Why FLUSH Added Climate to Our Service Portfolio: A Natural Evolution

A coast affected by climate change in Papua New Guinea (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

People may wonder why FLUSH has expanded into climate work. The simple truth is that water, sanitation, and climate aren't separate issues—they're deeply interconnected challenges that require integrated solutions. After seven years of helping water and sanitation professionals tell better stories with their data, we've realized that climate conversations are already happening in our work. We're just making it official.

The Climate Connection is Everywhere

Think about the climate hazards that dominate headlines: droughts, floods, extreme heat, and natural disasters. What do they all have in common? Water. More specifically, there may be too much water, too little water, or contaminated water that threatens public health and safety.

During droughts, people need more water while having less access to it. Water-dependent sanitation systems struggle to function when there isn't enough water to operate properly. Extreme heat increases water demand just when supplies are most stressed. Meanwhile, flooding overwhelms sanitation infrastructure, sending untreated waste into drinking water sources and creating public health emergencies.

The initial emergency response to any climate-related disaster always asks: Do people have enough safe drinking water? And can they manage their waste safely so it doesn't contaminate their environment? These aren't climate or water questions—they're both. Yet the climate and water sectors have operated in relative isolation, missing opportunities to develop integrated solutions that address root causes rather than just symptoms.

Learning from Our Clients

Our work has taught us that this interconnection isn't theoretical—it's a practical reality for our clients. Our project with the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean helped us develop children's educational content about sanitation systems. We naturally found ourselves explaining how toilets and proper sanitation systems help fight climate change by reducing water consumption and preventing environmental contamination.

When we worked with the Ocean Sewage Alliance on stakeholder research, we discovered that coastal communities dealing with wastewater pollution grapple with sea level rise and increased storm intensity—all interconnected challenges requiring coordinated responses. Even our evaluation work with LIXIL's Partnership for Better Living revealed how climate can impact transportation, manufacturing, and distribution networks, amplifying supply chain challenges for sanitation products.

A beach in Papua New Guinea (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

The Opportunity Gap

We've noticed that there aren't enough water and sanitation professionals in the climate space. Climate conversations often overlook water infrastructure, while water sector discussions frequently ignore climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. This disconnect creates missed opportunities and fragmented solutions.

We want to change that. We believe climate, water, and sanitation sectors should be natural partners, with climate conversations always including water considerations and water discussions always accounting for climate impacts.

Consider areas vulnerable to water-related disasters—places like New Orleans during hurricane season or Sahel communities facing desertification. These communities need integrated approaches that address immediate water and sanitation needs while building long-term climate resilience. Sanitation systems designed with climate adaptation in mind can reduce water consumption and improve community resilience, but only if we connect these conversations.

The Pulgas Water Temple in California (USA) (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

Why This Matters Now

Climate change creates water-related conflicts that better sanitation planning could help prevent or mitigate. When we design sanitation systems differently—thinking about water efficiency, flood resilience, and extreme weather adaptation—we can contribute to climate solutions rather than just reactive responses.

But here's the challenge: climate professionals must tell better stories with their data, just like our traditional water and sanitation clients do. They must build community trust, communicate complex technical information clearly, and engage stakeholders in solutions. These are exactly the skills FLUSH has been developing for years.

Our Approach Stays the Same

Adding climate to our service portfolio doesn't mean starting from scratch—it means applying our proven methodology to a new but related sector. We'll still focus on helping service providers clarify their goals, develop compelling data-driven stories, and create achievable marketing and communications strategies.

Whether we're working with a water utility explaining drought resilience measures or a climate organization demonstrating community adaptation strategies, the core challenge remains the same: how do you make complex technical work relevant, understandable, and actionable for different audiences?

Our human-centered design approach works while helping sanitation professionals build customer trust and climate practitioners engage community stakeholders. The goal is always to bridge the gap between technical expertise and public understanding.

The Future is Integrated

As we think about FLUSH's future, there is enormous potential for integrated approaches that simultaneously serve the climate and WASH sectors. Communities dealing with climate impacts need resilient, efficient, and adaptive water and sanitation solutions. Climate professionals need communication strategies that build the same kind of community trust that successful water utilities have developed.

A waterway after a storm in Puerto Rico (USA) (Credit: FLUSH/K Worsham)

We're not abandoning our roots in water and sanitation—we're growing them deeper. By adding climate to our service sectors, we're acknowledging what our work has always recognized: these challenges are interconnected, and their solutions should be too.

Whether you're a water utility preparing for increased storm intensity or a climate organization working on community adaptation, the question remains: how do you engage your stakeholders in solutions that work for everyone? That's where FLUSH comes in, bringing our expertise in data-driven storytelling and market support to help you build trust, create curiosity, and drive action.

Ultimately, creating resilient communities requires both excellent technical work and excellent communication about that work, and that's exactly what we do best.