At the Veolia Ecological Transformation Trophies ceremony held on December 6 at the company's head office in Aubervilliers, Estelle Brachlianoff, the Group's Chief Executive Officer, congratulated the four winners for their particularly innovative projects, pointing out that while 50% of the solutions already exist, 50% remain to be invented.
Focus on the solutions of tomorrow's world.
Students ready to take up the challenge of ecological transformation
Students from all over the world, from universities, engineering schools and business schools, took part in these awards. 15 out of 38 selected applicants were able to present their final thesis to a jury of Veolia experts; an opportunity for the company to spot young talent and allow them to develop their project in order to join forces for ecological transformation.
“We are highly committed to training all our employees and particularly training the young talents who hold the solutions of tomorrow in their hands. Our challenge is to identify them. It is a real springboard for you to progress and showcase your talents and ambitions," Estelle Brachlianoff told the four lucky winners.
4 solutions to turn the tide
These winners competed in 4 categories: fighting climate change, treating pollution, optimising resources, and improving quality of life.
Pierre Foulon - student at ICAM (Catholic Institute of Arts and Crafts of Lille - France) and winner of the latter category, has, for example, designed an electronic nose in collaboration with IEMN (Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology). "Using sensors with data displayed on a smartphone, this compact, battery-operated tool is able to assess air quality, then displayed in real time on a smartphone connected via Bluetooth. This project can be deployed in health, environment and workplace safety," he explained.
Brandon Van Veenhuyzen, from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, presented a project to treat lead pollution via activated sludge from wastewater treatment plants. "These sludges, available at a lower cost, make it possible to treat hazardous industrial waste in circular economy loops. After minimal treatment, they have a high adsorption capacity (374 mg/g). For battery recycling, the absorption of lead in this way achieves the same performance as that obtained chemically,” he stressed.
For Tahar Ghozali of Gustave Eiffel University in France, winner in the fighting climate change category, the aim is to understand the value of carbon accounting through analysis of the environmental footprint of VPIS (Veolia Propreté Industries Services) clients, using the Greenpath measurement tool.
And on the resource optimisation side, Virginie Ren, a student at Ecole des Mines de Paris (France), convinced the jury with her project on the electricity consumption of waste-to-energy plants, identifying monitoring methods to determine opportunities for reducing on-site consumption in order to limit electricity needs.
Jean-François Nogrette - Senior Executive Vice President, France & Special Waste Europe -, Azad Kibarian - Senior Executive Vice President, Italy & Africa / Middle East - and Sébastien Daziano - Senior Executive Vice President, Strategy & lnnovation -, all three members of the Executive Committee alongside Estelle Brachlianoff, presented the prizes to the four winners.
4 final theses: 4 innovative solutions rewarded by the group, with, for each of the winners, an electric bicycle and equipment to be chosen from the Zenride network, worth €2,200, and for each of their establishments, an endowment of €3,000 in apprenticeship tax.
For more information
> Acting and committing to ecological transformation
> Why work at Veolia?
> Work-study, students and young graduates
