2026 NY Climate Week – Where's the Water?

Transcript

[Sheldon Young]
Welcome to No Footprints, a podcast brought to you by Alfa Laval. I am Sheldon Young.

[Jason Moreau]
And I’m Jason Moreau.

[Sheldon Young]
And we’re here to talk about impact and to share the efforts and people behind making sustainability a real.

Yes, we are. Jason, we are doing it, doing it. Whether the world needs it or not, we’re, we’re bringing it.

[Jason Moreau]
We have volunteered. Yeah. We volunteered to bring this forth.

Yes.

[Sheldon Young]
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

What is it? That was it? Blues brothers.

We’re on a mission from God. If our God is sustainability, that’s the mission. We’re on mother earth mission of mother earth.

We’re on a mission from mother earth. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So Jason, tell me what, what is, what is your sustainability story to kick us off? I’m, I’m, I’m in, I want to hear.

[Jason Moreau]
All right. Uh, it involves wine.

[Sheldon Young]
Oh, I like it already. Yeah.

[Jason Moreau]
Right. And chickens. What is the overlap?

[Sheldon Young]
Let’s go here.

[Jason Moreau]
You ask the people need to know every year, millions of gallons of wine are pressed and it leaves behind a lot of pulpy residue. It does. We actually stems peels.

[Sheldon Young]
Yeah. We actually often dewater it with a centrifuge.

[Jason Moreau]
Excellent.

[Sheldon Young]
Yep.

[Jason Moreau]
And so those solids again, it’s a waste stream. Yep. So Cornell university has looked into this and basically believe it could serve as a replacement for the antibiotics that are routinely added to chicken feet.

Really? Um, yeah, yeah. So they tested it.

Uh, they tested, it’s a, they tested those great, they called it a pumice. So the skin sealed stems peels as an additive for broiler chicken diets. And they compared it head to head with zinc basset tracin, which is the most widely used antibiotic growth, um, uh, for the poultry industry.

And it basically held its own. It performed as good as the antibiotic. So this is one of those like classic, like two first, right?

So like if you could, uh, use this, you are taking something again, that was once a waste stream and finding a productive use for it and upcycle on the right. And you’re also reducing the antibiotics needed for healthy chickens, which. Right.

Like antibiotic resistance is a real thing and all of that stuff. So, yeah, I, I really liked this story.

[Sheldon Young]
Obviously interesting.

[Jason Moreau]
Yeah. I wouldn’t have thought that the, I guess the materials, the chemicals, the compounds in the grapes had that same property, but apparently they do. It has something to do with, um, helping to reduce inflammation, um, in the chickens.

[Sheldon Young]
Wow.

[Jason Moreau]
And weirdly also this was looked at once before. Um, and it, they just had it in the wrong dosage. Um, they were giving the chickens to like the percentage of the grape additive was too high.

And so they kind of discarded it and Cornell came along and they’re like, we think there’s something there. Let’s maybe just kind of tweak it a little bit. And lo and behold, it looks like they may have found the right balance.

[Sheldon Young]
Wow. Like I wonder, you know, just, you know, my crazy little brains going here. I’m like, I think, you know, sometimes grapes have a fungus on them.

I wonder if the fungus is growing on the grape or something and it’s transiting through. You’re right. Maybe it’s, maybe it’s something even in the, in the, by data, they, they probably would figure it all out.

I won’t, you never know though. Like, yeah, turns out it was actually this. Yeah.

I got away from it. One of those meddling kids, um, weirder things have happened in science discoveries, you know, that’s fascinating because I imagine that would be really good for like organic chicken, right. Ones that don’t want like, like injectable and like antibiotics and things like that, this could substitute very well, I would think if it works again, I’m sure they’re ages away from like proving it out, but still the.

I always loved things like that. It’s like, you know, just all of a sudden, Oh yeah.

[Jason Moreau]
Promising.

[Sheldon Young]
It’s like eating oranges to not get scurvy. Right. You know, it’s like, yeah, it’s like, like, Oh yeah, I guess oranges prevent this stuff.

I don’t know why it just does. Oh boy. Happy accidents.

Happy accidents. Oh, that’s a cool one. My story, Jason, I alluded to this last episode a little bit.

Um, it’s, if I talked about this podcast, uh, I’m referring to a podcast here. It’s called, are we doomed? I think I’ve talked to you have, you have mentioned it on the show.

[Jason Moreau]
I believe so.

[Sheldon Young]
I said, I remember like you and I have so many conversations. I can’t remember. Anyways, I’m going to give it another plug.

This is another plug. Uh, it’s, it’s, uh, put on my PB, PBS. Um, uh, and it’s just fascinating.

It takes on all of that again. It’s a little, it’s a little dark. That’s a good word.

It, cause it looks at all the possible ways that the destruction could happen. It goes into everything, you know, not just sustainability and like that. It’s a little bit of everything, but they just did an episode, which is fascinating to me called, you know, whatever happened to the ozone hole.

[Jason Moreau]
Hmm.

[Sheldon Young]
Uh, remember we’re everybody, you remember the ozone hole, right? We were probably kids, right? And it was, it was a big deal.

It was like, it was a big deal. And it’s a really, and all of a sudden we stopped talking about it. Well, I’ll cut to the chase.

We fixed the problem, which was CFCs. We did, you know, chlorofluorocarbon and things like that. First it was in hairspray.

And then they, they realized a lot of us come from like air conditioning. So they switched away from freon, all kinds of different things like that, that led to, we actually fixed the problem and we actually are healing the ozone layer based on the scientific data that they’ve shown and all the actually, but we made a difference. We made an impact.

So again, it bodes well that we can do the same for other problems. We can do the same for the problem. That’s where I’m going to go with this.

There’s another thing I’m going to allude to a little later in the episode here about kind of the why we were able to part. Okay. Why did it, why were we able to do that?

But we seem to be struggling so much right now and you can, I’m not going to argue, but it’s not political in that it’s nothing to do with that is about the way it’s a nature of the problem. And we’re talking about that a little bit. Um, and I’m going to save that for a little bit later, but, uh, cause it, it’ll connect to kind of, uh, this part, a part of the episode when we start talking about something else.

All right. So that’s my story. Nice.

This episode, again, we’ve been doing a lot of interview episodes. I think it’s been great. I want to, you know, anytime we’ll do one, anytime we have the opportunity to do an interview, we will try to do it.

I thought there was this climate week. Again, we’re here at climate week. It’s another one, a little different this year.

Jason’s not coming this year. He’s got other, he’s got a different job at alpha Laval’s other obligations.

[Jason Moreau]
I will be supporting from afar.

[Sheldon Young]
Yeah. I’m going to miss you, buddy. We had a really good, uh, we had fun, but it was also just a really good partnership that we have.

Um, and you know, I’m going to miss you there. I am still going to try to go out and try to grab some interviews on the street if I have time to do that. Um, but I also have a very busy climate week.

Uh, we’re going to talk a little bit cause alpha Laval, uh, our company here is, is going to climate week. Uh, in a bigger way, we went, I got a pretty big way last year, but to me bigger way this year. Um, and for those that listen to the show, and if you’re going to be in climate week, I do reach out to me, connect.

Let’s, let’s, let’s have a coffee. Let’s, let’s connect to climate week. Let’s share each other’s story.

Uh, I’m going to tell you just really fast, kind of where, um, alpha Laval is going to be, we’re going to all over the place. We’re going to be involved at a sustainability live. We’re going to be having, uh, where we’re going to be basically having a part of the leadership summit there.

Data centers are a big topic. Uh, alpha Laval, we are a company that is involved in that space and in terms of trying to reduce the energy that they, that they use, which is a big topic. As you can imagine, it’s probably one of the more dominant topics at climate week this year.

We’re going to be engaged in topics and roundtables, uh, uh, keynote addresses panels. Uh, so we have some great leaders from alpha Val that are going to be attending. I’m not going to go into names or anything like that.

Look at alpha value, know who they are. Um, but they’re, uh, they’re part of the conversation and, uh, I’m excited to be able to go and see some of these and listen and learn about how are we tackling, which is this problem that is becoming so, so I guess in the, in the zeitgeist, it is out there, right? It is, it is, everyone’s talking about there.

There’s a town here just South of us in Virginia. They said, nope, we don’t want any data centers, no data centers allowed, is what they said. And so it’s a big topic.

And it’s important one, because again, you have to balance that whole future of where we’re going and in terms of like the computing power and the AI and all the things that we need, I guess, to make, to continue to progress with the stability impact of it all. Right. And so it’s important topic that a lot of smart people can be talking about.

So alpha will be engaged in a lot of that stuff. Uh, we’re going to be plugged into. Let’s see a round table around biotechnology and bio solutions.

So this is really around, uh, you know, a lot of the novel proteins and a lot of the, uh, uh, um, fermentation that’s happening to produce goods that we currently, you know, we spend a lot of resources on, um, there’s a lot of talk on that side and, and how do we move that forward, that technology forward in a, in a smart way, in a way that, um, is, you can deliver healthy foods and can do so in a way that minimizes resources.

Right. Uh, so it would be some dialogues around that, that we’re going to be a part of. Uh, let’s see.

Oh, uh, the whole concept again, one of the decarbonation strategies is electrification, right? We all kind of know this. It’s like you, you stop using, uh, uh, fossil fuels and you move to something electrical instead.

Well, we’re going to be involved in some dialogues on that, some electrification and then how do you advance the clean energy system that will help support that. Right. Again, you see lots of challenges out there, lots of dialogue around wind power and solar power and nuclear power and all those things.

We’re going to be involved in conversations around that. So you’ll see us at places like sustainably live Danish consulate. You’ll see us at the nest, which is one of the, the, the, uh, big gathering places, but a lot of great things at the Javits center.

Yep. Sustainably live. We’ll be there as well and right nearby.

Um, I’m going to be heavily involved again this year. It’s something called region house. It’s a very food based, um, part of climate week.

That’s where I spend a lot of my time. We’re actually doing an event there this year. Last year, we sponsored an event this year, actually doing an event.

Uh, if you’re going to climate week, there’s still, I can still have a few seats left. I’m holding out for a few just to see what people come in and there might be an opportunity to join. Um, but, uh, it is, uh, it’s going to be a sustainability.

I’m calling it myth busters. Uh, uh, and so miss smasher, excuse me, not myth busters, myth smashers. No, no, no trademark infringements here.

Yeah, no, but it really, the whole concept is it’s creating a dialogue around, uh, optimizing and lowering the impact of food and beverage processing. It’s an area that, uh, you know, our last guest, um, Emily, uh, talked about a lot that again, we’re seeing more and more focus be placed on it. The biggest reason is that, Hey, we can control this.

This is things that we can make a meaningful impact in an area that we can control. And my goal for the session is to, uh, one, have a little bit of fun. Let’s do climate week.

There’s a lot of talking. It’s a lot of presenting. This is going to be an interactive kind of event, and we’re gonna have a little bit of fun, but along the way, we’re going to learn about some opportunities, some ways to kind of engage some ways to lower impact, right?

And I hope people walk away with some knowledge, a little bit of fun and a little bit more awareness for what we do here at alpha level to make it happen. So, uh, anyways, those are a lot of the things that we’re doing. Uh, our CSO is going to be there engaging in some dialogues as well.

Really big present, uh, I guess, presence by awful about this year. I’m excited for it.

[Jason Moreau]
I’m, I’m excited too. I mean, I, yeah, I won’t be there to, to see it in person. I, a couple of things I’ve gotten a sneak peek at your session and what you’re planning on doing, and, uh, it will be a lot of fun.

Um, I think everybody who is able to get in there, uh, is going to learn a lot, but also have a good time, a hundred percent sure of that. Um, but listening to like all of the other things where we’re participating in the different topics and things like that, I’m just reminded that, uh, it really is a privilege, uh, in terms of like what our company does, we don’t talk about it a lot, but the fact that our equipment is sort of. In all of these really, really important critical areas of life of society.

Um, and that we have the opportunity to drive the type of positive impact that we all want, um, is really pretty cool. So, um, yeah, that’s very, very exciting. And I’m, I’m glad we’re, uh, continuing to increase our presence at climate week over, over last year.

Um, that’s really exciting as well.

[Sheldon Young]
I am too. And again, it’s, um, what I suspect we’ll see. So let’s dive into the, the meat of the episode here.

Kind of what I expect to see, let’s talk about kind of, you know, there’s, you can look out there and get a sense and a pulse as to where the vibe is going to be around climate week. Um, I think, uh, you, you know, people can make the argument that, you know, there’s a, you know, there’s some pushback from, from the world right now on, on, on the sustainability and climate and things like that. Uh, you can make that argument.

I think honestly, though, it has made people and professionals that, that care about this even more resilient.

[Jason Moreau]
Absolutely.

[Sheldon Young]
I think, you know, we’re not, there’s, it’s, we cannot, the option is you, you can’t back down. You cannot back down from this. It is right.

Exactly. If you know, not rest his soul, but Tom Petty would be singing at top of his lungs right now in this one. I think, uh, you know, it’s such an M such an important point in the journey of our planet and, and the resources that we have, uh, that we have to continue this diet, we have to continue to bring solutions to the table.

Uh, now the big, uh, when you go and you look at the climate, uh, uh, the climate org, uh, the page is escaping them. Sorry. It’s, uh, the climate week main page.

Um, what you’ll see is kind of the, the big message of, uh, it’s energy, impact and action are kind of the three words that they kind of bring up. Um, and so, you know, it really is. The crux of the story here is, of course we want to put energy behind it.

And there’s going to be a lot of talk around, I guess, energy. I don’t know whether they mean energy around energy as a person, or I think they mean energy, energy. Yeah.

I think that’s where my vibe is going on. And I think, um, maybe it’s a double entendre. I don’t know in terms of, you know, the climate, the climate week, uh, climate group, uh, website is what I’m talking about here.

And so, but that’s really kind of the hub where lots of stuff gets placed and, and kind of, you get the vibe of climate week, what kind of stuff kind of things we’re going to be seeing and talking about, um, the kind of focus areas are, you know, it’s building an infrastructure, it’s climate and health, it’s energy and electrification. Like we kind of talked about, right. Uh, environmental justice, finance and clean.

How do you finance those? That’s always a big question. How do you finance the movement?

How do you finance the things that we’re trying to, to move forward as, as, as a culture? Um, it’s a challenging one because again, just the ROI is in getting that lined up. And that’s why I think our work again, Jason is so important.

It’s like we helped create the ROI for sustainability, right? It’s the ROI is return on investment case. Someone doesn’t know what I’m talking about there.

Um, industry and supply chain, nature, land, oceans, policy, governance, leadership, all these topics, right? Of course, technology and AI, both in its impact and its role in solving the climate crisis, because again, like we just mentioned, it’s like, it’s that push pull of, Hey, the use of AI and its ability to solve complex problems in a, in a, in a fast way could be incredibly useful in driving solutions. In, in almost all the SDGs, the sustainable development goals, whether it’s health and solving, you know, making medicines more available, faster and testing them, whether it’s food and understanding how to improve and optimize the ecosystem that delivers it, whether it’s, uh, energy and, and all the things that go with it.

We can use this tool as a fantastic resource to get that done. However, it costs right, right. Both financially and resource wise.

So there’s like this race of speed and, and, and desire to, to harness the power of the resource, but also in how do we continually also, as it gets more hungry, how do we produce it’s food quotes around that, whether it’s energy and water, right. And, and reduce its reliance on those things. So it’s continually continuous optimization, continuously looking at making that a less impactful, uh, use of our resources while continuously increasing the power of those resources to deliver on the things, uh, very things that we’re trying to, to save.

Right. It’s a really interesting time to be alive when it comes to the, to sustainability and the impact of the space.

[Jason Moreau]
Yeah. What is it? The, uh, Oh, this is a true, but you always usually hear it stated as like, you know, Chinese proverb of may you live in interesting times.

And it’s one of those things of, uh, you know, it’s sort of a blessing and a curse, uh, interesting in quotes, right. It’s, uh, it, it can be challenging, but it can also be exceedingly meaningful where you’re in this window of time where these decisions maybe have an outsized impact on the future and the certain directions that we take or don’t take.

[Sheldon Young]
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So when it comes to them and say the more hard discussions at climate week, I’m definitely, those are kind of, that’s kind of where the, the, the discussion is going, right.

Yeah. It’s on energy. It’s on these, the uses of these energy.

It’s on this deal, the, the impact of cities, the impact of data centers, the impact of, of all the things that kind of go with it, that’s definitely a big topic of discussion and a good one. I’m so glad to see it kind of, you know, people just taking the bull by the horns and say, let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about how we solve these problems.

And again, I hope a great solutions and great ideas and great collaborations come out of all of that. We have a great team that are from our end, a great team that’s going to be involved in those discussions. And I’m excited.

I’m excited for it. Um, the other thing, the other parts of climate week, there’s so, so many, it’s like a thousand events. If those you’ve never been to climate week, there’s like a, literally a thousand different events.

Uh, of all different types. I mean, the world that region house I’m going to, again, regenerative agriculture and the use of resources and food is kind of where that vibe is. There’s other places that focus on, I’m going to say.

Sustainability through story and sustainability through art. Right. Again, don’t discount the power of create the creative side of our, of our, of our culture in getting this story across and, and making it relevant to our people, right?

Art can play a huge role. I mean, movies around things that impact us, uh, can be very, very powerful, uh, motivators. I remember watching a brave blue, blue, blue world, which was a water.

Movie that was done documentary that was done. It’s a, it’s a few years old now, but it was fantastic. It was just such a eye opener.

And just, uh, it was so well told that you just like, wow. Okay.

[Jason Moreau]
You’re so much more cultured than me. You said movies and entertainment and my brain instantly flashback to captain planet and Fern Gully cartoons. But look, you know, we’re all at different levels.

And the fact that that was like the first pull out of my brain, clearly it had an impact on me at an impressionable age in terms of taking care of the planet, being good stewards of our resources, right? Like that that’s in there somewhere.

[Sheldon Young]
Absolutely. I remember, you know, we just, I remember like the, the commercials of the native American crying, remember that huge impact on me. Huge impact on me.

And my, you know, I remember the commercials around acid rain, remember that, that was scary, that was scary. Acid rain was a scary thing. Yeah.

And then remember the ozone layer going back to our little reference here, right. Remember the ozone layer and how were you scared as a kid about the ozone layer? I was, I remember it.

[Jason Moreau]
Yeah. And I would, I would have to say that if I had to pinpoint it, I was still like elementary school age. Sure.

I would guess. Um, so, you know, I was, but to your point, I was very aware of it. It was concerning as a kid though.

I was probably just as concerned about like what, what happens if I fall into quicksand? I don’t know if I had enough, I don’t, I don’t know if I had enough like context was a major fear when I was a kid too, as a kid, like every cartoon, every Gilligan’s Island, every other episode, they were going to get it. Like you had to be aware.

Yeah. Um, but I mean, but I was aware of it. Like, yeah, like, uh, I mean, quicksand is going to get my feet.

The ozone layer is going to get my head. I don’t know who’s going to get me first.

[Sheldon Young]
Right. Well, and I think more so like probably our parents were aware of it. Right.

So yes. Yeah. But this kind of gets to the whole purpose.

I mentioned that podcast earlier on. Uh, and also this ties into climate week and from the fact of the importance of storytelling, the importance of, of making things relevant. Um, what are the, the messages that came from now on this, the podcast that I mentioned this, uh, are we doomed, uh, the ozone episode.

They talk about, they, they’ve actually bring a climate scientist on. And this, this woman was the one that actually discovered the hole in the ozone layer. Oh, wow.

And how she got to it. And all the data she was rifling through books and books and books and books of data, just identifying the levels of ozone at certain levels layers of the atmosphere and graphing it all. And that’s how she, when she sat there and graphed it, it, it showed the whole.

Right. And the imagery, I don’t know if you remember that. I remember the imagery of the hole and, and what, and the fear that again, they were the, I don’t know, you could argue with the marketing or you want, but your fear was that you looked at the ozone, the fact of the matter, what the ozone was gone, you get hit with a lot of radiation and that radiation is very, very bad for you.

So what she said, she said, why did it work? Why did, because we cut everyone, everyone got away from, I remember they had the commercials, you know, kick the can and it was, it was hairspray. Right.

Kick the can and use, and you stick the odor in or whatever it was or stick gel hair gel instead of hairspray, all those different things. We did it. And then it moved.

The next step was it went to chlorofluorocarbon zero in the like air conditioners and in other systems. And we did it. Why?

Well, question is why three reasons she gave the three P’s. You’re gonna love this. Jason, you love these, these, these letters.

Number one, it was personal. It affected, you know, if that was zones got affected your skin. Right.

It was perceptible. They have very, very clear pictures of the whole, the ozone there. They’re able to actually photograph and create pictures of, and then three, the solutions were practical.

They were able, I can get rid of a can. That’s pretty easy. Now moving to, you know, how do we now, the challenges we have now, I don’t know if it’s perceptible to everyone yet.

Right. That’s why I brought up the lobster story last episode that he was very perceptible. And I looked at the lobster catch and I see it’s 20% lower than it was.

20 years ago, whatever it was. Yeah. Right.

No, no, 20% lower. That was four years ago. I’m sorry.

You know, that’s where I brought it up last episode. I’m like huge, huge impact, right? That’s perceptible to me.

Now again, are people tying it to climate change? I don’t know, but the data is there. Right.

It’s personal. It’s very personal for effects. Your effects, your home life, very personal.

If, if it, you know, if rising water impacts your, your coastline. Um, you know, is it practical? Practical is the hard part.

Is it what’s practical for us to do as individuals? Right. And where, as opposed to the changes need to happen, have to happen at a, at an industrial scale and things like that.

So I think there’s lots of, lots of challenges ahead, but I mean, I think again, that’s why we have climate week. That’s why we have all these smart people that get together and have this dialogue is because you’re trying to find ways to do this and that’s where the importance of the storyteller going right back to where I was getting to with this, it’s like, that’s why you see so much of that at climate week. Um, it’s really, it’s like communication.

It’s really about storytelling. It’s really about making sustainability. Visible and practical and changeable and, and, and perceptible.

Right. And then the rest of the people that are driving the solutions have to make the solutions practical. That is kind of what’s driving this whole thing.

And that is why we get together once a, once a year for a week to try and hammer things out like this and have these dialogues and say, how do we make our piece better and when you get 20,000 people trying to make a piece better, okay, you’re maybe you’re making an impact.

[Jason Moreau]
Yeah. You, if you want to make an argument and you want to convince people, if you ignore the emotional component of your argument, uh, you’re, you’re going to lose, you’re going to miss most of the people. People don’t care.

They, well, yeah. Or they, they, they already have, um, uh, they think they already know like their, their belief system is such that, right. Like, and we are, there’s only so much that logic can like penetrate.

We are emotional creatures. And so communicating on an emotional level is exactly why I think the storytelling works. I think, you know, creative approaches to telling, uh, that story work.

Uh, why the, the picture of the literal hole, right? Like you have to be sort of a. A wonk, a bit of an obsessive scientist to dig through reams of data.

But if you can show a picture of a hole and T and explain why that’s going to be real bad for you and everybody you care about, that’s pretty powerful, right? Like I don’t have to read through all the data. I just, I just need to absorb that one emotional piece of content.

Right. And so, yeah, I mean, I, and, and in repetition, yeah, it’s always a good thing.

[Sheldon Young]
Um, so yeah, I’m maybe your persistence need to be the fourth P to do the route. Nice round four.

[Jason Moreau]
That’s a good one.

[Sheldon Young]
Oh boy. All right. All this to say some really, really good stuff’s happening.

Climate. I hope, I hope I, I wet your whistle a little bit for people that are potentially attending. I hope if you’re coming and want to connect with alpha LaValle, please do that.

You know, please reach out to me. You, you have our information here. I’m findable on LinkedIn, Sheldon young.

Um, don’t try the internet though. Cause young Sheldon, the show wipes me out of the internet. It just does.

Uh, uh, but okay. I will say, I will say I have a little bit of a beef with climate week on one thing. One thing.

And it’s water. Where is the water? Now I’m not saying it’s completely void.

There were some things happening at climate week that touch on water and region houses, there was a water discussion and it’s part of regenerative agriculture, water use and things like it’s there. Right. But there were bigger dialogues and conversations that need to be happening around water.

I think again, last episode, Emily, I took that. I alluded to it translating back to this episode. It’s going to, because water is going to be where we feel it first.

Remember this, I just talked about perceptible and personal. It’s going to be water. Yeah.

It’s going to be water. It’s already happening. It is.

There are, again, I just, I’m literally taking a course right now around getting a water-based certification and the, you know, there were six States that within 15, I think it’s 10 or 15 years are basically going to have a big problem with water accessibility. It’s just, they’re, they’re running out of it. They aren’t going to continue on this trajectory.

They’re going to run out and that, and they aren’t, they aren’t small States. And so the dialogue around it, I mean, everyone kind of, it’s in until the faucet runs dry. And like we had this happen a couple of years ago here in Richmond, when the, when the plant went down until that tap goes dry, you don’t realize how big of an impact it can have.

You can’t do this. You’d hardly do anything without water. Right.

[Jason Moreau]
It’s a, well, if I’m, if I had to guess, I would say the States you might be alluding to are in the U S the Southwest.

[Sheldon Young]
Uh, Colorado West.

[Jason Moreau]
Yep.

[Sheldon Young]
Yep. Okay.

[Jason Moreau]
Yep. Um, well, I mean the Colorado river right now, um, is that pretty historic lows. And what’s fascinating is that’s an area of the U S that has seen a lot of population growth.

I think the stats I saw, it’s like 40 million people, um, uh, over 20, uh, like indigenous tribes. Um, it, it’s pretty big, but what’s crazy is you think about it, you think about water in terms of, uh, you know, drinking water, agriculture in that area. It’s also electricity.

Hydro power, right? Is huge. And the water levels are so low.

It can’t power. Damn correct. There is a razor thin margin right now, where if they continue to drop, it effectively goes offline.

People are going to have to get power from other sources. So price has increased. It’s this whole really bad cascade of things that happen.

And so, uh, a hundred percent agree with you more and more water is just going to be, uh, and it should be like one of the first things we talk about, if not like equal billing with energy and carbon.

[Sheldon Young]
Yeah. I think that is where, again, where I said, I have a beef with it. That’s the beef I have.

It’s like the importance level of the impact of water and it’s, it’s not proportional at climate week to the impact it’s going to have. Right. Uh, I think there needs to be more, more dialogue.

And there’s a few, I’m going to name a couple. I’m going away. What is the X prize event?

That’s really, uh, that’s, uh, it’s an award show, but it’s a, they give some prizes out for people who are advancing technologies that will help mitigate challenges with water. It’s a greater van. I’m going to try to attend that.

Uh, last year they, uh, Columbia university had a water symposium. It was really good. It was on Thursday.

I went to, it was an all day thing. I thought it was great. Um, problem is that they moved it to October and I don’t, I can’t go to it.

I don’t think my calendar is going to allow it. So I was really bummed that that’s not happening at the same time. I can get why maybe they chose not to, because it might compete with climate week some, um, and, you know, it’s probably expensive for people to come to York to go if they’re coming just for that kind of thing, right.

But it’s a little bit of a bummer. Cause I was hoping it was going to be part of the, part of the dialogue this year, uh, and then there’s other stuff that’s sprinkled in. Um, I think water will drive a lot of the conversation because that real impact is there.

Uh, we have so many conversations that we have to talk about infrastructure. We have to talk about the contamination that happens if you don’t have good infrastructure, uh, that scarcity water rights. Gosh, water rights are going to be, that’s going to be.

I bet you some of the biggest legal litigation situations we’re going to have in the next 10 years are going to stem our, our water rights almost guaranteed, um, between states and things like that and stuff that gets the federal level, it’s, it’s, it’s almost inevitable. And then honestly, again, more dialogue around solutions and what’s what are practical, achievable, fundable solutions that we can do. Now, again, we have other forms is WEFTEC and there’s things, there’s all kinds of different things.

We’ll, I’ll be at WEFTEC, which is another event. That’s a very water focused event, but I think we missing the boat by not having more at climate week because you get so many more people that touch sustainability and have, have influence and resources that they can tap into that maybe could accelerate some of the discussions and, and, and solutions around water. And so my plea to next year is I hope we see more dialogue and more.

I guess, uh, events focused around the impact of water.

[Jason Moreau]
I would hope so. And, uh, I mean, I think the benefit of climate week is that it brings together so many sort of like cross sections and people who are sort of definitely, uh, intersecting and touching sustainability at all these different levels and all these different roles and responsibilities. Uh, it was, there was an interesting quote, cause I was like doing some reading around what’s happening on the Colorado river, uh, you know, with their water rights and things like that.

And the quote was from, uh, you know, I think it was a state level water guy. And he was basically like, look, you know, we can reduce our water usage. Um, but he’s like, it basically just kind of keeps us even.

It doesn’t get us ahead. If, you know, we’re not getting the snow pack like we used to. And he’s like, you know, at a certain point, we kind of need to look like, can we keep doing agriculture in this area to the same degree, but he’s like, but.

That’s way above my pay grade. Like, I’m just a water guy. I can’t say whether we should be doing agriculture, right?

Like, so it is going to take a lot of people at the table making some very hard decisions, make sure that we are managed and, and needing to look at it on a long timeline, like right now, I think the, the recent, um, revision that they made to the, to the Colorado river rights is just for the next two years, like there needs to be almost this sort of like, you know, symposium or this group that’s managing it on a, you know, 10, 20 year timeline to try and make, make sure where we’re, where we need to be.

[Sheldon Young]
Absolutely. Absolutely. And this, again, this is trickling back again to the conversation we had with Ed around stakeholder theory.

[Jason Moreau]
Oh yeah. Yeah.

[Sheldon Young]
Yeah. And so again, honestly, and you kind of, and again, I think this, this conversation comes up a lot in the, in the, in the interviews that we have, but particularly with that, it resonated, it resonates with me and the way we talk about it. There were so many stakeholders for water, right?

And like you just said, you know, agriculture is one, right? We have to check to change the way you agriculture. Well, who’s good.

Who’s going to move first? Who’s going to make the change? If the stakeholders have to get around the table, the stakeholders have to then say, you know, if we don’t do anything, what’s going to happen, what’s the pain?

What’s the consequence of not taking action?

[Jason Moreau]
Right.

[Sheldon Young]
And then you have to then sit together. Okay. What are the options for us to move towards a solution?

And then how do we pay for it? Frankly, get it done. But again, part of that, getting the people on the table, it’s so you can make this something that is personal and perceptible, right?

It, then the brains have to figure out what’s practical for us to do. And I know some, I’m just going to say, you may have to be impractical because the problem is going to be so big that you just have to do it. You know, nobody likes to replace their roof, but it’s not practical to just sit there and patch it forever.

Correct. Some point the whole thing comes down. Yeah.

And so I think, you know, not that I’m sitting here trying to solve every problem in the world, but this is a stakeholder problem that, that the, all the stakeholders need to be involved in. Uh, and it’s going to be one that manifests itself. Water is water is the key.

It really is. Uh, it’s going to be the first one we feel. Um, and it’s just going to, at some point the cost will just go up.

Right. That will make everything impractical. Food becomes impractical.

Uh, our agricultural food, agriculture, uh, you know, all the things, power, you set yourself for hydropower, all these things don’t have to matter. So anyways, I got a little heavy, Jason, you know, it’s a, it’s a heavy topic, but again, I’m, I’m heavy, but I’m optimistic and I’m also excited because we’re going, you know, we’re, we’re part of this, like you said earlier, it’s like, I love that we’re part of the solution and, uh, I love that I’m going to be going, I’m going to be hearing people that have smarter than me by multitudes, they’re going to be talking about ways to make it real, make sustainability real, and, uh, I’m excited to hear about it. I’m excited to walk away energized.

Like I did last year. We’ll come back. We’ll talk about it again on the podcast.

Um, yep. And if, uh, you know, I guess I’ll end on lighter topic. What am I going to eat?

And New York city. Um, let’s end on a lighter topic. Uh, do I, before I go to that light topic, Jason, you know, do you want to chime in on anything?

I’ve been talking a lot this, this, this 40 minutes here.

[Jason Moreau]
No, just, uh, it, it, it is a heavy topic, but I’ll reach back into my, uh, cartoon well, uh, cause I mentioned captain planet and I’ll just say, you know, G I Joe, you know, uh, you know, now, you know, and knowing’s half the battle, right? Like you kind of need to recognize a problem before you can really focus on the problem. You just kind of need to go.

Yeah. And you need to define the scope and the scale and exactly what you said, uh, figure out who your stakeholders are and how you’re going to come together and solve it.

[Sheldon Young]
So for sure, for sure, for sure. Again, lots of smart people, people in industry, people that are, you know, you know, all the, even the, the people that work in these industries that are quote that have the problems, you know, they’re all, they all care. They do.

Right. Right. And they, and they, and they’re working towards solutions as well.

They’ll be sitting around the table and they’re part of the, part of the solution. I mean, it’s, uh, uh, that’s what I’m excited to see. Cause it’s not just people like these people over here creating problems.

These people are trying to solve it. Nope. Everyone do come together on this one, a climate week, and they do sit down and have real dialogue.

So that’s what I love about it. It really is a, is a team effort. Um, and it’s a team discussion, so we’ll see more of that.

Um, let’s see. Uh, with that, what I’m going to eat real quick. Um, I’m having, um, we ate at bar preemie last year.

I’m doing another dinner there. Excited about that. It’s a great Italian place.

[Jason Moreau]
I’m excited. It was really, really good.

[Sheldon Young]
Um, yeah, exactly. I haven’t figured out my pizza slice situation yet. I might go back to lay industry cause I just loved it so much.

[Jason Moreau]
Uh, if you don’t, I’m going to be very, I know I’m going to look at some other couple of slices for me.

[Sheldon Young]
Exactly. Exactly. I want to try to get a true New York bagel.

Um, I don’t think I did that last time I had a bagel last year, but I don’t know if it was really one of the two spots. And then of course I must determine which bakeries I’m undetermined at this point. I got to go find some great New York bakeries and dive into that.

So we’ll say more to come Jason, after I’m back from this, I look forward to hearing all about it. And you will, whether you like it or not.

[Jason Moreau]
I will, I will. And I’m going to be jealous, but I am looking forward to hearing about it.

[Sheldon Young]
Yes. Yes. Uh, okay.

And so with that, thank you for joining us as episodes. No footprints. Uh, we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Um, visit our website. It’s a no footprints podcast, uh, uh, dot com. Um, also if you have any ideas for a guest or anything like that, you can reach us at no footprints dot podcast at alpha valve.com.

Um, and with that, Jason, uh, you know, tell, tell, tell your friends. Right. If you listen to the show, make sure you, uh, you know, like subscribe, share all that fun stuff.

Right. But tell everyone about this show, get them. What do you listeners want?

People to join us, be a part of this party because we are here making sustainability real. All right. With that, my friends, I bid you adieu and I’m going to go be cool in New York city.

[Jason Moreau]
Sounds good. Bye everybody.

[Sheldon Young]
Our guests come from many industries and companies, as we’re talking about how the world makes sustainability real. Our company Alfa Laval is a global supplier of process solutions. So it’s very possible that the organizations our guests are with may use Alfa Laval or even our competitors’ products, but this does not mean that we, the hosts or Alfa Laval are endorsing any of the company’s guests or the specific ideas that we discuss.