Black & Veatch releases 2022 Strategic Directions report for water industry

Ten years since Black & Veatch first released its Strategic Directions report with expert analysis of survey responses from more than 300 U.S. water industry stakeholders, the latest report has been released. With inflation levels the highest in decades, the newly released Black & Veatch 2022 Water Report details what’s changed – and what hasn’t – as the sector’s complexities have grown to include evolving regulations, climate change and cybersecurity threats in addition to the persistent aging of the assets and workforce.

Infrastructure remains industry's primary concern, just as it was 10 years ago. Mike Orth details key findings in this interview.

Alanna Maya: I am Alanna Maya for Water World Magazine.

The 2022 Black & Veatch strategic directions report has been released and joining me today is Mike Orth with Black & Veatch. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.

Mike Orth: Sure. Good morning.

Alanna Maya: So Black & Veatch released its first annual Strategic Directions report about ten years ago, combining all the survey results and analysis from thought leaders to share water industry expertise and knowledge.

The questions have changed over the years, and some of those buzz words that you hear in the survey results have also changed. Can you talk to me about what some of those changes look like?

Mike Orth: Sure. Happy to.

Well, first of all, it's really hard to believe that it's been ten years since we been doing the Strategic Directions Report, and here we are talking about a decade later. We found some very interesting commentary from this year's results.

And back ten years ago, we found out that aging infrastructure was a real concern. It still resonates as a main concern of a lot of our utility organizations around North America and roughly 63% of our utilities that responded over 300 utilities indicated that it was still their main driving concern.

We've come a long way in condition assessment, asset management but, you know, we've really under-invested so much just over time period in the water wastewater utility space that it has been is still going to be the major concern going forward.

You know, what was really surprising to us was the great resignation is really hitting our sector as well. We're seeing that utilities are struggling to find enough operators, engineers. The unemployment rate in our space is very low, that the number of professionals coming into our space isn't really meeting the demands.

So that really connects into our use of data in regards to operating a utility very efficiently and relying upon that information that is continuing to make good decisions and drive economical solutions.

The challenges that continue to resonate with the utility business, though, have really gotten some curves associated with it in regards to sustainability and resilience.

A decade ago, you know, we were just starting to learn and start the journey of sustainability and what that was going to be and what that was going to mean to our businesses to our water utilities. And at that point in time, we probably thought about natural disasters, you know, the global trends, recognizing what they were doing to access water in some parts of North America, not enough water out in the arid west, where both you and I live is a major concern that we are trying to address at this point in time.

Do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. But we're on a good journey of trying to solve those issues. Those are some of the biggest topics that have arisen over the report life span.

Another one that has kind of jumped up there, which really wasn't as big a concern a decade ago, was cybersecurity.

It's going to be really interesting to see how we solve all those challenges and obstacles ahead of us, because there's a lot of competing interest for our funds and our dollars, whether it's in your utility business, whether it's in your private life. There's always competition for issues.

And and it all relates back to, you know, analyzing what your options are and making your best decisions to address those questions.

Alanna Maya: You did a really good job of kind of highlighting the top topics for the survey for 2022. How would you summarize this point in time for stakeholders in the water industry based on the results of this report? Where do we go from here?

Mike Orth: Yeah, certainly we have to be maintain a resilient workforce and continue to recruit and hire and grow more STEM engineers so that's always our plug in, trying to encourage children that are going that have a strong aptitude for science and technology. Engineering and math …  get into engineering. It's a great profession you can make an impact on the world, the globe.

Some of our biggest challenges are going to resolve around water and power.

You know, one of the biggest issues was just relating to staff in hiring And in our 2012 report, it wasn't even in our top ten issues of a concern. And you think back you know you're kind of coming through the great depression or challenges at that time in 2008, 2012. And the cycle of what we were going through as a housing boom challenges were you know were around our utilities and you know today and five years ago it was it was up to about 14 in regards to staffing and where we're at from a concern in the industry and now it's in our in our top three to four issues that are out there.

So in reliance upon you know good qualified professionals in our industry is going to be a main concern. But I think that's connected into our reliance upon digital and data and how we're going to have to do more with less in, you know, all of our lives going forward. I think that's going to be a continued challenge for all of us.

One interesting topic that is coming apart with the ESG tactics is the social justice issue and making very broad decisions about having a universal positive impact on all of our communities that we serve and trying to focus in on social justice issues and how they impact the broader community is going to be a real interesting of course, diversity.

Equity inclusion is a major issue that's driving a lot of our interests there and trying to make sure that, you know, we've got an equitable and inclusive process in our water, wastewater utilities.

Alanna Maya: So a lot of really interesting changes and new topics and items to think about for the water industry. But overall, very positive and optimistic outlook for the industry. Right?

Mike Orth: Surely, you kind of took my response to that question out of my out of my response here.

Optimism is a good part. We've come a long way in the decade. You know, it's a great field to work in and solve some of the biggest challenges that we're going to see in North America there.

And I still remain very optimistic about all the great minds that work in our space. We're going to be able to solve some of those challenges and, you know, the other issue is, is we're a very resilient community as well. And I'm excited about the opportunities ahead of all of us to address some of these big challenges.

Alanna Maya: Well, the report is out now. So can you tell me, you know, people are interested in reading the report or getting some more information? Where can they go to read the report?

Mike Orth: Best place to get it is off BV.com.

Alanna Maya: Great. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I really appreciate it.

Mike Orth: Thank you.

Alanna Maya: For WaterWorld magazine, I'm Alanna Maya.