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The U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce is excited to bring you our newest Q&A series, Global Sustainability Leaders.
We’ve traveled the globe searching for the best and brightest sustainability leaders and we’ve found them. In our series, you will meet the people who are creating a healthier and happier planet for you, your business and your community. Click here to view all of our Global Leaders.
Name:
Greg Johnson
Company/NGO Name:
AquiPor Technologies Inc.
Region, Country:
Washington State, United States
1. What is the mission of your company/NGO?AquiPor’s mission is to develop technologies and solutions to help cities more effectively manage stormwater runoff and mitigate urban flooding.
2. What is the most innovative or environmentally/socially impactful project/practice your company/NGO has implemented?
AquiPor has developed and patented new permeable hardscape “pavement-like” technologies that allow rainwater to flow through the material into the ground below, while filtering out sediment and pollutants in stormwater that are known to impair clean waterways. As part of an engineered design, this material can give cities and developers a scalable, low-footprint solution for dealing with stormwater runoff pollution.
3. How have those projects positively impacted the local community and/ or your country?
For the past 5 years we have been deep into R&D, developing this technology to be easily manufactured and deployed at scale. We are getting ready to launch the technology and believe that once it is adopted, it will have a major impact on the sustainability of our clean waterways and will protect cities against flooding and extreme weather.
4. Please share any new projects you will be implementing in the near future.
We will be installing our first pilot projects in the coming months.
5. Personally—Why do you care about sustainability? What is your story?
I care deeply about the environment and sustainability because human health and planetary health are intrinsically connected. A healthy environment should be equitable…clean water, clean air, clean food for all. We are far from that place today, but there are people and companies working on these huge challenges and I believe that tremendous progress is being made. I personally became particularly interested in stormwater years ago when I recognized the quiet, destructive impact that runoff pollution was having on our clean waterways. This, in part, led to us founding AquiPor and beginning to develop our technologies.
6. What are your thoughts on climate change? What is your company/organization doing to help bring awareness or to help mitigate climate change?
The climate is certainly changing and the unintended consequences of this are numerous. With a changing climate comes more unpredictable weather, which can mean excessive rain/precipitation in some areas, and more acute drought conditions in others. At AquiPor, our permeable hardscape material can be used in cityscapes to help handle stormwater, but we’ve also made a commitment to have a completely carbon neutral manufacturing and production process for our material. People may not realize that the production of traditional concrete is one of the biggest industrial emitters of CO2 in the world. For us, it’s not good enough to solve the stormwater problem with a new material. We want the production of our material to be completely eco-friendly as well.
7. What are the biggest challenges you have faced when pursuing or trying to promote sustainable practices/projects?
Regulatory path-dependency still seems to dominate the industries that we are looking to impact with our solutions. The risk-averse mentality of decision-makers is paradoxically building more risk into the system, as outdated solutions are becoming ineffective. Especially pertaining to stormwater infrastructure.
To learn more, please visit AquiPor on their website and social media platforms: