Back to BlogIn 2025, FTD Solutions continued to build on our role as a trusted partner to some of the world’s most complex industrial operations. Throughout the year, the focus remained on execution: delivering measurable water performance, supporting critical manufacturing environments, and advancing collaboration across the industrial water ecosystem.
Rather than pursuing change in isolation, we worked alongside customers, partners, and industry groups to address the operational, sustainability, and reliability challenges facing water-intensive facilities. From semiconductor and food and beverage deployments to global forums and standards development, progress this year was grounded in both using proven methods and discovering new approaches to addressing the water management challenges in industry.
One of the most significant milestones was securing a full enterprise Active Water Management contract with a tier 1 semiconductor manufacturer. This engagement reinforced a growing industry shift: water is now a material business constraint, directly impacting reliability, compliance, and yield. As a result, manufacturers are being forced to manage water holistically and with the same rigor applied to any other critical system in advanced manufacturing environments.
From Sustainability Targets to Operational Results
FTD was accepted into the 100+ Accelerator, a highly selective program of global food, beverage, and consumer goods companies focused on driving measurable sustainability and operational results. Being part of this year’s cohort validated the relevance of Active Water Management in food & beverage environments.
We partnered with a leading beverage producer to pilot Active Water Management’s ability to reduce water use by 10% in a live production environment without interrupting operations or quality. The results were tangible. The pilot achieved 31% water savings within five months with long-term savings projected at 39% and established a repeatable blueprint that is now being deployed across other customer facilities and scaled across additional customer sites.
FTD COO, Dave Buesser presenting our pilot results at the 100+ Accelerator Demo Day in London.
Strengthening Leadership and Industry Collaboration
Expanding impact required expanding leadership. In 2025, we added experienced leaders, including a fractional CTO and a Director of Engineering and Technology. This growth enhanced our ability to support customers navigating increasingly complex systems while reinforcing our broader role in advancing resilient, efficient industrial water management.
Collaboration remained central. A joint webinar with IDE Technologies explored water circularity in semiconductor manufacturing, focusing on site-specific strategies to reduce risk, optimize performance, and control costs. Similar themes carried through at UltraFacility, where we delivered multiple presentations including three focused on real-world project results. Additionally, team FTD hosted roundtables, led panels, and supported IRDS and SEMI discussions on sustainability, operational excellence, yield, and reliability. These conversations reflected a shared industry understanding: water performance is inseparable from overall facility performance.
FTD CEO, Slava Libman presenting at UltraFacility 2025. Photo Credit: Global Water Intelligence
Advancing Global Standards and Strategic Partnerships
Beyond semiconductors, we continued advancing water conservation through Active Water Management at a major oil refinery, reinforcing the global relevance of data-driven water strategies across heavy industry.
On the global stage, our CEO and co-founder, Slava Libman, delivered a keynote at the inaugural IEEE Device Technologies for Diversified Applications (DTDA) conference in Sendai, Japan. The address highlighted the often underestimated role of water in semiconductor manufacturing and the importance of treating it as a strategic resource.
Another major focus this year was enabling the technology bridge through active participation in the Next Generation Alliance (NGA). Serving as facilitators of the NGA, we helped support a new collaborative forum connecting facility owners, tool OEMs, and water technology integrators. As part of this effort, we conducted two webinars in the Semiconductor Water Innovation Series. The first, “Enabling the Technology Bridge,” focused on aligning innovation with real industry needs. The second, “Why Now?”, explored how new architectures, rapid fab growth, and rising sustainability expectations are creating an inflection point for change. We kicked off 2026 with the third session, “Targeting Quick Wins,” which introduced priority challenge areas identified through IRDS and the NGA technology gap frameworks.
Partnerships extended further through our collaboration with CEA-Leti, and a presentation at their Innovation Days hosted in Grenoble, France. FTD’s Water Management Application (WMA) is helping support CEA-Leti’s work by enabling system-level insight into water use and optimization pathways that inform next-generation facility design and research. In parallel, FTD held chair positions across IRDS working groups and contributed to both this and SEMI standards, reinforcing our commitment to shaping both solutions and the frameworks that guide the industry forward.
Looking back, 2025 was defined less by individual milestones and more by compounding progress. Each project, partnership, and conversation strengthened the foundation for what comes next. As performance requirements and sustainability needs rise across industry, the ability to deliver digitally enabled, scalable, active water management will only become more critical.