Three, Sixty: With Dave Hogan

This is an extract from Issue 7 of SDG Alpha, my newsletter that casts an Irish lens on the world of Impact Investment, Innovation, and Sustainability. In each issue, I pose three questions on the theme of sustainability to an impact entrepreneur or innovator, to get a better understanding in sixty seconds of how they’re working to achieve the SDG targets. This issue, we’re thrilled to feature Dave Hogan, founder and CEO at Smart Flow.

On a personal level, what impacts of the climate crisis are you most concerned about?

The biggest threat worrying for me in relation to the climate crisis is not our inability to innovate and develop solutions to combat the climate crisis, innovation is easy. Its that the majority of the population will continue to do what they always did and expect the situation to change. The status quo may be the single biggest treat to the climate crisis.I hate the thought of the next generation spending their time cleaning up our mess when we all have the opportunity to act now. On a personal level I am most concerned about water scarcity during the climate crisis. Over 2 billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress; we are facing a massive Global water crisis like we have never seen before. Many companies believe they are immune to water scarcity but many will be drastically affected either directly or indirectly over the next few months and years.

Which of the UN SDGs did you start SMART FLOW to address?
When we set out we aimed to help address the following SDGs:

• No 6.:Clean water sanitation. Water scarcity will displace 700 million people by 2030.At SMART FLOW our mission is clear “ Empower our customers to easily manage and reduce their water consumption”
• No 13 : Climate action. At SMART FLOW we reduce our clients water consumption by a minimum of 30% this has a direct and indirect positive impact on our clients CO2 footprint. Typically 10% of the water we save our clients is hot water. This water needs an energy source to heat , so by reducing we reduce a client’s energy and C02 Footprint.

In recent months after we have started to survive Covid we are now starting to look at the overall bigger picture in terms of sustainability and have now started to implement the following:

• No 17 : Partnerships for the Goals
• No 12 : Responsible consumption and production

How does your business model enable the transition to a low carbon, or more sustainable future?
Our Business Model is helping companies to transition to a more sustainable future in many ways. We have a saying here at SMART FLOW “what is not monitored can not be managed”. We often ask our potential customers how much water is currently been lost through leaks or excessive usage within their buildings right now? The answer is always that they do not know.We guarantee 30% of a building’s water is wasted at any time. Our business model allows clients to have instant access to their water usage allowing them to save millions of litres of water per year in some cases.

With all pipework aging worldwide, leaks are increasing at an alarming rate each year. The US had 240,000 burst pipes alone last year. Unless we can detect these as and when they happen, water sustainability will be an impossible task.