Desalination & Water Reuse - Special Editions

February-March 2014 | Desalination & Water Reuse | 45 | IDA & AFFILIATES IN JUST two years, the International Water Summit (IWS) has emerged as one of the world's most important venues to explore ways in achieving sustainability, and we at the International Desalination Association (IDA) are pleased once again to support IWS as one of our key Knowledge Partners. Make no mistake; the transition to sustainability represents one of the most important paradigm shifts of the modern era. Its importance cannot be overstated or underestimated. We are living in momentous times. In recent years, our industry, like most others, has pursued sustainability by appealing to our higher senses; to the benefits of exercising our social responsibility; to our sense of humanity and our sense of common good – an appeal to do the "right thing" in industry, the benefits of which will be appreciated down the road, in the future. We put out a call to rally us behind what "we should do", "what should be done" to make a better world, a better place for our children and for future generations. But after the music died and the lights went down, after the conference and workshops ended, we returned home, to our work, back to our desks, setting aside such noble causes. We picked up on the things that were calling and pulling at us. We went back to our immediate worries. The future, the higher calling, the "do-good" – all could wait until tomorrow, or maybe until the next conference came around when we would once again hear the call and wave the flag of sustainability, clean energy, bright futures etc. Yet others of us have been more consistent, more engaged. Some of us in different parts of the world have been motivated by the high costs or shortage of energy supplies and have latched onto sustainability as a way out of the challenges they face, equating sustainability with a need to reduce input costs. And I think that reverse-osmosis technology is a great example of a technology being driven by cost reduction. And then there are those who embraced sustainability full-on, proactively preparing for the rules and regulations staring down on them like a gathering dark storm cloud, wishing to stay dry and get a jump start on what they predict to be a downpour of government restrictions and mandates. Or they have already been put on notice and are racing to meet compliance, embracing sustainability motivated by the end of a stick rather than by a carrot of higher consciousness. These are all good – and very real – reasons to jump on board with sustainability. But there's something missing in this conversation, something of great immense value not covered in this discourse: an understanding of the great opportunity, a true appreciation of the circumstances before us. Think of it this way: Sustainability is the determiner of our future. It is pointing us in a direction. Sustainability is the driver of innovation, innovation that will reshape our business model, redefine our practices and transform our industry. Sustainability is taking us to a place that is very different from where we are now. Today, we stand on the precipice of great and monumental change in industrial history, a change as great as the Industrial Revolution that began in Great Britain in the late 18 h century; as great as the manufacturing and electrification revolution of the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. We are in the midst of great change, and sustainability is driving that change. While sustainability points our direction, innovation is our outcome, our result. Innovation is what we achieve. In our reach for sustainability, not only will we continue the move toward more energy-efficient methods of desalination such as reverse osmosis, not only will we continue to perfect those methods as demonstrated through the gains in nanotechnology and nanofiltration in the past two years, there are more – many more possibilities. Perhaps thermal technology will be reinvigorated through the use of solar technology. It is quite conceivable that solar heating is sufficient enough to run thermal processes. We will continue to accelerate, expand and improve the use of alternative and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, cutting energy costs and cutting carbon emissions, making them ever more viable and attractive. And there is still more. As profound as these things are to our industry, the change brought about will be even bigger. Sustainability will drive innovation in our supply chains and in our operations. Next-practice platforms such as internet-based smart grids will manage our power generation, transmission, distribution and calculate current and immediate demand – the kind of technology being pioneered by IBM, HP, Cisco and others. Our embracing sustainability - and its resulting innovation - will redefine the workplace and cause us to rethink human resource requirements in our industry, to rethink and redesign training, manpower planning, and management systems. Different skills sets will be required through innovation. Our existing business models will change, resulting in new partnerships and new alliances. Regulatory compliance will be embraced an opportunity and our business practices will be transformed. The late CK Prahalad, the great business thinker, wrote in a 2009 edition of the Harvard Business Review, that leaders must "…recognize a simple truth …Sustainability = Innovation." If that was true then, four years ago, it is even truer today. Let's move beyond thinking of sustainability simply as a social responsibility, some chance to do good in this world, to have clean emissions and reverse global warming. Let's move beyond appreciating the energy-cost reductions sustainability can bring. Let's go further than getting a head start and preparing ourselves for pending regulatory mandates. Let's go beyond thinking of sustainability defined by compliance. Let's embrace sustainability for what it is, for the opportunity it brings, for the change, the transformation, the innovation it drives – the innovation that pushes our industry in new directions and pushes it to new unimaginable heights, the innovation that determines our future. President addresses sustainability in iWs address Dr Abdullah Al-Alshaikh _________ Address by IDA president dr abdullah al-alshaikh to the International Water Summit ___

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