Delegates talking beside the Watergen dispenser at Journal House in Davos

Case Study · Global Forum

Davos drank water from air

In January 2020, at the Forum's 50th Annual Meeting, the water poured through the week never made the trip up the mountain. It was generated in the room, from the air in it.

50thAnnual Meeting
Davos-Klosters, 21–24 January 2020
On sitethrough the week
generated in the room where it was poured, with nothing plumbed in
0bottles delivered
no pallets of bottled water carried up the valley for the week

01 · The Setting

A week in the Alps, and the water question nobody asks

Every January, a mountain town of 11,000 people hosts the world’s economy. For one week Davos runs on logistics: everything the week consumes is trucked up the valley, and everything it leaves behind is trucked back down.

Drinking water is the least discussed part of that operation. It arrives on pallets, in plastic, after a journey longer than most of the delegates make.

In January 2020, at the Forum’s 50th Annual Meeting, Watergen brought a different answer: don’t ship the water — make it in the room.

Dr. Michael Mirilashvili with colleagues at the Annual Meeting in Davos — Dr. Michael Mirilashvili, President of Watergen, at the Annual Meeting

02 · The Venue

Journal House, the Journal’s own room in Davos

Through the week of the Forum, The Wall Street Journal runs Journal House — a working space in the centre of Davos where its editors host talks and interviews with delegates.

Watergen’s generators stood in that space, producing drinking water directly from the humidity of the room. On the shelf above them, the bottles named the source outright: pure drinking water from the air.

No plumbing was connected, and no delivery was scheduled. The machines needed a power socket and the air already in the building.

A Watergen generator at Journal House, with glass bottles and boxes reading “Pure Drinking Water from the Air” on the shelf above — The generator, the bottles it filled, and the Journal House wall

03 · In The Room

Always on, never delivered

Through the week the machine ran continuously, making drinking water from the air of the room it stood in.

It never had to be topped up from outside: no cooler to swap, no empties to carry out, nothing to schedule. Between sessions the water was simply there, cold and ready, because it was still being made.

A Watergen generator in a Davos lounge, the snow-covered town and mountains through the windows — January in the Alps — and the air still carries the water

04 · At The Table

On every table, in glass

At the sit-down sessions the same water arrived in glass bottles labelled with where it came from: pure water from air.

It is the detail people remember afterwards — not a specification, but a bottle on the table that turned out to have been made in the building an hour earlier.

A table set for a Wall Street Journal session, with Watergen bottles labelled “Pure water from air” — Bottled in the building, an hour before the session

05 · On Stage

Not only in the glass — in the programme

On 22 January, Watergen was one of the main sponsors of SIGEF Davos, the Social Innovation and Global Ethics Forum held at the Kirchner Museum during the week of the Annual Meeting.

Watergen took its seat on the programme’s first panel, “Disruptive Technologies for a Smarter Future”, alongside Boston Consulting Group, FinTech4Good and Cyrus Venture Partners.

The “Disruptive Technologies for a Smarter Future” panel at SIGEF Davos, with Watergen among the speakers — SIGEF Davos, Kirchner Museum, 22 January 2020

06 · Across The Week

The same water, wherever the week moved

Across the programme the water came from the same source — generated on site, poured from the same glass bottles, in rooms that had no water supply of their own.

A week of sessions in an alpine town, and not a single pallet of bottled water carried up the valley for any of them.

Watergen bottles set out on the reception tables at SIGEF Davos — Reception at SIGEF Davos

Imagine a world where residential and office complexes produce their own drinking water on site, with no need for piping or other infrastructure to hook up to the central water grid.

Dr. Michael MirilashviliPresident, Watergen

Why Watergen?

The water was already in the room.

Nothing to deliver
Water is generated where it is served — no pallets up the valley, no empties back down.
A socket, not a supply line
The generators ran on power and ambient air alone. Nothing was plumbed in anywhere they stood.
Premium, by the glass
Premium mineralized drinking water, served in branded glass at hosted sessions — made on site rather than shipped in.
Travels anywhere
An alpine town in January is a hard case for logistics. The air still holds water, and so the machine still works.

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