Commercialising water: the challenges of making technology pay

Commercialisation is perhaps water tech's greatest challenge and where change can have the greatest impact.

While the gravity, breadth, and variance of water problems requires a greater supply of innovation, many great ideas currently lie dormant. The industry of tinkerers has developed countless solutions that would improve water and sanitation management, but those ideas have yet to reach mainstream adoption. The great near-term opportunity lies in taking exceptional ideas that a few customers have already adopted - on a local level or in fragmented fashion - showcasing these, and providing a pathway to broad adoption.

Early in the innovation and funding process a critical question is: can this technology be commercialised and, if so, how? What is the way forward, what resources are needed, and how quickly can we scale the business to ensure long-term profitability and achieve the targeted financial results for investors?

Read more:http://bit.ly/10Re7Vn

Media

Taxonomy

• Technology
• Finance and Markets

1 Comment

1. One of the reasons why I am working with humanitarianism in mind is that some ideas may only be viable on the local level. With large scale commercialization, a profit has to be guaranteed or at least seem very likely. Most large corporations do not invest in humanitarian work because they may have their philanthropy efforts in a way they are comfortable with. With a commercially feasible RO System, their research is most likely proprietary information. As such, to pursue a new idea based on an outside source is highly unlikely. And this is where they might be able to combine humanitarian efforts with research. This would allow them to test new concepts on a smaller scale and may help them to consider a broader perspective as to how potable water may be made available to more people.