The Waterly
"The Waterly" is a weekly all-things-water newsletter we share with our community covering the latest innovations and investment deal flow in the water sector and recent news on climate change and water-related crises.
This week we learn about purifying water with static electricity and with manure! Jeff Bezos pledges $2B to protect the environment. Climate disinformation keeps increasing on Facebook. Water is the next Net Zero target. Catch up on all that went down in Glasgow at the COP26. PFAS are found even in our food wrappers! Meet our WELL Advisor Javier Renna, previously co-director of the MIT Water Innovation Prize. We have another treat for you at the end of the Waterly, this week, it's art!
This week's water fact:
Global agriculture will feed 1B more mouths by 2025, it will require 1T cubic meters more of water or 100 Colorado Rivers-worth of water each year
Tech & Innovation
New Device Purifies Water with Static Electricity
Static electricity leapt from powering party tricks to batteries a mere decade ago. Recent advances in the technology may ultimately improve access to clean water, though not without some upgrades.
Alphabet designed a low-cost device to make drinking water from air. Now it’s open-sourced
The company’s “moonshot factory” is letting anyone build and tweak the design of its new atmospheric water harvester.
Manure Makes Drinking Water? An Unlikely Solution To A Global Crisis
Manure isn’t the only natural material Zheng and his team use to desalinate seawater in sunlight. Other materials they have used to make a solar energy-triggered carbon filter have included tree leaves, cuttlefish ink, crab and lobster shells, hornet nests, and office paper waste.
Corporate & Deals
Climate misinformation on Facebook ‘increasing substantially’, study says
Researchers found an estimated 45,000 posts downplaying or denying the climate crisis, which have received a combined total of between 818,000 and 1.36m views.
Jeff Bezos pledges $2 billion to protect the environment
The funding, which will come from the Bezos Earth Fund, is part of the billionaire’s commitment to spend $10 billion on fighting climate change this decade.
Veolia roars ahead as 9-month results break records
A €122 million dividend from Suez helped Veolia to achieve a record set of results for the nine months ending 30 September 2021, enabling the shares to outperform the CAC40 index by more than 3.5%.
Purolite deal expands Ecolab’s water treatment suite
Ecolab is poised to become a market-leading supplier of ion exchange resins for water treatment applications after agreeing to acquire US-based resins manufacturer Purolite for $3.7 billion.
Our Portfolio Companies
Glanris on "Tech Talk Thursday"!
Frank Slovenec interviews Glanris' CEO, Bryan Eagle in his latest episode of "Tech Talk Thursday"!
Water & the Environment
Why water is the next net-zero environmental target
Net-zero pledges have become more common among companies and governments as concerns over climate change and the planet’s environment continue to grow. The UN is predicting that there will be a 40% shortfall in freshwater resources by 2030.
What is happening at COP26?
A regularly updated summary of the latest announcements, news and arguments at the UN climate talks.
How a lesser-known climate phenomenon threatens from above
They strike rapidly, with little or no warning. They sweep down into valleys with torrents of water. And they stretch far, sometimes hitting communities hundreds of kilometers from where they started.
‘We run from men only to meet crocodiles’: Kenya’s drought is deadly for women
As poverty and lost livelihoods fuel threats in the home, those who have found refuge still risk their lives walking miles in search of water.
PFAS and Chemicals
Your fast food wrappers contain toxic chemicals. Why is that allowed?
Fast food boxes and wrappers contain toxic chemicals known to interfere with our reproductive systems and contribute to attention and learning disorders.
Radioactive material and pesticides among new contaminants found in US tap water
The analysis found that the jump is partly driven by newly identified PFAS, a toxic class of “forever chemicals” that are widely used across dozens of industries and are thought to be contaminating drinking water for more than 100 million people.
Javier’s life has always been shaped by water. His love for the outdoors and his passion for action water sports have taught him how important it is to take care of our environment. He is originally from Argentina and has lived in Canada, the US, and Australia.
Javier started his career in investment banking at JP Morgan, and after four years he decided to follow his passion by partnering with two friends to launch a startup called Mafia Bags, bags and backpacks made out of reused kitesurf and boat sails. Javier recently served as the Director of Investments at a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused on water, agriculture, and food. He is now the VP of Finance at Beeflow, a company that generates and applies scientific knowledge to improve crop yields with bees.
He graduated with distinctions from McGill University (Montreal, Canada), receiving a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Entrepreneurship, and also holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. At MIT, Javier served as the Co-Director for the MIT Water Innovation Prize – a startup competition focused on water innovation that awards grants to student-led teams from across the world. Javier is a valuable member of WIA and our WELL community.
Art & the Environment
The Colour of the Climate Crisis – in pictures
The Colour of the Climate Crisis is an exhibition by the environmental social initiative Do The Green Thing. It showcases the work of 24 Black and other artists of colour exploring the relationship between racial injustice and climate injustice.
