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Earlier this fall, LWR was named as FINALIST in the THRIVE Global Impact Challenge's Water Management & Quality category. Last night, our Co-Founder and CEO, Karen Schuett, had the privilege to pitch in front of visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors from the agriculture and food technology sectors. We're thrilled to announce that LWR emerged as the WINNER in this category!

We extend our heartfelt thanks to THRIVE for their dedication to celebrating agrifoodtech sustainability. Congratulations to all the finalists and category winners! It's a true honor to stand alongside such outstanding innovators like you!

EPA Region 7, Iowa State University, and the University of Iowa are co-hosting a regionally focused conference on anaerobic digestion (AD) in agriculture on Nov. 6-8, 2023, at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

The purpose of the conference is to engage stakeholders; facilitate information exchange on anaerobic digestion in agriculture; and focus on solutions for the various challenges facing those operating an AD facility or those interested in owning and operating their own facility.

LWR's Chief Operating Officer Doug Laird has been invited to chair a panel on Resilient Community Infrastructure with a particular focus on smaller solutions that can be deployed at farm scale.  

Infographic courtesy of C-CHANGE. See the full publication online.

Recognizing and celebrating the Alberta science and technology innovation community, the 34th Annual ASTech Awards have selected LWR as finalists for Outstanding Achievement in Environment/Water in recognition of our efforts to safeguard the world's natural resources. 

LWR Software Engineer Oscar Jaimes was in Edmonton last week to represent the entire LWR team. Congratulations again to all of the incredible finalists. We look forward to the Awards Gala and announcement later tonight!

Between November 13th – 15th, 2022, over 1000 participants will descend on Ottawa for the annual gathering of Canada’s research and innovation policy community, drawing audiences from government, academia, and the private sector.

Dan Wayner, former Chief Science Advisor with the National Research Council Canada, will chair a panel discussion featuring LWR Co-FOunder and CEO, Karen Schuett. The panel is scheduled for Wednesday November 15, 3:15 – 4:30 pm Eastern Time.

The theme of this panel will be productivity growth in Canada. In particular it will address the challenges of low business innovation wherein Canadian companies have a low propensity to compete on innovation and how can research and innovation stimulate business innovation for productivity gains. We are happy to be organizing this session as a joint National Research Council  (NRC)–Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada (ISED) panel. 

In a previous edition of Karleigh’s Korner, we delved into the fascinating world of the healthy microbiome present in manure and its crucial role in creating a thriving soil environment for optimal plant growth. This symbiotic relationship fosters an ideal space for plants to flourish, enabling them to access essential nutrients, inhabit spacious macro pores, enhance water retention, and even maintain control over soil pathogens.

Over the years, several studies have explored the various components within manure, providing compelling evidence of its capacity to mitigate disease development in crops. This phenomenon primarily stems from the beneficial micro-organisms that enhance overall soil health, empowering plants to thrive and withstand various growth-limiting stressors. One noteworthy example is the use of poultry manure in a compost mixture to combat Potato Early Die, a fungal disease. It is believed that the high acetic and butyric acid levels present in poultry manure effectively hindered the growth of the pathogenic fungi (Jack Kazmierski, "Poultry manure and potato early die," Manure Manager, October 10, 2023).

Similarly, swine manure has demonstrated its disease-repelling prowess, reducing common scab and verticillium wilt across diverse fields in another study. The effectiveness of this approach was contingent on various soil characteristics such as pH, organic matter content, sand composition, buffering capacity, and nitrification rate. Notably, the outcomes varied based on the soil's acidity or alkalinity, highlighting the multifaceted nature of these interactions (George Lazarovits, Mario Tenuta, & Kenneth L. Conn, "Organic amendments as a disease control strategy for soilborne diseases of high-value agricultural crops," Australasian Plant Pathology, June 2001).

These ongoing studies underscore the multifaceted advantages of utilizing manure, emphasizing that its benefits extend far beyond nutrient content and organic matter.

Last month we opened our Innovation Center doors to showcase the work we are doing in the biogas sector. From feedstock optimization to digestate processing, we’re proud to be a part of the Energy Transition. Thank you to everyone who joined us this week during the Canadian Biogas Association Value of Biogas conference!

Last month we were in Madison to connect with the dairy industry! It was a busy week meeting with clients, industry leaders, and technology partners and we appreciate everyone who joined us at our inaugural Manure Mixer! Collaboration drives positive change and we are proud to be part of the movement towards sustainable profitability!   

We were thrilled to be part of two full days of informative sessions, networking and discussion about all things biogas & RNG during the Value of Biogas West conference presented by the Canadian Biogas Association. 

In October, Emily Samyue, Head of Innovation at Dairy Australia, Janay Meisser, Director of Innovation at UFA Co-operative Limited, and Janelle Jiminez, Corporate Innovation Manager at SVG Ventures|THRIVE, paid a visit to the LWR Innovation Center and didn't leave before a quick stop at the new LWR photo booth wall!

From discussions on science, technology and investment happening in the water industry, Hakim is a water tech researcher at KU Leuven with 8 years of industrial water expertise gained at The Dow Chemical Company and DuPont. 

On this episode, Hakim interviews Karen Schuett, Co-Founder and CEO of Livestock Water Recycling. Karen shares her insights on the journey from groundwater remediation in the oil and gas sector to forging solutions in livestock manure treatment and LWR's role in the renewable energy transition.

With climate change set to decrease the productivity of farming globally by up to 30%, the industry is at a “critical moment”, warns the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative 

Agri co-ops Arla, Dairy Farmers of America, FrieslandCampina and Ocean Spray have joined an international group of leading agri-food organisations to back a global framework for regenerative agriculture.

The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI) Platform announced the launch of the Regenerating Together framework with the backing of over 30 industry players, which also include Nestlé, Danone, Unilever and PepsiCo.

SAI says this is the first globally aligned approach for the transition to regenerative agriculture practices.

Supply chain emissions — aka Scope 3 emissions — account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions and can represent the majority of a company's total carbon footprint. In an industry first, leading corporate energy customers have come together to launch the Clean Energy Procurement Academy (CEBA) to equip companies with the technical readiness to explore and adopt clean energy — an essential step toward global decarbonization.

With foundational support from Apple, Amazon, Meta, Nike, PepsiCo and REI, the Clean Energy Procurement Academy aims to equip companies with the knowledge required to shift to clean energy.

Understanding the carbon cycle and the soil food web gives context to how organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur are recycled. Below is a simplified diagram representing both the general carbon cycle and the soil food web. If one tracks who is consuming what in the soil, one can also track the flow of carbon (energy) and nutrients through the soil, as they are closely linked (see below). 

Each “block” or grouping of like consumers is called a trophic level. Conversely, throughout the levels of the diagram, as a group of organisms dies, they are then consumed by other organisms which, in turn, die and become dead organic material. This process continues to recycle nutrients (such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur) and thus continues the carbon cycle.

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