May 2009

Over a hundred years ago, Henry Ford transformed the automobile from a custom-made, luxury item to a low-cost, standardized product that became the engine of the world economy. Today, water purification and waste water treatment remain fragmented industries, driven by custom projects to fix small parts of a rapidly decaying infrastructure. Could the design skills that made the Mustang Convertible and the Pontiac transform the emerging water technology sector into Detroit’s next great industry?”