Case Study: Aguas Andinas
Largest water utility company in Chile pioneers circular wastewater treatment approach using new biofactories. Aguas Andinas, Chile’s largest water utility company (controlled by the Spanish group SUEZ), is transforming Santiago’s three wastewater treatment plants into “biofactories” that convert wastewater and sewer sludge into energy (electricity, natural gas, and thermal energy) while also producing fresh water to maintain in-stream flows for aquatic species and extracting nitrogen and phosphorus to fertilize local farmland. The project was launched in 2017 to trial innovative circular wastewater treatment solutions and to push the boundaries of human health and environmental preservation standards in the sector. In 2017, energy recovery from sewer sludge led to the production of 49 gigawatt-hours of electricity, 177 gigawatt-hours of natural gas, and 84 gigawatt-hours of thermal energy in Santiago, as well as 137,000 tons of agricultural fertilizer.24 If the company achieves its aims, all three treatment plants will be zero-waste, energy self-sufficient, and carbon neutral by 2022.
Analysis by the Financial Times in 2019 indicated that Aguas Andinas’s average net profit margin over the previous 5 years (26%) exceeded that of its peers in the region, suggesting that the company’s focus on the environment has not held it back commercially.25 This case highlights how a company in the wastewater sector—a sector that typically produces significant volumes of GHGs, other air pollutants, and hazardous waste—can develop a strategy that is compatible with planetary health. Depending on the success of the company’s new biofactories it may even have the potential to be actively beneficial for planetary health. This case is explored in much more detail in Planetary Health Case Studies: An Anthology of Solutions (https://islandpress.org/books/planetary-health).
