Brian Sheng on Turning Air into Water

The Green Building Matters Podcast with Charlie Cichetti

🎯 The Green Impact Report

Quick take:

This week's episode goes beyond bricks and beams. Brian Sheng, co-founder and CEO of Aquaria, is tackling one of the planet's most overlooked sustainability challenges: water. His team is building clean water infrastructure by literally harvesting water from air — a breakthrough that could redefine how communities access one of life's most critical resources.

🤝 Meet Your Fellow Sustainability Champion

Brian Sheng is the co-founder and CEO of Aquaria, a company pioneering atmospheric water generation at scale. A first-generation American who grew up in New York, Brian studied at Princeton before building a career as both an entrepreneur and investor in future-focused technologies. After leading Fresh, an early-stage venture firm that backed AI, climate, and government tech, Brian shifted to operating in climate innovation. At Aquaria, he's on a mission to make reliable, abundant, and sustainable water accessible to communities everywhere.

🌱 Breaking Ground on Better Building

In this episode, Brian Sheng revolutionizes traditional thinking about water and infrastructure

🧠 Key Insight #1: Water is the overlooked frontier of sustainability.

• The Challenge: Infrastructure projects are stalled by insufficient access to clean water.
• The Solution: Aquaria generates water directly from air, creating a new and abundant supply chain.
• ROI: Reliable, decentralized access to clean water for homes and communities, reducing strain on existing systems.

🧠 Key Insight #2: Startups can shift how infrastructure is built.

• The Challenge: Water infrastructure is costly, slow, and dependent on outdated systems.
• The Solution: Aquaria approaches water like solar — distributed, scalable, and technology-driven.
• ROI: Faster deployment, more resilient communities, and the potential to scale from individual homes to entire cities.

🧠 Key Insight #3: Mission-driven innovation requires intentional culture.

• The Challenge: Founders often struggle to balance speed with sustainable talent growth.
• The Solution: Brian builds teams with intentional mentorship, complementary co-founders, and a mix of in-person and distributed collaboration.
• ROI: A resilient, mission-aligned company culture that scales alongside the tech.

🌏 Sustainable Soundbite

"We are like solar, but for water — energy from the sun, water from the air."

– Brian Sheng

📌 Your Green Building Action Plan:

Transform your next project with these steps:

1. This Week: Evaluate where water access could bottleneck your building or community projects.
2. This Quarter: Explore distributed water solutions like atmospheric generation to reduce risk.
3. This Year: Build partnerships with innovators that scale sustainable infrastructure, not just energy, but also water.

🔗 Connect & Learn More

🌿 Access full episode resources here

🗒 Read the transcript here

🔗 Connect with Brian Sheng:

• Website: https://www.aquaria.world/
• Brian on: LinkedIn
• Brian on: Instagram

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