How Utilities Organize for Digital Innovation

Adopting smart water technology can help drinking water, storm water, and waste water utilities take a more data-driven approach to managing their operations and achieving key environmental and public health outcomes. However, the successful uptake of innovative tools is largely dependent on people and organizations, and the structures and practices they have in place to support innovation. There is no one size fits all strategy for building the capacity to innovation, so in partnership with the SWAN Americas Alliance, we asked a diverse set of utilities how they organize themselves to effectively embrace digital innovation.

In this report, we uncover utility best practices, advice for preventing unexpected outcomes, and practical insights that may shape future smart water implementation. This report is based on responses to a 2022 SWAN Americas Alliance survey conducted with EPIC and Bluefield Research, covering responses from 38 utility workers from 34 diverse water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities across 10 countries (ranging in size from 4,000 to more than 4 million people served) and strategic in-depth interviews with select utility respondents to add further commentary on best practices and lessons learned from practical digital innovation examples.