Veolia 2009 Annual Report Utilities France 3 preparatiOn Annual and Sustainability Report 2009 Background: Veolia Environment is a multinational French company with activities in four main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities: water supply and water management; waste management; energy; and transport services. The strategy is underpinned with the belief that the Company’s international stature, global presence and impetus in research and innovation combined with the wide ranging experience and expertise of its employees, represent an array of assets on which Veolia can build to both improve living conditions and protect resources. Veolia has produced a Sustainability/Environmental Report since 1999 and since 2008 has combined this into an Annual Sustainability Report. content review: The Chairman states explicitly in the Report that Veolia’s four businesses interact to enable the Company to take a global, responsible view of environmental solutions and the Report goes on to address how innovation is contributing to Veolia’s strategy and helping to rid the economy of its addiction to carbon without new modes of production. Again this is another company whose business is intrinsically linked to sustainability and this is acknowledged and embraced within the Report and reflected in its aim to build a company with the critical mass to become the benchmark in sustainable mobility. Following the Chairman and CEO’s statements there is a section on their ‘sustainable corporate model’ – which reviews corporate governance approach, strategy, human resources and approach to research and innovation. There is also a 30 page case study section which reviews globally with large photographs of people demonstrating project work across their services. Summary: This is a clearly written report which positions sustainability at the core of the Company and each of their main services. The Report addresses, in a very big picture conceptual way, how the Company will help to shape tomorrow’s world but falls down a bit with the absence of clear actions, measurement and performance data to support those claims. 40 The integrated journey
