Corporate Responsibility

 

What do we do?

Veolia Water Corporate Responsibility

Veolia Water UK group water companies supply drinking water to 3.3 million people in the South of England. We strive to provide water and related services of the highest quality to our customers, by continually improving our processes and programmes.

The environment is at the forefront of our business and we are a recognised leader in corporate responsibility. We actively seek opportunities to reduce consumption of natural resources by optimising efficiency, whilst protecting and enhancing the environment. we work in partnership with businesses to consistently deliver results in areas such as water quality and water efficiency.

Our goal is to inform others of the steps we are taking to promote sustainable development, to consult them, and to take into account their views when developing our programmes and plans.

This goal is in line with a commitment by our parent company, Veolia Environnement, to inform and involve our stakeholders.

Veolia Water companies are actively involved in a number of external groups, including:

  • Water UK, the water industry trade association
  • Business in the Community, an independent, business-led charity that supports member companies to improve their positive impact on society.
  • Thames Regional Environmental Protection Advisory Committee
  • Environment Agency working groups
  • All Party Parliamentary Environment Group
  • Groundwork
  • National Society for Clean Air
  • Universities of Hertfordshire and Surrey
  • CBI (Environmental Affairs and Academic Relations Committees)

Veolia Water UK is part of Veolia Water, the world's number one in water services. Veolia Water is included in the FTSE4Good Index, an Index Series designed to measure the performance of companies that meet globally recognised corporate responsibility standards.

Veolia Water is part of Veolia Environnement, the world's leading environmental services group operating in 68 countries with 320,000 employees. Veolia Environnment publishes an annual sustainable development report.

Veolia Environnement is listed in the main socially responsible investment indices:

  • Dow Jones Sustainability Index
  • Ethibel Sustainability Index
  • FTSE4Good
  • The Sustainability Yearbook 2008

Veolia Environnement is a member of:

Responsible Business Review 2009

Responsible Business Review 2009

Click image to download document

In this review we aim to show how as a responsible business our activities have created value for our investors, our employees, our local and national communities, and the wider environment.

This year's report gives an overview of the performance of our water supply companies and our commercial business. Operating in four key sectors (municipal, industrial, commercial and sustainable communities), our commercial business includes contracts for government departments and other water companies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, which now benefit from Veolia Environnement's global expertise in managing environmental services.

Over the past year we have improved the way we manage health and safety. Following a comprehensive review carried out in 2008, we have started to move to a health and safety culture. We believe that we can run our businesses without causing harm to anyone as a result of our activities, hence our goal of "zero harm" and our basic value of being "safe and healthy in all we do".

We were delighted to receive a "Big Tick" award for environmental leadership in Business in the Community's Awards for Excellence 2009. These awards are made to companies demonstrating leadership and improved impact for embedding environmental strategy into core business processes. We were also pleased to maintain our Platinum ranking in the associated Corporate Responsibility Index 2009, as published in the Financial Times. Together with the award, this appraisal gives public recognition to our commitment to protect the environment and enhance the lives of the local communities that we serve.