Angela Godwin, Chief Editor, WaterWorld
In early September, George Hawkins announced that he’d be stepping down from his role as general manager of DC Water at the end of December. While at WEFTEC last month, I had an opportunity to talk with him about the utility and some of his favorite accomplishments.
“Gosh, there are many — and not because I’ve done it, I’ve watched the team perform,” he said. It all comes down to becoming more efficient. “And that’s everybody — I don’t care if you order copy paper, if you write a permit, if it’s some big gigantic treatment process. Everything can be done better, faster, cheaper — coming from ideas mostly from the people who do it. Who knows it better than they do?”
To illustrate that point, Hawkins shared two of his favorite innovations. “One is giant, the whole biogeneration of energy,” he said. “That’s a $500 million investment using new technology.” But his second favorite: “It’s our machine shop guy who figured out how to change the design of a sewer pick… He made a long one with a crooked handle, like a snow shovel.” A small design change, perhaps, but one that made life easier for the crews (and their backs).
But, he pointed out, the foundation for all of DC Water’s progress comes down to one thing: the customer. “The first and the foremost — and the premise upon which everything else has been built — is building a new relationship with our customer,” he said. “Everything we do depends on the relationship with the people who support us.”
Building that new relationship required DC Water to essentially reinvent the concept of what a utility is. “I always say, our competition is Nike. How can we make a relationship so they understand that we’re interesting, we’re creative, we’re part of them, and they’re part of us?” He acknowledged that there is always more to do, always a need to improve, but that it’s gratifying to see how much DC Water is now part of the neighborhood. “We always have been,” he said, “but most people didn’t know it. That’s been our challenge.”
Video: DC Water’s George Hawkins talks with Angela Godwin at WEFTEC.17. View the video at: http://bit.ly/2ir2F4S
With that strengthened relationship, Hawkins said DC Water has been able make significant improvements in the core services of the enterprise. “We have raised rates a lot,” he said. “I don’t ever speak that lightly because that’s a challenge. I know a lot of our customers have a hard time with the bill — a bill you have to pay — yet we’ve been investing that right back into the neighborhoods and the services that we deliver.”
Hawkins said the key has been innovation. “We have to innovate. And we’re not innovating for any other reason than we have to be able to prove to our customers [that] what we’re doing is more efficient,” he said. “I can prove to you that the dollars you’re sending us are buying more, are generating more activity, more productivity than five years ago.”
As for what’s next for Hawkins, he said he’d like to help other public agencies engage with and adopt innovation. “Many of them are inhibited not by intelligence, commitment, or dedication, but by size and scale,” he said. Ultimately, he’d like to help utilities make the connection between the incredibly important work they do and the new technologies that could help them do it — better, faster, and cheaper. WW
