ESG Performance

Hélène Lebedeff: They fall into two categories. One has to do with the rating and selection method and the other with a slight dip in our performance.

Changes in the rating methods used in 2010 excluded the arguments we made in previous years in response to certain questions, automatically lowering our overall score.
In addition, the way the DJSI selects companies results in Veolia Environnement being judged in the "water services" category, alongside smaller companies essentially involved in a single activity. With our four businesses, Veolia Environnement has a much broader scope than our competitors and no real equivalent. That makes comparisons difficult. For example, questions about carbon emissions are skewed.
Our lower score is also due to a decline in performance in the areas of governance, based on outside perceptions, and performance management systems.

Veolia Environnement's score fell by three points, while United Utilities gained two points. As a result, only United Utilities was selected for the DJSI index in 2010.

H. L.: It is a way to have an independent third party measure the sustainable development and/or corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of a company. The score is used as a basis for rating agency recommendations to investors interested in socially responsible investing (SRI). The DJSI is one of the principal SRI indexes, which also include FTSE4Good (Eiris agency) and the ASPI Eurozone and Ethibel Sustainability indexes (Vigeo agency).

H. L.: Our businesses by nature imply the deployment of an effective, continuous sustainable development process. There are two good reasons for Veolia to respond to rating agencies each year: being selected by the main SRI indexes demonstrates that our commitment to sustainable development is recognized; and internally, the process of responding helps us to identify the areas in which we could improve our performance management and to better understand the CSR expectations of stakeholders.

It is important to remember that Veolia Environnement has been selected for the Ethibel Sustainability Index every year without exception since 2002 and for the FTSE4Good Index since 2003. In 2010, Veolia was included again in the ASPI Eurozone Index, which listed us from 2004 to 2008.