Interview: Prof. Dr. Claus Lang-Koetz, Hochschule Pforzheim
On the fringes of the Hansgrohe Water Symposium 2022 (topic: "Precious Water"), we spoke with Prof. Dr. Claus Lang-Koetz from Pforzheim University, Germany. The focus of the engineer is "Sustainable technology and innovation management". In his workshop, he showed how companies can approach environmental and climate protection strategically and integrate it in an economically sensible way.
Three Questions for Claus Lang-Koetz
Professor Lang-Koetz – must our politicians do to better protect precious water?
Claus Lang-Koetz: Water is one of our most important natural resources, and this is where politics must also become active. It is a matter of raising awareness, but also of creating incentives. Raising awareness means making the relevance of the issue even clearer to consumers – and also to the industries – and publicizing it. And the topic of "creating incentives" is about promoting technologies and innovations for water conservation, as well as their development and implementation more strongly.
What does our industry need to do to protect water?
C.L.K.: Business and industry first need to identify the potential where they themselves can save water better. There is still a lot to do there. Our applied research in the field of "resource efficiency" shows that there are very many practical possibilities – technical, but also organizational – for improving processes in production and logistics in order to be able to deal with less water.
And what can our society – that is, each and every one of us – do to protect this precious resource?
C.L.K.: First of all, it is a matter of determining for oneself: How much water do you use, how much water do you consume, and where are there opportunities to use it more efficiently? This starts with showering and continues throughout the entire household, for example, with laundry. And it's also about inspiring others. We need more water ambassadors to spread the word and inspire others to get involved!
