Itron News

Managing Energy and Water Resources to Shape Cities of the Future

April 30, 2014

In a trend of ever-expanding urban centers, more than half of the world’s population now lives in towns and cities for the first time in history. As city populations grow, the demand for city services increases, putting a particular strain on energy and water. Energy and water resources are foundational to a city’s prosperity and sustainability. Managing their future will require more creative thinking and collaboration than ever. Technology and citizen engagement will play an important role in the responsible management of energy and water.

If you think about utilities and their role within a city, they power our businesses, homes and gadgets, as well as deliver fresh water so we can comfortably live our lives. However, most citizens do not think about their utility until they see their bill or they are out of power or water. At that point, they feel helpless to act. There is a growing desire to get more information so citizens have the facts in the palms of their hands. Citizens want the kind of service and real-time pricing information they get from other service providers. From the utility perspective, the entire industry has an opportunity to be more efficient for its customers. The utility industry is hungry for technology development and implementation to better manage energy and water. The question remains: how do we get there? Where are utilities investing?

In order to help understand how Itron can help utilities shape cities of the future, we commissioned a study of the global utility industry. The Itron Resourcefulness Index is a unique study that is one of the first to examine both executive and consumer attitudes within the utility industry, surveying more than 1,400 informed consumers and utility executives in 14 countries in every region of the world. It provides key insights about the utility industry, which is at a tipping point. Building smarter cities, engaging consumers in a meaningful way and resourcefully using our limited gas, water and electric resources requires innovative technology and a new way of thinking.

This month I shared findings from the Itron Resourcefulness Index, as well as what this means for cities, on the Meetings of the Minds Blog.

Click here to read my blog post highlighting our findings in the 2013 Itron Resourcefulness Index.

Itron is proud to support Meeting of the Minds 2014, taking place in Detroit September 30 - October 3. I encourage anyone interested in shaping our future cities to join Itron at this exciting event.

By Sharelynn Moore


Vice President, Global Marketing and Public Affairs


Sharelynn Moore has more than 20 years of experience in the energy and technology sectors. In 2013, she was named vice president of Global Marketing and Public Affairs. In this role, Moore is responsible for all global marketing and public affairs activities for Itron, including development of strategic marketing objectives, oversight of internal and external communications and management of external affairs including community investment and government relations. Previously, Moore served as vice president of Corporate Communications after holding a variety of product- and marketing-related roles during her more than 12 years at Itron. In previous assignments, Moore focused on the strategy, management and marketing of Itron's Automated Meter Reading (AMR) solutions, network technologies, and enterprise meter data management software. Prior to joining Itron, Moore held marketing and product management roles at Avista Corporation and Micron. She holds a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Idaho and an MBA with an emphasis in IT from Gonzaga University.


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