An approach of shared progress with and for our stakeholders

The opening up of the company to its stakeholders is at the very heart of the Group’s corporate purpose.

Veolia is committed to working with all its stakeholders and interacts regularly with them at a local, regional, national and international level. 

This opening of the Group to its stakeholders goes much further than a mere dialogue. The aim is to construct together useful solutions that will have a strong positive impact for all concerned.

 

We have chosen a name for this approach of shared progress with and for our stakeholders: 

La démarche de progrès partagé, avec et pour nos parties prenantes de Veolia

Our Stakeholders


The Resourcing Together approach: three major challenges

Listening and exchanging

To understand the expectations and needs of our stakeholders, to identify different viewpoints and to have a fair and complete vision that enables us to adjust our arbitrations and to achieve relevant solutions.

Co-construction and seeking solutions

To work with our stakeholders to construct useful solutions that will have a strong positive impact for all concerned.
To integrate, whenever possible and required, certain stakeholders into certain decision-making processes.

Commitment and sincerity with regard to the impact created

To fulfil our commitment and consult our stakeholders, in accordance with Veolia’s corporate purpose, in order to account for the multiple impacts of our business activities.

Models of innovative relationships with our stakeholders

Veolia’s “Critical Friends” Committee

Veolia created in 2013 a committee of “Critical Friends” with a view to constructing a forum for collective reflection. The aim is to give the Group’s top management privileged access to the viewpoint of external observers who are personalities from civil associations, public institutions, the academic world and corporate partners, in order to provide the Group with outsiders’ insights and independent opinions concerning strategic issues linked to its corporate purpose and social, societal and environmental responsibility, so as to aid and assist its continuing progress.

Find further information on:

• The role and missions of the Critical Friends Committee
• Potential initiatives that Veolia will share with its stakeholders: “And tomorrow, double or nothing for the environment?" and Green Mirror

The Veolia Institute, thinking together to illuminate the future

To contribute to the analysis of emerging issues at the crossroads of the environment and society, the Veolia Group created the Institute in 2001. Conceived as a platform for exchange and debate, the Institute brings together and disseminates the experience and expertise of various actors: researchers, public sector actors, NGOs, international organisations and companies. Through its conference-debates, its magazine, Facts Reports, and working groups, it aims to:

  • propose forward-thinking reflection on subjects related to the environment and sustainable development;
  • raise awareness of associated issues, through the dissemination of knowledge, among decision-makers and the general public;
  • and enrich the Veolia Group’s vision of the future by listening to its stakeholders.

Find out more about: 

The Veolia Institute 

Veolia’s authenticity matrix, a tool for listening and for dialogue

The rapid changes in market trends and the diversity of the geographical contexts in which Veolia operates create the need for continuous dialogue and exchange with all the Group’s stakeholders, whether they are local, national or international. 
By maintaining contact with stakeholders from civil society (NGOs, social entrepreneurs, consumers’ associations, participants in the world of solidarity, university lecturers etc.), Veolia sustains lasting relationships with all its stakeholders, in a search for dialogue and joint construction. 
In 2020, with a view to determining the Group’s strategic challenges and the expectations of its stakeholders, Veolia conducted a survey among its external and internal stakeholders (i.e., the Group’s customers, competitors, suppliers, end consumers, regulatory authorities, local residents, associations and collaborators) in order to update the relevance analysis of its CSR challenges. 
The aim was to assess the perceptions of the orientations adopted by the Group, and more especially those concerning the environmental, societal and social objectives of its multiple performance options, in order to take these into account in its decision-making and governance processes.

Find further information in:

The Integrated Report 2020-2021
URD 2020 

+1, the ecology turned into actions

“+1: putting ecology into action” is an approach initiated by Veolia, in partnership with La REcyclerie de Paris and the journal dealing with future perspectives Usbek & Rica, directed with the support of the Comité 21.
This approach for encouraging dialogue brings together 50 of Veolia’s stakeholders (planet, customers, shareholders, employees, company, etc.) for three events at La Recyclerie in September, October and December, so that they can work together in a truly open atmosphere. The aim is “to get to know each other better so as to work together better” on the “putting words into action” phase in terms of ecological transformation.
This approach will be tested in various geographical regions and environments, before being deployed on a larger scale subsequently.

 

Find HERE further information about +1, the ecology turned into actions 

Veolia & third places dedicated to eco-responsibility

Veolia supports the territories in which it operates and participates in their economic, social and environmental development by favouring, in conjunction with its local partners, the setting up of third places dedicated to citizens’ commitments, where the ecological transformation can be organised locally.
Since 2018, Veolia has in fact worked on the deployment of this innovative model by proposing a third place in its contracts, when relevant. The aim is to mobilise its stakeholders (customers, private citizens, NGOs, sub-contractors, etc.) in support of the environmental and societal aims of the contract, and also to encourage the local population’s commitment on subjects such as the reduction of waste, the preservation of resources and of biodiversity, together with the fight against climate change. 
Several projects are currently being developed, both in France and internationally.

Veolia as a partner in the Comité 21 think-tank “Companies and stakeholders: new approaches for resilience and good governance”.

Comité 21, in collaboration with the association Des Enjeux et Des Hommes (“ Challenges for Mankind”), published in February 2021 an international benchmark reference document for dialogue with stakeholders, followed in June 2021 by the following report: “Dialogue with stakeholders to improve resilience”, which focuses on the trends in terms of dialogue with stakeholders in France, and the link between such practices and companies’ degree of resilience. 

Supported by two surveys conducted on line with companies and stakeholders, and by interviews and think-tanks studies, this report replies to numerous questions, such as: what is each party’s motivation when entering into a dialogue? What is the role of stakeholders in recent regulations? What is the level of maturity of French companies? What axes for improvement can be used? Does dialogue between stakeholders improve companies’ resilience?

Veolia supports and contributes to the exploration of the relationship between companies and their stakeholders. The aim is to redefine and enhance the important role of this relationship not only for companies’ economic and financial performance, but also for their social, societal, environmental and commercial contributions to society.