At Transition Forum, the European conference on the ecological transition currently being held in Nice, Jean-François Nogrette, CEO of Veolia France & Special Waste Europe, recalled the Group's responses to the challenges of ecological planning and energy efficiency, major themes of the event.
Time for energy efficiency
"Within five years, all of Veolia's services in France will be energy independent, with energy produced locally by the Group from resources derived from the circular economy. This means that all our activities will not produce more than they consume," says Jean-François Nogrette. This will be achieved through energy recovery from non-recyclable waste, biogas from the methanation of sewage sludge, and biofuel produced from waste oils. "Today, we generate just over a third of our diesel from 100% waste. And we are only at 2/3 of our production capacity," he says.
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Time to accelerate!
That is the title of the event and, if now everyone agrees that it is time to accelerate, Veolia – as a major player in the ecological transformation – can only agree, having long been ready to bring about such profound changes through innovative solutions. "For several years now, we have been working on strategic metals, for example, and we are now in a position to offer Europe's largest recycling capacity for electric vehicle batteries," the Veolia France CEO says. The reproduction of cobalt, a material that cannot be found in Europe, and of nickel and lithium, which may be in short supply, is the result of 100% French know-how.
Territory-wide solutions
"As a territorial player, we are convinced that it is together with local elected representatives and populations that solutions can be conceived and implemented. Responding to territorial issues while taking into account the interests of the people is the key," he concludes.
> Watch the replay of the round table "Time to accelerate: the challenges of ecological planning and energy efficiency" with Jean François Nogrette at 28:11.