My life goal is protecting water.
Macarena Cataldo Viridis Founder and CEO
Macarena Cataldo - Viridis Founder and CEO
2026 WE Empower UN SDG Awardee, North America
From Chile to Canada: A Mission Rooted in Water Justice
For Macarena Cataldo, the journey toward building a global water technology company began with a deeply personal realization. Born and raised in Chile, Cataldo studied chemical engineering while volunteering in underserved neighborhoods through a mentorship program for children. During one visit, she encountered a reality that fundamentally changed her perspective.
“I noticed that they didn’t have water in the neighborhood,” she recalls. “It was the same city, but completely different realities.”
The experience exposed the stark inequalities surrounding access to clean water and inspired her to dedicate her career to solving water-related challenges.
Driven by this mission, Cataldo pursued a PhD in water treatment in Italy, where she trained alongside leading experts in electrochemical technologies. She later moved to Canada to work on water treatment solutions for rural and remote communities, particularly Indigenous communities facing water insecurity.
These experiences ultimately laid the foundation for Viridis, a company focused on helping industries clean and reuse water instead of continuously extracting freshwater resources from vulnerable ecosystems.
Reinventing Industrial Water Treatment
Viridis develops advanced wastewater treatment systems for the textile industry, one of the world’s largest industrial water consumers and polluters. The company uses a technology called electro-oxidation, which applies electricity to contaminated water to destroy harmful pollutants.
“We put electricity in the water,” Cataldo explains. “It sounds disruptive—but that’s exactly what makes it powerful.”
Inside the system, electrical currents pass through specialized electrodes, generating highly reactive oxidants capable of breaking down dyes, chemicals, PFAS, and other contaminants into harmless elemental compounds like oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor. Unlike many traditional treatment methods, the process does not generate secondary solid or liquid waste.
What sets Viridis apart, however, is not only the chemistry, it is the company’s integration of advanced computational modeling and AI-driven optimization. Using fluid dynamics, materials science, and predictive modeling, Viridis engineers optimize how water moves through the treatment cells, improving efficiency while reducing both operational and capital costs.
A Global Perspective on Water Scarcity
Although Viridis is headquartered in Canada, its impact is intentionally global. Cataldo emphasizes that many of the environmental costs of industrial production are disproportionately borne by communities in countries like Bangladesh and India, where textile manufacturing heavily strains local water systems.
“We consume products in the Global North,” she explains, “but communities elsewhere are paying the cost through water scarcity and pollution.”
By helping textile manufacturers recycle and reuse water internally, Viridis aims to significantly reduce freshwater extraction and industrial discharge into rivers and groundwater systems. The company estimates its technology could help save approximately 7.5 million cubic meters of water within five years.
Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals
Viridis directly advances several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including:
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation: Protecting freshwater resources through water reuse and wastewater treatment
SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production: Supporting sustainable industrial manufacturing practices
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities: Reducing industrial environmental impact on surrounding populations
SDG 14: Life Below Water: Preventing polluted wastewater from entering ecosystems and waterways
The company’s work also contributes indirectly to SDG 5: Gender Equality, particularly through its internal hiring and leadership practices. Currently, approximately 60% of Viridis’ team members are women, and the company actively encourages applications from historically underrepresented groups in STEM fields.
Leading with Purpose and Authenticity
Outside of science and entrepreneurship, Cataldo is also a black belt in Brazilian jiujitsu, an achievement earned after nearly a decade of training. The discipline has played a meaningful role in both her personal development and leadership journey. “Brazilian jiu-jitsu teaches resilience,” she explains. “You learn how to stay calm under pressure, adapt quickly, and keep moving forward even when situations are difficult.”
Those lessons became especially valuable while building Viridis, navigating entrepreneurship across multiple countries, industries, and cultural environments. Beyond technology, Cataldo’s leadership philosophy centers on authenticity, passion, and social impact. Having lived and worked across Chile, Italy, and Canada, she reflects openly on the challenges of navigating different cultures while trying to remain true to herself.
“You try to fit in everywhere,” she says, “but there’s value in being yourself.”
Looking ahead, Cataldo envisions a future where Viridis systems are integrated into textile mills worldwide, helping industries transition toward circular water use and significantly reducing the environmental footprint of global manufacturing.
For Cataldo, the mission remains clear and deeply personal. “Protecting water is not just a technological issue,” she says. “It’s about communities, equality, and the future we want to build.”
By Nina-Pearl Hamel, HON394 Student