Our history

Supplying water to towns and cities

Did you know that in 18th century Paris you would see water-carriers who delivered water around the capital? It was only in the 19th century that new techniques made it possible to run a water supply direct to individual lodgings. Big cities like Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse were all looking for ways to update their water supply systems.
On December 14, 1853, Napoléon III authorized the creation of the Compagnie Générale des Eaux. It won its first public service water distribution concession in Lyon. Other French cities followed, including Nantes, Nice and Paris its suburbs. 1880 was the year the Compagnie first established a toehold outside France. This signaled the beginning of its international expansion, first in Venice, then Constantinople and Porto. In 1884 in Reims, France, it expanded its activities to include treating wastewater for the first time.

Fighting urban squalor

The 19th century saw the dawn of the so-called hygienist movement. In attempting to stem epidemics and fight the squalor that characterized life in many towns and cities, hygienists faced a new challenge: how to manage the ever growing volume of waste. 
It was an era when rag-pickers combed the streets to recover waste and garbage. In Rouen, France, the Soulier brothers established their company in 1870. That same year, François Grandjouan was tasked by the city of Nantes to “clear the streets of sewage and filth and convert it into manure.” Remember these names, as we will meet them again a century later.

Making travel in the city easier

Still in the 19th century, public transportation was evolving: the omnibus slowly gave way to the tram, faster and more comfortable. This in turn encouraged the development of mechanically powered traction, first with steam, then compressed air, and finally electricity. In 1875, the Compagnie Générale Française de Tramways began operating its first lines in Le Havre, Nancy, Marseille and Bordeaux. 
Several decades later, in 1912, as private car ownership was growing, Charles Blum founded the Compagnie Générale d’Entreprises Automobiles, initially with the aim of running a fleet of commercial vehicles. In 1919 it entered the market for household waste collection in Paris.

Saving energy

Let us now skip forward a couple of decades, to the Aisne department in north-eastern France. In 1937, the hospital in Villiers-Saint-Denis asked a company called Chauffage Service to manage and maintain its heating system, and provide guaranteed temperatures. This was the very first energy performance contract.

Combining a range of expertise

But let us return to the subject of water. In 1953, the Compagnie Générale des Eaux celebrated its centenary. With a 10,000-kilometer network, it provided drinking water to eight million people in France alone.
Five years later, it won a water services maintenance contract covering almost all the American NATO military bases in France. During this period, the Compagnie also started to expand its range of expertise, offering new maintenance and energy services.
This was the beginning of what today we call integrated facilities management services. This approach allows industrial customers to benefit from a very wide range of in-house services, from utility management — water, electricity, steam or gas — to soft services such as building cleaning and waste management

Setting ourselves an ambitious goal

In 1998, the Compagnie Générale des Eaux was renamed Vivendi. The following year saw the creation of Vivendi Environnement, grouping together all the environmental services activities: water, cleaning, energy services and transport. Vivendi Environnement was floated on the Paris stock market in July 2000, joining the CAC 20 in August 2001.

In 2003, Vivendi Environnement was renamed Veolia Environnement. Two years later, the Veolia brand was applied to all the group’s activities: Veolia Water, Veolia Environmental Services, Veolia Energy and Veolia Transport.

The following year, against a backdrop of the COP21 Paris Climate Conference, Veolia renewed its commitment to fighting the climate crisis. As part of its drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Group focused extensively on the circular economy, implementation of the polluter pays principle, and working to cut methane emissions.
The 2010s also saw a number of major projects delivered around the world: inauguration of the world’s largest sludge treatment and recovery plant  in Hong Kong, development of renewable biomass energy in Hungary, and the creation of Graphitech, in partnership with EDF, specializing in dismantling nuclear reactors.