I’ll trade you a cup of water for my new Prius?

At The Churchill Club of Silicon Valley’s Annual Top Ten Tech Trends Debate in May, five prominent venture capitalists argued about which trends are going to gain traction in the coming year.  Joe Schoendorf, partner at Accel Partners, and past vice president of marketing for Apple, had the crowd nodding as he advanced the prediction that water technology will replace global warming as an international priority.

Schoendorf explained that the world is running out of usable water and that this is a higher immediate threat than global warming.

Energy production consumes large volumes of water…coal, nuclear and biomass gasification all require water.  According to a report on theoildrum.com a 50 million gal/yr plant will use 600,000 gallons of water a day – much of it used to dissipate the heat of the process. Gasoline refining processes use about 3 – 4.5 gallons of water for every gallon of gas.

Do you have a plan?

Waterless energy producers – i.e. solar and wind innovators– may gain a key advantage as awareness of a potential water crisis takes hold. It’s not too early to start building the water story into your sales and marketing strategy.

Traditional producers could definitely start to think now about offsetting negative consumer perceptions and avoiding increased government regulations. Here are some great things to consider:

• A proactive corporate responsibility program addressing water conservation
• A public education program about utilized water sources and environmental impact
• Partnerships with companies that are leading the development of water technologies

Tags: Alternative Energy, alternative fuels, Energy, marketing, operations, power, public relations, strategic planning, water technology

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