Spirac

6 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 9 system that addresses each customer’s unique requirements, far better than our competitors can, typically. That gives us a leg up. And we’re always tweaking our conveyors—adding little additional features, control aspects— to offer the very best to our clients.” Municipal wastewater treatment isn’t a high-tech, fast-moving industry; product durability and the ability to customize equipment specifically to a customer’s needs are really the main drivers, rather than that whiz-bang high-tech innovation aspect.” Everything new must grow old; everything old must renew The fact remains that innovation, at least in the sense of ‘science applied’ to industry, is still a very real force in the Spirac (USA) Inc. world; the average U.S. family wastes around 9,400 gallons of water per year, while farming and agriculture account for 70% of the planet’s overall consumption of freshwater. Therefore, the role of wastewater treatment in achieving sustainable development goals for ‘The Future We Want’ really can’t be understated. To give an idea of the scope of Spirac (USA) Inc. operations and their influence on issues of global sustainability, the firm currently has about 5,000 installations worldwide. “We don’t have a project in every state and every year, but we’re active nationwide and in North America in general,” Egger reports. “Certainly, a lot of work is being done in the South and West due to the population expansion into those areas. Not to say that the Northeast isn’t still quite busy as there’s a lot of refurbishment taking place there.” Typically, Spirac (USA) Inc projects involve three clients—a municipality, a consulting engineer, and a contractor. “When a city decides to build or expand a wastewater treatment plant, in most cases they’ll hire an outside engineering firm who will do the design for the city,” says Egger.