Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Shining example

Petra Wadström doesn’t wax poetic about the potential of her patented, solar-powered water purification invention. Instead, with typical Scandinavian understatement, this Stockholm entrepreneur lets the facts speak for themselves: one in eight people in the world has no regular access to safe drinking water, which is a problem of titanic proportions, with unsanitary water causing 1.6m deaths (mostly small children) by diarrhoea every year.

Wadström, however, has come up with one way to put a dent in those numbers. Her Solvatten – which means ‘sun water’ in Swedish – is a filtration system housed in a plastic canister. It looks like something you’d put petrol in, only this jug holds 10l of something much more valuable: clean, safe drinking water. Instead of boiling tainted household water by burning fuel that emits carbon, people can purify their H20 by filling this canister and setting it outside in sunshine for between two and six hours. Solvatten then UV-disinfects, heat pasteurises and filters the water, rendering it hot (around 50-60°C) and safe for cooking and hygiene – it won’t be boiling, but close enough to reduce optional boiling time by two-thirds.

Winning support

Solvatten meets UN development goals in this area and the company has attracted project partners such as the Swedish World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and carbon offsetting business Tricorona, as well as garnering awards and recognitions from, among others, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in the United States and several Swedish royal academies.

Wadström, 57, was born in Stockholm to artist parents. She inherited their flair and took an art education in Switzerland, but that’s just half of it; Wadström also excelled at science, and before studying art she was educated in biology in Sweden, including molecular biology and biological chemistry. On the face of it, these areas of expertise seem a strange combination. Not so, Wadström believes. Art and biology, she says, involve “the same way of thinking… both are about problems and solutions, about making things easier… [and] asking ‘why?’”.

In recent years, Wadström’s also had to be a negotiator and de facto diplomat, meeting bureaucrats and other decision makers in the effort to get her product to where it’s needed. One topic that comes up in such discussions is the other benefits of Solvatten. These include carbon reduction, soil conservation – since fewer trees are cut down for firewood – and a reduction in lung disease, because the millions of people who currently cook over open flames breathe in smoke on a daily basis.

The family way

Solvatten is 75% owned by the Wadström family; investors own the rest. The company’s seven-member board is diverse, with businesspeople, straight-up investors, charities and water-quality specialists – in addition to Petra’s husband, Carl, a doctor. The company, in turn, is a subsidiary of a Wadström family holding company, Petrart Invent, which brings to market eight patented consumer products that Wadström designed. These include Osnodd, an anti-pickpocket device; and Hörnlampen, a fluorescent lamp for home interiors. The line is retailed in Swedish museum shops and in the Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö locations of the design shop DesignTorget.

Wadström and her staff are reluctant to discuss Solvatten’s financials, but a number of facts illustrate what it’s taken to get the enterprise off the ground. In the organisational and development stages since its 2006 founding, the company has operated in the red so far, with funding from Wadström herself – roughly three times what she initially expected – bank loans and a small group of investors. Commercial sales started on 1 May this year. The goals are to sell 10,000 units during 2010 and 40,000 units in 2011 – a hefty four-fold sales increase that would enable Solvatten to turn its first profit, according to business manager Claire Wigg. The company also aims to double its workforce in 2011 (from four to eight), supplemented, as it is now, with a team of interns.

The per-unit cost for smaller volume orders is €73, or €56 each in larger bulk. As of now, Solvatten is selling to private companies, aid organisations and NGOs looking to distribute the product in the developing world. Those organisations do so through various arrangements that include local marketing and information about micro-financing options, so that people in need can afford the product. The company is working towards direct sales to consumers in several countries by the end of this year.

Added value

Solvatten also offers various possible uses in the West, according to Wigg, ranging from disaster management agencies to camping and the ‘off-grid’ consumer markets in the United States and Sweden. Incidentally, the plastic canisters and indicators are manufactured in Sweden. No recycled materials are used as yet because of the need for highly durable, long product life, Wadström says, although the company is looking into recycling in the future. Manufacturing options in India are also being explored.

All this is happening under the guidance of Wadström, whose general approach is assessed by two people who work closely with the inventor. Her son David calls her “highly creative” when it comes to finding solutions. He also says she doesn’t mince her words, speaking to decision makers and bureaucrats diplomatically, but very directly. Officials can occasionally be “thrown off” by this, David says. Wigg, on the other hand, cites Wadström’s ability to “motivate people to get over obstacles”.

Wadström herself says she enjoys, “The challenge [of] solving problems and trying new things.” She describes the following qualities as keys to any success she’s achieved as a manager: listening, being open to new ideas, thinking positively and not being intimidated by complexities. She has no illusions about the task ahead, saying, “We are just a small company in Sweden and we have a huge task… It’s fantastic to have this possibility to create change, but it’s also very demanding and challenging.”

So what drives her? The potential for big success – or those awards, perhaps? Not quite. Awards are fine, Wadström adds, “but seeing people using Solvatten – that’s the best award I can have.”

Een schitterend voorbeeld

Vormt een blikken reservoir die zonnestralen opvangt die op hun beurt water zuiveren een stap naar veilige, zuivere drinkwatervoorziening voor iedereen? Scott Berman zoekt het uit

Werelwijd een op acht personen beschikt vandaag niet over veilig en zuiver drinkwater, maar het Solvatten ‘zonwater’ – het waterzuiveringssysteem op zonne-energie van de Stockholmse onderneemster Petra Wadström – zou een antwoord kunnen bieden. Dit filtersysteem dat werd ingebouwd in een plastic reservoir met 10 liter waterinhoud kan water kook- en wasveilig maken door het twee tot zes uur in de zon te plaatsen. Solvatten haalt de ontwikkelingsdoelstellingen van de VN en kan rekenen op de steun van belangrijke partners zoals het Zweedse World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Het project sleepte eveneens verscheidene awards in de wacht.

Solvatten is 75% eigendom van de familie Wadström, de rest is in handen van investeerders. Sinds de aanvang van de ontwikkelingsfases in 2006 opereerde de onderneming in het rood, maar de commerciële verkoop ging van start op 1 mei. Het bedrijf doelt op een totale verkoop van 10.000 exemplaren in 2010 en 40.000 in 2011. De prijs voor een kleiner apparaat bedraagt €73. Solvatten, momenteel verkocht aan privéondernemingen, hulporganisaties en NGO’s die het product op hun beurt willen verspreiden in de ontwikkelingslanden, zou tegen het einde van het jaar rechtstreeks worden verkocht.

Wadström, 57, genoot een kunstopleiding in Zwitserland en studeerde daarnaast biologie in Zweden. Deze twee geheel verschillende disciplines behelzen “eenzelfde manier van denken”… beide houden ze problemen en oplossingen in, het vereenvoudigen van zaken… en het zich afvragen ‘waarom’?” aldus Wadström.

David, de zoon van Wadström, omschrijft haar als “buitengewoon creatief” als het komt op het zoeken van oplossingen. Business manager Claire Wigg heeft het over haar bekwaamheid om “mensen te motiveren bij het overwinnen van obstakels”. Wadström zelf zegt dat ze geniet van “De uitdaging van het oplossen van problemen en het uitproberen van nieuwe dingen”. Ze maakt zichzelf geen illusies bij de taak die haar te wachten staat. Toch stelt ze: “We zijn een klein bedrijfje in Zweden en er rust een zware taak op onze schouders… het is fantastisch om verandering te kunnen brengen, maar het is tegelijkertijd een enorme opoffering en uitdaging.”

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