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From Crisis to Control: AI Offers New Hope for Water Management

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19 Jun, 2025

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

Nearly 40 million people — roughly 12% of the U.S. population — rely on the Colorado River for water. This iconic river, which stretches across seven states, supports irrigation, generates power, and serves as a vital source of drinking water. Yet its flow has diminished by about 20% over the past century — a seemingly modest decline that carries significant consequences. A mere 10% reduction in flow jeopardizes $1.4 trillion in economic activity.

Three critical factors compound the challenges facing the Colorado River: overdependence, climate change, and aging infrastructure. Together, they create a pressing need for innovative water management solutions as water scarcity becomes a growing regional crisis.

The impacts of water scarcity are particularly visible in states like Arizona and California. A 2023 Arizona Department of Water Resources report predicted a groundwater shortage of 4.6 million acre-feet over the next century. For perspective, one acre-foot of water can support up to three households for a year, depending on the community. This looming shortfall could disrupt new development approvals in the Phoenix metropolitan area, home to 4.6 million people, unless alternative water sources are secured.

California faces similar challenges. The 2023 State Water Project Delivery Capability Report estimated that by 2043, the state’s water delivery capacity could decline by 23% due to shifting water flow patterns and extreme weather events. This reduction — equal to 496,000 acre-feet annually — represents enough water to supply 1.7 million homes for a year.

Beyond shortages, water loss due to leaks, theft, or metering inaccuracies — referred to as Non-Revenue Water (NRW) — exacerbates the crisis. Worldwide, approximately 35% of treated drinking water is lost each year as NRW. In the U.S. alone, six billion gallons of treated water are wasted daily, adding up to two trillion gallons annually. This staggering loss of resources costs municipalities around $8 billion every year, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).

CivilSense acoustic sensors are compatible with any pipe material.

Aging infrastructure further compounds the issue. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that $625 billion will be needed over the next two decades to address deteriorating drinking water systems. Leaks and inefficiencies drive up costs for utilities, hampering their ability to invest in critical infrastructure upgrades. The burden often falls on consumers, as utilities are forced to raise rates, adding financial pressure on households and businesses.

To address these challenges, Oldcastle Infrastructure has developed CivilSense™, a cutting-edge water infrastructure asset management solution that combines advanced artificial intelligence with decades of expertise. CivilSense uses network and acoustic data to identify leaks and predict pipe failures before they occur, offering municipalities a proactive and sustainable way to improve their water management. By leveraging data-driven insights, this solution helps cut operational costs, prevent major line breaks, and reduce water loss effectively, making it an invaluable tool for communities struggling with water scarcity.

CivilSense is particularly impactful as municipalities face staffing shortages, skill gaps due to retirements, and tight budgets that hinder necessary repairs. By providing a scalable and efficient solution, water utilities can mitigate resource loss and plan for the future with greater confidence.

Field deployment of CivilSense technology.

Forward-thinking communities are seeking ways to cope with water scarcity today with innovative measures like CivilSense. Consider Bartow County, a community about 50 miles north of Atlanta that buys about 95% of its water from neighboring cities and counties.

In an Oldcastle Infrastructure pilot program, CivilSense analyzed the water distribution network and identified nine separate leaks, varying from small (1–4 gallons per minute) to medium (5–9 gallons per minute) and large (more than 10 gallons per minute). Of the nine, two were small, three were medium, and four were large. The total water lost from these nine leaks totaled 83 gallons per minute, which translates to nearly 120,000 gallons a day or 43 million gallons per year.

“Repairing small leaks that are three-to-five gallons per minute may not sound exciting, but having the ability to find and fix leaks before they create more damage is a much more proactive and less costly approach,” said Lamont Kiser, director of Bartow County Water. “Our proactive approach is working for Bartow County and our citizens.”

Water scarcity is no longer a distant threat — it’s a present-day reality demanding action. With CivilSense, municipalities of all sizes can adopt smarter water management practices to protect their most vital resource. As the challenges grow, so do the opportunities to innovate and secure a sustainable water future for future generations.

Chris Cummings is a Smart Water Consultant, Digital Water Market, at Oldcastle Infrastructure.

Specializing in software solutions and go-to-market strategy, Chris Cummings is dedicated to advancing sustainable water management technologies.

Top image caption: CivilSense detects and prioritizes leaks for better resource allocation.

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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