It is easy to talk about sustainability, especially when the timeframes for achieving quantifiable results are comfortably far in the future. It’s much harder to actually implement feasible sustainability programs that will have a significant business impact.

Strained budgets may be holding back many municipalities whose leaders understand the benefits of smart city systems but lack the money to support them. Yet, a question is emerging that potentially turns that notion on its head: How can a city know what it can’t afford until it identifies what it needs?

In January 2017, Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) recognized Tetra Tech with three industry awards for the company’s work during 2016: Business Achievement—Large Firms, Project Merit, and Technology Merit. EBI Inc. will present the annual EBJ awards for outstanding businesses at its Environmental Industry Summit XV in San Diego, California, on March 22, 2017.

For years, utilities have struggled to define the more responsive operational systems and customer-centric performance models that would trumpet the arrival of Utility 2.0. Lacking a singular event marking the shift, it seems more likely a steady, incremental advance through technology deployments, analytics and a focus on customer engagement represents the path towards a continually evolving future state. As we have seen with the progress to date, further advances will require continuing coordination within utilities, their regulators and customers to ensure a sustainable path forward.