Veolia is committed to multifaceted performance that takes into account the needs and expectations of our five stakeholder groups. In this 2022 Sustainability Report, we outline our activities in Ireland and Northern Ireland in the context of these stakeholder groups.
This approach aligns fully with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Economic, Environmental, Social and Governance (EESG) reporting model. As we prepare for the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), we have provided more detailed information on our performance.
Our employees are vital to delivering the innovative solutions our customers want and our society needs
We help our employees continuously develop their skills and their careers. We work hard to make our workforce more diverse, bringing new ideas and new approaches to our operations.
At Veolia, we strive to create and maintain a proactive safety culture where employees focus not just on carrying out their own roles safely, but also on keeping colleagues, customers, suppliers and visitors safe at all times. Our 2022 Safety Week encouraged teams to take time out from their daily activities to discuss safe behaviours to make our workplaces even safer. The result was more than 500 ideas to enhance our safety across Ireland and the UK.
Along with safety, we continue to place a strong emphasis on our five pillars of wellbeing. Our monthly wellbeing activities cover mental health, physical health, financial fitness and nutrition with talks, webinars, guest speakers and physical activities delivered virtually to suit all locations and roles. The fifth pillar, social wellbeing is also part of this programme and in August each team in our distributed workforce came together for social events that suited their own particular requirements.
Our 2021 - 2022 Diversity & Inclusion strategy was instrumental in raising awareness of the importance of diversity and inclusion, encouraging us all to take responsibility for its implementation and engage in important conversations, however and whenever they are needed.
We continue to develop Saba, our learning and development platform which enables online learning to suit individual employees. Using Saba allows us to deliver training on any device at any time in any location.
Supporting the communities where we live and work is important to Veolia
Working with the next generation through our schools engagement programmes helps create a diverse, informed workforce for the future. Supporting projects that make local communities more sustainable, helps make wider society more sustainable too.
Supporting insight and knowledge
Global barometer of ecological transformation
Veolia and Elabe, a French research and consulting firm, launched the first barometer of the ecological transformation. This first-of-a-kind global opinion survey assesses how ready people are to accept new environmental solutions and analyses the obstacles and opportunities to accelerate the transformation.
Landmark research on sustainability in Ireland
BITC Ireland, sponsored by Veolia and eight other BITC members, published their landmark study Accelerating the Transformation - Towards a zero emissions, nature positive and inclusive society.
Helping the communities we live in
Veolia Connect Community Fund
Veolia Connect is our community support programme in Ireland. Its aim is to forge links between Veolia and local communities by funding a diverse range of not-for-profit groups and organisations which Veolia staff are personally involved with. In 2022 we donated €15,000 shared among 14 different community projects across eight countries. We supported community groups, sports clubs, homeless charities, animal welfare organisations and special needs education.
For example, we helped the Order of Malta in Tipperary to equip a new 4-wheel drive ambulance to assist in recovery of patients in inaccessible areas and during bad weather. This ensures rural communities have access to the care and services they need.
Schools Engagement Programme
In 2022 we continued to engage with schools, delivering programmes with BITC Ireland and Young Enterprise Northern Ireland. The Time to Count programme with St Joseph’s National School in Fermoy saw Veolia employees spend time with primary school students to improve their maths skills. The World of Work programme with Grennan College in Kilkenny allowed students to learn more about what working in Veolia means and included a trip to Veolia’s wastewater treatment plant in Tramore, Co. Waterford. The Business Beginnings Programme with Euston Street Primary School in Belfast offered students the opportunity to start a real business, producing a product to sell at a special trade fair in St George’s Market.
Committed to doing our part to reduce our own carbon footprint and protect the biodiversity of the sites we operate and manage
In line with Veolia’s global commitments and the increasing threat to the planet from climate change, Veolia in Ireland and Northern Ireland is committed to doing our part to reduce our own carbon footprint and protect the biodiversity of the sites we operate and manage. We are also committed to working with like-minded organisations to increase awareness of what can and must be done to protect the planet.
OUR COMMITMENT TO NET ZERO
Veolia has a comprehensive, ambitious and achievable Carbon Reduction Plan for our business as part of our Journey to Net Zero. We continue to prioritise delivering low carbon services for our customers. However, we need to go further and decrease the carbon intensity of the ecological transformation services we provide.
LOW CARBON PLEDGE
Veolia is one of over 60 companies who have signed the Business in the Community Ireland Low Carbon Pledge. It commits us to setting a series of ambitious goals that together provide us with a clear path to reducing carbon emissions across our entire business and supply chain (scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions), in line with Science Based targets. It also commits us to the transparent reporting of our progress. The fourth Low Carbon Pledge Annual report, published in June 2022, shows that Ireland’s largest businesses, including Veolia, are making steady progress on meeting Net Zero targets for greenhouse gas emissions.
CLIMATE ACTION PLEDGE
The Climate Action Pledge is part of Business in the Community Northern Ireland’s Business Action on Climate campaign which challenges businesses to take action on the climate crisis.
Veolia is one of 90 companies that signed the Climate Action Pledge NI making a public commitment to achieving an ambitious target of reducing our Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by .
RESTORING BIODIVERSITY TO ECOSYSTEMS
Ecological Management Plan
As part of Veolia’s global Green Spaces Charter, which guides how we promote biodiversity on the sites we own or manage, we reviewed and updated our Ecological Management Plans our two largest sites on the island of Ireland. These plans help us identify existing areas on our sites that we need to protect and opportunities to do more.
Biodiversity Baselines
To help smaller sites improve their biodiversity management we began the rollout of site Biodiversity Baselines across Ireland. These include descriptions of habitats found and the current management of these areas. Two sites in Northern Ireland have prepared their baselines in 2022.
All Ireland Pollinator Plan
As a business supporter of the All Ireland Pollinator Plan, Veolia has committed to carrying out pollinator-friendly actions. On our sites in Fermoy and Ballynacor we reduced mowing in some areas to help create a long-flowering meadow and reduced our use of pesticides.
Developing solutions that help our customers reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency, increase recycling and reuse, and provide sustainable water and wastewater treatment infrastructure
These innovative solutions help our industrial, commercial and municipal customers meet their own sustainability targets.
DECARBONISATION OF INDUSTRY
Veolia worked with a major beverage producer in Northern Ireland to create a decarbonisation roadmap for their facility.
We conducted a full review of their energy usage to identify the use of fossil fuels and suggest ways to eliminate them. Data from current processes was used to identify which areas to focus on, as well as areas where additional data would be useful.
The decarbonisation roadmap uses carbon and cost information to allow more informed decision making in relation to the elimination of the site’s carbon footprint. Investment in upgrading or replacing plant and equipment is now underway with clear criteria in place to enable the site team to prioritise the areas they focus on.
WATER FOR COMMUNITIES
We continue to work with Uisce Éireann to collaboratively deliver essential upgrades to water and wastewater treatment plants to enable them to continue to meet the needs of local communities.
The Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) framework contracting model makes implementation quicker and more effective and takes advantage of our local capabilities and our global water experience.
In 2022 we delivered critical early works in Athlone and Lough Mask water treatment plants in advance of the more significant upgrades planned for 2023. Construction work began on wastewater treatment plants in Kilcar, Kerrykeel, Burtonport and Omeath.
RECOVERING AND REUSE OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
Our waste management team is constantly working with our customers and using our network of waste management facilities to move waste further up the waste hierarchy.
One of our pharmaceutical customers produces a waste Ethyl Acetate stream that was recovered and used to create mixed thinners. Even though this approach provided a recovery solution, the team continued to look for a way to facilitate a direct reuse of recovered Ethyl Acetate. Having identified a suitable Veolia recovery facility, we carried out a comprehensive trial of the process as well as a detailed commercial assessment which demonstrated that the proposed process could deliver commercial and environmental benefits to the customer.
In 2022 we recovered approximately 370 tonnes of Ethyl Acetate for direct reuse by the customer. This sustainable solution helped the customer improve their overall environmental performance and contributed to their circularity and carbon reduction targets.
ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENT SLUDGE TREATMENT
Working with Irish Water and Kildare County Council at Osberstown, Veolia created an energy self-sufficient Sludge Treatment Facility that uses innovative Veolia technologies to deliver Advanced Anaerobic Digestion (AAD). This creates biogas, which is then used to power the entire treatment process – a significant advantage given energy security concerns and rising prices. There are also real benefits for Irish Water and local communities from this award winning plant including:
- Reduction in carbon emissions of around 8,500 tonnes of CO2 a year
- Reduction in natural gas usage equal to 2,700 homes
Our customers gave us a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of
in our annual Customer Satisfaction Survey.
Delivering value for our shareholders
PURPOSE
Our purpose, Ecological Transformation, means acting to reconcile human progress and environmental protection. It is a compass that guides us in setting our course and sticking to it over the long term. We develop and implement solutions that depollute the planet’s vital resources and preserve them from depletion, decarbonising how we live and produce food and goods and adapting what we do to combat climate change.
MULTIFACETED PERFORMANCE
Veolia’s commitment to multifaceted performance drives the way we grow and develop our activities in Ireland and Northern Ireland. By considering five different stakeholder groups, and the areas of performance that impact them, we have created an approach that balances economic, social and environmental objectives. This concept is at the heart of Veolia’s organisation and operations.
With a clear purpose, a focus on multifaceted performance and strong local leadership, Veolia in Ireland and Northern Ireland is well positioned to continue to deliver responsive solutions for our customers, support our employees and deliver value for our shareholders.
