WHAT IS CONVERGENT WATER TECHNOLOGIES?
Convergent Water Technologies is made up of a collaborative, nation-wide network of stormwater partners who have come together to form a value-added reseller (VAR) network that covers the United States and parts of Canada. Each company operates separately in its own market, but shares distribution rights to exclusive and innovative stormwater products and technologies. Member companies in the Convergent VAR Network are known to be the most forward-thinking, advanced stormwater companies in their respective territories. Together, this network provides innovators a path to a continental market for new solutions to pressing needs in stormwater quality/management.
HOW IS CONSTRUCTION ECOSERVICES INVOLVED?
Construction EcoServices is one of Convergent's Value-Added Resellers (VARs). Construction EcoServices has been a valued member of the VAR Network since the Network's inception and currently has distribution rights of Convergent products exclusively in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico.
HOW DOES CONVERGENT BRING INNOVATION TO MARKET?
Innovators have historically had to go it alone, operating primarily in their local region with relatively small odds for achieving substantial national market penetration or they end up selling out to one of the big players. Convergent Water Technologies is changing the face of stormwater systems distribution by delivering a proven, solutions-oriented distribution channel.
Solution sales requires a diversity of skill sets, capabilities and relationships not found in traditional distribution or in the traditional national scale corporations. The Convergent VAR Network members not only understand the solution sales process, but they have the experience and the diverse partnerships required to carry it out.
An example of how effective the Convergent VAR Network distribution channel can be is to look at the success of Convergent's flagship product, FocalPoint High Performance Modular Biofiltration System. Developed by the innovation team at Convergent, FocalPoint was developed in 2009 to fill a local need to remediate a failed traditional biofiltration system. It was taken to market nationally through the nascent VAR Network in 2014 to respond to an industry need for higher performing, more reliable and less costly biofiltration. FocalPoint fills the bill by lowering both construction and maintenance costs and reducing the scale of bioretention by a ratio of 20:1. FocalPoint has now been installed in 28 states across the country, as well as in the District of Columbia, with well over a thousand combined installations in those areas.
DO YOU HAVE AN INNOVATIVE PRODUCT OR IDEA?
The stormwater management industry is largely utilizing methods and technologies that are outdated and suboptimal, even though protecting the quality of our future water supplies becomes more critical every day. We are experiencing stronger and more frequent storms for which existing stormwater systems were not originally designed to tackle. Exacerbating the problems, most of our existing systems are expensive and difficult to maintain. The stormwater industry desperately needs new ideas, products and technologies to replace or work together with existing stormwater infrastructure. We need robust, affordable new systems that are environmentally sustainable and can be maintained inexpensively and with greater ease.
Stormwater innovation can come about in many ways, shapes and sizes. Take the smartPOND for instance. smartPOND was originally developed by a father and son team, farmers in Mississippi, to control the flow of water around their farmland. Equipped with a bucket, solar panel and wireless control box allowing them to manage it remotely via a phone app, smartPOND could hold water in one area of their farm until they were ready to lower the bucket and let the water drain into the next area of their farm. Having stumbled upon the piece of equipment at an agricultural show, the Convergent team quickly saw how this farming innovation could be repurposed for stormwater management. smartPOND is now distributed nationally to the stormwater industry exclusively through the Convergent VAR Network.
Other stormwater innovation has come from more direct means of seeing a need and then creating a specific solution for it. The Energy-Passive Groundwater Recharge (EPRP) system is one such innovation. Its inventor was studying water related diseases in third world countries and noted that many of the diseases were caused by standing water. By creating a product that leverages the natural, continuous shifting of soil beneath our feet, the EGRP dramatically improves infiltration rates of Type B and C soils, in some instances as much as 800%. While this innovation will no doubt save lives in the circumstances for which it was originally conceived, it also has proved to be an important tool for reducing stormwater runoff.
Innovation often starts with just an idea. If you have an idea that you believe can have a positive impact on stormwater design for water management and/or water quality, we should talk.
FEATURED INNOVATIONS
