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When public organizations decide to tackle large problems confronting the communities they represent, they often turn to private sector partners offering effective solutions. When the Cleveland Water Alliance (CWA) tried to do that in its efforts to improve the management and health of Lake Erie, it discovered a shortage of businesses capable of filling its needs. In response, CWA created its own, enormous testbed that it allows water sector startups to use for developing, perfecting, and marketing their products—and for propelling their companies into full commercial operation.
Launched in 2014, CWA initially brought together industry, civic, and political leaders determined to create a new and effective economic development cluster. Early on, the organization homed in on the objective of forging partnerships between public organizations and private sector companies.
Fast forward to 2022, when CWA began building out the Smart Lake Erie Watershed, a collection of 200 sensors placed on buoys and in shore positions that together provide a Long Range Wide Area Network—or a de facto WiFi coverage—of 7,740 square miles across the lake.
The result is a continuing feed of data on water nutrients, contaminants, wave conditions, and other information that’s valuable to a wide array of partners in utilities, agriculture, maritime research, and even to recreational users. It also serves as a 24/7 communications infrastructure that can be used for early warning and disaster response purposes.
The network is also offered as an invaluable testbed to startups developing new water quality technologies. That allows them to trial and improve their platforms in real world situations—and take them to market faster as proven products.
In doing so, it seeks to help startups overcome what CWA identified as a major hurdle for companies to enter and prosper in a water sector that’s difficult to crack.
“We meet with hundreds of companies annually and consistently hear that real-world testing is a major barrier to market,” CWA president and executive director Bryan Stubbs told Inc. in emailed comments. “In response, we built a regional testbed network that connects innovators with end-users — like utilities and government agencies — for pilot projects. These collaborations provide valuable data for tech developers and low-risk access to new solutions for network partners. Leveraging our region’s cooperative ecosystem, rich in industrial expertise and entrepreneurial support, CWA has cultivated Cleveland as the ideal launchpad for water innovation with global impact.”
Meanwhile, CWA’s Smart Lake Erie Watershed facilitates recruitment of both public funding and private investment for small business tech partners. That’s significant for two big reasons.
Early on, CWA realized companies focusing on water solutions often fizzed out before making it to market. Such startups are typically under-financed, as investors favor more mature technologies with bigger profitability potential. Meanwhile, even established sector businesses like GE Water have frequently been sold off by parent companies that had provided the financing necessary for future tech development.
CWA recognized that as a mistake by big businesses and investors who underestimated the rising demand for water protection technologies.
According to many estimates, the global market for sensor-based monitoring of water and soil is set to reach $3.4 billion by next year, with some forecasts doubling that figure. The worldwide market for the kind of smart water management tech systems CWA continues developing with business partners is slated to exceed $23 billion by 2027.
In responding to that rising activity, CWA facilitates partner businesses that test and review over 250 emerging technologies each year using the Smart Lake Erie Watershed. So far, that activity has attracted $15 million in direct investment in CWA, with partner startups having raised over $50 million on their own.
One of those startups is Ohio company CLEANR, which used the Lake Erie Watershed to continue testing and improving its water filtering tech. As a result of that, the company’s microplastics filtration system now removes 90 percent of microplastics that usually flow out into waterways from washing machines and other appliances. Moreover, it also clears those pollutants from water flowing into households, and is now sold to third party washing machine and appliance manufacturers.
“CWA has been a crucial partner for us in raising awareness of the risks of microplastic pollution to our water systems and food supply,” said CLEANR co-founder and CEO Max Pennington, noting that as the shallowest of the Great Lakes, Erie is the most susceptible to rising temperatures, and has the highest degree of microplastic pollutants.
“They were quick to understand why the Great Lakes are becoming ground zero in this public health threat and how our technology can make a massive impact on this problem upstream where it starts,” Pennington added. “They’ve connected us with the right players around the Great Lakes to test and launch our technology at a key juncture as the U.S. Senate and a half-dozen state legislators introduce bills that mandate or incentivize filters for all new washing machines starting in 2030.”
More recently, CWA teamed up with several Ohio businesses to test technologies designed to prevent nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural fertilizer from draining into Lake Erie and connected waterways, where they provoke destructive algae blooms. Last week the organization announced it had retained Ohio industrial engineering company Neundorfer as the selected partner in a pilot project. That solution sends electric charges into manure used to fertilize farmland, which separates phosphorus in it and causes it to remain in the field rather than running off during rains.
Neundorfer’s participation in CWA’s program is all the more significant in the company broadening its previous focus on air quality and pollution control solutions to water. That expansion was a direct result of it seeing potential business opportunities in helping solve challenges the CWA and the wider public face in protecting the lake.
“We’re established leaders in industrial air pollution control, and we’re excited to explore the water tech space through this CWA pilot project,” said Neundorfer president Steve Ostankek, noting that transition comes as the Northeast Ohio company celebrates its 50th anniversary. ”It allows us to explore a new market in a low-risk environment and apply our expertise to a cause that could protect our waterways and help farmers.”
That kind of response from both startups and established businesses has allowed CWA to generate momentum, and build on that as it moves ahead. As more companies test their new technologies in the Smart Lake Erie Watershed project—and develop mutually beneficial solutions with CWA support—the appeal of tackling public sector problems with commercially based projects grows for other entrepreneurs.
“This is a prime example of connecting the dots across Ohio’s water economy,” Max Herzog, CWA’s deputy director of programs and partnerships, said a blog post on the farming initiative. “We are leveraging our world-class testbed network to support an innovative Ohio company, address a critical environmental issue, and provide economic benefits for farmers—all while accelerating the commercialization of cutting-edge technology right here in our region.”
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Bruce Crumley
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