Innovation

The arrangement of cisterns in order to recycle water constitute a milestone in the use of water. Jean-Louis Manent is its major pioneer. His main objective was to reduce by more than a half the consumption of water; but more importantly, to implement an ecological approach to the domestic use of water. The innovation works in a way that reprocesses sewerage water used in WCs, washbasins, and showers for a less wasteful usage. Indeed, instead of spending potable and unused water for the flush system, it is resourceful to use recycled water. Easy to use, only 2 steps are required for the water to be recycled. The first one, incredibly disjoints bio-degradable materials (shampoo, hair or dirt are being absorbed), and then a thin membrane of 0.00005mm filtrates the water. To a further extent, the water is micro filtered and then purified throughout a reverse osmosis chemical process, where pressure is applied to counteract the natural osmosis of certain particles. Finally, ultraviolet rays will kill the unwanted and tenacious bacteria remaining in the surface. A small detail for those who might be horrified or disgusted to drink recycled water, plants do not provide water directly to the consumer. It is injected back into the water table; from which the water distribution agencies pump it. This innovation has various other prospects. All this being said, Jean Louis Manent' innovation can be aligned with the one of NASA, which is using technology in its International Space Station, where special equipment collects urine and sweat from astronauts to produce water for coffee or brush teeth.

Inspiration

“I’ve always been interested by respectful solutions that aim to protect the environment. Plus, knowing that I have been hearing a lot about solar energy but way less about water, I told myself that it was a good opportunity to develop the several opportunities in this sector. Indeed, this impression has been confirmed after doing a market research."

This way, Jean-Louis Manent claimed that he wanted his country to enhance its capacity to respect and stick to such a great environmental friendly cause. When asked about the aftermath of his innovation, he said: "It is pure water, or even more than purified water found in the supermarkets. The water is so pure, that it must be reinjected a little minerals for the taste, so that it does not erode the pipes".

The concrete motivations behind this incentive are to help France in its long-term vision of ecological revolution, in line with the "Paris Climate Agreement". A new target segment has been established through AQUAE's work which was the first French entity to enter this innovation into the country. However, four other companies followed AQUAE’s path, which remained a leader in this innovation. Nonetheless, bringing profit to the business was also of paramount importance in that initiative undertaken.

Overall impact

Across the world, but particularly in areas of mass consumption, scarcity of resources is becoming really worrying. Basically, the preservation of water, figuratively known as the "blue gold" should be a matter of concern for all the current citizens of this Earth and as well as the upcoming generations. Nowadays, water figures among the most exploited and most valuable natural resources. The reason why it's appropriate and proportional may avoid conflicts of any types in the future. Besides, the impact of such an innovation are ecological, but at the same time positive in term of economic sustainability and growth. This latter innovation will have a triple impact on various primary and secondary stakeholders: Consumers, businesses and the environment as a whole. In concordance with the statistics of the United Nations, "Sub- Saharian Africa alone uses 40 billion of hours per year collecting water, the same of the entire year's labor in all of France". There are even more shocking and scary statistics on this matter. This is why water automatically came to our minds knowing that it one of the most wasted resource. This is why AQUAE decided to distinguish itself from other French entities operating in the same industry, by transforming this weakness into a valued strength.

Business benefit

Jean-Louis Manent stated that this novel process cost loads of money; however less than what thought. After a thorough benchmarking and industry analysis, AQUAE analyzed the chief economic opportunities and threats of such an innovation and the company was quickly able to perceive quick returns on investment the year that followed. Advertising came next and now the innovation appears to be recognized and sought by other corporations which use AQUAE's innovation in their proper entities. In fact, AQUAE is the principal distributor of small enterprises, EDF (Electricité de France), and even private individuals claimed Jean-Louis Manent during the interview. Regarding the social aspect, this innovation helped the rise of environmental consciousness in France. Also, on the same occasion, it attracted European countries such as; Belgium and Germany, but first and foremost an ecological state of mind. Regarding the last aspect, which deals with the environmental aspect, the reusing of wasted water elevated the awareness on water consumption, as Jean-Louis Manent wished to do initially. From a business perspective and as business students, we all know that this initiative could create economies of scale, if the resource is handled properly. There is another point that Jean-Louis Manent explicitly mentioned as a business benefit: "Cost, is a factor that could contribute to improving the image of waste water. Bottled water is about 10,000 times more expensive without necessarily enhancing its quality"

Social and environmental benefit

Regarding the environment aspect, the advantage of this innovation is that it helps reduce the amount of water extracted from the environment.

Not only that, concerning the society, the choice of this innovation was a way to raise awareness in our daily lives and frequent tasks. After deepening our research on the topic, my team mate and I have realized how crucial is it to preserve this treasure by some small gestures on a daily basis that will have positive effects in the long-run scale. This innovation is helpful to primary stakeholders. Indeed, the creator of the innovation gave us the example of when an individual let the tap running down for few minutes while brushing his/her teeth. We were shocked to realize that it uses on average 10 litres of water, as asserted by Jean Louis Manent. Just think of the waste if we do brush them three times a day. Instead, one of the things we recommend and that will not cost much efforts, is for instance to fill one glass of water per person in order to rinse our mouths.

That is why, by bringing this up we hope that people will start getting conscious of the issue so that future generations do not suffer from scarcity.

Interview

Jean-Louis Manent., Founder and CEO of Aquae