private sector are important as our
target-groups for raising awareness. They will be the ones to make
decisions on how to manage water quality, and resources in a
sustainable way.
Resource Efficiency Management System, REMS
In
most industries and communities, water quality and availability of
clean water, can cause operational, social, and environmental problems.
Since most industries use significant amounts of raw and treated water
in their products or industrial process, and produce waste and
recycling streams, controlling overall water quality, water
availability and material consumption, is crucial.
Resource and
risk management have become critical issues worldwide. Legislation
requiring water users and water suppliers meet specific quality
standards, have conservation programs, and environmental monitoring
systems in place, is becoming very common.
Industrial demand of
water has exploded during the past decade. Water quality and usage
varies considerably between source, location, process, and industry.
Industrial and population growth, and global warming, will have a
significant impact on water quality and quantity, and will increase
demand for resource efficiency and risk management technologies and
solutions.
A very important aspect of water and resource
management is a better understanding of the water quality and resource
efficiency. However, a management plan or policy can not be developed
or improved without the availability of qualified data. Therefore, data
forms the basis for developing any plan or policy. Recognizing this,
H2oAlliance has developed real-time Water Quality Management Platform
(WQMP) and Resource Efficiency Management Systems (REMS). These
platforms were designed to help companies and organizations to
monitor and measure water quality, optimize resource efficiency, and
mitigate risks.
WQMP and REMS
WQMP and REMS allow
for a broad set of consistent indicators to be collected and evaluated
when deciding on priorities, and future strategies. Companies can
automate and organize their water quality and resource efficiency data
collection, and simplify process management, analysis, data exchange,
and use of information for process control, design and implementation
of a new plan or policy. These instant reporting systems are based on
real-time data, access and sharing of reports. The local, state and
government agencies and NGO's can develop new real-time databases to
monitor and measure water quality, resource efficiency, and industrial
and environmental performance.
Resource Efficiency Management System, REMS
REMS
monitors and measures a combination of freshwater usage, process
management, and the financial performance of a company or
organizations. It reflects the different factors related to
point-of-entry, point-of-use, and point-of-exit of water quality. The
index provides real-time data, including instant alerts, online
analysis and timely reports.
REMS delivers the following;
- Keeps business leaders, policymakers and management teams informed;
- Improves industrial and environmental resource capacity management on a local, national and international scale;
- Fills the need to present data representing overall water, resource and financial efficiency;
- Provides a basis to establish consistent standards of measurement and methodology;
- Enables
real-time data collection, and sharing of information and knowledge, in
order to establish an empirical foundation for effective resource
management.
- Maintains
and improves availability of accurate and timely information required
for water management plans and policies, while keeping the associated
administrative cost and burdens to a minimum.
Benefits:
- REMS helps users manage their water and resources efficiently in real-time, online, and via mobile technology;
- REMS identifies the problem areas in most processes;
- REMS delivers
the technology tools and online services that help users save
freshwater, anticipate potential problems, and forecast future process
and water management needs;
- REMS requires no investment in new hardware or infrastructure;
- REMS offers a
turnkey solution to industrial management needs. Once implemented REMS
is accessible through multiple interfaces, as e.g. PC, laptop, mobile
devices, etc. -anytime and anywhere;
- REMS platform is scalable, flexible, can be quickly implemented, and easily integrated in your existing infrastructure;
- REMS offers a quick ROI;
- REMS is
designed to interact with your existing management system. As your
water management needs expand, REMS solution grows to accommodate your
increasing resource management demands.
Features:
- REMS enables real-time data collection, organization and exchange of information;
- REMS collects data, analysis and summarizes complex multidimensional phenomena;
- REMS
interprets analysis, and facilitates the communication within
companies, research and management teams in real-time anywhere and
anytime;
- REMS allows
internal and external communication that will be necessary to take
immediate action, implement management principles, and policies;
- REMS has been tested with great success in diverse industrial projects worldwide;
- REMS meets
all operational and reporting requirements, and is designed to
simplify, stimulate and streamline information requirements by
providing a coherence and up-to-date overall framework;
- REMS
automates and organizes water quality data collection and simplifies
management, analysis, exchange and and use of information required for
design and implementation of a new management plan or policy;
- REMS reporting system is based on online access, and sharing of real-time reports;
- REMS manages local, national or global real-time databases and monitors performance;
- REMS allows
for a broad set of consistent indicators to be collected and evaluated
when deciding on priorities, and future strategies;
- REMS keeps operation and management teams informed to improve capacity management on a local, national and international scale;
- REMS fills
the need to present data representing overall water quality and
resource efficiency, and provides a basis to establish consistent
standards of measurement and methodology;
- REMS enables real-time data collection in order to establish an empirical foundation for water and resource management;
- REMS
maintains and improves availability of accurate an real-time
information required for management and policy, while keeping the
associated administrative cost and burdens to a minimum;
- REMS makes information available to all or a select group of online users;
- REMS collects data at its source, analysis and processes data through common software tools;
- REMS creates visual reports and shares information with online users for many purposes;
- REMS makes information readily available to users to enable them to easily fulfill their operational and legal obligations;
- REMS enables
users to assess data in a timely fashion and to take action in case of
emergency, design new policy, to make comparisons at the appropriate
geographical scale e.g. countries, cities,catchment areas, to
participate meaningfully in the development and implementation of water
quality management policy;
- REMS makes
information available, after due consideration of the appropriate level
of aggregation and subject to appropriate confidentiality constraints;
- REMS shares information; analysis and processes data through common software tools;
- REMS is a
product of diverse industrial and environmental projects, and over a
decade of resource management know-how designed to ensure that the
information is collected and organized accurately and effectively;
- REMS ensures
that the investments currently allocated towards monitoring, measuring
and information-gathering processes lead to the greatest possible
benefits in terms of the use that is made of the resulting data;
- REMS affords
users the ability to monitor and measure processes in real-time, save
resources, and therefore boost productivity and profitability;
- REMS has
proven a great success saving water, energy and materials, controlling
the overall resource efficiency and eliminating problems. Also, every
liter of water saved reduces the burden on the environment, and saves
money for users;
- REMS was
designed as a response to an exploding need for managing freshwater and
resources more efficiently in distribution systems, industrial
processes and the environment around the world;
- REMS is affordable even for small companies, and easily available worldwide.
- REMS delivers a clear overview of the resource efficiency use in any process;
- REMS illustrates the timing, causes, effects, trends, and problems of minor to major concerns in the process;
- REMS is unique,
first and one of its kind on the market;
- REMS uses patented and time-tested software;
- REMS can be customized to companies and organizations, and delivered to customers worldwide.
REMS Service:
- For a small
one-time license fee, and a monthly service fee, companies and
organizations can gain special access to REMS online platform and start
managing their water and resources more efficiently;
- The complete
customized package includes consulting, hardware, software,
installation, maintenance, online monitoring services, and unlimited
number of reports, on-going support, and one-on-one training;
- Companies and organizations can join the REMS online platform today;
- REMS service can be used in diverse industries and delivered worldwide.
Contact Us
|
|
