In providing water, waste and energy management services in local communities across the UK, we are well placed to combat pollution and accelerate ecological transformation. We have a responsibility to help protect and preserve the environment for future generations, and we are committed to doing all we can to help reverse the climate crisis.
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In Westminster, we run a 60-strong fleet of new and upcycled electric vehicles.
In the West End, Westminster City Council’s efforts to improve air quality are bolstered by our fleet of electric street cleansing vehicles. In 2021, we trialled, tested and bought 60 vehicles, making up 40% of the total street cleansing fleet. This has resulted in an 89% reduction in carbon emissions, and the trial led to 20 media articles applauding the Council’s move to electric.
We are working with the UK Government to enable the deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technology across our ERFs.
We are conducting CCUS studies and trials at four different ERFs in partnership with leading technology providers. Veolia has also comissioned independent CCUS research with a leading university to support the wider deployment of this technology across our sites.
We have increased energy generation at our Seafield Wastewater Treatment site via additional biogas production from our Renewable Energy Centre. The improvements were made by cleaning the digester and implementing energy optimisation measures.
We generated around 1,898MWh of extra electricity.
Together with Scottish Water, we have invested £34 million into Seafield since 2011, installing new equipment to improve odour and a thermal hydrolysis plant that treats and pasteurises the raw sewage and generates biogas energy which provides 85% of Seafield’s electricity.
As part of our compliance with the Environmental Permitting Regulations, we must demonstrate we have the technical competence to run our permitted sites well. Previously, we adhered to the Certificate of Technical Competence (CoTC) conditions to show the competence of the one or two people at each site responsible for maintaining our permit.
We have now decided to meet the requirements of the Competence Management System (CMS), a scheme recognised and approved by Defra and the Welsh Government. The management system involves upskilling all of the site staff involved in the permit, rather than just one or two named individuals. We are one of the biggest resource management companies to have made this move, demonstrating wide technical knowledge and competence in the operation of our permitted sites.
The Veolia Environmental Trust is Veolia’s charity partner, awarding funds from the Landfill Communities Fund to community and environmental projects across England, using money provided by Veolia.
In 2021, the trust awarded more than £4.9 million to 100 projects, including nature reserves, public woodlands, community centres, playgrounds and cycle paths. These include:
The trust awarded just under £47,000 to the Wildwood Trust in Kent to support a breeding and reintroduction programme for the critically endangered Wildcat. The Wildcat has been declared functionally extinct in the wild in the UK due to sustained habitat loss, and without immediate intervention, they will disappear completely. Our grant funded an expansion of the Wildwood Trust’s breeding enclosure, allowing for up to 30 Wildcat kittens to be bred and released safely into the wild each year.
The Wickham Community Association in Hampshire received just over £30,000 from the trust to install new windows and doors at their community centre. Our grant will allow the group to make their building more energy-efficient, providing a warm and comfortable venue for community activity whilst also reducing the building’s environmental impact.
The trust awarded £600,000 to the Durham Wildlife Trust to purchase a 100-hectare patchwork of marginal farmland across the floodplain of the River Skerne in County Durham, allowing them to re-establish the area as a wetland habitat. This project is the first stage in creating The Great North Fen, an ambitious plan to create restored fen, wet woodland, and ponds across the historic Carss of County Durham.
The Twinkle Park Trust project received support in 2017. The £27,000 scheme to restore the pond at a popular community park in Deptford, London, was completed this year. The park was once a derelict area of land before being brought back into use by the local community. In 2013 the pond disappeared with disastrous results for local birds and amphibians. Our grant allowed the pond to be re-established, creating a new habitat for toads, herons, coots and fish and providing new opportunities for residents to connect with nature.
Discover Brightwater is a lottery-funded £3.5 million programme to reveal, restore and celebrate life around the River Skerne in County Durham. With habitats depleted and fragmented by its industrial history, the highly-modified river is also bisected by the East Coast mainline and the A1 motorway.
The concept of the Great North Fen is to create a 400-500ha patchwork of restored fens, ponds and wetlands to provide improved habitats for wading birds.
A grant of £600,000 from the Veolia Environmental Trust, supported by Durham County Council as the contributing third party, has enabled Durham Wildlife Trust, Discover Brightwater’s lead partner, to purchase the first two tranches of land offered by local landowners. This will create an exemplar site to provide a new wetland nature reserve.
“This is the first step towards creating a conservation project of national significance which is now beginning to attract major funding and potential sponsorship thanks to the initial substantial investment and support from Veolia Environmental Trust.”
Paul Black, Programme Manager, Discover Brightwater Landscape Partnership
We are using Business in the Community’s Responsible Business Tracker to understand and track our progress in addressing a number of sustainability issues.
Veolia ranked circular economy as its second top material issue. We achieved an overall score of 71%, which is significantly above the cohort average achieved by other organisations who also ranked it as first or second – across all areas that were scored, including governance, strategy and risk, measurement, disclosure and action.
“Veolia shows how you not only manage circular economy through a responsible business lens but you also understand the opportunities you have as a business by investing in this area.”
BITC Responsible Business Tracker 2021