In its first year, the global competition rewarded business plans that offer the greatest promise of breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water. First Place went to Fruition Sciences, which has developed an innovative way to give the vineyard farmer real-time status of key variables for growing wine grapes. Already used successfully by nine grape growers in California, Fruition’s web application has generated significant water savings while decreasing or eliminating yield loss and improving quality.

“We saw a real challenge in the wine industry,” says Sébastien Payen, co-founder of Fruition, which operates out of both California and France. “There were absolutely no plant-based sensors to optimize water management.” So he combined his co-founder Thibaut Scholasch’s dissertation research on vine water status variations with his own mastery of recent sensor and information technology and voilà! Their winning idea was born.

“Fruition showed us a very targeted plan, a promising technology and the ability to execute their idea,” says Scott Bryan, Director of Operations of Imagine H2O, a nonprofit building a “Silicon Valley” for water in the Bay area. “In the water sector, most entrepreneurs want to be in every single market, but Fruition has started out with an intriguing niche market where they can polish their idea and then go broader into other agricultural markets. “

“Fruition showed us a very targeted plan, a promising technology and the ability to execute their idea,” says Scott Bryan, Director of Operations of Imagine H2O, a nonprofit building a “Silicon Valley” for water in the Bay area. “In the water sector, most entrepreneurs want to be in every single market, but Fruition has started out with an intriguing niche market where they can polish their idea and then go broader into other agricultural markets. “

Rainwater HOG’s H2OG tank, which is a food-grade, rectangular module made of low-density polyethylene that can store water horizontally or vertically, was a runner-up. “The HOG makes it easy for people to harvest and use rainwater instead of city water for their irrigation and even inside their homes, and can thus reduce a building’s city water use by more than 50%,” says HOG designer Sally Dominguez, who co-founded the company with husband and CEO, Simon.

“Rainwater HOG showed us a clear plan and demonstrated they could scale it,” says Brian Matthay, Program Manager of Imagine H2O. “They have a clever approach to a very basic solution: rainwater collection. It’s a great way to water your lawn or keep emergency water on hand. You can even use HOGs as insulation around your house. And it will be a DIY project someday.”

Working as an architect in her hometown of Sydney, Australia, Dominguez noticed most of her clients were inner-city dwellers that wanted to save water but didn’t want to lose valuable space.  When she couldn’t find a sustainable horizontal tank on the market, she designed her own. The H2OG is available in the USA, Australia and the UK with markets being developed in India and Japan.

WaterSmart Software also earned runner-up status for its web-based application that allows water utilities to optimize their water conservation programs. WaterSmart empowers utilities’ residential customers to take water saving actions by providing water use information, customized recommendations, and rewards for their efforts. “The judges were impressed that within 60 to 90 days of being incorporated, WaterSmart had really made some inroads with major municipalities that demonstrated demand for their product,” says Matthay.

Once it goes to market (two pilot programs will launch this year), WaterSmart could save participating homeowners an average of 3,000 gallons of water per year. In some cases, a total water use reduction of 20%. “Conservation can be a cost-effective ‘new’ source of water,” says Peter Yolles, who co-founded San Francisco- and San Diego-based WaterSmart with Rob Steiner.

With more than fifty teams from all over the world submitting entries, the Prize was created to help find sustainable solutions to global water problems through entrepreneurship. The competition offers prizes of $70,000 in cash, business, legal, accounting and tax support, and access to a network of partners, customers and financiers to help bring their ideas to market.

The winners will be honored at Imagine H2O’s Water Innovator’s Showcase March 11, 2010, from 7 – 9 p.m. at Terra Gallery, 
511 Harrison Street, San Francisco.  Hundreds of cleantech leaders from the Bay area and beyond, including water entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, water utility executives, investment bankers, cleantech lawyers, government officials and public policy experts, will gather to discuss where and how innovation is happening in the water sector. Ambassador John Bohn, Commissioner of the California Public Utilities Commission, will give the keynote speech. Tickets are available for purchase at: http://imagineh2o.eventbrite.com/

“We hope this competition can bring more attention to water and sustainability issues,” says First Place winner Scholasch. Indeed, “awareness has been an obstacle to moving the water market forward,” says Tamin Pechet, Chairman and Executive Director of Imagine H2O.“Be it public awareness of the looming water crisis, investors trying to ferret out potential business solutions, or would-be entrepreneurs networking with the vital players who can be of support. The Prize is intended to become a magnet for water entrepreneurship and give the finalists extraordinary exposure to the investment and business community.”

The competition’s inaugural prize focused on water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse. “There are alternate sources of energy – but there are no alternate sources of clean water,” says Ralph Petroff, member of the judging panel and a water technology CEO for 20 years, who currently advises technology start-ups as CEO of Magna Vista Group. “Increased water efficiency is the only solution. We will run out of clean water long before we run out of oil.” Future years’ competitions will have different prize topics addressing other critical water problems.

“Business has an important role to play in developing the next generation of solutions to the world’s water challenges,” said Gordon Nixon, President and CEO of RBC, founding sponsor of Imagine H20.  “We are thrilled to have played a role in bringing this inaugural competition to life and congratulate all the finalists and winners.”

Imagine H2O has financial backing from RBC*, the Full Circle Fund, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and other private foundations. Its growing list of partners includes the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the National Water Research Institute, Babson College, the Stanford University Conservation Program, and others.

For more information, please visit www.imagineh2o.org.

In less than two decades, water scarcity could lose the equivalent of the total grain crops of the U.S. and India, said the report.

“The world simply cannot manage water in the future in the same way as in the past or the economic web will collapse,” said the report.

Water has been consistently under-priced in many areas of the world, and has subsequently been wasted and overused, according to the report.  Many areas are on the cusp of “water bankruptcy” after a spate of regional water “bubbles” over the past 50 years.

The report cited energy production as accounting for roughly 39 percent of all water used in the U.S. and 31 percent of all water withdrawals in the EU.  While only three percent is consumed, competition will intensify over the next 20 years for water access, the report said.

Water requirements for energy are forecasted to increase by up to 165 percent in the U.S. and 130 percent in the EU, which could lessen the amount of water available for agriculture, the WEF said.

The report said that at their current rate of melting, most glaciers in Tibet and the Himalayas will have disappeared by 2100.  These glaciers currently provide water for roughly two billion people.

Additionally, about 70 major rivers throughout the world are close to being completely drained after being used for years to supply water for irrigation and reservoirs.

According to the WEF, water will become a prevalent theme for investors within 20 years, even more so than oil.

“The water problem is broad and systemic. Our work to deal with it must be so as well,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the Davos forum on Thursday.

Corporate executives attending the forum also expressed apprehension about the matter.

“I am convinced that, under present conditions and considering the way water is being currently managed, we will run out of water long before we run out of fuel,” Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of Switzerland-based Nestle, told the AFP.

“The only way to measurably and sustainably improve this dire situation is through broad-scale collaborative efforts between governments, industry, academic, and other stakeholders around the world,” said Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo Inc, which makes enormous use of water.

“Management of future water needs stands out as an urgent, tangible and fully resolvable issue for multiple stakeholders to engage in,” said Dominic Waughray, the WEF’s head of environmental initiatives.

A skyrocketing demand for food is also expected in the coming years, the report said.

The research was led by Associate Professor Karin Leder from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in conjunction with Water Quality Research Australia (previously the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Quality and Treatment).

“This is the first study of its kind. Until now, there has been no prospective randomised study to investigate the health effects of rainwater consumption, either in Australia or internationally,” Associate Professor Leder said.

The study involved three hundred volunteer households in Adelaide that were given a filter to treat their rainwater. Only half of the filters were real while the rest were ’sham’ filters that looked real but did not contain filters.

The householders did not know whether they had a real filter. Families recorded their health over a 12-month period, after which time the health outcomes of the two groups were compared.

“The results showed that rates of gastroenteritis between both groups were very similar. People who drank untreated rainwater displayed no measurable increase in illness compared to those that consumed the filtered rainwater,” Associate Professor Leder said.

Adelaide was the location chosen for the study as it the city with the highest use of rainwater tanks in Australia.

Associate Professor Leder said some health authorities had doubts about drinking rainwater due to safety concerns, particularly in cities where good quality mains-water is available.

“This study confirms there is a low risk of illness. The results may not be applicable in all situations; nevertheless these findings about the low risk of illness from drinking rainwater certainly imply that it can be used for activities such as showering/bathing where inadvertent or accidental ingestion of small quantities may occur.

“Expanded use of rainwater for many household purposes can be considered and in current times of drought, we want to encourage people to use rainwater as a resource,” she said.

The study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and Water Quality Research Australia.

With more than fifty teams from all over the world submitting entries, “the competition has already exceeded our wildest expectations,” says Brian Matthay, Imagine H2O’s Program Manager. Created to help find sustainable solutions to global water problems through entrepreneurship, the competition offers prizes of $70,000 in cash, business and legal support, and access to a network of partners, customers and financiers to help bring their ideas to market.

“Only a small number of water start-ups receive angel and venture investment each year. Our team did an extensive search to find an impressive number of promising water start-ups

looking for support,” says Tamin Pechet, Imagine H2O’s Chairman. “More importantly, the Prize actually inspired some water start-ups to put together their teams and business plans that might not have done so otherwise.”

It was more than the quantity of entries that was surprising. “It was very difficult for the judges to limit the finalists to only ten,” says Ralph Petroff, member of the judging panel and a water technology CEO for 20 years, who currently advises technology start-ups as CEO of Magna Vista Group. “I have no doubt that many of these business plans will become the foundations for successful and profitable water companies. The high caliber of the business plans is an excellent validation that water efficiency is the next key clean-tech market.”

“A competition like this is long overdue,” echoes Rob Steiner, co-founder of finalist WaterSmart Software, who has been in the water sector for many years.

Entries were submitted from the United States, India, Europe, Canada and Australia. Teams included CEOs of publicly traded companies, consultants in the water business as well as MBA students. The finalists in the first Imagine H2O Prize are:Imagine H2O News Release

• The Eco Products Group has developed proprietary products that will enable a consumer to reduce the use of potable water, create a sanitary sink environment and reclaim gray water.

• EcoBeta is an online dashboard that gives investors and managers actionable data on the risk that they face from changes in global watersheds.

• Envirocern delivers ultrapure water to semiconductor foundries using proprietary distillation technology that provides large quantities of water at extremely low cost.

• Fruition Sciences is a technology-enabled information business that offers a solution for winemakers and vineyard managers who want to produce top quality, sustainably (optimized irrigation and management practices) farmed wines, year after year.

• Intelligent Irrigation Solutions uses in-ground soil moisture sensors and advanced forecasting models that enable irrigation to be more efficient, ultimately reducing water consumption for irrigation by 20-40%.

• Puralytics uses the latest advances in semiconductor and nanotechnology to solve the world’s emerging water purification problems, with 100% water utilization, low energy, and environmentally sound products.

• Quantaic employs a patented technology to recover clean water from oil and natural gas production processes, creating new water supplies while efficiently treating the industry’s largest waste product — produced water.

• Rainwater HOG offers innovative rainwater storage.

• The Soil Information System delivers the information essential to solving the problem of feeding the world in a truly sustainable manner.

• WaterSmart partners with water utilities to optimize their water conservation programs, more quickly and cost-effectively meet their water efficiency objectives and help their customers save water, save money and get rewarded for their actions.

“We hope this competition can bring more attention to water and sustainability issues,” says finalist Thibaut Scholasch, Ph.D., who along with partner Sebastien Payen, founded finalist Fruition Sciences. Indeed, awareness has been an obstacle to moving the water market forward, says Pechet, be it public awareness of the looming water crisis, investors trying to ferret out potential business solutions or would-be entrepreneurs networking with the vital players who can be of support. The Prize is intended to become a magnet for all interested parties and give the finalists extraordinary exposure to the investment and business community.

“It is an honor to be a part of Imagine H2O’s vision to facilitate coalitions between entrepreneurs, industry experts, scientists, venture capitalists and executives to tackle what is arguably the greatest challenge of our time — the way we, as a civilization, manage water as a finite resource,” says J. Mark Arnold, Vice President, Business Development, Quantaic Corporation, one of the finalists.

The competition’s inaugural prize focuses on water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse. “There are alternate sources of energy – but there are no alternate sources of clean water,” says Petroff. “Increased water efficiency is the only solution. We will run out of clean water long before we run out of oil.”

If all of the finalists’ proposed businesses were realized, over one trillion gallons of water could be saved annually.

Entries were accepted starting in September 2009 and winners will be announced at a showcase event in March 2010. Future years’ competitions will have different prize topics addressing other critical water problems.

Imagine H2O has financial backing from RBC, the Full Circle Fund, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and other private foundations. Its growing list of partners includes the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the National Water Research Institute, Babson College, the Stanford University Conservation Program, and others.

For more information, please visit www.imagineh2o.org.