Show notes
Transcript
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
Welcome to Climate Forward. My name is Mansur Philip Gharabaghi and I’m your host. Today I speak with Alexander Frech, the CEO of Amiblu Group.
Alexander Frech
Water is an important topic, but more than that will become ever more important. Forward looking. We still do not treat this precious resource as we truly should.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
Alexander Frech, thank you very much for joining me today. Welcome to the Climate Forward podcast.
Alexander Frech
Thanks, Mansur. It’s a great pleasure to be here with you.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
Alex, we will talk about your job, but also about a really important resource we all use every day: water. But maybe we can start with a very short introduction of who you are. What’s what is your professional role at the moment and where do you come from?
Alexander Frech
My name is Alexander Frech. I’m based in Vienna. I live here. I was educated at the business school and I run a company called Amiblu today, which is active in 120 countries in the field of water management infrastructure.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
So you already said the keyword for, I think, what will focus on: water and water management. Why is water so important at the moment?
Alexander Frech
Energy is the fundament for our economic well-being, but water and air are the fundament for life. So we are talking about a resource, an element that’s really the fundament for life, and it’s an increasingly stressed element. And we are also increasingly more people here using this resource. So I think water is an important topic, but more than that will become ever more important forward looking.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
When you say water is important, I think we all know we drink water. Water is an important part of our body. We’re mainly water as humans, and I think we’re facing some. Yeah. Dangers or we’re seeing some some shortages. Maybe you can touch upon this.
Alexander Frech
If you really work in the field of water, you run across so many problems and challenges related to water and I just give you a couple of examples. This year, I mean, we’ve all seen the water shortages even in Europe and Italy, but it’s also other fields like we do have heavy rains. We all know that once the ground gets dry, the ability to absorb water, once it rains, basically, essentially completely disappears.
So after a period, after dry period, having rainfalls usually results into flooding. So here also you need infrastructure. You need stormwater retention tanks, facilities, you need lines that transport the water away. And of course, talking now, for example, about Europe, our infrastructure was not made for that. So if we have heavy rainfalls, we do not have the infrastructure to transport away all these excess water that’s not being absorbed anymore by the ground.
And that then in turn has other very direct implications. Just one example I would like to share on that. I don’t know how many people are aware, but when you, sometimes you want to go to a public baths, you want to go to a river baths to a lake or whatsoever. Sometimes it’s closed and you’re not allowed to swim.
Usually that is because there were an abundance of rain and too much water in the sewer lines, causing the sewer lines to overflow, meaning that untreated water is entering, for example, the Danube river. So also that is one one aspect of water management: us being in the situation that we do let go untreated water into the nature because of the lack of infrastructure or I’m let me put it that way, an infrastructure not built for the weather phenomenon as we are seeing in these years.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
On the one hand, it’s too dry, on the other hand, it’s then too wet and for both situations you need the adequate infrastructure. Maybe you could also quickly touch upon the topic of fresh water supply, because I think also there our infrastructure has some struggles at the moment.
Alexander Frech
Oh, yeah. I mean, fresh water is a big topic. What’s fresh water? Often fresh water is referred to as potable water and potable water has so many different qualities. We are in Vienna here blessed because we can drink untreated fresh water out of the taps. But there are not many capitals in the world where you can do that.
So I think we face here a couple of issues. One issue for sure is the availability of potable water. To me, it’s unbelievable that we still do not treat this precious resource as we truly should. We still allow our potable water networks to leak. And water leakage due to improper piping and pipelines is a big, big issue. We have cities like if we take in Paris, it’s estimated that 30 to 35% of the potable water of the freshwater is lost due to leakage.
Overall, our ability to diagnose improper piping and then really, truly doing something about it and changing it is absolutely important and that leads me to a very important play of thoughts that I really and truly care about: When we build infrastructure, we do have legal frameworks that require the constructor to build in a certain quality that allows functioning for a certain time, often 20 years or 30 years.
But when we build water management infrastructure, when we build potable water pipelines, this should last much, much longer. I mean, we have pipelines still in use from the Roman Empire a thousand years and more than that ago. And we are not building the same way today. When we have public tenders for infrastructure, usually the requirement is for this pipeline to work for 20, 30 or 40 years.
But that shouldn’t be the case because we all know how difficult it is to build a pipeline below a city, and we all know once it’s being built, we will use it for much longer than 30 years. Hence, I really feel quality consciousness when building water management infrastructure is one of the things that we should care about. But this is only one thing I was mentioning two important points.
One is the leakage, but the other thing is the quality of the drinking water. Availability and quality. And I think we want to have both. And in order to manage the right quality of drinking water, we also need to like beef up our infrastructure. Let’s use the term smart pipes for that. When we pipe water and I think that’s also true for wastewater.
I think we are well advised to build up the infrastructure in a way that we know what we are transporting. Sensors are already available, and I think this must come in the in the decades to come for so many reasons. Quality in itself, but also quality related to, for example, have certain antibiotic resistances, medical resistances or remaining particles of agriculture or medicine, or maybe even if we think about defense aspects, terrorism, etc..
So monitoring quality and quantity in our potable water infrastructure for sure is one of the key things we need to make sure and we need to heavily invest into that.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
I think this is really interesting because it’s sort of, you know, it is under under the ground. So it’s out of the eyes of most of us. But it’s such an essential part of our life. You know, the water infrastructure we take for given actually, every day. I mean, I just expect the tap to put out fresh water.
Alexander Frech
Yeah, but, you know, I think more and more people become, also aware that water is used for so many things. Now, here in Austria, we heavily depend also on hydropower. And there are countries like Norway, depending on hydro power. And so, we understand that water is also, the water infrastructure because hydropower plants are water infrastructure, is also generating big part of of the energy we need. So water is directly related also to to energy but also directly related to economic well-being because you have so many industries where you have also processed water. This is just one example, but there are so many.
I mean, we could read in the last weeks of France importing coal based energy from Germany because rivers run dry and nuclear power plants cannot produce the energy needed anymore due to the lack of water. So water is such a crucial element for basically, yeah, almost everything that I think it is truly important that we all educate ourselves and become increasingly aware of. And when I’m asked what I mean with like educate ourselves and making us all aware, I like to use the example of the energy pass we have for houses or we have for equipment like refrigerators. I think they are commonly known like this category A refrigerator or B C, even if you want to sell your house, you have to make sure that you have the right documents showing the energy efficiency of this building. I think that was a great invention 20 years ago when this idea was about to be get big and then getting implemented because it triggered for new buildings a 90% decrease in energy consumption and for renovation a 50 to 60% decrease of energy consumption of buildings and alike things happened for electronic, appliances. But, and this is the important thing, without a loss in comfort, without the loss and comfort. And I think this is the only truly promising successful pattern. If we find solutions where we can not decrease our comfort but still save. So I don’t think it’s the most educated and the best and the most promising idea to ask the population when you’re a politician to have shorter showers. I think it is the right way to think about, hey, how can we incentivize, better usage of water.
We, we just did it, like especially here in Central Europe. We just did it. We decreased our energy consumption for electronic appliances and housing up to 90% without decrease in comfort. I’m 100% sure we can do the same thing for water. It starts with awareness, and awareness starts with transparency and transparency on where water is used, how much is used, making people aware of that and then focusing on solutions how less water can be used for this same thing is, I think, very promising and I can give you a very hands on example on that: As I told you in the intro, I’m working for Amiblu. Running Amiblu is really exciting because I get to see lots of very exciting projects. And one of the most water stressed regions on earth is also Israel and the Negev Desert. And we are just executing there a water management project, which means that sewer water is being recycled to produce energy. So this is a hydropower plant that uses sewer water. And I think that’s really exciting because this gives used water a second life before it gets treated and gets its third life. Projects like that, which make our water consumption and water usage so much more efficient, I think are really projects that need to be scaled and need to be thought about. And as we, as we increasingly are aware of, sustainable, cheap energy often is the key to water, especially in this region. So many good reasons why we should rethink the way how we treat water.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
It’s fascinating to hear what we actually could change very quickly with very little, like you put it, decrease in comfort or no decrease in comfort at all. I would like to take a step back, because you already mentioned Amy Blue. What made you take up the role as CEO of Amy Blue?
Alexander Frech
I mean, there are two questions in that. Yes, two in one. One question is what made me strive for a career to become CEO one day and why Amiblu and of course, I mean, I got lucky. I have a very broad responsibility today, but you cannot plan for that, right? But what you can plan for is that you, very early in life have to make conscious, ideally conscious decisions on what you want to do with your life. I can share a story with you. A story that involves my dear friend Lisa. When we were teenagers, we were like walking with our dogs across the forests and fields of our home. And I revealed to her that I will study economics and I want to become a business manager. And then she said to me, but hey, Alex, but why are you doing this? You’re so much value driven. You cannot go into business. And I mean, this is more like a metaphor. But I answered to her, you know, Lisa, we like to separate our waste and waste separation just became big like 25 years ago when we were teenagers, yes. We like to separate waste because we understand that this is smart. But how much impact can I make when I separate waste versus when I can run a huge organization that’s separating waste? So if I want to scale my impact, I have to go into business. Yeah. And I have to go into corporate business. So I studied hard, I learned all the things you have to learn when you want to run a company. I, traveled the world, had different positions in different countries in Europe, studied more, did my PhD. And whenever I got a responsibility assigned, I always made it my personal objective to make sure that in the fields where I can act, I do my very best in order to implement sustainable business policies.
Just one example previous to that job, I was working for a big logistic company, the Austrian Post. The Austrian Post, since quite some time is now delivering CO2 neutral with thousands of electric vehicles. And even in a company like that, a logistics company, you can make a huge difference by doing what the core business requires, but doing it with an environmental friendly mindset. And I think it was this mindset together with my like education and everything that rose, my interest when I got approached and learned about Amiblu. Amiblu is a B2B company and typically you wouldn’t know the brand. I wasn’t aware of that brand and that industry, but when I realized that the business of Amiblu is nothing else than a series of small hero’s journeys, yes, because it’s a project business. And every project is like a small hero’s story: a journey from bad to good, a journey like I just shared, where you have no electricity and you waste, and you don’t treat your sewer water to, hey, let’s collect the sewer water, let’s generate electricity and then treat it and reuse it. This is such a nice hero’s journey from again, from bad to good that I said, wow, this is so exciting. Let’s, let’s work in that company. And today the company has projects alike in over 100 countries, around 120 countries. We are having business partners everywhere. 95% of our projects are water related, from hydropower to potable water to sewer lines to stormwater to desalination factories, cooling lines for, even cooling lines for Google, for example. And you really have to make sure that you value water the right way you when you’re in my business. And that’s what, what I really like. Yeah.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
So you have this professional role as CEO of Amiblu where you were able to apply more sustainable practices and help people and also companies to to improve how they deal and how they value water. But I know that you also a while back have decided to take one further step, and you’re now also European Climate Pact Ambassador, can you very briefly explain, why you did this and what your goal in this role is?
Alexander Frech
You know, I don’t want to discredit anyone, but I think, like for my personal opinion and mindset, climate change and dealing with it or generally even without climate change, treating our nature and our planet the right way, yes, treating it as – and I don’t know whom I quote here – but really treating it as something we borrow from our children, this is something I think we are all obliged to. And this is, this thought is deep rooted in my mind. And I think this is very opposed to like throwing stones and demonstrate against and expect others to change, yeah, this is not the way and my approach. I don’t want to like demonstrate, not on Monday and not on Fridays. I want to change something Monday till Sunday. And the question is, how can I involve myself to make a change? And with this mindset, how can I involve myself to really, truly help to make a change? I’m going through life like. I’m vegetarian since I’m 17 for basically environmental and nature conscious reasons. It is this consciousness that almost forces me to constantly search for the equilibrium or the overlap between economic success and economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. Because as an economist, I truly believe that the only things that really will work when changing the world to a towards a greener like behavior in all aspects, is when it’s combined with an economic incentive. This dualism of, or this win win situation, searching for this win win situation of having profits and preserving the nature, not versus no. This is something that I think in most aspects is like a recipe. You can manage companies for economic growth and increase their environmental friendliness. I did this multiple times. This is my expertize, I see it and I’m deeply convinced that this is the way forward to go. Whenever a manager feels like he has to choose between environmental friendly or like profit friendly decisions, I think he’s overseeing something because usually you can you can make this a win win situation. And with this mindset to me it was natural that when I was made aware of the European Climate Ambassadorship and the Green Deal that I said, okay, let’s see where I can contribute, where we can involve, where we can help other decision makers to do that. Also here, it’s a win win situation. It’s not just altruistic. I help others and try to teach them how to make this a success. It’s also I’m getting so much back because by being considered as European Climate Ambassador, once I go to my supply chain, to my suppliers, which are often, for example, Chinese, Egyptians, Americans, French, they have different levels of awareness when it comes to invite to environmental aspects. But as a European Climate Ambassador and CEO of this company, this supports very much my point of view and getting, for example, what we need is green glass fiber, our company, our, our suppliers to use more renewable energies in their production, etc. All this is what is deeply aligned with my goals, and having this platform is also a nice benefit. So what I mean is I’m not just giving and contributing, but I’m also participating and receiving. And that’s why to me it feels clever to be part of that, yeah.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
That also really resonates with me. I’m a deep believer that, you know, you can do well by doing good. I think that is the way we as a society need to go. And where profits and, you know, purpose work together to make something that’s really beneficial to society.
Alexander Frech
Can I, and you did put it very well, nice words Mansur. Just one thing I also sometimes cling on, like if all problems seem too overwhelming, like 15 years back, the problem of our generation seems to have been the the ozone hole, right? It was like, where will we go? I mean, in the end, we won’t be able to survive because of that hole, yeah. Today it is smaller than it was ever before. And this just shows me that we yes, we can make a difference. It starts with transparency and the facts on the table. It continuous with the right level of awareness and then with contributing action of many. Yes. And we, yes, it can work. Yes. And that is something which I find very inspirational. And, yeah. So thanks for also rephrasing it so nicely.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
Yeah, I think this is actually a really great point to also sort of come to a conclusion or come to a to a stop for our podcast. I’m a believer that transparency and awareness are the key to triggering change. I really think this is in so many areas of our life, this is the fundamental challenge: we have to create transparency. People need to understand what is the challenge, what’s the issue, what can I do to make it better? And then companies that are willing to take a step and change and make their production, like you said, you know, creative ways to use water, better ways to to handle it. I do think we’re actually embarking on a very exciting journey as a society there because for 100 years, our pipes have been in the ground and we’ve all hoped, you know, fingers crossed that it all goes well and there was enough water. But now you mentioned the flooding of the sewage is I think in recent weeks we’ve seen this in Britain. They have huge problems with that. Drainage overflows. It’s it’s a massive problem. We need to invest in this. And when we do it, we need to do it for a long, long time because it is so expensive and it takes an incredible amount of work to put it there. And lastly, I think also, you know, smart pipes, I think it’s the way to go. We are using smart meters in so many areas to help us use energy smarter in better ways. Why not with this incredibly important resource that is so scarce in many parts of the world and increasingly also in this part of the world.
So thank you very, very much, Alex, for taking the time of talking to me today. I do want to give you the chance to still, if you if there are any things you would like to add. I know you’ve been in the European Climate Pact Ambassador, from the very beginning. I know there are many, many more topics we could dive in and discussed today, but are there a few or two points that you would like still to mention.
Alexander Frech
I think you made a great summary. Thank you for that. Yes. Let me maybe share one closing thought that would be even worth a whole whole new podcast series. But I truly believe that the social and political discourse in Europe is so advanced when it comes to climate action and doing well by doing good discussions that I really and truly feel what was the digital revolution at heart happening in North America and Asia, yes, that could be the sustainable revolution Europe at heart. And we could as Europe use this to our economic advantage and lead by example and by wealth generation, because then it will be copied by all other continents and nations around. So I think there is a huge opportunity that comes along with the need for more climate and environmental friendly politics and business decisions.
Let’s use this opportunity. Let’s maybe the last thing I would like to add. Thank you.
Mansur Philipp Gharabaghi
So thanks a lot, Alex. Thank you.
This was climate forward with Alexander Frech, the CEO of Amiblu Group. If you want to hear more about the European Climate Pact Ambassadors and their actions hit subscribe, so you don’t miss out on new episodes.
