GHD invests in Eco Detection
October 28, 2022
By CCE
The firm has helped raise capital for the venture.
Photo courtesy GHD.
Global consulting engineering firm GHD is investing in Australia’s Eco Detection, which provides a ‘lab in a box’ platform for collecting and transmitting water quality and chemistry data in near real time, without the need for a full lab or access to power.
Authorities and regulated industries are actively monitoring very few fresh waterways around the world for quality, despite the potential impacts of agriculture, urban runoff and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Eco Detection plans to enable them to collect more data than was previously attainable and make adaptive decisions in response to environmental changes. GHD has taken part in raising capital for the venture.
The technology is already being used at sites across Australia and New Zealand, including farms, vineyards, hatcheries and sewage treatment facilities. Continuous water quality monitoring could also be key to facilitating nutrient-trading schemes, which are emerging in the U.S. and Australia as market-based management of nutrient discharges into waterways.
“The problem of nutrient pollution is global and a major concern,” say GHD Asia-Pacific (APAC) CEO Ian Fraser. “Supporting new technologies, services and insights based on live water quality data is part of creating lasting community benefit.”
“We are delighted to have GHD as a partner and strategic investor,” says Eco Detection founding CEO Jefferson Harcourt.
GHD’s research suggests water risks could wipe off US$5.6 trillion from the gross domestic product (GDP) of seven key economies between 2022 and 2050, including Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, China, the Philippines and the U.A.E.
