The Impact Series: Sybil Sharvelle

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Mike Collignon: Welcome to the impact series on the Green Builder Media Network. I'm your host, Mike Collignon. On this podcast, I'll have one on one conversations with leaders and innovators from a wide variety of disciplines. We'll talk about how they got into their field, the lessons they've learned, and advice they have for future generations of leaders. Today I'm joined by Doctor Sybil Shorten.

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Mike Collignon: She is a professor in the Civil and environmental Engineering department at Colorado State University, and a founding member of the One Water Solutions Institute. Her doctoral work included the development of a system for treatment of gray water for potable reuse during space missions. Doctor Chavez was a member of the National Research Council Committee for Beneficial Use of Gray Water and Stormwater.

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Mike Collignon: She's also technical director of the Colorado State University Spur Campus Water technology accelerator platform, which is a cutting edge facility for testing water treatment technologies with different water sources. Sybil, welcome to the impact series.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Well, thank you, Mike, for having me. It's my pleasure.

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Mike Collignon: You know, as we progress through these summer months, you know, things are getting drier and drier out west. And if you live out there, which you do or you pay attention to environmental headlines, then you know that water supply is of great concern to millions of people right now. And it's not just having enough water to drink. It's also about having enough water to generate power.

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Mike Collignon: Now we're going to get into all of that in just a little while. But first, I want to let our audience know that you gave an incredible keynote speech at the 2026 Next Generation Water Summit, and it really gave our audience a glimpse into how you became who you are today. So I'd like to take my podcast listeners back to when you were a young girl growing up in Indiana.

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Mike Collignon: Can you tell our listeners a little bit about where your appreciation for water first started? Because I think a lot of people, no matter their geographic location, can kind of relate.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Great. Thank you. So. My appreciation for water and the environment really came from early childhood. And during my keynote speech, I mentioned that this place that my father used to take me that we called our secret place. It was kind of a small waterfall area in rural Indiana. It's a part of a little bit in southern Indiana, where we have where there were some, you know, hills and things of the sort.

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Sybil Sharvelle: And that's where we had our lake cottage that my dad would take us to on the weekends while my mother was studying in law school. And we would go there every weekend and kind of always go to the special place where there was this really pretty waterfall and just sit and watch it. And I really, from that, enjoyed having that experience of being able to be out there in the environment.

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Sybil Sharvelle: And just the sound of running water, I think is is such a calming sound. And I think that really just made me appreciate water, the environment and then also, you know, always be able to have spaces like that, to be able to kind of have that relaxation time.

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Mike Collignon: And you know what a journey is taking you on. I mean, it's it's quite incredible. And like I said, I got a chance to kind of hear your story. It's partly why I wanted you on the podcast was for you to be able to share that story. For me, there were kind of really two compelling reasons. The first is your work with the space program.

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Mike Collignon: Now, not many people get that opportunity. And while everything involved with those missions is important. I mean, you were working on a life supporting system that has to ratchet up the pressure even more than maybe some of the other components of the mission. Can you give us a sense of what that was like?

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Sybil Sharvelle: So I was working on water recirculation for the International Space Station and long duration space missions. And if you can envision in a setting like that, if you lose 1% of your water source every day, then after 100 days you're out of water. So that was a constraint to really be thoughtful of. And it means that any long duration space mission or even shorter up to the International Space Station really has to have in place some kind of water recirculation.

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Sybil Sharvelle: It just becomes impossible to transport enough water at the weight of water to be able to support human life during these missions over extended periods. So you really have to have water recirculation systems, and those systems have to be highly reliable and provide safe water all the time. So working within those constraints of having to be very thoughtful about what our losses as well as the safety of the water, really put additional constraints on the system that that I think promoted innovation and thinking in this way of circular systems.

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Sybil Sharvelle: And I think, you know, as where we are, you kind of mentioned the, the, the heat and drought that we have in the West and where we are is we're getting closer to having those kind of constraints here on Earth where, where we can't afford to lose water and have to think about things in this circular system and be as fish as possible with our water systems, while also ensuring human safety and reliability of those systems.

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Mike Collignon: Yeah. I mean, I used to make this joke when I would give presentations, you know, it's like there's a giant straw, right, that we can just send up to the space station that channel water up there. There's no water truck coming by to drop off water. You really have to figure out how to account for every drop up there, don't you?

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yeah. That's saying you have to there. That's you have to think about, you know, plan for every single drop of water you need plus then some and, and like I said, even like thinking about a 1% of water loss per day doesn't sound like a lot. But then when you think about it in terms of 100 days, it's it's a lot.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So everything matters. And, you know, for example, membrane treatment systems, you pass water through and you can get really clean water on the outlet side. But oftentimes there's this reject water and you may lose 20% of your water in a system like that. So you have to really think about systems where you can recover all of the water possible.

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Mike Collignon: Is there ever a time where they do send up a fresh water, so to speak? Does that ever a possibility?

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Sybil Sharvelle: They do send fresh water. And especially with the current International Space Station missions are the ones that happened, you know, kind of in the time frame that I was doing my doctoral work. They carried up all of the water, actually, that they needed. And space shuttles would come up periodically to replenish with fresh water. It was just kind of as we think about longer duration missions and missions to Mars and things where there's not possible to deliver extra water, you'd have to bring some water.

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Sybil Sharvelle: But like I just said, if you think about the volume and weight requirements of water, it really has to be a small quantity in order to be able to be transported.

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Mike Collignon: And to give our listeners a little bit of a sense of waterways. Summer train seven and 8 pounds, is that right?

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yes. That's correct.

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Mike Collignon: Yeah.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So 6.7, if I remember correctly.

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Mike Collignon: But yeah. So a sense of just the weight that you're referring to.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yeah. Think about when you go on a backpacking trip and you want to take a gallon of water with you, it's a lot of weight and it adds a lot of weight to your backpack. So that's and that's, you know, thinking about getting through a day or two with a gallon of water is hard to even a vision.

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Sybil Sharvelle: But yeah.

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Mike Collignon: Yes, yes. And to me it feels like the the space station would be the prime example of the viability of reuse systems. You know, hey, you help keep people alive on the space station, right? Like, isn't that the best example you can give for why reuse systems would be just viable and feasible here on Earth?

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yes. I mean, I think that there's a long history of advancements in the space program and how those have been not only applicable to space missions, but have translated into impacts in many other areas. And I think this is a really good example of that, where really we started challenging ourselves to think about these circular water systems and recirculation of water and, you know, reuse of it to the highest extent possible because of this constraint of space missions, but then not now translates into knowledge in a way of thinking that is becoming really important here on earth as we continue to face many challenges.

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Mike Collignon: And obviously, you need the proper filtration and treatment systems in place as well. But I just I always kind of scratch my head anytime I hear any pushback to reading systems again on Earth, because like, we figured out how to make it happen up there, I think we can figure it out down here. It just.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yes. Well, and, you know, I always say that and in this day and age, we have treatment technology to take any water source, literally any water source, and treat it to potable quality or higher so we can achieve whatever we want in terms of level of treatment and removal of contaminants and make water safe. So we have the technical know how to do these systems, and it's more about now making them efficient, ensuring that they're reliable, and learning how to to measure and monitor that they're performing how they were designed to.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So it's really about getting people comfortable with the concept and ensuring our systems are completely reliable.

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Mike Collignon: And there's a certain element of this that comes out of dollars, right. The financial right saying, okay, yes, it's possible, but that cost versus the cost of another option is also a lot of times that gets weighed in policymakers much right certainly.

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Sybil Sharvelle: And and in people's minds as well. I know for a lot of water recycling programs throughout the country where cities are taking their treated wastewater and treating it, polishing it for use for irrigation, that's actually more costly than supplying potable water to those users, but they kind of have to charge a lot of times prices that are competitive with the potable water supply charges.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Now, I think when things really start to change is when there's not a water right or water available to be purchased for that end use, and then then people become willing to pay more for the water because they don't have another option.

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Mike Collignon: Do you? I mean, just looking into your crystal ball, do you see reuse systems catching on faster in places that are more reliant on, well, water or not?

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Sybil Sharvelle: Well, that's a good question. Places that have well water, especially because that well water often is it's people. There's a lot of issues with people, you know, continuing to try to get deeper wells and deeper wells and running out of water so that that could serve as a driver. But urban areas are also a huge area where this is developing, because the urban areas are not able to develop further without bringing in additional water sources, which is many times impossible, or doing something to locally recirculate water and create local water sources.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So I think that both of those are equally important areas where we're starting to see a lot of challenges with respect to to obtaining water and then seeing drivers for water recycling systems.

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Mike Collignon: And I feel like I keep saying this phrase and like every conversation I have with my colleagues in the water industry. But then there's this looming Colorado River compact decision, right? Like that looms over a lot of what's going on out in the West. And it certainly ties into your work not just in reuse systems in general, but another topic that we're going to talk about in just a little bit.

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Mike Collignon: I did want to ask a question. You're a founding member of the One Water Solutions Institute. Can you tell us a little bit about that organization and their mission?

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yeah. So the one Water Solutions Institute at Colorado State University was really designed as an outward facing institution that is intended to solve real world problems related to water and water quality. One water solutions is to really works on prevalence from urban to to rural. So we work on urban water systems and efficiency of water there, as well as in the agricultural sector and water quality and water availability within the agricultural sector.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So the intent is, again, kind of a little bit different than traditional academic settings, where a lot of, you know, fundamental research is conducted at one Water Solutions Institute, we really seek to collaborate with utilities, agricultural producers, organizers in communities and within the agricultural sector to understand the problems and bring real world solutions to those problems. Based on some of the cutting edge research that we're doing here.

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Mike Collignon: Okay. Okay. I wanted to make sure certainly our listeners understood what that was, too, because you're talking big issues. And the other big reason that I wanted to talk with you is your research into produced water. Now, before we even get into that topic, let's first define that term so everyone knows what it is that we're talking about here.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Okay. So produced water is a water that's produced during and gas extraction. So if you're familiar at all with the process called hydro fracking, that's where basically the the oil and gas industry is this very high pressure water to crack into wells that weren't originally before that technology became about those. The oil and gas in those wells was not available readily.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So this technology is opened up additional and gas resources. After this water is kind of used for injection. It becomes a wastewater source on, but that can be cleaned up and essentially reused for many different applications. So the first, most simple process is there's oil water separation in the will. The top can be skimmed off in a lot of time.

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Sybil Sharvelle: That's collected for for use. And then the remaining product is a produced water that again can go through various different treatment steps for beneficial use. So there's more and more kind of impetus in this industry, I think for that produced water to be put to beneficial uses.

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Mike Collignon: Okay. So you know, this is a bit controversial on a couple of fronts. Obviously if if we have a sizable quantity of produced water that we're looking to do something with, that means we're using more fossil fuels and not less. So there's that yeah. Thing that is all say, challenging is that there are videos out there that show people being able to light the water on fire due to some of the elements that exist in the water.

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Mike Collignon: But as I said at the top, the West is getting desperate. It's a really dire situation out there, so all options kind of have to be on the table to be discussed and considered. And I've talked with other guests on this podcast about the impending conclusion to the Colorado River compact negotiations, how that kind of looms over the western third of the United States.

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Mike Collignon: The states out there are going to have to reduce their withdrawals from the river, so they're understandably looking elsewhere for water sources. I got that mostly right. Right.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yes he did. Okay.

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Mike Collignon: So for those of you who are listening this and going, oh my gosh, I produce water. You maybe you're not living out west. Or if you are, you have to understand just how dire the outlook is out there. I mean, read about Lake Powell, Lake Mead and just the the very nervous situation that people are in when it comes to the generation of hydropower reaching Deadpool levels.

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Mike Collignon: This has a pun intended ripple effect across millions of people. So you understand why this is being discussed as a viable solution. I guess I do want to ask a couple of questions, because you are very much into the research of this. You're not necessarily selling this, you're just simply researching this to understand, is this viable, and if so, how is it viable?

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Mike Collignon: So my first question is how does the water that's that deep? How does it ever get sufficiently recharged in a dry climate like that?

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Sybil Sharvelle: So are you referring to like the water that it's getting extracted for the hydro fracking?

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Mike Collignon: Yeah, yeah. The stuff that's really deep down.

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Sybil Sharvelle: And how does it ever get recharged.

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Mike Collignon: Yeah. Because I mean, obviously groundwater recharge is something we even deal with in the Midwest. Right. But we're not talking about something maybe at the depths that what you're talking about with hydro fracking process. So how do you how do you even sufficiently recharge that water.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Right. So that's I mean, that's a that's a real problem is that and and especially in the West is that we continue extracting water from our wells at rates higher than they can be replenished by the natural system. So we are not getting enough precipitation and enough groundwater recharge from other pathways to sufficiently recharge. So our groundwater levels keep decreasing, decreasing, decreasing.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So it's very challenging to be able to ever recharge those kinds of wells. And, you know, traditionally what the oil and gas industry was doing. So the alternate to beneficial use of this produced water was to inject it back into wells where confined aquifers, meaning that there's something surrounding it that it can't transport out. But then that water just gets re injected back into the earth in a place that it's not useful and can never be accessed.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Whereas if we take water, the produce water and treat it to some kind of beneficial use, we're going to extract less groundwater or other water sources, and we're going to have, you know, more water available for our use essentially.

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Mike Collignon: In either process. And I'm not an expert on hydro at all. Okay. So I asked this question very generally in either process, either you're putting it back in the confined aquifer or you're using the produce. Waterford beneficial use. Is there a risk of subsidence, land subsidence at all in either of those processes?

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yes. So and that was happening. I am not an expert on this. So I'm just going to speak a little bit intimately here. But that was particularly happy on the East with some of the hydro fracking operations there where when they were rejected some of the water into certain areas, it was changing geological formations and causing some subsidence.

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Sybil Sharvelle: And I think the oil and gas industry, to the best of my knowledge, is kind of gotten their heads around that issue and overcome a lot of those issues related to to like some of the earth quakes and things that were happening because of the injection, that was new technology and, and new things. And I think the industry has learned a lot and figured out how to avoid that kind of issue.

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Sybil Sharvelle: All of that having been said, you know, in the alternate where we take produce water and put it to a beneficial use, we are avoiding that process of re injecting into these areas that cause that issue.

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Mike Collignon: Okay, okay. And then the other question was on the energy side. So energy water nexus is a very real thing. Whether you're talking about produce water or anything else. It's this they're intricately tied together. So how does the energy footprint of produced water compare to other alternative water sources?

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Sybil Sharvelle: So are you asking, like if we're to treat that water for beneficial use of it? How is the energy input of that compared to like maybe taking municipal waste water and treating that is that question.

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Mike Collignon: Yeah. I mean, you look at the produce water process, right. You got to extract you've got a treat and then and then pump it to somewhere for beneficial use as opposed to other alternative water sources like the gray water system, Blackwater system, rainwater systems or at the municipal level. You're right. Yes, you can, you know, kind of reuse it of municipal level.

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Mike Collignon: I'm just trying to figure out, because one thing I didn't share with our listeners is that you do focus also on decentralized water systems. And so I, in this giant mix of where are we going to find the water? I'm just I'm just kind of curious on the energy footprint side for some of these different options that the West is looking at.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Okay, lots of different things to consider with that question. So first, it does take a lot of energy to treat produced water to be a quality for beneficial use. There are organic portions that are left in there. A lot of salts. So often treatment is going to be is going to include some kind of desalination process, removing of the salts, and also some kind of process for removing organic constituents.

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Sybil Sharvelle: It is a rather energy intensive process. Now that having been said, I, I would be of the opinion that every industry needs to do their part to, to to make use of water sources. And I'm, I like to say that I'm an advocate for use of local water sources. So for me, the best way to make use of produced water is to use it close to where it's generated.

00:24:13:12 - 00:24:51:18
Sybil Sharvelle: So potential end uses then become, well, you can actually use that water again for the injection process, which is the most common application of produce waters that it's recirculate, recycled kind of or recirculated on site. So they're not extracting more water from wells to do the fracking, but they're using the same water. That's kind of the minimum. I think that that should be kind of encouraged, promoted at these sites in Colorado has actually put in place a moratorium that requires a certain percentage of sites to be meeting.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Then, you know, 100% by a certain year. I forgot that year. But basically that's policy in Colorado that the sites have to do that and that they have a time period in which to implement that. That is not going to take they're not going to, you know, there's still more water left after even they do that on site or circulation.

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Sybil Sharvelle: So there's options like there's nearby agricultural facilities or fields to, to many of these and gas production sites where they can make use of that water. And I'm working with the oil and gas industry right now where they have to restore land back to its natural state after they do the and gas extraction activity. So they're looking at making use of that water to irrigate native vegetation and kind of do ecological restoration projects after they leave the site.

00:25:46:13 - 00:26:10:18
Sybil Sharvelle: I think that's another really local beneficial use of that. Now, when we talk about the energy for all of that, any one of those examples compared to, for example, like a laundry to landscape gray water system where you're taking water from your laundry machine and diverting it out to a drip irrigation system in the yard. Clearly that's a much lower energy option.

00:26:10:18 - 00:26:28:04
Sybil Sharvelle: But I think the important thing to consider is the local use of water and not transporting it far. So there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of uses near a produce water site that that could be beneficial.

00:26:28:06 - 00:26:47:08
Mike Collignon: Right. And also there's the quantity, right. The quantity you're talking about with, with hydro fracking situation versus the laundry landscape. Very different scale of of water. You'd have to be talking about neighborhoods doing laundry, landscaping, which.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Is a small town for example.

00:26:49:11 - 00:27:13:17
Mike Collignon: Right. And you can do it. But at the same time, it's it's a transformative activity for that municipality to say, okay, everybody's going to love your landscape. And right. My experience has been the father, the West you go, the more people don't want to listen to necessarily that the government says you have to do this. So that may be a challenge to transform a community in that way.

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Sybil Sharvelle: Yes, definitely.

00:27:17:11 - 00:27:34:14
Mike Collignon: Is there a difference in what you have seen? And admittedly, you aren't a hydroelectric expert. Is there a difference in the eastern methodology of hydro fracking versus the Western? Are there any different practices there, or did they kind of stay pretty consistent?

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Sybil Sharvelle: I honestly don't know the answer to that because I do all of my work in the West. I haven't I have not even talked to or been to a facility on the East Coast, so I really can't answer that question. Sorry.

00:27:48:14 - 00:28:05:09
Mike Collignon: No, no, it's okay. And I'm curious to like to the water part. And that's so much the process of the hydro. But on the other side, things on the Out East, what are they doing with it? Like are they are they thinking about these things as well, like the West is because it's not.

00:28:05:11 - 00:28:28:01
Sybil Sharvelle: Thinking about these things and the way that we are in the West. I am not actually heard of people talking about using produce water at any of those East Coast facilities. And the way that we're talking about it here in the West, because we're the oil and gas extraction is happening, is also in really extreme arid regions of, of the West here.

00:28:28:03 - 00:28:34:16
Sybil Sharvelle: So there's so many drivers to to be thinking about that water and how it can be beneficial used.

00:28:34:18 - 00:28:38:21
Mike Collignon: Yeah. So you are professor correct.

00:28:38:23 - 00:28:39:18
Sybil Sharvelle: Correct.

00:28:39:21 - 00:28:52:10
Mike Collignon: And you're a mentor to others as well. So what's what's the biggest piece of advice that you have for the next generation of leaders.

00:28:52:12 - 00:29:33:18
Sybil Sharvelle: So one piece of advice I would have is, is just think about everything in terms of efficiency and circular systems, see where you can achieve efficiency and where you can achieve this concept of circularity. But but there's a there's a balance and there's trade offs. And and some parts of circularity may not always be efficient. So we have to be mindful about about all of those decisions and how we think about circular systems and recirculation and making sure that we are always striving for the system that is as efficient from possible, as efficient as possible.

00:29:33:23 - 00:30:08:23
Sybil Sharvelle: In thinking about what you've alluded to a lot today, it's this kind of water energy nexus. And I had a program on the food, energy, water nexus and really thinking about those connections between our systems and thinking about things holistically, not just, you know, let's make sure this two drops of water gets recirculated from start to finish. But let's make sure we're thinking about circularity where we can and being cognizant of the efficiency and the connections to the holistic system with food, energy and water.

00:30:09:00 - 00:30:27:11
Mike Collignon: Well, and you bring up food, energy and water. I mean, that's a topic that I haven't gone into yet on this podcast is, is food and food security. And we talked a little bit about at the summit, but not much on agriculture. Yeah, we certainly get asked about a lot. Hey, are you going to talk about agriculture here?

00:30:27:11 - 00:30:54:23
Mike Collignon: Because, you know, of the water that's used for agriculture, you need the food, but the food needs water. So it's it's a very challenging thing when it comes to the western half of the United States. So I'm curious about your work in that space as well, because you're right, the locality makes a lot of difference, right? If you can really reduce your energy footprint the closer you operate, it's supposed to.

00:30:55:00 - 00:31:17:00
Mike Collignon: Oh, let's have a pipeline and send it hundreds of miles. Right. That's a big energy footprint there. And so from the food perspective, and if we can kind of talk a little bit about the food and the water part. What are you seeing in in that space to possibly have more water efficient farming practices?

00:31:17:01 - 00:31:51:18
Sybil Sharvelle: There's a lot of work at Colorado State University and many universities, but there's a lot of work here on on irrigation efficiency and finding approaches to to water crops more efficiently, but also management crop management strategies that the that are beneficial for the water and soil system and kind of some of these sustainable agriculture practices. And Colorado State happens to have a lot of this research because we're the Colorado Land Grant University and have a school of agriculture and have really engaged in this.

00:31:51:18 - 00:32:32:07
Sybil Sharvelle: But there are so many practices coming along, and more and more agricultural producers are being willing to to try these things because they they see the risk in, in water, in the scarcity of water and what that means for their industry as well. So there's there's so many things that can be done. And I think that we are starting to see more adoption of some of those water efficient practices and irrigation systems, as well as, like I said, management strategies that that work toward better management of the soil and the water to to reduce the water requirements that are needed for irrigation.

00:32:32:09 - 00:32:59:07
Sybil Sharvelle: So there's a lot there. You had mentioned the locality issue, and I think an important consideration here in the West is that this is where we have a lot of animal feeding operations, and so far we're, you know, we're we are a world that consumes beef and animal products. And the feed for those animals is mostly grown locally in this region.

00:32:59:07 - 00:33:22:08
Sybil Sharvelle: So people will say, why? Why grow corn and wheat? And Colorado and some of these places, we should be growing other crops. And and we I think we do need to take a holistic look at our agriculture systems and see what can be done. But I think an important part of this problem is that our animal feeding operations reside in the arid West.

00:33:22:08 - 00:33:41:13
Sybil Sharvelle: And and if we wanted to transport that feed from somewhere else, then we have a huge energy consideration there with that transport because it's really heavy. So the idea is to grow it crops locally to meet those needs of the animal farming industry.

00:33:41:15 - 00:33:47:00
Mike Collignon: While also balancing growing crops that are climate appropriate to. That's right.

00:33:47:05 - 00:34:15:00
Sybil Sharvelle: Yeah. So it's it's a it's a complex and wicked problem. And I think that there are probably, there are things that could be done to try and see what are what are crops that would be highly efficient in, in this kind of climate that we have and would reduce our water requirements. But, you know, we have to do all of that with the balance of considering, you know, the industries that are here and how they need to be supported.

00:34:15:00 - 00:34:47:06
Mike Collignon: Right. And I don't want to skip over something that you just hit on, which was that you're seeing farmers are willing to learn about new methodologies, because I have some farmers in my extended family, and they can sometimes be a little resistant to change. You know, they they've learned from previous generations, and they are used to that. And to get them out of their comfort zone can be a little bit of a challenge.

00:34:47:06 - 00:35:06:02
Mike Collignon: But you're seeing, you know, people, you know, an industry that starting to kind of say, hey, I think we kind of need to do this or willing to do this. And just from a personal perspective, I've started to see a little bit of a mind shift in, oh, maybe we need to consider this, that or the other thing.

00:35:06:03 - 00:35:22:08
Mike Collignon: So in some ways, I want to give credit to the farming industry to to say, hey, thank you for opening up your mind to some new ideas and new new approaches, because if not, we would be even worse situation, right?

00:35:22:13 - 00:35:44:05
Sybil Sharvelle: I think, like I said, they recognize there's a risk and agriculture producers are stewards of the land. When the land is in a bad condition, they can't do what they need to do right to to produce crops and make their income. So they do have a care for the environment and they do have an understanding that they need water.

00:35:44:05 - 00:35:54:09
Sybil Sharvelle: So I think that just the kind of the conditions, current conditions of our world are starting to drive a lot of changes that maybe we weren't seeing 20 years ago.

00:35:54:15 - 00:36:07:00
Mike Collignon: Yeah, yeah. No, I, I agree with you. And it's it's encouraging to see. But at the same time you wonder how fast we have to do it, right. Like, how much time do we have before things start getting really, really dire?

00:36:07:04 - 00:36:10:21
Sybil Sharvelle: That's the important part. Yeah.

00:36:10:23 - 00:36:15:18
Mike Collignon: Well, Sibyl, thank you so much for joining me on the program. I really do appreciate it.

00:36:15:20 - 00:36:26:06
Sybil Sharvelle: Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you taking the time to interview me today and and talk about these interesting topics. So thanks so much, doctor.

00:36:26:08 - 00:36:34:15
Mike Collignon: Everyone stay tuned for more episodes of the Impact Series podcast on the Green Building Media Network. I'm Mike Collignon and I'll see you again soon.

00:36:34:17 - 00:36:45:20
Melina: Before you click away. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. And don't miss the daily coverage on sustainability, housing and what's next for home building at Green Builder Media. Stay informed. Stay ahead.