SIWW 2024: Xylem CEO Matthew Pine on transitioning to a water-secure world

At Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) in June, Xylem President and CEO Matthew Pine shared insights on escalating global water challenges, the proven technologies available to solve them and the growing need to simplify water management. During a panel called “Titans of Industry,” Pine also discussed how Xylem is transforming its organization to make it easier for water operators to adopt advanced solutions and make their communities and businesses more water-secure.

Among other Xylem highlights at the conference: Dr. Xiangyi Qiao, Head of Technology and Applications (ASEAN+), won Best Poster Award for Treatment for her team’s groundbreaking research on sustainable advanced oxidation processes.

Key take-aways from CEO Matthew Pine’s remarks

- Forces such as climate change are driving profound shifts in the water cycle and in the global economy. Much of the global conversation has been around the energy transition and the race to net zero. But water is becoming a risk factor that cannot be ignored. We also need a transition to a more water-secure world, where everyone has access to enough safe and affordable water to meet today’s needs without compromising our future.

- Xylem’s purpose is to empower customers and communities to build a more water-secure world. The company is taking definitive steps to help water operators meet the accelerating water challenges they face, including:

• Combining with Evoqua last year to become the world’s largest water technology company. This has enhanced Xylem’s ability to reach customers across the globe, strengthened its capabilities, and given Xylem a transformational platform of solutions and services across both utility and industrial water systems. 
  
  
• Building our digital capabilities and offerings. Xylem continues to help customers solve water in more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable ways with digital solutions such as Xylem Vue powered by GoAigua. This vendor-agnostic software and analytics platform helps customers optimize decision-making, increase efficiency and improve resilience.
  
  
• Simplifying water management across the water cycle. To make it easier for utilities and industry to solve complex water problems, Xylem is also simplifying its organization. By driving three key elements – inspire to innovate, empowered to lead and accountable to deliver – we will create a high-impact culture that delivers ever greater value for customers.

- Much of the technology already exists to help make communities and businesses become more water-secure. Xylem is continually working to simplify these applications, so they can be scaled and adopted globally by utilities and industry.

• Water reuse: Recycling water for community use is one of the most important leverage points for water security. Industrial reuse is just as important. Xylem recently completed a project with Silfex, a leading provider of precision components for semiconductor manufacturing, to help it recover up to 80% of cleanroom wastewater, reducing the plant’s reliance on external sources while saving millions of gallons of water annually.
  
  
• Data and digital transformation: Digital solutions can transform water networks through game-changing insights. In the United Kingdom, Xylem worked with Yorkshire Water and Idrica to connect thousands of sensors from different systems into one operational platform, empowering our customers to reduce leaks by nearly 60% and eliminating 30% of annual distribution main repairs.
  
  
• New business models that combine technology, expertise and capacity to deliver outstanding water outcomes to customers. Adopting new technologies is critical to simplifying water. But water operators sometimes face capital constraints or challenges finding the right in-house experts. Xylem can offer solutions as a service through a wide array of business models to make it faster and easier to solve these challenges.

Xylem is proud to be a founding sponsor of Singapore International Water Week. Organized by PUB, Singapore's National Water Agency, and Singapore's Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, the annual gathering brings together stakeholders from government, academia, industry and the nonprofit sector from around the world.

Looking for more water-related events? Visit our list of upcoming 2024 water events to see where Xylem is exhibiting next.