Founded in 2012, Isle’s U.S. team has aided 100+ water utility partners in their innovation journeys through programs like the Technology Approval Group, Partnership Project collaborations, and personalized advisory support.

The US water industry is highly fragmented, operating an estimated 148,000 water supply systems managed by both public and private water utilities. Public systems serve roughly 88% of the population, while 12% are served by systems that are investor owned; all regulated by federal and individual state standards. The fragmentation of the industry poses a challenge for many utilities to know and understand what best practices and/or solutions are available. Meanwhile, water utilities face significant challenges, including rising costs for energy and consumables, increasing regulatory pressure, and aging infrastructure and workforce. Many of these challenges are tightly interconnected, leaving opportunities for technological solutions to make a positive impact by helping to solve several challenges simultaneously. Promising technologies, in various stages of development, are available for deployment, yet barriers often prevent their large-scale or timely adoption.

Isle bridges this gap by connecting peer utilities to leverage expertise around shared challenges and to curate best-fit solutions in the quickly moving technology landscape. As trusted advisors, we bring confidence to opportunities for innovation with keen attention to risk, costs, and practicality of application.

Our utility partners confront significant challenges, from aging infrastructure and the impacts of climate change on water quality to adapting to a changing workforce and meeting evolving regulatory requirements for contaminants. Amid these challenges, they are tasked with doing more with fewer resources. Nationally, major trends and investment areas include water conservation and recycling, sustainability, aging infrastructure, water quality, biosolids management and disposal, smart water solutions, and workforce management. Isle supports our utility partners with technical expertise and industry knowledge to address their top priorities.

Through our extensive network of North American and global water utilities, we have the unique ability to access the collective knowledge and experience of the water community. As an independent organization, we serve as a trusted advisor, qualifying solutions and best practices for water utilities across a broad spectrum of enterprise needs. Our independence ensures agnosticism in the technology identification process, allowing us to deliver solutions entirely tailored to our partners’ needs. Collaboration and innovation are core to the relationships with utility partners. We are dedicated to facilitating shared experiences among water utility peers and introducing economies-of-scale and efficiency to address common challenges that lead to better decisions.

Our profound expertise in the municipal water industry, coupled with our strong commercial acumen, positions us strategically to foster collaborative opportunities and facilitation within the broader ecosystem. Isle enhances efficiency in shaping research, driving technology development, and creating commercial-scale prospects for a diverse range of stakeholders, including academia, investors, accelerators, and manufacturing organizations.