Similarly, once clean water exists, there also needs to be infrastructure that prevents wasting it before it is consumed. In the United States, six billion gallons of treated water is lost every day due to leaky pipes, which translates to a shocking one out of every six gallons—completely wasted. America’s water infrastructure needs to be updated with products that automatically detect leaks and assesses pipe conditions all along the route, like those produced my Mueller Water and Xylem.
Water infrastructure investing can also focus on technologies that measure and manage water resources and systems to maximize their efficiency. Badger Meter, Itron and Xylem are all poised to take advantage of the country-wide shift from manual water management to automated metering and decision-making. They offer comprehensive solution sets that measure, manage, and analyze water use, then automatically change the water supply’s destination without waiting for a human to take action.
Water creation, custody, measurement and management are fundamental industries of the world economy that are ripe for investment and innovation. Intelligent allocation of capital into these sectors may yield superior returns, and that’s never boring.
Betsy Moszeter is chief operating officer of Green Alpha Advisors, an asset manager investing in solutions to the risks of climate change, resource scarcity and widening inequality.