Limiting our impacts
Combating climate change
More than 60% of the waste treated by Veolia Environmental Services goes to landfill.
The decomposition of the waste generates biogas that contains between 40% and 60% of methane.
By mixing with air in the atmosphere, this biogas contributes to climate change, all the more so as methane has a high global warming potential.
In 2008, fugitive methane emissions accounted for nearly 25% of Veolia Environnement's direct GHG emissions. Accordingly, biogas has to be collected as much as possible in order to reduce its environmental impact and ensure it is converted into energy, whether heat, electricity or fuel.
To do so, Veolia Environmental Services has developed cutting-edge techniques at landfills for biogas collection (intermediate waste coverage, degree-of-conversion degassing, etc.) and treatment (flaring, conversion into electricity by engines or gas turbines). These techniques have allowed biogas recovery to be increased.
In 2008, changes occurred to the models (LandGEM, Tier2, GasSim, Ademe and NGERS in Australia) that enable the production of methane in landfills to be calculated. In addition, Veolia Environnement's environmental reporting scope was extended to all landfills in operation, and not only those where Veolia Environmental Services is in charge of capital investments. As a result, the 2007 data was updated in order to better evaluate the change in performance of facilities under Veolia Environmental Services management.
By consequence, the 2007 result was adjusted to 48.5% (from 50.2%) and the 2008 collection rate came to 49.6%, up by 1 percentage point from 2007.
This change is not significant in view of the uncertainty relating to differences in the design and utilization of the various models (utilization of default or calculated factors for the methane yield, type of waste, oxidation factor, or even the direct collection rate, etc.).
To reduce the level of uncertainty, Veolia Environmental Services has launched research programs on:
- the study of methane generation models in view of proposing a single model that would enable data from all sites throughout the world to be consolidated;
- the direct measurement of fugitive methane emissions using spectroscopic detection techniques.
Veolia Environmental Services undertakes to press ahead with its work aimed at optimizing biogas collection and introducing homogeneous indicators and performance targets by 2011.
In order to reflect more accurately its efforts aimed at reducing the carbon intensity of heat produced(1) by its combustion facilities, in 2008 Veolia Energy- Dalkia included all its facilities in the calculation of the indicator (the scope of coverage was formerly restricted to facilities of more than 20 MW).
In 2008, Veolia Energy-Dalkia managed 110 TWh of input energy, or nearly 17% more than in 2007.
Direct CO2 emissions grew by just 12%, up from 21 to 23.6 million metric tons of CO2.
The 1.7% reduction in the "carbon content" per thermal MWh produced is mainly explained by the increased use of renewable energy.
(1) CO2 emissions related to electricity production are evaluated on the basis of the energy mix of the business unit.
Environmental health
Managing dioxin emissions from waste treated in incinerators is a major public health issue. As there is no universally scientifically accepted criterion, to measure its performance, Veolia Environmental Services has adopted the most stringent regulatory yardstick, i.e., the one set by the European Union.
In 2008, Veolia Environmental Services remained above its target of 95%. Only two of its 77 facilities have emissions in excess of 0.1 ng/Nm3 and are located in Asia, where regulations are less stringent.
Sanitary quality of drinking water
To assess the quality of the water it supplies throughout the world, Veolia Water has created a new indicator based on the chemical and bacteriological parameters deemed priorities by the WHO.
In 2008, Veolia Water was able to calculate this indicator for 91.1% of the total population it serves throughout the world, representing a clear improvement of 12.3 percentage points from 2007. The target is to adapt our tools and organization to achieve rapidly a 100% coverage rate.
With respect to the population for which it was possible to calculate this indicator, 96.1% of the population served by Veolia Water benefited from water of excellent or high quality, of which 92.9% were provided with water of excellent quality, up 5.9 percentage points from 2007.
Comments on the quality of distributed drinking water
By Ernst & Young
For the second year in a row, the company continued to innovate by reporting on quality classes of the drinking water it supplies throughout the world, measured in comparison with the thresholds of five parameters recommended by the WHO.
This indicator provides a measure of the exposure to risk of populations and of the operator's level of competency. In addition to the frequency of noncompliance incidents, which is usually monitored by the profession, this indicator also measures the length and intensity of these incidents. The scope covered by usable data (91.1% of the population served in 2008) could be further extended.
Limiting air pollution
Graphics : 1, 2
Waste incineration plant emissions per metric ton of waste treated declined further due to the improvement in the performance of flue gas treatment systems.
In 2008, the significant improvement in emissions of particulate matter, down 24%, but also of SOx (sulfur oxide) and of NOx (nitrogen oxide), down 12%, was due in particular to the better maintenance of bag filters (particulate matter) and the introduction of NOx removal systems (such as DENOX).
Furthermore, the company is working on enhancing the reliability of an indicator for measuring air pollutants (in particular NOx and SOx) on a scope that will take into account other major sources of environmental impact (in particular, energy production).
Veolia Transport continued its efforts to reduce polluting emissions from its fleet of passenger transportation vehicles. With respect to the scope of reference set in 2005 (73% of the fleet of buses and coaches), the targets set for reducing emissions in 2008 were topped: -17% for carbon monoxide (CO), -23% for hydrocarbons (HC), and -25% for particles.
These results are explained by the extent to which the fleet of vehicles has been renewed, notably by Euro 5 vehicles that have performance levels exceeding regulatory requirements.
In 2008, Veolia Transport defined a new scope of reference, covering 89% of its fleet of buses and coaches and has set new targets for reducing emissions by end 2011: -8% for carbon monoxide (CO), -24% for hydrocarbons (HC), and -27% for particles.
Limiting the discharge of pollutants into water
In 2008, the pollution abatement rate expressed as BOD5 remained stable at 90.7%. To reflect more accurately the performance of current types of treatment, a composite indicator that takes into account and weights the different forms of pollution(2) was developed by Veolia Water, based on the model used by the French river basin agencies to analyze impacts.
In 2008, the overall wastewater treatment efficiency rate stood at 80.9%, in particular due to a better inventory of polluting loads for all parameters and an improvement in treatment performance.
From 2009 onward, Veolia Water undertakes to maintain the overall wastewater treatment efficiency of municipal wastewater treatment plants with capacity in excess of 50,000 population equivalent above 80%.
(2) Five-day Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and suspended solids (SS).
