Delivering a new source of water

BWT is positively impacting water scarcity by providing a new source of drinkable, sustainable, plant-based water for communities and environmental projects. It harvests water during sugar milling and vegetable processing seasons, which is used for the company’s own retail brand, AquaBotanical.Botanical water is distributed for retail (AquaBotanical), wholesale (ingredient for beverage companies) and social/philanthropic impact initiatives.

When fruit, sugarcane and vegetables are pressed to extract juice and then evaporated to make concentrate or sugar, they produce a large volume of water in parallel. Botanical Water Technologies uses its own patented technology to filter and purify this water, potentially saving trillions of litres every year.
 
It is a brilliant proposition and one that could have a huge impact on water-poor regions, however, Botanical Water Technologies needed to be able to harness this potential. How could it track and certify water production and connect suppliers with customers? It decided that immutable, verified and distributed data via blockchain technology was the answer. The company issued an 80-page RFP to find the right partner.
 
“We took over six months and spoke to more than 20 vendors, looking at key criteria such as technical requirements, global reach, service qualifications, price and timelines,” explains Terry Paule, Co-Founder and CEO at Botanical Water Technologies. “In the end, it came down to two potential partners, so we ran discovery workshops with each for a couple of weeks. The Fujitsu team impressed us with their passion and ethos of sustainability. They also have a compelling track record with Ricex and Fertx.”

The new Botanical Water Exchange (BWX) platform relies on the FUJITSU Track and Trust service, which uses blockchain technology to ensure end-to-end transparency and traceability of processes, including the refinement, sales, purchase, delivery and usage of the product.

Now, BWX can enable greater transparency and security in water trading, and ultimately aim to create an open market in which companies including juice concentration facilities, sugar mills, alcohol distilleries and beverage manufacturers can trade in water purified by the patented Botanical Water Technologies process.

“FUJITSU Track and Trust gives us a real time view of production, including weighbridges, pumps and monitoring. Blockchain verifies the provenance,” adds Paule. “Usually, water would be certified at the source, but this approach means we certify at the purification units themselves.”

BWT has a 2025 goal of giving clean drinking water to 100 million of the world’s most vulnerable people. A minimum of 1% of every BWX commercial transaction will automatically be donated to the Botanical Water Foundation. The foundation’s purpose is to gift clean drinking water to people in need through social, environmental and philanthropic projects.

Fujitsu is helping meet this goal with its robust, private and permissioned blockchain-based platform, supported by global 24/7 support. BWX, its partners, traders and suppliers can be confident that their data is secure and verified, with real time visibility of every aspect of the production cycle.

“We have been impressed by the buy-in Fujitsu has shown right up to c-level – they understand the significance of this innovation and has provided a team that can deliver,” concludes Paule. “We are already ahead of the game and have moved our launch date forward two months thanks to Fujitsu’s work.”