CASE STUDY 9 Schneider Electric – Punta Gradelle wastewater treatment plant In Italy’s Sorrento peninsula (140,000 population equivalent), wastewater treatment relied on an obsolete facility that caused environmental degradation, affected tourism and agriculture, and triggered a European infringement procedure. A public-private consortium led by Veolia and Schneider Electric invested €46 million to build a fully automated underground plant in the Punta Gradelle cape. Leveraging Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure platform for integrated energy and automation management, the system connects control units, automation panels and a central supervision platform via high-speed intranet. This configuration delivers 15% energy savings, a 20% increase in process efficiency and flexible capacity to manage seasonal peaks while safeguarding coastal ecosystems and local livelihoods.25 CASE STUDY 10 Oxyle – PFAS destruction in Switzerland At a construction site in Switzerland, groundwater analysis revealed the presence of perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA), a highly mobile short-chain PFAS. Oxyle is a Swiss cleantech company recognized by the World Economic Forum’s UpLink platform as an “Aquapreneur”, a leading water start-up. It has designed modular treatment systems that permanently destroy PFAS in water, including the short- and ultra short-chain variants often resistant to conventional methods. As part of site remediation, Oxyle conducted a lab-scale trial with a tailored treatment train designed for the site’s specific water chemistry. The system combined nanofiltration, used to separate and concentrate PFAS, with OxLight, Oxyle’s proprietary photochemical reduction technology, which permanently degrades and defluorinates the concentrated PFAS while utilizing the mechanical energy of flowing water to power the degradation process. Reported results indicate 99% degradation, with effluent concentrations below detection limits (PFBA from 8 parts per billion (ppb) to 0.02 ppb). These findings suggest potential for energy-efficient mineralization of persistent PFAS in contaminated groundwater.Emerging pollutants, whose total number could exceed 12,000 globally, include persistent substances such as PFAS, pharmaceuticals and microplastics. These emerging pollutants have been found to contaminate at least a third of global water bodies26 and are largely resistant to removal through conventional water treatment plants.27 To address these gaps, advanced solutions are being developed as modular, “plug-and-play” systems that integrate seamlessly into existing treatment infrastructure. These technologies enable targeted and efficient permanent destruction through a combination of concentration capabilities and molecular destruction, achieving up to 99% removal efficiency.28Advanced water treatment Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook 23 Bridging the €6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap: A Playbook 23

Bridging the %E2%82%AC6.5 Trillion Water Infrastructure Gap A Playbook 2025