Bluewater sustainability spokesperson joins Green Zone debate at COP27 around water resilience strategies in the US and beyond

Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, 14 November 2022 – The transformative potential of water purification technologies to help build greater resilience against the impacts of climate change was emphasised by Bluewater Group spokesperson Philip Russell, Managing Director of the Swedish company’s UK operation, during a panel discussion on water reuse on Saturday, 12 November 2022, at COP27 in the Green Zone.

Entitled “U.S. Leadership on Water Reuse”, and hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, the event explored recent advancement of supportive policies in the United States and around the world such as the U.S. Administration's recent launch of the Global Water Security Action Plan. The session was chaired by Chuck Chaitovitz (Vice President, Environmental Affairs and Sustainability, U.S. Chamber of Commerce), with Philip being joined by Felicia Marcus (William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program and Consultant, Water Policy Group) and Andrew Aulisi (Vice President for Global Environmental Policy, PepsiCo) as the fellow panellists.

Philip emphasised that effective public-private sector partnerships will be essential in realising ambitious climate, water, and infrastructure goals moving forward. He also highlighted the transformative role that emerging technological solutions can play in enabling communities to develop greater decentralised resilience concerning access to fresh water.

Philip noted how Bluewater has spent the past decade developing leading edge technologies designed to help people, businesses and communities address challenges of mounting water scarcity and contamination by toxic metals, chemicals and microplastics that municipal waterworks are not geared to remove.

“Bluewater's technology solutions portfolio is now enabling individuals, events, venues, businesses and communities to think about access to pure fresh drinking water in very new ways. For example, we can harvest urban rainwater and transform it into potable drinking water offered via innovative free public dispensers; a move that not only helps reduce pressure on municipal supplies but that also repurposes a resource that often goes unutilised," Philip said.

Philip also noted that in today’s climate challenged world where the stability of fresh water supplies is uncertain, it is becoming ever more important to be able to generate safe drinking water when and where we need it.

“Moving to reuse and refill models, as advocated as a core tenet of Bluewater's philosophy that is founded on point-of-use purification, will be essential in halting the destructive impacts to marine and freshwater systems being caused by the world's addiction to single-use plastic bottles” Philip said. “It is estimated that 1.3 billion plastic bottles are purchased around the world every day, with many failing to be recycled and ultimately contaminating our environment.”

Bluewater was launched in 2013 by Swedish environmental entrepreneur Bengt Rittri with the express mission to harness human ingenuity to halt the destructive use of plastic bottles and their transportation around the world by polluting ship, air and road transport. In early 2022, Bluewater merged with U.S. water dispensing company Flowater, which is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and is currently being integrated into the Swedish company’s global operations.

Bluewater is wholly owned by Blue AB, a Stockholm-based purpose-driven investment fund. Supporting start-ups and companies at any stage of business development, the fund has invested in building a portfolio of companies driving clean air, purified water, energy, health, and other game-changing initiatives, including Baseload Capital, which develops and invests in heat power operators worldwide to help accelerate the development of geothermal energy as a green source of electricity.

For more information, please contact Dave Noble, PR and Communications Director, at david.noble@bluewatergroup.com or + 44 7785 302 694