What happened in Season 1?

Are we paying too little for the water?

The first conversation was with Ilari Aho, Vice President of Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs at Uponor. He explained the importance of society accepting the water investment cost.
Ilari suggested that when we look towards achieving sustainability goals, there is the issue of keeping the cost of investment acceptable to the stakeholder. I.e., the user. Ilari explained that globally speaking, the cost of water doesn’t cover the investment. This means we are behind in updating infrastructure. So, what is needed are new engineering solutions, but also a water-rates system that realistically reflects the costs but does not result in an unfair system that impacts the most vulnerable.

Reduce flooding risk in cities in a sustainable way

The second interview was with Uponor’s Stormwater Solution Manager, Rickard Granath and Stormwater Sales Manager, Jean Saarinen. They told of some the new challenges that extreme weather events are causing. Rickard and Jean also explained how old infrastructure can be a problem and new solutions might also be necessary to prevent stormwater from negatively affecting the quality of our lakes, ponds and seas. These solutions might include rain gardens, stormwater chambers and other solutions that can help clean heavy metals and phosphorus from the water. Solutions that will mean our children have clean lakes to swim in.
Rickard and Jean also talked about the sustainability of stormwater systems and explained how new materials like fossil-free plastics can help to reduce the carbon footprint. They also shared some ideas of possible ways of reusing water, for example when watering green areas.

How can children teach us to solve climate change?

Next, the Urbanista was at the World Water Conference where we caught up with Lars Nørgård Holmegaard, CEO of the water utility of Lemvig, Denmark.
He explained the problems Denmark is facing with rising water levels and climate change. Over the last 25 years the groundwater has risen more than one metre and in the last 40 years there has been 25% more rain. They are facing some serious challenges.
In response, back in 2015 the Klimatorium was started. This is a non-profit organisation with the goal of real solutions for climate problems. There they find the problems that need solutions and connect them with new knowledge from universities. They are finding companies that can offer solutions and finding people who live with the problem, for example schoolchildren, and connecting them together to find good results for everyone.
Lars gave the example of the unused plastic fishing nets in the seas. If they were to take them up and burn  them it would release masses of Co2 into the atmosphere, so the Klimatorium contacted some Danish companies that know how to separate the types of plastic in nets, and now they can be repurposed.

Efficient water networks. What does it take?

Klara Ramn is the Executive Committee member of EurEau, the European Federation of National Associations of Water Services. She talked with the Urbanista and explained how EurEau is a unique group of experts trying to explain how the sector works and how EU law works.
The challenge she has been facing is to make the water network more efficient. She explained that the first important step is learn about your network. Then you need to check that the water metering in the network is working and fit for purpose. Next you have to take care of your network: the pipes, the materials you use and the age of the pipes. There are a lot of small factors to consider.

Collaborative approach to Life Cycle Assessment 

At the end of 2022, we had the chance to talk with Gregory Norris, the director of SHINE, the Sustainability and Health Initiative for Net Positive Enterprise at MIT, and teacher of Life Cycle Assessment at Harvard University. Gregory is also currently Director of Science at Earthster.org.
Gregory explained to us that Life Cycle Assessments are about looking at all the issues that are important environmentally, and looking at them in relation to products. This theory has also been applied to lifestyles, households, regions, companies, and more. Life cycle refers to the cycle of a product from cradle to grave. Cradle means you consider not just the creation of the product, but also the inputs used in the product, and the inputs used to create the inputs.
Gregory shared some fascinating insights regarding data modelling. There is actually so much data that it had to be consolidated into one database available around the world, and that was the birth of the Ecoinvent database – the largest, most transparent LCA database in the world.

Carbon footprint offsetting, the right way.

Our first chat of 2023 was about carbon offsetting with Nicklas Kaskeala, Co-Founder & Chief Impact Officer at Compensate, a company which offers everyone easy access to the highest quality carbon projects.
He explained that carbon offsetting is a way to take responsibility for those emissions you can’t completely avoid or minimise. Every day, greenhouse emissions around the world are being caused. Carbon offsetting is a way to try to counterbalance those emissions by supporting projects that either sequester or remove carbon from the atmosphere.
He emphasised that it is not an alternative to emission reductions, rather something you should do on top of those reductions. Some of these solutions are nature-based solutions, but there are also some engineered solutions, like direct air capture machines and storing carbon.

Recycled materials - second class quality? 

In our next episode we talked with Franz Cuculiza, Business Director of Denmark’s first plastic recycling company, Aage Vestergaard Larsen A/S, the Nordic region's largest high-quality plastics recycling company. The origins of the company date back to the amazing story of the founder of the company, Aage Vestergaard Larsen, who found bought a plastic recycling machine, brought it to Denmark and started to do it himself. They now create raw material from recycled plastic which can be used for products that can be reused again and again.

Monitoring water quality. Is technology improving?  

Back at the World Water Congress, in Copenhagen, Denmark , we talked with Patryk Wójtowicz – Research Manager at Savonia University of Applied Sciences, and Water Network Modelling Expert in the field of environmental engineering.
He told us about his role in the Kuopio Water Cluster, which combines together the power of more than 150 experts to make sure that the ideas that are starting in academia can be converted into real products.
Their lab has a water loop which is a scaled down version of a real water network, and in a very compact time frame they can recreate any kind of scenario that could happen in a real network, including even a cross-contamination.

Data-driven urban design. How to collect data for city planning?  

In March we had a fascinating chat with Natalia Rincón, Co-Founder and CEO at CHAOS, an AI startup focused on location intelligence forecasts to improve the liveability of cities.
She explained more about CHAOS, a location intelligence company which collects and geolocates data. They clean it, put it together, apply AI data science, and gets new insights from this.
A a location can be an intangible thing. For example, a community like a neighbourhood in your city that has a characteristic. It might be that in a very young, progressive, or liberal neighbourhood, you might find a lot of internet searches for vegetarian restaurants, or for certain hobbies that appeal to people. This way, you can quantify sentiments and feelings. Consequently, something that we might think of as qualitative, can also be quantitative.

What role water plays in urban design? 

In the spring, Päivi Raivio, a Helsinki-based designer who has dedicated her career to creating better public spaces through urban intervention and placemaking talked to the Urbanista about placemaking.
Placemaking is about creating public spaces. It gathers together a wide variety of people who are somehow working with urban spaces. This might include developers, real estate owners, designers, and architects; but also facilitators and people who work for municipalities. Placemaking could start with small strategic actions like placing a few chairs, watching where people move, and from there building up a place-led development. As cities are becoming denser, we need higher quality urban spaces and from a placemaking point of view this means opportunities for people to meet each other, have a space to relax but also to enjoy the good urban life.

How to treat polluted stormwater? 

In May,Rickard Granath, Stormwater Solutions expert at Uponor Infra, told us about the challenges involved in managing stormwater.
He explained there are many types of pollution that enter stormwater. For example, car fumes that cause pollution, but also the materials that cars are built of. When a car brakes, the rubber from the tyres corrodes and that all goes down the drain. The same goes for buildings. Roofs are made of copper and zinc that eventually corrodes and that too enters the stormwater.
Rickard explained the systems used to separate the particles and treat the water. Oil separators, and similar treatment techniques also separate the particles, but also filter the heavy metal ions that are in the water. 

How the city of Lahti became a European Green Capital? 

Our next chat was with Jenni Rahkonen, Environmental Coordinator at the city of Lahti where she focuses especially on the circular economy issues and sustainable development.
Lahti had just published its first sustainability report in the Spring, so Jenni shared some of the challenges she has faced in making Lahti more sustainable. She explained that old habits were a big issue. Changing the way that we think from the current linear model where you just make, use and throw away materials and products, to the circular model where materials are used again and again. The big challenge is how to change the minds of people and how to change the normal business models we have been using for years and years.

How to go from gray to green infrastructure? 

Our final fascinating chat of the series was with Tallulah Lutkin, Utility Performance Editor at Global Water Intelligence (GWI).
At GWI, they basically have a global network of all people on the ground and in the field who can give them great information. They then collect all these pieces of the puzzle and turn it into the global picture of the water industry.
Green infrastructure has a purpose or a function. I.e., to prevent flooding and make us more climate resilient, but it also improves the quality of life. As a member of the public, you might not know that this park is also functioning as a stormwater buffer, it’s just a place where you can ride your bike.
Tallulah also suggested that we are paying too little for water, explaining that it’s vital, but it’s costly and we do not pay enough for it. There is, of course, the question of it being a public good, and this is true. You don’t want water to be unaffordable because everyone needs it. In order to improve the sustainability of water Tallulah stressed the importance of raising both the public and the political profile of water .