At Work With Water: Cindy Paulson, Axius Water

At Work With Water is a new series focusing on the incredible people who are making a difference for water. In each edition of XPV Water Partners’ newsletter, we’ll speak with a person from one of our portfolio companies who is doing things differently – ensuring that the water sector continues to evolve, thrive, and meet global challenges with innovative solutions. 

For more than three decades, Cindy Paulson has built a reputation as a water industry leader with the ability to bring together diverse interests, distill highly complex issues, facilitate productive dialogue, and co-create effective solutions. Cindy recently joined the Board of Directors at Axius Water, bringing her experience and perspective to the platform’s mission to tackle the global challenge of nutrient management.  

We spoke with Cindy to learn more about her career and future plans. 

Tell us a bit about your professional journey. What brought you to this point in your career?  

I’ve always been fascinated by the interface of humanity and the environment, and by finding sustainable balance. From the age of 10, I knew this would be my life’s work. My career began with degrees in liberal arts (political science and environmental science) and a focus on policy. It soon shifted to include environmental engineering for a technical foundation for solutions. When I finished grad school, I discovered Brown and Caldwell and was attracted to the company’s passion for technical innovation and excellence. It was there that I learned both the fundamentals and the art of applying them well: asking the right questions, thinking critically, exploring innovative approaches to challenges, and co-creating workable solutions. 

I spent my entire 35-year career with Brown and Caldwell, where I had space to explore emerging needs and opportunities in the water space. When I entered the company, the hiring manager said the sky was the limit; I took that to heart. Over the years, I helped diversify the business into stormwater, water resources, drinking water, and natural systems. I also had the opportunity to switch up my work, first focusing on technical solutions, then evolving to operations and company growth as a regional and practice leader. In 2017, I relied on all that experience to become the company’s first Chief Technical Officer. 

What are some of the highlights from your time at Brown and Caldwell? 

As a leader with Brown and Caldwell, my career was marked by opportunities to think differently, really understand client needs, engage communities, and develop strong partnerships and collaborations around solutions. I love to create change in positive ways and to contribute to real outcomes, addressing the bold ambitions I developed at a young age. 

I like to think that one of my secret powers is helping people see their own potential and do their best work. For this reason, I’ve always loved mentoring and coaching people. A favorite moment from my recent retirement celebrations was when one individual asked a gathering of technical leaders, “Who in the room has Cindy challenged to do something they hadn’t done before?” and every hand shot up. Watching people flourish gives me such purpose. 

While you were at the company, you worked on several significant projects, including the $50-billion program to save Louisiana’s coastline. Tell us more.  

The Louisiana Coastal Restoration and Protection Master Plan set out to work more in sync with natural systems to preserve coastlines and protect communities, including a massive effort to “replumb” the Mississippi River and restore land-building of the Delta. The plan, which was part of an ongoing response to the devastating impacts of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and increasing land loss, was completed shortly after the Deepwater Horizon spill, and continues today. 

It was the single most challenging and rewarding project of my career. Our team worked with a diverse group of stakeholders. We had to consider a complex collection of wants and needs, connecting the dots to find common ground and solve the challenge together. Nobody believed it would be possible to achieve unanimous legislative approval of the plan, but we developed willingness, trust, and informed consent. It was a complete privilege to work on the program. 

As Executive Director of the California Urban Water Agencies, you also worked on industry-leading projects. Can you tell us more? 

At the time I began, the industry was going through significant evolution and growth – we had to think differently about how we handle water, diversifying water supply portfolios, including reuse, which was tricky in the potable water space. We had to get it right, so CUWA worked closely with other agencies and regulatory entities to move incrementally toward something that made sense. 

In the last few years of my decade-long tenure, CUWA leaders took on the issue of equity in rural water, recognizing that California water is only as strong as the weakest link and honoring the right to safe and affordable water supply for all. CUWA also worked hard to build diversity, equity, and inclusion in the water sector, starting with their own agencies. 

It was a real honor to work with leaders who committed to finding collaborative solutions to the biggest unmet challenges, bringing their best selves to the table for the greater common good. Even though there were sometimes conflicting agendas, CUWA leaders agreed to set those issues aside, saying “If not us, then who?” 

Now that you’ve officially retired from Brown and Caldwell, what’s next? How are you planning to participate in the Axius Water platform? 

As a new retiree, I’ve been appreciating the time and space to stretch my brain in different ways. And I’ve been able to step back and do more thinking about the overwhelming challenges of water and the environment. Now is the time for more investment and infusion of private equity. There are huge opportunities for industry and commerce to be part of the solution, and it’s great to be part of those efforts. 

I’m excited to be involved with Axius, in particular. The platform is committed to innovation and developing new business models to do things better and faster, and the companies have huge potential to solve global nutrient management challenges, including rural and disadvantaged communities that need different solutions. As a new member of the Board, I’m looking forward to helping push the envelope, to leveraging my network to forge new connections, and to supporting broader applications of that technical innovation. 

When you think of the future of the water sector, what does it look like? What are the major developments that need to happen on the path to realizing water sustainability? 

Generally, the industry will need to embrace digital disruption, develop strong partnerships, and explore different ways to deliver reliable water and wastewater services that better protect the environment and lower human impact. This will require different kinds of thinking. It cannot be left to engineers and scientists alone. The industry also needs to bring in more people with new perspectives – planning, financial, communications, and more – and engage community in a more meaningful way to produce broader multi-benefit solutions. Though I do see a growing awareness of the value of diversity and movement to engage community in water sector solutions, we still have a long way to go. 

We’ll also need more resilient systems. As I was transitioning out of the role of CTO and helping the company look ahead, I did a lot of thinking about resiliency and sustainability. We’re operating in a whole new world driven by climate change and uncertainties. It came faster than anyone expected: we’ve used up our environmental buffer, and we’re beginning to live in extremes. Now and in the future, we need resilient physical facilities, as well as redundancy and flexibility enabled by technology and partnerships.  

I also see the need to address environmental, social, and governance elements more holistically. Successful ESG programs and systems are crucial to for our future. The concept of ESG is just now emerging in the water and wastewater space, though it is happening quickly. There is a huge need and opportunity to bring together frameworks and systems to guide and track transparent progress, measuring performance from a level playing field for real impacts, versus “greenwashing.” Though the UN Sustainable Development Goals guide water and wastewater sustainability at a very high level, more granularity is needed to focus efforts and produce outcomes faster.  

Ultimately, I see the industry moving more in the direction of a circular economy, accounting for the true “cost” of water, making the most of resources, and providing broader benefits for humanity and the environment. We have so much information and data about water but haven’t yet pulled it all together. I think it’s time to consider water and wastewater more holistically – accounting for causes and effects, haves and have nots, climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, equity, reuse, regeneration, and ultimately embracing new ways to live more sustainably. This is the next big shift. I hope to see a move from spotty campaigns to do the right thing to a global acceptance of “this is just the way we do water on this planet.”