An Analysis of Sustainability in Veolia's Waste Management Strategies

This report examines the sustainability practices of Veolia, focusing on waste management within Australia and globally. It begins by defining sustainability in a business context and highlighting Veolia's role in addressing environmental and social issues. The report explores waste management challenges, including scarcity of raw materials and pollution, and discusses specific issues faced by Veolia in Australia, such as urban growth. It identifies Veolia's major competitors and presents a sustainability and materiality matrix to analyze stakeholder impact. The report provides recommendations for Veolia, including employee training, industry awareness, employee motivation, and promoting waste-to-energy facilities. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of sustainability in Veolia's core strategies and highlights the value of waste management services. The report uses the provided sources and incorporates the author's insights to present a well-rounded view of Veolia's sustainability efforts.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY IN VEOLIA
Sustainability in Veolia
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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2.0 Notion of Sustainability
2.1 Role of Veolia in Sustainability
As the definition for sustainable business practices evolve day by day, the sustainable
business concept is here to stay. The innovative nature of the sustainable business practices is
highly important for the different business organizations not only in Australia but across the
business world. The definition of sustainability has been evolving with time and the current
definition states sustainability as something that is a profit driven corporate response to different
kinds of the environmental as well as social issues (Tukker and Tischner 2017).
2.2 Justification
The role of Veolia in the application of the sustainable business measures is highly
important for the management of the business. There is a high requirement to ensure that the
company fills up all the different eventualities required to make the most of the business
organization. Sustainability must be addressed in a special and proper manner so that it can have
no negative impacts. The company has innovated different process and methods that can easily
address the following problems and ensure business success (veolia.com/anz 2019). The role of
the company is quite justified in this case as they are up for facing different sustainable
challenges and address the issues of waste management and management of different kinds of
pollution.
3.0 Sustainability of Veolia in Waste Management
3.1 Sustainability in Waste Management

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There has been a scarcity of different kinds of the raw materials which have led to a rise
in the price of the energy resources of the globe. In addition to that there has been a huge rise in
the water, air and soil pollution which poses risk to the sustainable development of the globe
(Tukker and Tischner 2017). The management of waste is closely associated with these
problems.
3.2 Worldwide Issues
Waste disposal issues and the problems with pollution have turned out to be a global
problem in today’s modern world. Different parts of the world are involved in different issues
that threatens the existence of the mankind in the future. In Europe and North America, there has
been a rising trend of the use of the raw materials and energy which has led to the rise in the
emission of the greenhouse gases causing a threat to the atmosphere of the world. Waste is one
of the huge an d growing problem across the world (Schaltegger Hansen and Lüdeke-Freund
2016). As far as Australia is concerned, the waste management facilities available is insufficient
compared to the need of the market (giz.de 2019). As far as Veolia is concerned, it can be
pointed out that the company is setting up a waste management facility. However, considering
the massive amount of wastes the country emits, the company needs to set up more waste
management facilities.
3.3 Sustainability Issues faced by Veolia in Australia
Urban Growth continues to be a key challenge in Australia. The need for the growth of
the city along with the need for cleaner and safer energy, free supply of drinking water and also
the effective management of the waste resource is important for the country (Schaltegger and
Wagner 2017).

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3.4 Competitors
The major rivals of Veolia in Australia are the different companies who are similarly
engaged in waste management and sustainability enhancement systems in the country. Some of
the major rivals of the company in the country are Clean Harbors, PSC, Tradebe, Gem Chem Inc.
and Safety-Kleen (veolia.com/anz 2019).
4. Sustainability and Materiality matrix in Veolia:
Sustainability in Veolia:
Sustainability is a very crucial component of the core strategies of Veolia Environment
S.A. which is inherited by Veolia Australia and New Zealand. The sustainability initiatives of
Veolia Australia and New Zealand are well aligned with the business areas in which the
company operates. The services provided by the company includes recycling and waste
services, hazardous wastes, industrial wastes services, water services, energy services,
household and residents and integrated environmental services. The following are the main
sustainability operations of Veolia Australia and New Zealand:
Energy services and sustainability:
The aim of the energy sustainability services is to ensure increasing in the availability of
the energy for consumption to consumers and reduction in emission of global warming gases like
carbon dioxide. The company in order to measure its achievement of environmental
sustainability limits, has set targets to reduce emission of carbon dioxide. The company provides
energy asset management services to the energy providing companies to maintain their assets,
thus reducing less wastes during operations.

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Materiality matrix in Veolia:
The materiality matrix is a matrix which studies the impact of the external stakeholders
on the company which is run by the management and employees, together referred to as internal
stakeholders. The two versions of the materiality matrix are the old or the GRI G3 guidelines and
the new guidance issued by GRI. The old school version of the materiality matrix considers that
the external stakeholders can impact the internal stakeholders or the company. The new school
version considers that the companies have capacities to impact the external stakeholders. The
company is suffering from competitive and sustainability issues. As far as stakeholders; issues
are concerned, the company is under continuous pressure to meet the requirements of customers
in terms of products, investors in terms of ROI and governments in terms of sustainability and
waste management. The modern version also considers that the actions of the stakeholders are
directed by the company. For example, the company namely, Veolia announces it dividends
earned are high, the investors (external stakeholders) responds by investing in the shares of the
company.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Chart Title
Impat of Veolia on stakeholders Impact on Veolia by stakeholders
Figure 1. Graph showing materiality matrix of Veolia

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(Source: Author)
5. Recommendations:
The following are the recommendations which can be put before the management of
Veolia in the light of the above discussion:
Training of employees:
Veolia AU and NZ should train its employees to encourage higher levels of
sustainability. This is because it can be pointed out that level of sustainability embraced by a
company is dependent on the skills of the employees to operate in sustainable ways. The apex
management form the strategies. However, the role of the employees in executing the strategies
cannot be undermined. Thus, it can be pointed out that is very important for the employees to
have to deep knowledge about sustainable operations in order to operate sustainably. It can also
be pointed out that since the market is undergoing continuous transformation, there always
remains a wide gap between the actual competencies of employees and the expected
competencies which employees should have in order to embrace sustainability. As far as Veolia
is concerned, it can be pointed that training of employees would enable the company to embrace
higher levels of sustainability and waste management.
Spreading of awareness about sustainability throughout the industry:
It can also be recommended that the company should spread awareness about waste-
management throughout the industrial sector in Australia. The company should collaborate with
companies across diverse industries like automobile and information technology. This would
enable Veolia to get access to their assets and expertise in waste-management which would in
turn boost its own waste-management levels. For example, the company should collaborate with

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companies like Telstra from the information and communication technology sector and the Coca
Cola Amatil in the food and beverage sector. The company should aim to partner with the
leading players of each sector. These collaborations would provide company more opportunities
to carry about innovations in sustainability. These collaborations would ensure higher levels of
sustainability in entire Australia and New Zealand.
Motivating employees to embrace sustainability:
Veolia Australia and New Zealand should adopt the strategy of incentivizing adoption of
sustainability among the employees in order to ensure achievement of overall sustainability. For
example, the company can establish the system of providing incentives to employees to consume
or waste the least amount of paper in the office for a period of 6 months. Similarly, the company
can provide incentive for employees owning cars using car pool or public transport. Similarly,
the company can motivate employees to participate in activities like transforming biodegradable
wastes into manure to fertilize the plants present within the company premises. These steps
would motivate employees to adopt sustainable ways.
Equity and the common interest
The sustainable development of the organization is not the only requirement of the
organization as because the organization needs to ensure different kinds of the changes to ensure
sustainability socially. The management of the company can spread awareness about the waste-
management of the environment and ensure the use of the most modern technologies to spread
business awareness. The proper management of the ecological wastes can help the organization
to play a suitable role in waste management process. There are cases where the discharge of hot
water by thermal water plants disturbs the ecological features. This can be stopped in a proper

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manner to ensure success. The traditional technology use must be avoided to ensure success and
sustainability.
Developmental and Strategic Objectives
The developmental of the strategic objectives will ensure an overall enviornemnt and
developmental goals that will be easy to ensure business success. The presence of the sustainable
developmental goals can ensure business success and thus the management of Veolia has
concentrated on achieving results based on a specific system. This includes the likes of;
a. Revival of the growth plans through sustainable policies
b. Change in the quality of the growth plans
c. Meeting of the different kinds of the essential needs
d. Ensuring the presence of the sustainable policies fits the needs of the people in a
sustainable manner
e. Conservation and enhancement of the resource base in the most appropriate manner
f. Addressing the environmental and economic needs of the decision making process
Promote setting up of waste to energy facility:
Veolia Australia and New Zealand should promote setting up of waste to energy
transformation plants throughout Australia and New Zealand. Veolia Australia and New Zealand
provides wastes to energy facility which is one of its newest offerings. The study already reveals
that the company in order to convert large masses of wastes to energy has set up a new state of
art plant which would allow generation of 40 MW of energy which would be capable of running
around 50000 houses in Australia. However, it can be pointed out that considering the size of the
Australian economy, it can be pointed out that the one waste to energy conversion plant is not

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sufficient. This means that the company should put up more plants of its kind. The plants would
drive environmental sustainability at nation and local levels.
Waste to energy facility:
Veolia Australia and New Zealand provides wastes to energy facility which is one of its
newest offerings. The company in order to convert large masses of wastes to energy has set up a
new state of art plant which would allow generation of 40 MW of energy which would be
capable of running around 50000 houses in Australia. The plant would drive environmental
sustainability at nation and local levels.
6. Conclusion:
It can be concluded from the above discussion that sustainability is a pivotal component
in the core business operational strategies of Veolia. The fact is evident from the fact that the
very services which Veolia markets contributes sustainability in diverse bodies which include
business firms and government bodies. It can also be concluded that company promotes
sustainability by providing waste management services in other energy companies. It can
finally be recommended that the company should train its employees and spread awareness about
sustainability.

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