The power of water

COEUR d’ALENE — “Blue is the new green,” according to John Austin, director of the Michigan Economic Center at Prima Civitas.

That was the message Austin was trying to convey at the Spokane River Forum that was held in Coeur d’Alene last week.

Austin has played a key role is helping to transform the Great Lakes region away from its legacy of manufacturing and mining and toward a new future built around what he calls the “Blue Economy.”

In order to get there, Austin said people have to redefine the nature of their community.

“Water is very powerful economically,” he explained. “One of the ways it is powerful economically is that it is a magical backdrop for life.

“People want to be near the water,” he said. “They want to walk along it. They want to look out the window of their office and reflect upon it because it nourishes the soul — it’s powerful.”

He said communities that develop their water to be accessible and available are “economically attractive.”

“People want to be there,” Austin said. “They want to visit there. They want to live, work and play there.”

So what is this blue economy? What is the economic impact of water?

Austin said just look at lakefront real estate prices. There is only so much waterfront property, so of course the value of the property is higher, but not always.

“You have a river coast and lake coast and you are redeveloping that and reconnecting to it,” he said. “But none of that matters if it is on fire or you can’t get near it or use it.”

Austin was referring four river fires that have occurred in the United States since the 1960s.

“That is a clear example of how we industrialized and abused our water,” he said. “Now we have to clean up what we wrecked.”

Austin said water and water innovation are becoming a growing source of new economic activity and growth in his state, where one in five jobs are connected to water in some way, shape or form.

He said during the industrialization of America communities faced away from the rivers, and now many communities are realizing the benefits of “blue places” that have cleaned up their waterways and reconnected with them.

He said there are many similarities between his hometown in Michigan and what is happening in Coeur d’Alene.

“In the 60s we created great wealth and jobs by using and abusing our natural assets, including our water,” he said. “That era of use and massive use of natural resources and doing damage to your assets but creating great industries and wealth in mining and manufacturing is transitioning.”

He said new technologies are emerging in the production of food, power and water sustainability in ways that don’t wreck the environment, and focusing on that has began to transform his state, especially around the Great Lakes.

Austin said there are new emerging economic opportunities in solving the world's water problems.

“This revolution is already changing the way we do things in power generation and infrastructure more sustainable transportation, how we grow our food and feed a hungry world sustainably,” he said.

Where we get our water and how do we use it is becoming more and more important.

“There are huge multi-trillion dollar markets for the solutions to water, food, energy and mobility,” he said. “We can be an exporter of ideas, technologies and services and develop those solutions here.”

Cascade Engineering is an automobile parts manufacturer in Michigan whose CEO saw the company as a diminishing industry, so it started manufacturing plastic solar panel holders, biodegradable plastics and a simple water filter system for third-world countries.

“He converted the competencies that made him a good auto parts manufacturer to make simple plastic water filter that uses local ingredients and is keeping people alive,” Austin said.

He said Michigan has suffered a brain drain with many of its young college graduates leaving the state.

“Young people were fleeing in part because we were the state that was protecting the auto industry from change vesus being the green clean revolutionaries,” he said, adding that is starting to change.

He said engineering students are now flocking to companies like Cascade for internships because they want to be a part of the new green clean revolution.

Austin said other companies are beginning to do the same. Whirlpool, which is also based in Michigan, is working on net-zero water usage in appliances. Another company in Austin’s home state is making super pure water for the semiconductor industry and even Dow Industries has become a worldwide water efficiency company and develops water solutions.

And LimnoTech, which is engineering company that is working on the Coeur d’Alene Lake Management Plan with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the State of Idaho, was born out of technology at the University of Michigan.

“LimnoTech spilled out of the University of Michigan to clean up the Great Lakes,” Austin said. “And now they are out here cleaning up your lake, and lakes all over the world.”

Austin said focusing on companies that solve these types of problems is generating new wealth.

“New challenges like how to grow food without using all the water are opportunities that need to be addressed,” he said, adding someone is going to make money figuring out how Californians are going to reduce water consumption substantially in every aspect of their lives.

“It’s a huge economic golden goose,” he said. “If you have a lot of water and the ability to innovate, then you have what it takes to participate in this blue economy.”