 It's wonderful to be here with all of you this afternoon as I mentioned My name is Danielle Galle and I work for the Metropolitan Planning Council, which is based in Chicago in the United States I am an urban planner by trade. I work in the water industry Previous to that I worked for about seven years in private equity So I bring this balance of understanding financial markets with natural resource management and the built environment It's great to be here with all of you I've been asked to just talk a little bit about how in moving to water-wise communities There's also this aspect of the circular economy and I want to tell that through a couple of stories of Small winds that we're having within the Chicagoland region So first where where are we? Where are we? Where am I placing us on the map? So this is northeastern, Illinois It's home to over 10 million people. So I work with not just one city I work with over 200 municipalities and over 400 water supply utilities as an example So let's take a look at that. This right here alone is a map of the water supply utilities within northeastern, Illinois As you can see it's quite fragmented and so my one of my jobs is basically to solve puzzles Working on that complex system that fragmented system How do we get everyone moving forward to work together in realizing water-wise communities and? How do I do that? I do that through original research through storytelling through launching pilot projects to ultimately pushing for policy and one one of my major Responsibilities is bringing together all of these different areas and different stakeholders to work together Collaboratively so that we can actually start to move forward in a more holistic practice of water resource management. I Want to tell that story through two issues that we're having in the Chicagoland region one The way we've built our cities makes them flood and Chicago is also The other stories I've been hearing here at the conference Chicago is not alone in that We are inundated even one inch of rain can put certain neighborhoods under water And it's a major issue both from an urban flooding standpoint as well as a water quality issue We have combined sewer overflows So one of the things that working on is integrating nature-based solutions or green Infrastructure so that you can be attending to this issue more holistically Two stories within that there is a whole partnership of community and agencies that have come together To work on a program called space to grow space to grow is put together by the regional wastewater and stormwater utility the city of Chicago The school district in Chicago as well as a host of other NGOs that are working together to transform Elementary schools and their property into nature-based solutions, and it's becoming a win-win They're reducing their flooding in the region, and they're also being able to have educational programs for kids and outdoor growing of Different plants, and they're also seeing community cohesion come to together So not only are you creating a place where they no longer have the issue of urban flooding They're also experiencing an additional community amenities The other second one I wanted to mention that's a great circular economy win is that the regional wastewater utility has actually partnered up with a private organization that now captures the phosphorus coming out of their wastewater treatment plant to create a market-based phosphorus Excuse me phosphorus based fertilizer, which now can be served as sold on the market And it's also reducing the amount of nutrients in the effluent coming out of that wastewater utility So that's holistic thinking of instead of being a waste stream a resource stream coming into the utility, which is really great The second issue we have is that we have very old pipes What I like to say is that the infrastructure that my grandparents grand great grandparents Some of us are great great grandparents put in is coming to the end of its useful life And the bill has come due on our watch We have major water leakage issues in our region some of the pipes that are dug up in this area They sometimes actually find segments that are still made of wood And so we need to get a head handle on that asset management issue This is a photograph of a major thoroughfare in the city of Chicago And what happened was the street completely collapsed in on itself after a long time water leak Not a water main break, but an actual leak Started to road away the roadway and it hopefully it happened in the middle of the night So no one was actually injured, but you can imagine the devastation this causes so water Leakage like this not only wastes the water and energy, but it also is dangerous to the community So I went out and we started to do research What does it actually look like to the extent that we can gather data and information on the leakage? That's actually happening. What is that costing us as a society? And you can see that some of the back of the envelope estimations is it's a lot of water So between that and the street collapse We were able to tell a powerful story that encouraged the city of Chicago to look take a look at its water rates and Actually raise them so that they can be now going through and doing more robust capital improvement project to improve the situation in the city of Chicago So those are a couple examples But I want to point out three elements that I think are universal for anyone when we're working on moving towards water-wise Communities and thinking from a holistic perspective and that means that we need to look at the whole picture Not just the top of the iceberg Understanding that holistic perspective whether that's the market externalities whether that's the social Economic as well as environmental impacts of the solutions we're thinking about or the issues that they're causing We need to be thinking more holistically and seeing the full picture The second thing is the power of a great story Do not underestimate it succinct storytelling that breaks open the case for change Is what will get us there and be inspiring It shouldn't be from a fear base It should be from an inspirational base and understand your audience so that your stakeholders. What is what does it mean to them? What are they interested in speak to them and their interest not yours? and finally partner partner partner Innovation will not happen in a vacuum We absolutely need to get out of our industry silos We need to come together around a table and have a fair discussion where we value all of the technology All of the technical expertise and all of the skills coming to the table pull in artists pull in botanists Get creative and thinking about who that team member could be that could actually start to think about this differently And move us towards more water-wise communities and holistic water management Thank you for your time