Through its 2025 TNFD Report, Veolia demonstrates how nature-related considerations are progressively being integrated into the Group's governance, strategy, risk management, and investment decisions.
The report reflects a significant evolution in corporate reporting practices: nature is no longer viewed solely as an environmental concern, but as a fundamental driver of resilience, business performance, and long-term value creation.
Nature Is Becoming a Strategic Business Priority
As companies face growing exposure to climate change, natural resource scarcity, and biodiversity loss, expectations from investors, regulators, and other stakeholders are evolving rapidly. Against this backdrop, the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) framework helps organizations identify, assess, and manage their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks, and opportunities. Released in late 2023, the initiative was launched jointly by businesses and financial institutions to fully integrate nature into economic decision-making.
As one of the first French companies to publish a TNFD report, Veolia's 2025 TNFD Report demonstrates how these issues are now embedded across its governance, strategy, business model, and risk management processes. More than a biodiversity report, the document outlines how the Group has established a global framework for managing nature-related issues.
Understanding Veolia's Relationship with Nature
Veolia fundamentally depends on ecosystem services that only nature can provide: the water cycle for drinking water production, microbial activity for wastewater treatment, sustainably sourced biomass for energy production, and natural biological processes that support several of its core businesses.
At the same time, the Group helps reduce the environmental pressures generated by its customers. Through pollution treatment, decarbonization, and resource regeneration, Veolia addresses three of the five major drivers of biodiversity loss identified by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This unique position enables the Group to transform its dependence on nature into an opportunity to help protect it.
A Structured Assessment of Impacts, Dependencies, Risks, and Opportunities
To align with TNFD recommendations, Veolia conducted an assessment based on the LEAP methodology (Locate, Evaluate, Assess, Prepare). This process enabled the Group to identify its dependencies on ecosystem services, its potential impacts on nature, and the risks and opportunities associated with its operations and value chain.
Among the outcomes, biodiversity loss has now been incorporated into the Group's enterprise-wide risk mapping. The assessment also highlighted specific issues related to strategic resources, particularly biomass sourcing.
In parallel, the double materiality assessment carried out as part of the 2025 Sustainability Report identified 42 material impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs), including 21 environmental topics spanning decarbonization, pollution remediation, and resource regeneration. Among these, the Group identified two key IROs directly related to protecting nature and biodiversity.
GreenUp 24–27: The Strategic Framework for Ecological Transformation
All of the work presented in the report is part of GreenUp 24–27, Veolia's strategic transformation program. Its central ambition is to reconcile human progress with environmental protection bydeveloping solutions that simultaneously address climate change, resource preservation, and ecosystem protection.
The plan is built around three strategic priorities:
- Decarbonizing activities and territories;
- Cleaning up polluted environments;
- Regenerating resources.
Veolia presents these three priorities as complementary and directly linked to reducing the major pressures affecting biodiversity.
Protecting Water Resources and Regenerating Materials
Water resources represent one of the most significant material issues identified by Veolia. The Group views its water withdrawals simultaneously as a dependency, an impact, and a potential risk, particularly in regions facing water stress. To address this challenge, Veolia has developed a strategy centered on treated wastewater reuse, desalination, improved network performance, and collaboration with local watershed stakeholders.
This strategy includes a target of preserving 1.5 billion cubic meters of freshwater by 2027.
Resource regeneration forms the second pillar of this ambition. Through recycling, material recovery, and energy recovery activities, Veolia aims to reduce reliance on virgin raw materials while accelerating circular economy models. This strategy includes the recycling of plastics, metals, paper, cardboard, and batteries.
Cleaning Up Pollution to Protect Ecosystems
Veolia continues to expand its capabilities in the treatment of emerging pollutants and hazardous waste. By 2027, the Group aims to treat 9 million metric tons of hazardous waste and pollutants.
At the same time, to minimize the environmental footprint of its own operations, Veolia applies the mitigation hierarchy—Avoid, Reduce, Compensate —and implements action plans at sites presenting the most significant ecological challenges. In 2025, 154 environmentally sensitive sites were subject to dedicated monitoring under this approach. The Group also targets having 95% of its sites free from phytosanitary products and 95% managed under ecological management practices by 2027.
Innovation, Expertise, and Value Chain Engagement
Veolia operates 26 laboratories and research centers, employing more than 645 researchers and experts. Annual spending on research and innovation exceeded €194 million. Research focuses include advanced water treatment technologies, hazardous waste recovery, recycling strategic metals from batteries, and the use of artificial intelligence to improve operational efficiency.
The Group is also working to engage its value chain in this transformation. Its responsible procurement policy includes a commitment to zero deforestation for forest biomass supplies under Veolia's operational control. In 2025, all of the wood biomass used by the Group was fully traceable, with 87% already certified. The objective is to achieve 100% certification by 2027.
An Integrated Governance Model for Nature-Related Issues
The integration of environmental priorities relies on a governance structure involving every level of Veolia's leadership.
The Board of Directors oversees the Group's strategic direction, including its multi-performance objectives covering economic, social, societal, and environmental dimensions. Several specialized committees review nature-related topics, including the Purpose Committee, the Compensation Committee, and the Audit and Accounts Committee.
Material nature-related impacts, risks, opportunities, and associated objectives were reviewed by these governing bodies before being approved by the Board of Directors as part of the GreenUp strategic program.
This governance framework is supported by the Executive Management team, the Executive Committee, and an operational network of more than fifty biodiversity coordinators across the Group's various business units. These experts are responsible for implementing biodiversity action plans and monitoring environmental commitments on the ground.
Nature-related performance is also incorporated into the variable compensation of the Group's executives and managers, illustrating Veolia's commitment to embedding environmental performance at the heart of its management and decision-making systems.
