Today, natural resources are becoming increasingly scarce while our needs are growing in an ever more densely populated and urbanized world facing climate change issues.
The world has to rethink its relationship with resources and come up with new social and economic growth models that are more efficient, better balanced and more sustainable.
With 160 years of expertise in the areas of water, energy and waste, Veolia applies its capacity for innovation to pursue human progress and wellbeing, and improve the performance of businesses and regions.
To make the switch from a resource consumption rational to a use-and-recover approach in today’s circular economy, Veolia designs and implements solutions aimed at improving access to resources while at the same time protecting and renewing those same resources.
Improving access to resources
In a world of growing needs and dwindling reserves, access to basic resources is becomingly increasingly complex and a source of tension. In response to these challenges, Veolia is developing durable solutions to supply the greatest possible number of people with the resources needed to ensure the wellbeing of communities, to make regions attractive and to underpin the performance of companies. These solutions include access to safe drinking water and energy services for cities and their inhabitants, services to industry to guarantee continuous supplies for production processes, and recovery systems for materials within a circular economy.
Preserving resources
Given the growing tension surrounding resources, it is everyone’s collective responsibility to conserve and protect them. Resources that are less intensively consumed, better used and less damaged are resources that will still be available in the future. Veolia therefore develops innovative and sustainable solutions so that it extracts only what is strictly necessary, from the right place, at the right time and using the right methods. At the same time, it protects the balance of ecosystems to ensure resources remain available. Veolia uses its expertise to optimize the use of these resources, to make sure nothing is lost throughout the usage cycle and to minimize any downstream impact so as to guarantee there are no harmful effects on human health or the natural environment.
Renewing resources
By reinventing its business activities, Veolia is making it possible to create new secondary resources that are gradually offsetting the growing scarcity of natural primary materials. Through innovation in recycling materials and recovering waste, Veolia is providing solutions that significantly extend the life span and usage value of extracted resources. For a circular economy, Veolia is developing its eco-design expertise to support producers right from the initial steps in creating manufacturing processes through to the production of new materials from transformed waste. Veolia is generating entirely new resources: the heat given off by an industry becomes heating for dwellings; wastewater effluent becomes a fertilizer or a bioplastic; gas emitted by waste treatment becomes electricity or biofuel, and so on.