Oldcastle Infrastructure, a CRH Company, and a leader in innovative infrastructure solutions, has announced an innovative new funding mechanism to support the deployment of promising new water technologies in the U.S. Through the ‘Minority-Led U.S. Utilities Trial Reservoir,’ a partnership with water consultancy Isle Utilities, technology companies can access loans for trailing new technologies at water utilities that advance social and/or environmental sustainability goals for local communities.
Oldcastle Infrastructure is proud to partner with Isle Utilities on this exciting and important initiative. We work with our customers and partners to help solve critical infrastructure challenges. The long-term safety and security of our nation’s water supply are foundational to how we develop the products and services we deliver. Our involvement with the Minority-led US Utilities Trial Reservoir will foster a robust pipeline of innovative solutions to support the water infrastructure challenges the distribution network faces — Brent Neubauer – Director of Innovation, Oldcastle Infrastructure
Brent Neubauer – Director of Innovation, Oldcastle Infrastructure
Technology trials are generally required in advance of full-scale implementations. The Minority-Led U.S. Utilities Trial Reservoir will make a pool of funding available to technology companies, giving them the capacity to undertake trial deployments with water utilities. The ‘reservoir’ of funding will be replenished from the proceeds of commercial contracts when the trials move to full deployments. Oldcastle Infrastructure is the foundation sponsor of this initiative.
“Oldcastle’s sponsorship of the Minority-Led U.S. Utilities Trial Reservoir does much more than just create financial capacity for the uptake of new best practices in water utilities in the U.S.,”said Dr Jo Burgess, Head of the Trial Reservoirs. “The Minority-Led U.S. Utilities Trial Reservoir brings together all the players needed to de-risk the innovation process for those who have to take the highest risks of all. By removing financial uncertainty, partnerships between utilities and technology vendors can focus on solving the challenges facing communities in need.”
In the U.S., systematic Safe Drinking Water Act violations are most likely to occur in communities with high racial, ethnic, and social vulnerability. Disadvantaged communities are often sidelined in discussions around technology design and implementation and frequently suffer from disproportionate environmental harms.
Customers (particularly in disadvantaged communities) face major obstacles in testing new capital-intensive treatment solutions.
To combat these challenges, Oldcastle Infrastructure and Isle Utilities are launching a new Trial Reservoir focused on technologies serving disadvantaged communities, with an emphasis on efforts driven by Minority-Led Utilities in the U.S. that meet sustainability and environmental justice goals.
The Trial Reservoir is open to technology vendors around the world. Trials that either have a minority-led utility as an end-user or guarantee that the end-user will utilize the Trial to extend service delivery to minority communities in need in their service area are welcome to apply.
