Veolia Environmental Services North America: Weathering the Economic Storm In theSpotlight In this unstable economy, Veolia has taken action on cost-cutting initiatives and streamlining processes to better serve customers, while never letting up on their high standards for quality and safety.Veolia ES Solid Wast e services more than 1.7 million residential, municipal, commercial and industrial customers in North America. Photos courtesy oVeolia Environmental Services North America. As Seen In
Transcript
8/3/2019 Veolia Environmental Services North America
In this unstable economy, Veolia has taken action on cost-cutting initiatives and streamlining
processes to better serve customers, while never letting up on their high standards for quality
and safety.
Veolia ES Solid Waste services more than 1.7 million residential,municipal, commercial and industrial customers in North America.Photos courtesy o Veolia Environmental Services North America.
As Seen In
8/3/2019 Veolia Environmental Services North America
municipal and oshore acilities to keep them in peak operating condition.
Veolia ES Industrial Services’ expertise, equipment and range o services have
developed this company into the largest industrial cleaning company within
North America.
The Veolia Environmental Services group is the largest waste services companyin the world and the only global manager o liquid, solid, non-hazardous and
hazardous waste, onsite waste processing, industrial cleaning and process
maintenance, and recycling, recovery and disposal or both the public and
private sectors. Its parent company, Veolia Environnement, is the worldwide
reerence in environmental services. With more than 313,000 employees in
74 countries, Veolia Environnement recorded annual revenues o almost $50
billion in 2009.
VESNA’s business units provide services throughout the U.S., Canada and
the Caribbean rom over 300 locations across 28 states, our Canadian provinces,
Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.
Weathering the Economic StormLike the rest o the industry, VESNA’s revenues were down slightly in
2009, results that refect reduced waste volumes and lower prices or recycled
commodities, as well as the slowdown in maintenance activities and new
projects by customers who are also suering rom the recession. In spite o
this, the company was able to deliver higher cash fow in 2009 than 2008.
VESNA also gained more customers by cross-selling services and strengthening
relationships with key clients.
According to Richard Burke, President and CEO o VESNA, the company
was able to achieve these results because the recession has made them better
business people. “It orced us to take action on cost-cutting initiatives and to
streamline our processes to better serve our customers, while never letting up
on our high standards or quality and saety. We challenged everyone to work
harder and smarter and look or ways to reduce costs without compromising on
our high service standards.”
A number o the initiatives that were already underway beore the recessiongained traction during 2009 and helped
VESNA to weather the economic storm.
Through strategic supplier partnerships,
its joint purchasing program continues
to generate signicant savings in
major expense areas such as travel, uel
and maintenance, oce supplies and
equipment, telephone and shipping, to
list just a ew.
VESNA also continues to invest in the
training and development o its employees
through Campus Veolia North America,
the proessional development arm o Veolia.
The Campus Veolia program was launched
several years ago in Europe and was
identied as a global best practice or the
ongoing development o Veolia employees
at every level o the organization. In North
America, Campus Veolia was opened in2008. The campus sta is dedicated to
developing and administering training
and certication programs or employees
across all our Veolia Environnement
businesses (waste, water, energy and transportation management) and is rooted
in the belie that “Veolia trains Veolia” and continuing education opportunities
should be available to all employees companywide.
“At the end o the day, Veolia is a service company and our mission is to
deliver value-added services that protect people and improve the environment.
We rely heavily on the quality and expertise o our people to meet this goal.
Without the best and the brightest on our team, we cannot help our customers
manage their most pressing environmental challenges,” says Burke.
Challenges and AchievementsTo remain competitive, Veolia ES Solid Waste, whose ootprint lays
primarily across the Midwest (but also includes acilities in southern, western
and northeastern states) works hard to build partnerships with other regional
players in markets where they do not have operations. The company also
leverages the capabilities and relationships its sister companies (Veolia Water,Veolia Energy and Veolia Transportation) have across North America. Says
Burke, “This, combined with our truly integrated service oering, allows us to
pursue business opportunities that are national in scope.”
Veolia maintains active landll gas-to-energy programs at 10 o its landlls and iscommitted to expanding landll gas use to additional sites.
As Seen In
8/3/2019 Veolia Environmental Services North America
well-positioned to help organizations achieve this
goal. There is no other waste company in North
America that can oer the ull complement o
Veolia’s environmental solutions. From solid waste
management to hazardous materials treatment to
industrial maintenance services, we can manage
all types o waste streams throughout the entire
recovery or disposal cycle.”
Giving Back to the CommunityVESNA also supports local community
outreach programs through its business
locations, encouraging employees to give back
to the communities they serve. At a national
level, the company supports not-or-prot
organizations through the Veolia Environnement
(VE) Foundation. The VE Foundation, a global
program, supports community-oriented projects
contributing to sustainable development, with a
special ocus on outreach, workorce development
and environmental conservation. The VE
Foundation also osters and encourages employee
volunteering, providing the expertise o its
employees to the associations or institutions active
in the areas o emergency aid and humanitarian
development.
Examples o recent VE Foundation grant
recipients include the Northern Illinois Food Bank,
Hawley Environmental School (Milwaukee) and
Glenwood School or Boys and Girls (St. Charles,IL) in the community outreach category. In the
workorce development category, the company
recently awarded OAI, Inc., a non-prot training
and education agency in Chicago, a $33,000 grant
v e sc nh ac: Wh h ecc s
20 WasteAdvantage Magazine July 2010
Veolia ES Industrial Services provides a complete range o maintenance and cleaning services or industrial, municipal and oshore acilities to keep them in peak operating condition.
On behal o the VE Foundation, Veolia Environmental Services North
America (VESNA) recently donated more than $30,000 to OAI,Inc., a Chicago-based non-prot agency committed to training andworkorce development. Pictured rom let to right are: Jim Bell,president and CEO, Veolia ES Technical Solutions; Tipawan Reed,president, OAI; Marguerite Ulrich, VP o human resources, Veolia ES
Technical Solutions; and Richard Burke, president and CEO, VESNA.
8/3/2019 Veolia Environmental Services North America
The VE Foundation also played a key rolein the disaster relie eorts in Haiti. Today,
six months ater the earthquake in Haiti, the
emergency missions are continuing but the
teams are now trying to make their actions
durable and are working on a progressive
handover to the Haitian people. Since the
beginning o the disaster, more than 270,000
people have been supplied with potable water
by Veoliaorce and its partners. The Foundation
reacted immediately ater the earthquake,
deploying volunteers and more than 30 tons o
equipment to produce and supply potable water.
Veoliaorce provides emergency humanitarian
assistance by sending experts and equipment
to saeguard the water supply o disaster areas.
“Service First – Safety Always.”“Across the board, saety is the number one
issue acing our industry,” according to Burke.At VESNA, “Service First – Saety Always” has
become a mantra, the oundation o everything
the company does. On the service side,
customers want environmental solutions
that add value to their business. Through
a ocused customer service program, the
reward or VESNA is customer loyalty andincreased revenues.
In the area o saety, 2009 achievements
included a 10 percent improvement in
accident and injury requency and additional
locations earning OSHA VPP Star Status
certication—11 total across the company.
This uptick is due to placing a high priority
on health and saety programs and training
or personnel at all levels. It also emanates
rom a steadast commitment by the entire
company, management and sta alike,
to taking responsibility or protecting
colleagues and clients in the workplace. “We
all share the responsibility or saety,” insists
Burke. “Saety is the most important part
o everyone’s job and unsae work practices
must be eliminated.” | WA
For more information about Veolia Environmental
Services North America, contact Denisse Ike, Director of Marketing and Communications for Veolia
Environmental Services North America Corp., at
(312) 552-2800.
Veolia’s state-o-the-art recycling acility in Quebec City, QC, is unique in North America and eectively handles waste streams rom construction, renovation and demolition sites that are typicallydicult to recycle.
Veolia ES Technical Solution’s Electronics Recycling Division is oneo the largest fuorescent lamp recyclers in the world.
