Dear Water Europe family,
Last week, the Water Europe Board met in Helsinki, hosted by Ilari Aho from Uponor. It was great to meet up again in person, and Helsinki greeted us with an extraordinary mild climate for the time of the year. This board meeting was important because among many other administrative and housekeeping issues and decisions, the board decided to coopt Hans Goosens to the Board, which will leave his actual board seat open for election, and further elected him as new Water Europe President for the period 2022-2024. These changes will be effective from June on, and have been made to allow for a smooth transition at that point in time.
The board further approved the WE Diversity and Inclusiveness Plan, the launch of a new series of WE publications on Water-Oriented Living Labs, the appointment of three new members to our Vision Leadership teams whose rooster is now almost complete, as well as the adoption of three new WE White Papers and Technical Reports.
As you are aware, Water Europe has chosen the Living Lab approach as the core element of its implementation strategy to achieve a Water-Smart Society. After publishing the Atlas on Water-oriented Living Labs, which set the stage and analyzed existing experiences and the status quo, Water Europe is now about to launch two new publications that further elaborate on the WOLLs concept and methodology. The first document “What you should know about Water-oriented Living Labs” summarizes the history of the Living Labs concept, while the 2nd document ‘How to assess and evolve a Water-oriented Living Lab” elaborates on a methodology that makes it possible to compare WOLLs on a large number of properties and to assess them with a quantitative instrument. A third document in the form of Advanced Guidelines will contain a tailored approach for WoLLs to advance to WELLs building on the WE Vision.
In the moment of writing this editorial, one more exciting edition of Water Market Europe 2022 with 140 participants attending in person and online, is taking place. Back to back to the event, Working Groups meetings will be taking place and two workshops have been also organised. One dedicated to the SIM4NEXUS Serious Game, organised by the SMARTEN project which was held on March 30th and the workshop on Digitlisation of Bathing Water Management which is taking place on the 5th of April, co-hosted by digital-water.city, Water Europe, iBathWater and Sinergea. Learn more about the full programme here.
After the conclusion of this Water Market Europe 2022 edition, Water Europe is getting ready for its first International Water Dialogues 2022 event that will take place under the title ”International Cooperation through a Water-Oriented Living Lab (WOLL) Approach” on the 26 and 27 of April 2022. The IWD event aims to raise awareness about the main water challenges and analyse the progress done between the European Union and the world, particularly with China, India, Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. More details here.
Just before addressing the WME2022 audience, Charlie Walker is setting the scene for WME with an exclusive editorial that offers us an outlook on the industrial water market at a European and global level.
This year promises to be one of interesting changes and new challenges and opportunities. So, stay tuned for more news.
