This post is submitted by Paul O’Callaghan, founding CEO of the Clean Tech consultancy, O2 Environmental Inc.

The prospect of ‘Peak Water’ is stimulating both investment and innovation in the water sector. More and more water technology start-ups are receiving venture capital funding and at the same time, a number of investment groups are offering specific water funds.  So how safe a bet is water?

The magazine Inc.com just ran an excellent article called ‘Blue is the New Green’ where they feature 11 entrepeneurs who are looking to create radical change in this space. In what was one of the largest venture capital investments to date in a water start-up, one of the companies featured in the article, Water Standard, secured $250 million in March 2008 to help fund their plans to convert old tankers into floating desalination factories. They see a growing market for this as they can re-fit old single hulled tankers and mobilise to areas that need water urgently. They can do this in far shorter order than it takes to get through planning, design, build and commission a new land based desalination facility.

Water Funds

For those of us who may not have $250M to invest…, but would like to invest in water solutions, the investment group Calvert just launched the ‘Calvert Global Water Fund’ (CFWAX) on Sept 30th 2008. The Fund invests in utility, infrastructure, and technology companies active in managing water resources. The fund is managed by KBC Assett Management who say that they stay on top of the technological issues involved in the water cycle through its ‘outside environmental advisory committee of scientists’. Jens Peers, lead portfolio manager of the Calvert Global Water Fund says ‘we believe that no other water asset management group has set up a comparable committee of unbiased experts.”

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Though many states and localities are waking up to their water shortages and taking steps to plan for “peak water”, people generally continue to waste water and to ignore the energy-water link. In 2004 the Natural Resources Defense Council did a study in conjunction with the Pacific Institute called “Energy Down the Drain” on how saving water saves energy. We need to do more to spread the word. Here are seven ways to save energy by saving water:

1. Use local water.

Transporting water uses energy, so rainwater harvesting is a serious water-and-energy saver. According to the NRDC/Pacific Institute study “California’s State Water Project (SWP), which transports water from Northern California to Southern California is the state’s largest single energy user, consuming 2 to 3 percent of all electricity. It takes tremendous amounts of energy to pump the water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains — the highest water lift of any water system in the world

2. Use less heated water in homes and businesses.

Heating water uses a great deal of energy. Small things magnified a million times over — like washing clothes with cold water or taking shorter showers — saves large amounts of energy.

3. Use energy-saving appliances.

Energy Star appliances will decrease water and energy use.

4. Learn from Australia.

Why reinvent the wheel? Since 2006, when the BBC reported Australia’s biggest drought in 1,000 years, the situation has not improved. In an island nation, this has a tendency to focus the mind, and water-and energy-saving inventions have been pouring forth from that country, while the government introduces policies that save energy and water almost daily.

5. Rethink your bathroom.

Toto, an innovative company from Japan (another island nation concerned about water use) offers an EcoPower hands-free faucet that recharges itself each time it is used.

6. Rip out that lawn and replace it with a rain garden.

Watering grass, fertilizing it with petroleum-based fertilizers, and mowing it with a gas or electric mower…..need I say more?

7. Eat more vegetables and grains; cut down on the beef.

Animal farming takes more energy and water. “Beef production requires large volumes of water–as much as 100 times that required to produce equivalent amounts of protein energy from grains.” (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2002 And the cows are fed from corn that is farmed using energy-hogging fertilizers, insecticides, and fossil fuels.

If you think about it, it’s impossible to separate our energy use from our water use. If we can start thinking holistically about the systems we use in our daily lives — and get our governments to create policies that promote wise use of energy and water, we’ll be more ready for the limits to resources that are only going to increase.

Posts Related to Saving Energy and Water:

All You Need to Know About Water Saving Technology Around the House
Could Wind help Save Water?
Low-Energy Water Desalination From Seawater Greenhouse
Water Crisis: Clean Tech to the Rescue?

Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as “blue gold.”

Dan Nees, a water-trading analyst with the World Resources Institute warns, “Water scarcity may be one of the most underappreciated global political and environmental challenges of our time.”  Even Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris called water “the oil of this century.”