Helping Santa Monica become water self sufficient with Sunny Wang | S5 Ep.2

11/24/22 • 41 min

This week on #TheStream, Will and Tom are joined by the incredible Sunny Wang, Water Resources Manager at City of Santa Monica.

Sunny talks about his journey from being a private consultant, working in the UK and being admittedly amused by the imperial-metric measurement mix, to taking up the role in Santa Monica.

Since then he’s been involved in one of the most progressive projects, with the city set out to be “water self-sufficient” by 2023 using the One Water approach.

Plus hear about:

The strategy to reduce the reliance on external water supplies, due to the increased combined threat of natural disasters and climate change
The need to communicate complex water treatment developments to the public, and how he has learned to articulate the water sector to his six-year-old back home!
Sunny's role as an adjunct facility at the University of Southern California, teaching civil and environmental engineering

And listen to why Sunny says when it comes to water infrastructure, you can’t afford to get it wrong...

All this and more!
We hope you enjoy the episode!

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

We’re delighted you can join us on this voyage of discovery, as we journey down The Stream.
Special thanks to this season's sponsor, Raymond James.
And our charity partner, Frank Water.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water Institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

This week on #TheStream, Will and Tom are joined by the incredible Sunny Wang, Water Resources Manager at City of Santa Monica.

Sunny talks about his journey from being a private consultant, working in the UK and being admittedly amused by the imperial-metric measurement mix, to taking up the role in Santa Monica.

Since then he’s been involved in one of the most progressive projects, with the city set out to be “water self-sufficient” by 2023 using the One Water approach.

Plus hear about:

The strategy to reduce the reliance on external water supplies, due to the increased combined threat of natural disasters and climate change
The need to communicate complex water treatment developments to the public, and how he has learned to articulate the water sector to his six-year-old back home!
Sunny's role as an adjunct facility at the University of Southern California, teaching civil and environmental engineering

And listen to why Sunny says when it comes to water infrastructure, you can’t afford to get it wrong...

All this and more!
We hope you enjoy the episode!

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

Previous Episode

The role of AI in water with Victoria Edwards | S5 Ep.1

We are back!
And kicking off Season Five of The Stream, Will and Tom are joined by Victoria Edwards, Founder & CEO of Fido Tech.
In the next 40 minutes, hear about how Victoria made an instant splash in the water sector and her origins starting out on local radio.
Plus, find out:
- Why Victoria thinks everyone in the water sector should be fired?!
- How we can stop 40% of our water from being lost in leaks
- Why the only way forward is by breaking down silos and working together
- How Victoria believes the sector has become complacent and only motivated by fear
- Why it is important for water to no longer be viewed as a safe industry and big corporations need to be allowed to fail in order to progress
- 'Day Zero' is happening and sooner than we think
- The importance of gamification to create community agency.
- Victoria also shares the one piece of advice she would give her 17-year-old self...
And so much more - we hope you enjoy the episode!
--
Special thanks to this season’s sponsor Acciona.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.

🔔 We hope you enjoy the episode and make sure to follow and subscribe to our channels to get alerts on the episodes.

Next Episode

Upskilling water’s workforce through ‘living laboratories’ | S5 Ep.3

This week, Melissa Meeker, CEO of The Water Tower, joins Will Sarni and Tom Freyberg to talk about her 25 years of experience in water resources management.
Plus hear about:
How Mellissa previously served as the CEO of The Water Research Foundation, helping it to merge with two other associations, as well as serving as the executive director of the South Florida Water Management District
The latest updates on The Water Tower and the “living laboratory”
How Melissa's journey led her to become the CEO to help establish and open The Water Tower
The potential of franchising the model from Gwinett County across North America but also international partnerships in Spain and even Australia
The coming “silver tsunami” – a term used to describe the potential skills gap, resulting from highly experienced water operators and engineers that are due to retire soon.
And Will and Tom finish by asking Melissa if she could go back in time and give her 17-year-old self advice, what would it be? Thankfully, she didn’t say it would be to decline an invitation to be on this podcast!
And much, much more! We hope you enjoy the episode!
Special thanks to this season’s sponsor Acciona.
And thanks to our knowledge partners: British Water, WWF, Water Alliance, DCU Water institute, SurplusWater25, Earth and Environmental Science at Berkeley Lab, Water Foundry and Atlantean Media.
#water #podcast #innovation #waterindustry #research