Treatment Wetlands & NBS Innovation | Anacleto Rizzo | TGC #62

When a single technology can clean wastewater, cool a city, host biodiversity, manage stormwater AND look beautiful, why hasn't it taken over the world? In Episode #62 of The Grand Challengers Podcast, Dr Anacleto Rizzo, Partner at IRIDRA Srl and President of Global Wetland Technology, joins host Peter Marcus Bach to unpack the past, present and future of treatment wetlands and nature-based solutions for the water sector. 🎯 IN THIS EPISODE: Why paddy rice fields are a major methane source and the surprising biology behind the "rice flatulence" PhD Treatment wetlands 101: surface vs subsurface flow, sizing, and where the technology fits (and doesn't) Why early "Wild West" wetland failures in Italy still affect adoption decades later The academic-practitioner bridge: why monitoring full-scale systems matters more than another lab-scale paper "Throwing your heart beyond the fence" — the Italian idiom that captures the courage to scale nature-based innovation Flagship projects: Orhei (Moldova, 20,000 p.e.), the Gorla Maggiore CSO water park, HYDROUSA, MULTISOURCE and CARDIMED "Snobs" vs "Smarts" — IRIDRA's playful new typology for water-aware NBS Anacleto Rizzo is a civil and environmental engineer trained at Politecnico di Torino, with a PhD on greenhouse gas emissions from paddy rice fields. He has been with IRIDRA for over a decade, leading research, development and design across treatment wetlands, sustainable urban drainage and green-blue infrastructure. He is co-editor of the open-access IWA books Wetland Technology (2019) and Nature-Based Solutions for Wastewater Treatment (2021), and the current President of Global Wetland Technology — a consortium representing the world's leading treatment wetland practitioners. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Intro 1:59 Guest Intro, Cult Movies & Horror Games 7:47 Why Civil Engineering? 10:16 A PhD on "rice flatulence” 14:48 Adding treatment wetlands to the mix 19:06 A 101 on Treatment Wetlands 37:17 The terminology discussion and IRIDRA 51:42 IRIDRA's Projects & Global Wetland Technology 56:46 General receptivity of NbS in Italy 1:03:08 Some exciting things Anacleto is embarking on 1:07:15 Q&A Start 1:07:26 What does innovation mean to you? 1:08:30 Key event, book, person 1:09:51 Time Management 1:12:46 Favourite childhood memory 1:13:45 Greatest challenge to date 1:15:25 Advice for young professionals 1:18:03 What would you most like to be remembered for? 1:20:11 Where can people find you? 1:20:58 Final message 1:21:19 Outro 🔗 CONNECT WITH ANACLETO RIZZO: LinkedIn:   / anacleto-rizzo-a373b98a   IRIDRA: https://www.iridra.eu/ Global Wetland Technology: https://www.globalwettech.com/ 📖 FULL SHOW NOTES & RESOURCES: https://petermbach.com/index.php/podc... 🎙️ ABOUT THE GRAND CHALLENGERS PODCAST A show about inspiring individuals tackling today's global challenges in out-of-the-box ways. Long-form, biographical interviews on sustainability, urban planning, water, climate and human ingenuity. Hosted by Peter Marcus Bach 🌐 Website: https://petermbach.com/podcast 🔔 YouTube:    / @petermarcusbach   💼 LinkedIn:   / tgcpodcast   🎵 Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all major platforms via tgcpodcast.show