Droople, The Swiss ESG Knife - Reducing Carbon, Water, And Labor Costs For Buildings Owners

"If you can't measure it, you can't improve it."

The Real Estate industry is responsible for 40% of greenhouse emissions globally and will be among the main water consumers by 2060, as 70% of the world population will live in cities. In the short term, the United Nations predicts a 40% shortfall in global water supply by 2030, and water demand is projected to increase 55% by 2030. In the U.S., it is estimated up to 50% of water is lost due to leaks, which is unacceptable considering 82% of the continental U.S. currently shows conditions between abnormally dry and exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor

Traditional water utilities install the main meter at buildings' entrances primarily to bill the property owners. Only 25% of those meters worldwide are IoT enabled — the remaining 75% of meters need to be checked manually and generally only capture the water volume entering a building. Measuring water consumption at the point-of-entry for any building without knowing where it has gone is like earning money without knowing your expenditures. While stricter environmental regulations are driving the future of Real Estate towards the integration of more sustainable water management, improved technologies are no more a nice-to-have but rather a must to survive.

Proptech, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big data are unlocking a much more comprehensive understanding of actual building performance. All the way from preliminary design stages to project completion and occupancy. IoT provides accessible insights that can be integrated into existing Building Management Systems (BMS) to help building operations become more predictive, ultimately making buildings adaptive to its occupants' behaviors.

Droople, a Swiss-based Company that the PropTech Switzerland Association awarded the International PropTech Innovation Label as one of the top 20 most innovative Swiss companies in the construction and real estate industry with 16 other awards, is digitizing 100+ billion water-based assets "off radar" today. To monitor them, predict their maintenance, and incorporate water and energy efficiency practices.

“The decentralized grid intelligence based on point-of-use monitoring will make this architecture masterpiece from Herzog & de Meuron a sustainable building able to adapt to its occupants behavior.” Ramzi Bouzerda, Founder & CEO.

Droople's IoT full-stack 'Swiss Knife' solution includes smart devices with a wide range of sensing capabilities (flow, temperature, pressure, conductivity, etc.), retrofit capabilities (in & out, battery-operated, leverage existing sensors) to adapt to a wide range of water assets, from the main meter to point-of-use (toilets, faucets, showers, appliances, filters, etc.).

Many startups are focused on retrofitting the main meter with a smarter data logger to detect leakage patterns, reducing water demand and waste.

Instead, Droople has developed technology to monitor and analyze data at the point of use. Data is more detailed and granular, providing an enhanced ability to generate predictive cost-saving recommendations to owners and operators. Droople currently has 80 clients between Europe and the U.S., and will have over 400M data points by 2023.

"The energy used to pump, heat, and transport water within the walls of a building can be one of the largest contributors of cost and carbon generation for an operator. Until recently, building owners and operators were blind to these costs, not to mention water lost due to leaks and inefficient systems. Building owners seeking a green building rating cannot afford to ignore water usage" James Rees, Water Technology Advisor, and Droople Advisory Board Member

Lombard Odier Group, a Swiss based banking group with over 300 Billion in assets under management, rigorously assessed Droople's full-stack integrated solution. Lombard awarded Droople to install its technology for their 600+ water assets in their new Geneva building to achieve three different green building certifications (SNBSm, Minergie-P, and BREEAM), reduce their environmental footprint, and save costs.

“In other words, the digitization of water, where the assets provide precise information on “offline” consumption. Remote monitoring of equipment tracks potential maintenance problems, such as leaks. This is a digital breakthrough in the field of point-of-use equipment, which for far too long have remained on the verge of connected solutions, serving an ultimate objective: to preserve water, the most essential resource for human life and activities.” Pascal Puidoux, Head of Infrastructure, LODH.

Droople was invited to present at the Swiss Peer-to-Peer Conference on November 2 in Washington to U.S. and Swiss executives on how property and infrastructure owners can digitize their water assets to become ESG compliant and reduce carbon, water, and operational costs.

Droople plans to close a Series A round by the end of the year in order to open a subsidiary in the US in 2023 to better serve their existing customers and gain new clients in the segments of facility management, water treatment systems and beverage dispensing.

About Droople
Droople is a Swiss cleantech company developing innovative solutions for the intelligent management of water resources. Droople currently digitizes over 36 billion "offline" water assets worldwide, connecting plumbing fixtures, water treatment systems, appliances and more to provide real-time information at all points of use. By incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, Droople systems enable customers worldwide to accurately measure and analyze their water resources, implement remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, and achieve water and energy savings. For more information, visit www.droople.com.