RAA08 2008 activity report Outreach Workforce www.fondation.veolia.com development Environmental conservation 2008 activity2008 report • VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT CORPORATE FOUNDATION FOUNDATION VEOLIA ENVIRONNEMENT CORPORATE Corporate Foundation Tel.: +33 1 55 23 42 92 [email protected] Table of contents Editorial 2 Corporate Foundation Two-way interview 3 Governed by law no. 87–571 of July 23, 1987, amended version The Foundation: how it works 4 Sponsors and volunteers: Head offi ce the cornerstone of our action 6 36-38, avenue Kléber – 75116 Paris – France Veoliaforce 8 Mail address Emergency missions 10 6, esplanade Charles-de-Gaulle – 92751 Nanterre Cedex – France Development projects 12 Tel.: +33 1 55 23 42 92 – Fax: +33 1 55 23 42 90 E-mail: [email protected] Outreach 14 Development aid 16 to 20 Photos: Veolia Environnement photo library, the Foundation’s sponsors, project leaders, Veoliaforce volunteers, Helping children and Marc Vautrin, Veolia photo library/R. Humphries/Interlinks, Pro-Natura, Arago laboratory archives/Laure Andrieu, other vulnerable groups 21 to 25 C. Majani d’Inguimbert, Éditions Autrement, Éditions Bayard Jeunesse. Workforce development 26 Design – creation and production: Business activity 28 to 32 Editorial support: Doussot Conseil Counseling and training 33 to 35 Environmental conservation 36 Translation: alto Preserving natural heritage and biodiversity 38 to 40 Education and awareness-raising 41 to 43 A clear and transparent framework 44 This document was printed using plant-based inks on FSC™ certifi ed Satimat paper and on Satimat Green paper, made of 60% recycled fi bers and 40% FSC™ virgin fi bers. Satimat Green paper is FSC™, Index of projects 45 PCF, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 certifi ed. The FSC™ (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international nonprofi t organization constructively Index of sponsors 47 encouraging socially, environmentally and economically responsible initiatives in forest management, by making them distinctive and credible through a label on products sourced from certifi ed forests. In 2008 107 projects 22 missions A corporate foundation serving sustainable development The Veolia Environnement Foundation, created in May 2004 on the initiative of Henri Proglio, Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer of Veolia Environnement, and with an annual budget of €5 million, is one of France’s largest private foundations. It supports community- oriented projects contributing to sustainable development in France and other countries in three main areas: outreach, workforce development and environmental conservation. The originality of its approach is that each project is supported by a sponsor who is a Veolia employee, which contributes to a sense of purpose within the company and support for the values of solidarity and responsibility. The Foundation provides fi nancial assistance to begin with, but it also encourages volunteering of skills, thereby capitalizing on the varied expertise of Veolia Environnement employees. 2 Editorial “For Veolia Environnement, the Foundation is an extension of the commitment to the community on which its employees pride themselves.” HENRI PROGLIO HENRI PROGLIO Chairman of the Veolia Environnement Foundation A source of pride for all By extending the Veolia Environnement Foundation’s remit for another fi ve years, its Board of Trustees recognized its accomplishments since 2004, the year of its creation. The Foundation has supported over 700 projects, all sponsored by Veolia employees, in the fi elds of outreach, workforce development and environmental conservation, in France and the rest of the world. The Board wished, fi rst and foremost, to mark its determination to pursue and even broaden its action, despite – and even because of – the current period of crisis when the most vulnerable people are most at risk. The Foundation will continue to mobilize its employee sponsors around local initiatives while also encouraging employees to volunteer their skills on humanitarian missions, under the umbrella of Veoliaforce. Such missions will often be in very distant countries, and may involve responding to emergencies or working on more structural, major health and environmental problems. Our traditional partners – like the Red Cross, UNICEF, the French Development Agency (AFD) and the French Natural History Museum – will be able to continue relying on the dedication and expertise of these volunteers, professionals from every fi eld of our company’s business: water, waste management, energy and transportation. This dedication is indeed key to our everyday activity – our Chinese friends for instance can testify to the exceptional mobilization of Veolia Environnement employees around Veoliaforce after the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008. For Veolia Environnement, the Foundation is an extension of the commitment to the community on which its employees pride themselves.• Two-way interview 3 “The Foundation is taking on a new dimension while retaining its essence.” RAYMOND-MAX AUBERT THIERRY VANDEVELDE Executive Vice-President, Executive Offi cer Chairman of the Selection Committee The Veolia Environnement Foundation, T. V.: This alliance strengthens our overall several such overarching projects. One aims to founded in 2004, completed its fi rst action. Alongside our support for local eliminate cholera within four to fi ve years in fi ve-year term in 2008. How do you see initiatives, which are limited in terms of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its performance this year? partnership and duration, we will also be through a combined medical, epidemiological Raymond-Max Aubert: It has been a very focusing on overarching projects spanning and environmental approach. For this project, positive year of transition. Thanks to the several years. we work alongside the DRC’s Ministry of Public unwavering support of its sponsors in France Is the new, larger Veoliaforce already Health, the French Embassy, UNICEF, the NGO and other countries, the Foundation’s excellent operational? Solidarités, and the French Development performance prompted the founders to sign up Agency (AFD). Starting with an initial grant of T. V.: Yes. The network of volunteers, which for another fi ve years. They took the view that €390,000, the Foundation hopes to mobilize already consists of some 500 Veolia Water the current crisis, far from being an obstacle, fi ve to ten times that amount. employees, has been supplemented by gives us even greater motivation to support R.-M. A.: We might also mention a project 80 people from our Environmental Services projects in the fi elds of outreach, workforce recently launched in Nouakchott in Mauritania. division and 40 from our Energy division. We have development and environmental conservation. With the technical support of our waste not yet defi ned precisely the kind of expertise Even better, the Foundation has taken on a new management experts, GRET, an NGO that that will be contributed by our transportation dimension, as shown by the appointment as invents development models, has created a arm, but I am working on this with the division. Executive Offi ce of Thierry Vandevelde, founder “virtuous” system: some 1,000 or more women R.-M. A.: This idea of setting up a cross-division and coordinator of Veolia Waterforce, the recover and process waste plastic into pellets Veoliaforce, proposed by Henri Proglio, won the group’s emergency humanitarian arm. that they sell to local plastics manufacturing unqualifi ed approval of the division heads. They Thierry Vandevelde: The Foundation is now companies. all believed it would enhance the eff ectiveness supporting actions in which employee T. V.: Another important project steered by and continuity of our humanitarian action. volunteers use their expertise to respond to nonprofi t Sky Island Alliance aims to preserve a emergency situations around the world. In this You mentioned overarching projects. land archipelago in Arizona, United States, and way, alongside employee sponsoring of local What do you mean by this and can you Northwest Mexico. This area is an important initiatives, we provide a framework for already cite some examples? and very threatened reservoir of biodiversity. volunteering of skills in emergencies. This R.-M. A.: They are projects spanning several The partnership should bring into play NGOs approach was fi rst proposed by Veolia Water years with the capacity to attract other and American and Mexican universities, the US but now encompasses the group’s other areas partners and muster substantial resources, Environmental Protection Agency and Veolia of expertise under the name of Veoliaforce. starting from a modest initial investment. employee volunteers in America. What are the advantages of this extension We have already launched similar projects – R.-M. A.: Other projects are under way, but of the Foundation’s activities ? I am thinking here of the creation of the I would like to emphasize the fact that the R.-M. A.: A more consistent approach. The Alliance pour le Développement (Alliance for Foundation will continue to support local Foundation was already fi nancing equipment for Development), where we work alongside the projects sponsored by Veolia employees, as Veoliaforce. Bringing all our sponsorship activities French Ministries of the Economy and Foreign the Chairman Henri Proglio has always wished. together in the Foundation is a guarantee of Aff airs, the French Development Agency (AFD), In this way, the Foundation is strengthening consistency and good management. Our Sanofi -aventis and the Institut