It’s no secret that the world is in need of innovative technology and leadership to combat the biggest global challenges we face today. As a start-up company whose technology has been on the market for less than 5 years, CarboNet is extremely humbled to have received an Honorable Mention for this year’s World Changing Ideas Award by Fast Company for our work in water reclamation.

Our world-changing idea is the NanoNet platform: a suite of water treatment chemicals used to decontaminate wastewater.

We have developed a proprietary nanoparticle called a NanoNet composed of both surfactants and specialty polymers that effectively “net” out emulsified oils and specific contaminants such as heavy metals. NanoNet water treatments efficiently produce stronger, more stable floc that can be easily extracted resulting in cleaner, clearer water.

To us, winning isn’t everything. What’s most important is that research, innovation, and developments to combat water scarcity and accessibility are being recognized. Though considered a renewable resource, the rate at which we contaminate and use water is speeding up and pushing it in the direction of becoming a finite resource. The only way to keep it renewable is to recycle and restore it.

This need is evident as highlighted by the water category winners who won for their investigation of the dangerous contamination of America’s drinking water. Access to safe, clean water is necessary on both an individual and organizational level, but it requires work. For CarboNet, the work happens at treatment facilities for produced water, industrial wastewater, and other industries such. Treating water at this stage helps industries reuse water rather than contaminating fresh resources.

As a Vancouver-based company that has access to some of the cleanest, freshest water in the world and whose main operations take place in the Permian Basin in Texas, the comparison of water quality simply based on geographic location is clearer than the water we reclaim (and that water is pretty clear). However, access to clean water should not be determined by where you are. This is what CarboNet is trying to help change.

Of over 3,000 applicants for the World Changing Ideas Award, we are ecstatic to have received an Honorable Mention from Fast Company for the NanoNet platform and congratulate all other Finalists and Honorable Mentions. We look forward to seeing more world-changing water ideas in the future.

View the full water category list of mentions for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards here.