Interview with Ian Park, Geogrid at CES Unveiled

Water scarcity used to be a problem reserved for countries assailed by extreme heat. This truth held for centuries, but climate change is turning it on its head. South Korea is a good example. Last year, two reservoirs ran dry, resulting in a crisis affecting more than 1 million people and prompting the government to look for solutions. Solutions such as Geogrid.

It’s not just a matter of supply not meeting demand; in many parts of Korea, older buildings tend to have rusty piping, which affects water quality and discourages South Koreans from drinking tap water. And it’s this particular problem that Geogrid, a South Korean startup focused on water management systems, aims to tackle.

Last year the company launched GeoReader, an infrastructure technology for measuring water energy. Here at CES 2024, it expanded on it, launching what it claims to be a world-first Building Water Energy Management System. We spoke to Geogrid’s Ian Park at CES Unveiled – you can find the interview below, edited for clarity.

Also read: CES 2024: Business tech trends

Tell us about yourself, about Geogrid and what you’re hoping to get out of CES 2024

Sure. My name is Ian Park and I currently work for Geogrid as External Strategist.

Geogrid identified a rust problem in Korean water and found out that it could be fixed by filtering the whole building instead of having a filtration on each individual unit.

From there we built a filtration system and completed a proof-of-concept in Korea, where we’ve installed three systems so far; one in a school, another in a government building and one in a Hyatt Hotel.

Now we’re looking to launch abroad, probably in the United States. We’re currently looking for partners.

When comparing your solution of a system for the whole building versus a filtration system on each unit, how much of an improvement are we talking about?

Major improvement is, of course, the water quality. We did an installation on a 45-year-old apartment and surveyed the results; in just three weeks the water quality improved by 82%. Our filtration system cleans out the whole water pipe. As a result, it doesn’t take as much power to heat up water, for example.

So all in all, you get water quality improvement and energy efficiency, ultimately leading to ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance].

Who are your typical customers?

Our filtration filtration system could be applied to restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings. As mentioned, we’re doing a proof of concept with a Hyatt hotel in Korea and so are looking to work with other hotels as well.

You sound hopeful that there will be demand outside South Korea…

Yes, I just talked to someone here at CES Unveiled who I believe was from the Middle East where we learned there are big water problems. He sounded very interested in Geogrid!