Present on five continents with more than 171,000 employees, Veolia designs and deploys water, waste and energy management solutions, which contribute to the sustainable development of cities and industries. These three complementary activities allow Veolia to help develop access to resources as well as preserving and renewing available resources.
WATER MANAGEMENT
Veolia controls all the stages of the water cycle and can meet the many challenges of local authorities and industrial customers: resource management, production and delivery of drinking water and industrial process water, collection, treatment and recycling of wastewater from all sources as well as by-products from its treatment (organic matter, salts, metals, complex molecules and energy), customer relationship management, as well as the design and construction of treatment and network infrastructure.
All of this expertise allows Veolia to support its customers in the implementation of integrated and sustainable water resource management.
Collection and delivery of water
Veolia designs, installs, operates and maintains water networks of all kinds. Water traceability is at the heart of the Group's concerns, which ensures the preservation of drinking water quality, from the plant up to the distribution to the consumer.
The quality of collected effluents is also continuously monitored to optimize the efficiency of processes implemented in the treatment plants operated by the Group.
Water treatment
Beyond the design, construction and operation of treatment plants, Veolia has a portfolio of over 350 proprietary technologies to address the water management issues of communities and industrial customers.
Production of drinking water and industrial process water (including production of ultrapure water, seawater desalination and treatment of new pollutants) and the treatment and recycling of wastewater of all kinds, including the treatment and recovery of waste (organic matter, salts, metals, complex molecules and energy), using innovative solutions to produce reagents, green energy, fertilizers and even bioplastics.
Customer relationship
Veolia has developed a number of tools serving customer relationship, which adapt to the needs of local authorities and simplify the formalities to be completed by customers. The Group has also established customer relationship centers and local customer support centers to assist customers. They have access to web portals and mobile applications to complete their formalities and receive information online.
"Smart" services
Veolia's "smart" technologies contribute to the continuous improvement of facilities’ operational performance:
Integrated control centers monitor the status of services in real time and relay any anomalies to the customer relationship centers which then schedule work in the field.
An energy management system monitors the consumption of "water" facilities operated by the Group and identifies the areas requiring optimization.
Veolia has also developed an 'e-monitoring' service that allows individuals, local authorities and industrial customers to better control their consumption.
Infrastructure design and construction
Veolia Water Technologies, which is a subsidiary of Veolia, combines technologies and engineering services to offer a comprehensive range of water treatment solutions. Veolia Water Technologies delivers turnkey solutions to local authorities and industrial customers, such as plants producing drinking water, process water or ultra-pure water, seawater desalination plants and treatment and recovery systems for wastewater and the waste generated, in compliance with the environmental regulations in force.
ENERGY MANAGEMENT
As a key player in energy management, Veolia has unique expertise in energy efficiency, heating and cooling network management and renewable energy production. As a partner of cities and industry, the Group optimizes their energy purchases, ensures balance in their energy mix by including renewable energy and makes the necessary changes to improve the energy efficiency of their equipment.
Heating and cooling networks
Hundreds of cities worldwide have entrusted the operation and maintenance of their heating and cooling networks, which provide heating, hot water, and air conditioning to public and private buildings, to Veolia.
The Group helps cities define a low-carbon energy strategy by developing an energy mix that privileges the use of renewable and alternative energy sources: geothermy, biomass, co-generation or recovery of heat generated by the incineration of household waste, wastewater plants, etc.
Energy services for buildings
Veolia develops energy services to reduce the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of buildings while preserving the comfort of their occupants. Based on an energy audit, the Group develops an improvement plan including the installation of more energy-efficient equipment, tools for monitoring consumption and managing performance, as well as devices encouraging occupants to save energy.
Hubgrade is a hypervision system and a building and infrastructure energy efficiency monitoring service developed by Veolia. Designed as a truly integrated management platform, Hubgrade collects data in real time which is analyzed by the Group's experts to optimize work. This tool allows additional energy savings of up to 15 % to be made on energy efficiency in buildings compared to other energy efficiency services on the market. Veolia currently manages 9 Hubgrade centers worldwide.
Industrial utilities
Veolia's energy solutions meet the reliability, quality, availability and cost requirements of industrial customers for which energy is a key competitiveness issue. The Group optimizes industrial utilities, regardless of their nature (steam generation, cooling, electricity, compressed air), as well as energy use related to processes and industrial buildings. This allows Veolia to help secure supply for its customers and reduce their energy and carbon footprint.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Veolia is the world reference in the management of solid or liquid non-hazardous or hazardous waste. The Company is involved in the entire waste life cycle, from collection to final treatment, and makes its recovery a priority.
As a stakeholder in the circular economy, Veolia develops innovative solutions to increase the rate of waste recycling and conversion into matter or energy.
Waste collection
Household waste, non-hazardous commercial and industrial waste, construction waste, organic waste, hazardous industrial and commercial waste: the diversity of waste categories makes their collection a logistical challenge.
Veolia offers multiple collection systems adapted to the territorial and economic stakes of its customers. Waste of the same nature is gathered in collection centers where it is compressed before being sent to an appropriate sorting or treatment site.
Waste material recovery
Veolia transports solid waste to specialized sorting centers. Waste resulting from the selective collection of household waste and non-hazardous industrial and commercial waste is sent to high performance sorting centers managed by the Group. Many patented processes, such as auto-adaptive sequential sorting (TS2A), are used to achieve recovery rates of up to 95 %.
The recovered waste then becomes secondary raw materials for industry. Veolia also recycles complex waste, such as batteries and electronic cards.
Waste-to-energy
Non-recyclable non-hazardous waste is transported to incineration plants or landfills. The incineration process produces energy in the form of steam which can either supply district or industrial heating networks, or be converted into electricity using turbines.
The electricity generated is used to power the national distribution network. Veolia captures the gas generated by the fermentation of organic waste in its landfills. This biogas can be directly delivered to a distribution network, used to produce electricity through turbines or engines, or used as fuel for vehicles.
Material recovery of organic waste
Sewage sludge, green waste and organic waste from households or the catering industry, the food processing industry or the agricultural sector are recovered by subsidiaries specialized in the treatment of organic waste. Treatment is either achieved through controlled composting or anaerobic digestion in biogas plants.
The compost produced is used as fertilizer for agriculture and the methane generated by fermentation is recovered using the same procedures as those for landfill biogas.
Treatment of hazardous waste
Veolia is a world leader in hazardous waste treatment, recycling, and recovery and soil remediation thanks to its specialized subsidiaries.
According to their origin and composition, hazardous waste can be incinerated or physicochemically treated in dedicated facilities or stabilized and buried in special landfills.
Dismantling and remediation
Veolia manages projects to dismantle industrial plants and equipment which have reached the end of their service life, such as aircraft, ships, trains and oil platforms. The Group disassembles, removes asbestos, recovers recyclable materials, treats non-recyclable waste and provides site remediation.
Veolia is also involved in rehabilitating areas where the footprint of older pollution still exists: brownfield redevelopment, cleaning up accidental spills and upgrading of industrial sites.
Urban cleaning
Cleanliness is a determining factor of cities’ attractiveness as well as a public health and security issue for citizens.
Veolia offers a continuous urban cleaning service based on a performance commitment which includes the maintenance and cleaning of public areas, mechanized street cleaning services and treatment of façades. The Group has also developed emergency services to handle accidental pollution on public roads or industrial sites.
Industrial maintenance and cleaning
For its industrial customers, the Group services and maintains production lines and provides a full range of specialized services to optimize the performance of production facilities and extend their service life.