Newsroom
October 19th 2022
GHD invests in Eco Detection to revolutionise stewardship of waterways around the world
Global professional services company GHD has taken part in capital raising by Eco Detection, a company that’s revolutionising water quality monitoring.
Freshwater is one of our most valuable resources but few waterways worldwide are being monitored for water quality in real time.
Eco Detection provides a “lab in a box” scientific platform that collects and transmits water quality and water chemistry data nearly real time without a need for laboratories or access to power. This enables water authorities or regulated industries to collect much more data than previously attainable, improving their capacity to make adaptive decisions in response to rapid environmental changes.
The scale of the monitoring challenge is significant with regular freshwater quality data being required to manage the impact of agriculture, urban runoff and thousands of wastewater treatment plants globally.
Continuous water quality monitoring could also be key to facilitating nutrient trading schemes which are emerging across the US and Australia as a market-based solution to manage nutrient discharges into specific waterways.
Eco Detection technology is already being used at a number of sites across Australia and New Zealand, including farms, sewage treatment plants, fish hatcheries and vineyards.
“The problem of nutrient pollution is global and a major concern. As a leader in water and environmental markets globally, supporting new technologies while also developing new services and insights for our clients based on live water quality data is part of our purpose of creating lasting community benefit.” says Ian Fraser, GHD’s CEO – APAC
“We are delighted to have GHD as a partner and strategic investor,” said Jefferson Harcourt, Founding CEO of Eco Detection.
“GHD recognises that we have made a significant breakthrough in the monitoring and management of water, and that our technology can now provide lab-grade analysis, in real time and in the field.”
GHD’s recent Aquanomics research revealed that water risks could wipe off USD5.6 trillion from GDP of seven key economies between 2022 and 2050: Australia, Canada, China, the Philippines, the UAE, the UK, and the US.
GHD is a leading professional services company operating in the global markets of water, energy and resources, environment, property and buildings, and transportation. Committed to a vision to make water, energy, and urbanisation sustainable for generations to come, GHD delivers engineering, architecture, environmental and construction solutions to public and private sector clients. Established in 1928 and privately owned by its people, GHD’s network of 10,000+ specialists are connected across 200 offices located in five continents and the Pacific region.
Eco Detection is an Australian-based water quality monitoring technology company that has developed a world-first monitoring technology to measure water chemistry in near real time, collecting and sharing complex environmental data that can be translated into more sustainable, actionable results. Established in Melbourne in 2018, Eco Detection is a privately owned spinout of leading technology commercialisation company, Grey Innovation, and well positioned to play an important role in transforming the way water is monitored and managed globally.
