Latest news
The Veolia Environnement Foundation is rewarded by the Colombian Congress
The members of the Senate and the Chamber of Representatives, which constitute the Colombian Congress, have awarded the Foundation the declaration of the "Order of the Congress of Colombia in the rank of Commander".
The Foundation was thus thanked for the many outreach projects that it has been conducting for several years in the country, all aimed to improve the living conditions of the most disadvantaged populations.
"Les foyers Bambi"
The following projects were singled out in particular :
- "Granitos des Paz" in the slums of Cartagena,
- "Les foyers Bambi" assisted in the suburbs of Bogota and Cali,
- "ECLOF", a microcredit organization, backed in the Bogota area,
- "Apiculture as a substitute for coca growing" set up in the Cordoba area.
April 2008
Veolia Foundation signs a cooperation agreement with UNICEF
23 April 2008
Today, with the signing of a cooperation agreement, Veolia Environnement, through its Foundation, becomes a'standby partner' of UNICEF. Veolia Environnement will be able to boost UNICEF's ability to respond in the event of humanitarian crises, and to contribute its expertise and know-how. For both partners, it is also a case of giving concrete expression to their desire to work more closely together in the field.
February 2008
Inspired by traditional buildings, the "Nubian vault" also has an environmentally friendly dimension.
The "La voûte Nubienne" project rewarded at the entrepreneurs show
The IMPACT competition was created in order to structure and optimize socially oriented business plans.It therefore rewards original initiatives of social entrepreneurs not only by a financial grant of €15 000, but also by an accompaniment over one year.
During its latest edition - organized at the entrepreneurs show in February 2008 - ten associations were selected, four of them currently supported by the Veolia Foundation: "1001 et une fontaines", "Champ des cimes", "La centrale de mobilité" and "La voûte nubienne".The latter, aided with a €64 000 grant from the Veolia Foundation, is one of the 3 winners of the 2008 contest.
The Veolia Environnement Foundation earns grade A++ for its good governance
After four years of operation, the Foundation asked the BMJ Ratings Agency to assess its governance practices.The task involved a twofold objective: to review the status of the management procedures and actions of the Foundation in this various projects, and proceed with their assessment with regard to recognized international standards for governance and good foundation practice.
The report of BMJ Ratings identifies effective and efficient governance principles.The Foundation is distinguished by the implementation of an efficient organization which guarantees a rigorous selection of the projects.The consistency of its guidelines with regard to the strategy of the company, and the sound management of its resources, are a guarantee of permanence.The agency emphasizes the quality of the information disseminated through the institutional documents of the foundation.
January 2008
The "training and cultural" center in Varna.
The Veolia Environnement Foundation backs its first project in Bulgaria
At the selection committee of December 4, 2007, the Veolia Environnement Foundation decided to back its first project in Bulgaria through the initiative of the ADECAES association. This association has founded a "training and cultural" center in Varna, the country's second biggest city.
Mainly intended for the most disadvantaged population and particularly for the gypsies, the centre has many objectives: training, workforce development, medico-social observation, as well as the setting up of initiatives for meetings and exchanges. In connection with vocational training for example, it is possible to learn a language, to take a management course or be initiated into information possessing.
A centre for services and counselling, this structure will ultimately help to end the process of exclusion and impoverishment now experienced by many gypsies, and will help them to integrate better in Bulgarian society.
November 2007
Construction of the center designed for serious burns patients.
The Veolia Environnement Foundation promotes the sponsorship of skills by backing the project of the NGO HumaniTerra
At the selection committee meeting of June 19, 2007, the Veolia Environnement Company Foundation decided to make a grant to the exemplary project of the NGO HumaniTerra, which combines patronage of skills with financial sponsorship.
In Afghanistan, the living conditions of young girls are particularly difficult (religious pregnancy, lack of women's rights, forced marriages, a life shared with a family of in-laws who enslave you, the prohibition of sexual relations outside marriage, etc.). Thus, in the area of Hérat, near the Iranian border, hundreds of young women burn themselves to death in despair. Faced with this situation, the NGO HumaniTerra, specialized in surgical aid for the poorest countries, has undertaken to build a dedicated center for serious burn victims. This center will be able to accommodate 600 patients every year, and to conduct a dozen operations daily thanks to two operating theaters.
The Veolia Environnement Foundation wanted to take part in the project by financing the unit for sterilizing surgical instruments and the laundry of the center. At the same time, the subsidiary Stérience of Veolia Energie (Dalkia), the French leader in sterilization services for hospitals, has finished designing the sterilization unit, has picked the service provider in charge of installing it on the spot, and will supervise the startup of the project. The Afghan teams will be trained by the employees of Stérience at their Bouc Bel Air center in the Bouches-du-Rhône district.
August 2007
Children in the Roma community have a higher school success rate than the national average. However, due to lack of resources, very few of them continue in education past the age of 16.
The Veolia Environnement Foundation supports its first project in Slovakia.
At the Selection Committee meeting on July 3, 2007, the Veolia Foundation decided to support a project in the town of Lomnicka, its first project in Slovakia. With the aim of effectively combating problems of social exclusion among the Roma minority, the Foundation approved a 35,000 euro grant to help build an Institute of Minorities bringing together a variety of services: laundry, communal showers, orientation advice, homework club, allocation of bursaries, help with finding a job, leisure and cultural activities, etc. The Dalkia Foundation, created in Slovakia at end 2006, will be responsible for managing the funds granted by the Veolia Foundation, which will be spent primarily on providing The Institute of Minorities with connections to essential services (water, gas, electricity).
June 2007
The Veolia Environnement Foundation celebrates its 3rd birthday
With an annual budget of five million euros, the Veolia Environnement Foundation has supported over 500 projects in some 40 countries to date. It is thereby contributing, on its own scale, to finding innovative solutions to the big challenges facing our societies today, such as youth unemployment, poverty in the emerging countries and combating climate change.
The originality of its approach, compared with other corporate foundations, is the systematic and growing implication of Veolia Environnement employees who sponsor the projects selected.
For its commitment to sustainable development in all its different forms and the scale of the means implemented, the Foundation was awarded the Admical Oscar (public-interest association promoting the development of corporate patronage) in April 2006.
2007 Environment Book Prize: two prize-winners
In the second edition of the Environment Book Prize launched by the Veolia Environnement Foundation, awards were presented to the authors of two books chosen from a shortlist of 25 works selected from among the 80 books nominated.
The main prize was awarded to Jared Diamond for his book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed", published by Gallimard.
A special "Youth" award was presented to Vincent Albouy for his "Guide des curieux de la nature en ville", published by Delachaux et Niestle.
The many causes of collapse
"Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" analyzes the lost societies of the past (including Easter Island, Pitcairn and Henderson), the vulnerable societies of today (Rwanda and Haiti) and those societies that, at a certain moment, succeeded in arresting their collapse (such as New Guinea and Tokugawa-era Japan). Jared Diamond shows that the collapse of a society is not linked solely to environmental degradation but that other factors are involved, including hostile neighbors, dependence on trading partners and the type of solutions that a society, in accordance with its particular values, finds to counter these problems.
Under the metro... the crickets
In his "Guide des curieux de nature en ville", Vincent Albouy draws the reader's attention to the crickets that live off cigarette butts under the rails of the metro and bird species such as the "mésange nonette" ... Over 100 photographs and 250 detailed illustrations present an urban world that nature has succeeded in "colonizing".
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April 2007
A new, more accessible website
Clearer, more text and graphics and easier to navigate: the new Veolia Environnement Foundation website is accessible to all.
People with sight disabilities can access a light version by clicking on "Light version" at top right of the screen. The size of the text can be modified from the browser's "Display" menu. People who have difficulty manipulating the mouse can move around the website using the keyboard ("Tab" keys to move from one link to another and "Enter" to confirm).
Sponsor : Denisse Ike.
A first project supported in North America
For the first time, the Veolia Environnement Foundation will be supporting a project in North America. The Selection Committee meeting on April 3, 2007 decided to support a project led by the non-profit organization "Northern Illinois Food Bank", which distributes over 12,000 metric tons of food a year to people living under the poverty threshold in the suburbs of Chicago.
Thanks to the Foundation grant, this well-known US food bank will be able to add to the flotilla of small refrigerated trucks used to collect fresh products donated by producers, distributors and restaurants.
The Environment Book Prize
The 2007 Environment Book Prize, the second in the competition launched by the Veolia Environnement Foundation, will be presented by Henri Proglio in the prestigious setting of the new Musée des Arts Premiers, quai Branly in Paris, on June 5 this year.
The jury, chaired by Claude Michelet, will award this distinction to a work dealing with environmental conservation from a shortlist of 25 books in a variety of literary forms.
The works shortlisted include photo reportages (Regards partagés sur la terre et les hommesby Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Albert Jacquard and Isabelle Delannoy), novels (Le parfum d'Adamby Jean-Christophe Rufin) and comic strips (Le chant du Paypayoby Julie Blanchin).
Created by the Veolia Environnement Foundation to support and encourage writers and editorial initiatives on the part of publishing houses, this Prize aims to raise public awareness of the environmental challenges facing our planet.
To this end, the Foundation will spend €15,000 on acquiring copies of the prize-winning work that will then be donated to French and French-language school documentation centers and municipal libraries.
Discover the website The Environment Book Prize
Activity report 2006
The Foundation's new activity report was published at the beginning of May for the company's General Meeting.
Order it now in French, English or Spanish.