Press release: Orbia and Microsoft Launch First Project in Brazil
BOSTON, September 4, 2024 – The Orbia Advance Corporation S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV: ORBIA*) Building & Infrastructure business Wavin announced its agreement with Microsoft to tackle water stress and promote water resilience worldwide.
Orbia & Microsoft
Orbia will support Microsoft in making progress against its target to replenish more than it consumes by 2030 via various water positive projects using Orbia Building & Infrastructure (Wavin) solutions for cities and urban environments.
Water Network Management
The first project as part of this agreement has been initiated with SANASA, a public water supply and sanitation company in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. The Campinas region has gone through seven droughts in the last decade, and is located in the watershed of the rivers Piracicaba, Capivari and Jundiaí (PCJ watershed). As the PCJ river basin supplies more than 70% of the region’s water, most notably supporting São Paulo, the project enables Orbia, Microsoft and SANASA to work together to reduce water losses effectively.
The SANASA project uses Orbia’s Water Network Management (WNM) service, powered by TaKaDu, to improve network efficiency. WNM is a cloud-based solution that helps utilities to detect, analyze and manage network events and incidents including leaks, bursts, faulty assets, operational failures, telemetry and data issues. WNM is complemented with a central control room operated by Orbia water engineers.
Said Eliza Roberts, Water Lead at Microsoft, “We believe that Microsoft has an important role to play in helping to address water stress in the areas where we operate. Water is a shared challenge that requires a collective approach and we look forward to partnering with Orbia and SANASA to support a water project that is bringing public and private sector partners to the table to reduce water loss in São Paulo.”
Manuelito Magalhães Júnior, President of SANASA, remarked, “We are excited about joining forces with Microsoft and Orbia. Our vision is to be a leader and benchmark in sustainable water management that can be shared throughout Brazil. We will do this using state-of-the-art technologies, delivered through innovative partnerships that will help us to be more efficient in different areas of the business.”