BlueConduit searches millions of service lines
That's exactly what BlueConduit has been doing since 2019, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation through fiscal sponsor Windward Fund. BlueConduit's software harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and predicts where leading service lines are located.
Over the last five years, they have analyzed over six million service lines. They have worked with more than 80 water systems in over 400 cities in 26 states, saving more than $400 million for cities and water systems by increasing forecast accuracy.
As part of this work, BlueConduit recently released its LeadOut Map. This comprehensive and publicly available tool provides a map of lead service lines in all 50 states, as well as estimates of which communities may be most at risk from lead contamination through drinking water.
This direct impact on the health of millions of Americans is one of many reasons we highlight BlueConduit as a “Big Bet for America,” a novel initiative that the Rockefeller Foundation pioneered last year under the leadership of Zia Khan, Chief Innovation Officer .
Based on the principles laid out in Big Bets, the program is designed to engage leaders across the country to use our model – novel solutions, unlikely partnerships and closely followed progress – to solve some of America's toughest problems.
“Big Bets for America is taking risks on novel solutions that offer higher risk and higher reward than other alternatives,” Khan said. “We therefore expect some errors, but we will learn to avoid them and continually improve the methodology. Success will rekindle optimism for what is possible when we bridge divides and solve problems that affect people’s daily lives.”
The Rockefeller Foundation, BlueConduit, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), and contractor teams following a successful utility mainline replacement in Detroit.
Strong partnerships and innovative technical solutions are a cornerstone of BlueConduit's success.
In addition to working with experienced nonprofit partners such as the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (another Rockefeller Foundation grantee), BlueConduit has forged strong relationships with city and state water agencies and customized their tools to meet their needs to suit every community.
“BlueConduit’s journey shows the power of partnerships. With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, we have used data science to support disadvantaged community water systems, saving millions while helping Detroit and other cities eliminate lead pipes and become leaders in AI-driven innovation,” said Eric Schwartz, co-founder of BlueConduit . “Together we have shown what is possible.”
We saw this in action on a recent visit to Michigan. Our President Rajiv Shah met with Director Gary Brown and other Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) staff, as well as BlueConduit co-founder Eric Schwartz, CEO Lorne Groe and their team to discuss the progress being made.
Since 2020—when the Rockefeller Foundation's innovation team first began supporting BlueConduit's work to expand its tool to Detroit and three other pilot cities—Detroit has increased its lead pipe replacement rate more than 10-fold, from 700 pipes to 8,000 per year . BlueConduit helped save an estimated $185 million by eliminating the need to manually dig out every stop box in Detroit while searching for lead pipes.
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