Catalytic Communities
A water solution whose time has come
The wicked water problems of our time cannot be solved unilaterally, no matter how big the government or multinational. As any water practitioner can tell you, shared water challenges require shared solutions.
Collective action has long been advanced to address coordination issues in the water sector. The focus on collective action has been fruitful, spurring a new understanding of what water stewardship should look like and refocusing attention on new forms of collaboration. But as climate and water realities evolve, so does our understanding of collaboration. The emerging concept of catalytic communities provides a new way forward at a time when sustainability experts say that “current practices simply are not working”, as Globescan, ERM Sustainability Institute, and Volans Report stated in their July 2025 Sustainability at a Crossroads Report.
The emergence of catalytic communities to address economic development, business growth, ecosystem health, and social well-being aligns with our view that we must rethink past approaches and be bold.
Addressing wicked water problems with the urgency they demand requires a focus on innovation, speed, and scale that is often lacking in many collective action initiatives. This is where catalytic communities come in. Catalytic communities focus on driving innovative solutions, with speed and at scale, by enabling commercial partnerships between innovators and corporations who rely on access to water for business continuity and growth. We define a catalytic community as an ecosystem of collaborators that addresses wicked water problems by catalyzing innovative solutions through commercial partnerships, adaptive learning, and rapid scaling.
Every catalytic community will look different depending on the partners, water realities, and broader context of a location. Despite this variation, we’ve observed seven defining features that are common to most catalytic communities. Catalytic communities:
● Are centred on a commercial partnership between water users (typically the corporation) and innovators (entrepreneurs, tech companies) that drives implementation of an innovative solution.
● Have a bias for action that is the driving force of every aspect of the initiative. The partners care about developing and implementing solutions to real world water problems above all else.
● Are built around aligned purpose that is rooted in the mission of each partner. This purpose may be focused on a specific challenge (e.g. water reuse and recycling), geography (e.g. the health of a river basin), or high-level goal (e.g. achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals).
● Prioritize learning and adaptation as drivers for innovation. Catalytic communities are iterative by design, both in their approach to advancing innovative solutions and in the configuration of the community itself.
● Are focused on bringing innovation to scale as the ultimate goal. Catalytic communities are not satisfied with pilot or demonstration projects. Partners understand that moving the needle on wicked water problems requires going mainstream.
● Move quickly in the identification, development, and scaling of new innovations. Catalytic communities move quickly, not recklessly, in recognition of the urgency of the wicked problems they aim to address.
● Aim to bring together uncommon collaborators. Sometimes, this simply means bringing corporates and entrepreneurs together, whereas other times it might mean convening a much broader coalition of private and public sector partners.
A strong example of an emerging catalytic community is Water United, a new private-public partnership of technologists, multinational water stewardship leaders, academics, forward-thinking water utilities, and NGOs who are working together to tackle the Colorado River Basin’s biggest challenges. The initiative evolved from a collaboration between Microsoft and FIDO Tech to reduce water network losses through the actionable artificial intelligence and has grown rapidly in partners and scope from this starting point, counting FIDO Tech, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Meta, Oldcastle Infrastructure, Earth Finance, and Atlantean Media. The initiative also includes several water utilities in the region and a growing number of innovative water and ag tech companies.
Water United focuses on data-informed and unified interventions across the basin that are seeded and scaled through the catalytic community. FIDO Tech is bringing its AI technology to Water United and the corporate and public partners bring scale to the community. Water United is building partnerships across the basin and are actively soliciting participation from “unreasonable people and companies that want to drive a positive impact on our biggest and most unsolvable water challenges”.
The catalytic community is an emerging concept that will continue to be refined as it is implemented. The work is never done and the concept is never complete - the water challenges being tackled are too complex and varied to reach a definitive endpoint.
But through constant iteration and continual adaptation to unique circumstances, catalytic communities can begin to move the needle on wicked water problems. In a time of rapid change and uncertainty, of multiplying stressors on water resources, the catalytic community offers a model that moves fast and focuses on solutions.
Originally published in Global Water Intelligence, 24 July 2025
Will Sarni, Practice Lead, Water and Nature, Earth Finance, Inc., and Richard Farthing-Nichol, Senior Policy Advisor, Canada Water Agency. All opinions expressed are the authors’ own.