Sustainable Environmental Solutions

Sustainability

In 1999, Veolia Environmental Services made a commitment to the principles of Sustainable Development. For Veolia, Sustainable Development means adopting business strategies and activities that meet the needs of Veolia Environmental Services and its stakeholders today, while protecting, supporting and enhancing the human and natural resources that will be needed in the future. Veolia Environmental Services also has a stringent Environmental Policy.

Our pursuit of sustainability has two key aspirations.

• Our Sustainability. We aspire to make our operations more sustainable. This means making changes that reduce the impacts of our operations on the environment and community whilst continuing to earn healthy profits; and
• Our External Contribution. We aspire to influence the behaviour of others. We build partnerships to help others adopt more sustainable practices, while they in turn may influence others. The ripple effect has significant potential for achieving community-wide sustainability.

At Veolia Environmental Services, we have developed two programs to communicate our message for Sustainable Development which we use both within Veolia Environmental Services and when working with our customers to support their sustainability efforts.

3Ps - People, Planet, Profit

• people – influencing behaviour change in the way resources are valued, purchased, treated and discarded;
• planet – building higher recognition of the environmental impacts from waste and encouraging appropriate levels of source separation for discarded resources so that relevant fractions can be recycled and reprocessed; and residuals can be safely disposed; and
• profit – ensuring that our business service offerings are viable and sustainable so that we continue to add value while meeting the service needs of our clients.

Our 8 Pillars for Sustainable Development

These pillars form the cornerstone of the drive to instil sustainable development philosophies and practices into our employees, our customers and the community in which we operate. The eight pillars are: Sustainability; Environmental Performance; Safety ; Communication, Community and Customer Support; Minimisation of Waste; Environmental Alliances; Innovation; Economic Viability.

Veolia Environnement’s Sustainability Charter

The message for sustainable development does not reside only within Veolia Environmental Services. Our parent, Veolia Environnement has implemented a 10-point sustainability charter which informs its business operations. Visit VE's Sustainable Development site here

1. Ensuring the protection of the environment, the preservation of resources and the reduction of pollution at all the sites it operates.
2. Implementing an Environmental Management System which, based on clearly identified issues, enables it to execute appropriate action plans that can be assessed through indicators of the progress achieved.
3. Managing the upgrade of all facilities and services for which it has full responsibility so that they are brought into compliance with applicable regulations and standards under preparation and, where there are none, to propose the most appropriate improvements.
4. Fostering the improvement, beyond legal requirements, of people’s safety and health protection by adopting an integrated risk management policy.
5. Increasing its research, development and innovation efforts in order to use its expertise to meet the environmental challenges of every situation in the most efficient and economically acceptable manner.
6. Encouraging its partners, subcontractors and suppliers to adhere to its sustainable development rules and commitments.
7. Taking into account immediately, and anticipating as far as possible for the future, the public’s needs and expectations, in particular through the work of the Vivendi Environnement Institute.
8. Providing its employees with efficient training means and promotion opportunities, such as the Urban Environment Institute, and working toward enhancing job opportunities within and at the periphery of its operations.
9. Integrating within its improvement program the standards and recommendations established by international organizations covering basic human rights, ethics, the environment, occupational safety and labor law.
10. Broadening dialogue with non-governmental organizations in order to increase access to essential services everywhere and for the benefit of the maximum number of people possible, even the most disadvantaged

Veolia Sustainability Reports

View our past and present Sustainability Reports

• 2005 Australia and New Zealand Sustainability Report - 1,666KB
• 2004 Australia and New Zealand Sustainability Report - 2,602KB