Smartvatten 2025: End of year article

Smartvatten 2025: Why Water Has Become Europe’s Fastest-Growing Business Risk — and Opportunity

By Sophia Mure, Chief Revenue Officer, Smartvatten

2025 marks a turning point. Across Europe, water has moved from being a technical detail in ESG reports to one of the most urgent financial and operational risks for real estate owners and utilities.

The data in our Annual Water Report 2025 makes this shift impossible to ignore: water scarcity, aging infrastructure, rising tariffs, and widespread leaks are reshaping how the entire industry must operate.

But it also reveals something just as important: those who act now will gain a decisive competitive edge.

Water Stress and Soaring Prices Are Redefining Risk

Europe is experiencing one of the fastest accelerations in water stress ever recorded. 34% of the EU’s territory faced water scarcity during at least one season, and water tariffs rose sharply in 2024:

• Sweden +16.6%

• Norway +14.3%

• Netherlands +10.5%
  
  
  This isn’t a forecast — it's already happening.
  And the impact on property operations is immediate.

67% of Monitored Properties Experienced Leaks

In 2024 alone:

771 million liters were lost due to leaks
Equivalent to 300+ Olympic swimming pools
Averaging 71,356 liters per property
Leaks are no longer rare incidents — they are systemic.
For property owners, this is not only a sustainability concern. It’s a direct erosion of asset value and operational stability.

The Real Problem Is Not Dat. It’s Action.

Smartvatten monitored 13.5 billion liters of water across 5,370 properties. We have more insight than ever before into how buildings use (and lose) water.

But the biggest challenge remains clear:
Data doesn’t create savings. Action does.

Our goal as a company — and my focus as CRO — is to build systems that turn information into decisions, and decisions into measurable impact.

Smartvatten Hub: Built for Faster Decisions and Fewer Losses

In early 2025, we launched a major update of Smartvatten Hub to make water management more actionable and intuitive.

Key upgrades include:

• New Consumption Page - Clearer visualisation of patterns and anomalies.

• Slider with all devices and meter readings - Faster access to essential data — no more searching.
  
  

• More accurate leak insights - Improved visibility for leak analytics for example leak trends.
  
  

• Live Data (Pro customers) - Real-time consumption readings during active leaks, enabling far quicker response.
  
  

• Restored Excel exports - Stable hourly, daily and monthly exports to support reporting workflows.
  
  

• Self-service Custom IDs - Greater customer control with fewer support bottlenecks.
  
  

• German localisation and clearer service-level naming - Supporting our rapid growth in the DACH region.
  
  

• Improved mobile usability - A smoother, more responsive mobile experience — ensuring that users can access critical information and react to incidents anytime, anywhere.
  
  

• MFA for stronger security - The introduction of multi-factor authentication provides an additional layer of protection for customer data and aligns with enterprise-level security standards.

These updates aren’t just product improvements — they are steps toward making water transparency effortless at scale.

CSRD, Water Resilience, and the New Compliance Reality

The first mandatory CSRD reports are now underway. For the real estate sector, this means:

• traceable water data

• validated leak reporting

• consumption benchmarking

• harmonized export into ESG systems

Water is no longer optional in sustainability reporting.
It is core to double materiality — and central to future asset value.

2025: The Moment Water Becomes a Competitive Advantage

The companies that thrive in the coming years will be the ones that understand one simple truth:

Water is not just a utility. It is a strategic resource.

At Smartvatten, we see our role clearly:
transforming water data into resilience, cost savings, and sustainability progress — one portfolio at a time.

I’m proud of the impact we’re already delivering, and even more excited about what’s next.
Because every liter we save together doesn’t just protect buildings —
it protects communities and the future of Europe’s water.

— Sophia Mure
Chief Revenue Officer, Smartvatten