Protecting our planet, '+1' step at a time

28 Sep. 2021

Environmental Change Requires Collaboration

Veolia's new initiative, '+1', brings together 50 key stakeholders, to create a collective driving force to power ecological transformation and protect our planet.

What is '+1' and how will it help in the fight against the climate crisis?

The +1 initiative forms part of Veolia's multi-faceted approach to creating a radical and proactive change to our production and consumption methods. The group of stakeholders that have been identified come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and include local communities, NGOs, and employees. This collective will come together to suggest tangible ideas that can deliver a positive impact on the planet and will act as a prototype for a consultation process with our stakeholders.

Through collaboration, the group will be more able to understand each other's viewpoints and priorities and understand how different members of society can work together to deliver environmental change. The initiative centres around three sessions, the first of which took place on 14th September, with the following two sessions taking place on 12th October and 7th December. The group will meet at the REcyclerie in Paris - an environmentally responsible venue that has been a partner of Veolia since 2014.

The sessions are based on the following three themes:

LISTEN

Companies must endeavour to work with other businesses, as well as utilise their public platform, to open up the dialogue around sustainable solutions.

DECIDE

The insights gained from listening to others must be converted into decision-making. The aim is to address environmental challenges through incorporating a range of stakeholders into the decision-making process.

TRAIN

To achieve ecological transformation, we all need to re-train ourselves to adopt more sustainable practices in our everyday lives.

What will be the benefit of '+1'?

Following each session, the results and resources will be shared, so that those outside the group of 50 can learn from the discussions, and take away some key actions. This will ensure that globally, Veolia is working as one towards our goal of preserving resources and changing patterns of consumption. Beyond Veolia, this will make us best-placed to help our customers adapt their own ways of working, and to have a wide-reaching impact on attitudes and behaviours.

More than ever, Veolia is sending out a strong signal of its commitment to meet the major ecological transformation challenges facing businesses, communities and citizens. Veolia's corporate philosophy must act as a guiding light for all the Group's business activities in every country and for all its employees through our shared strategy for continually improving performance.

As part of this inspiring and clearly action-oriented "+1, the ecology turned into actions" initiative, we wanted to harness the collective intelligence of 50 stakeholders from various backgrounds, as well as leverage the presence and mobilisation of Veolia's Critical Friends and the Group's Executive Committee with the aim of propelling these issues to the highest levels within the company and sharing them extensively with support from the Comité 21 think tank.

Antoine Frerot, Veolia CEO

-Further Reading-

The steps your business can take towards positive climate action

How can your business take steps towards positive climate action? We've summarised five key steps you can take to improve your business' environmental impact.

Supporting businesses to adopt a circular economy

Eliminating single-use plastics has been high on the sustainability agenda in the UK for a while now, with items like plastic straws and cotton buds being banned in the last couple of years.