At Veolia, our ambition is to become the benchmark for ecological transformation, reversing the effects of climate change and protecting our planet's natural resources.
However, we can't do it alone. We can only achieve our vision of a greener future through building valuable customer partnerships. By listening to, understanding and acting on the needs of our customers, we can work together to find innovative environmental solutions - whilst ensuring customers receive the vital services that are crucial to their operations.
Our customers are one of the five areas that make up our multifaceted performance that we have analysed and measured in our 2021 Sustainability Report. Read on for some examples of how we are achieving results through our customer partnerships.
Our sustainable solutions
Working with the City of London Corporation, we launched a fleet of electric refuse collection vehicles (ERCVs) in the capital, helping to reduce air pollution in the Square Mile. The fleet is made up of five new 18 and 26 tonne trucks, which are powered by lithium-ion batteries and form the UK’s first zero-emission recycling and waste collection fleet. Elsewhere, we have been working with customers in the UK dairy industry to develop closed-loop solutions for used plastic milk bottles. At our Plastic Recycling Facility in Dagenham, in 2021 we reprocessed around 433 million plastic milk bottles. These were turned into high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pellets which are then used to make new milk bottles, helping to close the loop in the dairy industry.
Supporting the NHS' Net Zero plans
We have supported a range of NHS hospitals to decarbonise in line with challenging Net Zero targets. This includes Royal Berkshire Hospital, where we converted the site from steam to a Low Temperature Hot Water (LTHW) system. The £8 million project is delivering immediate carbon savings, and also guarantees total energy savings of £1,183,000 per year. Another example is New Cross Hospital, part of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, where we worked in partnership with the hospital to design and install a 2MWe combined heat and power (CHP) based system, with LTHW and waste heat recovery boilers. Along with our lighting upgrades at the hospital, this has significantly reduced energy use. Furthermore, we have supported Rotherham Hospital to achieve savings of more than £1 million a year and cut carbon emissions by 49,620 tonnes, through installing a new battery energy storage system as part of the hospital's 20-year Energy Performance Contract (EPC).
Helping our customers help communities
We are proud to provide practical support for our customers to enable them to make a positive impact on the communities they are part of. Working with Telford & Wrekin Council, we enabled residents to donate unwanted household items to a local charity, A Better Tomorrow, as part of a reuse scheme. The scheme is designed to repurpose items that would otherwise be discarded as waste, allowing them to go to a good home and benefit the local community. Other community-focused initiatives include developing a cookbook with a difference in partnership with Brent Council. The cookbook, From Brent to Bowl, contains recipes that promote using up leftovers and reducing food waste. Alongside supporting our customers' efforts in the community, we also support grassroots community projects in the UK through the Veolia Sustainability Fund. In 2021, we contributed £27,000 worth of funding to 46 projects, as well as in-kind resources and volunteers from across our business.
Customers are just one area we are focusing on through our multifaceted performance goals, alongside employees, planet, society and shareholders. To read our Sustainability Report 2021 in full, download your copy today.
-Further Reading-
Get the show on the road: West End’s electric recycling fleet
Veolia and Westminster City Council unveil fully electric fleet for the West End.
Achieving Net Zero in the healthcare sector
With the NHS responsible for 25% of public sector emissions in England, the healthcare sector needs to act now to meet Net Zero targets.
Our Sustainability Report 2021 is here
To protect our planet and reverse the effects of climate change, we are aiming to become the benchmark for ecological transformation. Our Sustainability Report 2021 details our progress towards this aim over the past year.