WHY DO YOU TREAT ME THIS WAY? A SUEZ Sprint to the Future of Water Treatment Works

In July, our spirited SUEZ team were invited to participate and sponsor a Sprint for the second time at the NWG Innovation Festival at Newcastle Racecourse. This event, masterfully orchestrated by the dynamic Angela MacOscar, Head of Innovation at Northumbrian Water Group (NWG), is a beacon of innovation in the UK and beyond.

The NWG Innovation Festival attracts creative minds from across the globe, all united by a common goal - to tackle pressing societal and environmental challenges. This five-day event, brimming with activities like hackathons, workshops, and live entertainment, is a testament to the power of collaborative problem-solving. The festival is unique for several reasons:

Collaborative Spirit: The festival thrives on the design sprint methodology. It's a melting pot of diverse minds brainstorming, developing, and testing solutions to real-world problems.
Diverse Participation: It's a gathering of participants from all UK water companies, businesses, academia, engineering, data science, and the public sector. This diversity fuels innovative and comprehensive solutions.
Tackling Big Challenges: The festival zeroes in on major societal and environmental challenges, aiming to create solutions with a significant positive impact.
Fun Meets Work: The festival beautifully blends serious issues with fun elements like live entertainment, making it both productive and enjoyable for all participants.
Real Outcomes: Unlike some events, the Innovation Festival is all about creating actionable solutions. The ideas born here have a real shot at making a difference.

SUEZ has a history of positive participation in the Innovation Festival. From an idea hatched at the 2021 event, we, along with NWG and others, are developing a prototype for the world's first concentric hydro-powered smart meter, now funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund. This innovative meter aims to conserve water, enable granular data to help reduce per capita consumption, and eliminate the need for environmentally damaging batteries.

This year, the festival’s theme was 'Speed and Scale', a call to action for solutions that can be swiftly implemented and have a widespread impact. Our SUEZ team dove headfirst into the various activities such as building Lego and competing in the Formula One pitstop, drawing inspiration from the insightful talks by Paralympian Ellie Simmonds OBE, Olympian Steve Cram CBE, miniaturist Dr Willard Wigan MBE, bionic teenager Tilly Lockey, and trailblazing fighter pilot, Mandy Hickson.

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The highlight of our experience was the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals in the exhibition hall and engage in creative brainstorming during the Sprint. Our team were thrilled to contribute to the Water Treatment Works of the Future Sprint, aptly renamed 'Why do you treat me this way?' in line with the festival's playful spirit.

The UK needs treatment works that can cope with increasing algal blooms and water discolouration, changing weather patterns, turbidity, and water scarcity. The industry also faces the rise in known and unknown pollutants and so we must delve into these evolving challenges, focusing on designing a future-proofed Water Treatment Works.

With invaluable insights from Tom Williams of Enebio, Nikki Van Dijk from Mott MacDonald, Jenny Banks from Yorkshire Water, and Phil Birchenall, as well as our own SUEZ experts, Florent Le Gall and Laurent Guey, we were able to work together to generate five promising idea areas: standards, catchments, bioreactors, re-use and perhaps the pivotal idea that pulls everything together; a national test centre.

Laurent Guey, Technical Director at SUEZ said “The friendly atmosphere meant everyone was relaxed and more able to take themselves outside of their day-to-day work and think out-of-the-box. I enjoyed being part of the Sprint, drawing up the water treatment plant processes to see the issues clearly. I think the idea of a UK test centre would be valuable for the UK and other Northern European countries, such a France.”

Our Sprint’s dedication was recognized during the ‘Bubble Playback’ session with NWG leadership, and we are excited about the support we have moving forward. More information will follow in due course, with the ultimate goal of securing funding to further develop these ideas and apply once again to the Ofwat Innovation Fund.

We are proud that SUEZ is part of the event. It helps us to fulfil our purpose; to support our clients and partners to deliver essential services, to innovate to conserve water and to promote and implement responsible behaviours, more efficient technologies and make the best possible use of the finite resources of the Earth.

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