Creating 21st Century Abundance through Public Policy Innovation: Moving Beyond Business as Usual

Excellent. Greg Koch and Will Sarni have taken on the challenge to set out in clear and practical terms how strategic forms of multi-stakeholder collaboration can help governments and policy makers strengthen their governance of wicked problems like water resource management or the food-water-energy nexus. They succeed with clarity and finesse. Packed full of useful examples and interviews Creating 21st Century Abundance through Public Policy Innovation is a smart, cogently argued and easy to understand analysis of what innovative partnerships look like, why they matter and how they can be used to help policy makers address our systemic natural resource challenges. With the delivery date for the Sustainable Development Goals now just 12 years away, Koch and Sarni provide a perfectly-timed proposition of how a platform of partnerships for the goals can actually be built.

Dominic Waughray, Visiting Scholar, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, USA

In an era when amorphous water risks are becoming profound realities, make no mistake, lack of action in the boardroom will leave companies adrift and exposed to potentially devastating disruptions. With masterful narratives and revealing context, Greg Koch and William Sarni guide readers through tumultuous waters, providing historical grounding and clear channels for the critical decisions ahead. In Creating 21st Century Abundance through Public Policy Innovation, readers will learn how to set bold goals, apply best problem-solving skills, and have faith in the collective abilities necessary to embrace the challenges ahead. We live in a new world where water is the metaphor for survival in business and in life. In this important and accessible work, Koch and Sarni align the value and values that will separate success from failure.

Carl Ganter, Co-Founder and Director, Circle of Blue, USA

'Business as usual' is a state of mind, and this is generally the way humanity looks at water. Obviously, this is the wrong approach. Will and Greg have managed to analyze very clearly the weak points of the water sector and to highlight the necessary steps needs to be taken in order to correct it. This book is a must for every person that is concerned with our future.

Oded Distel, Director, Israel New Tech & Eco Systems, Isreal

Equitable water governance is the linchpin to addressing most of the water challenges we face. Greg and Will have drawn on their extensive pioneering experiences in the corporate water stewardship space to elucidate concrete ways we can all work toward this goal.

Jason Morrison, Head, UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate

Water, Energy, Food, Cities, Climate and Poverty. Limits to Growth. Conflict. Environmental Crises. Disease. Migration. Economic Collapse. We are regularly reminded that of one or more intersections or nexus of these issues as an existential challenge that human societies face in the 21st century. Complexity or wicked are words used to describe the challenge, suggesting a bleak future for humans who may be unable to overcome these challenges. The book by Sarni and Koch does indeed expose this drama. But it goes well beyond. It traces a history of private and public effort at scales that range from a farm to a corporation to a nation to global entities like the World Bank to trace a sequence of events in the 21st century that speak to how different groups have addressed the challenge, the new vernacular that is emerging around these solutions, the participatory nature of the solutions, and innovations in financing, technology, policy and corporate action, linked to social pressures, initiatives by non-government organizations and the participation and refocusing of the public sector that has been emerging around the world. The book is highly accessible, highlighting in first person the diverse experience of the two authors, who have been intimately immersed in this transition. They engage the reader with insightful interviews of some of the key thinkers who have participated in the recent evolution of thought and action in the area, and put the developments in the context of the sustainability transition that our 21st century world is going through. It is a lively, must read, that I highly recommend.

Upmanu Lall, Alan & Carol Silberstein Professor of Engineering; Chair Dept of Earth & Environmental Eng, and Director, Columbia Water Center, Columbia University, USA

This thought-provoking book opens with the premise that the singular water strategy we've been pursuing for centuries - let's go get more water - needs to be set aside in the 21^st century so that we can move into the real work of trying to figure out how find true security and well-being within the limits of water availability. These two authors - who have spent their lives working on water challenges around the globe - offer rich perspectives on the innovation that we need so urgently, and they've tapped a deep well of stories that illustrate the way forward.

Brian Richter, President, Sustainable Waters, USA