Combating Climate Change

Currently, more than two-thirds of the world's energy is consumed in cities. As a result of increasing urbanisation this is forecast to grow to 70 per cent by 2030. In Australia, the population is expected to reach 35.9 million by 2049, an increase of more than 60 per cent, which will have an enormous impact on our cities and infrastructure.

Mobilising cities in combating global climate change is both our business responsibility and an opportunity to deliver innovative solutions for our clients and customers. We are working to mitigate the impacts of climate change by:

• Supporting patronage growth in public transport through customer-based initiatives that reduce dependence on cars.
• Providing climate-friendly alternatives to traditional waste management practices, including composting, converting waste into clean energy and capturing methane from landfills.
• Designing high-efficiency facilities and promoting the energy efficiency of the infrastructure we operate under performance guarantees.
• Establishing long-term, non-rainfall dependent water supplies for communities to help deal with the effects of climate extremes on the availability of water resources.
• Driving internal efficiencies in the way we deliver services to our clients.

Our carbon performance

 Energy and greenhouse gas emission reporting is now required under the Australian National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 for those organisations that meet the thresholds. Veolia Environmental Services, Veolia Water and Veolia Transport met these thresholds and we reported our carbon footprint under this scheme for in 2010 and will continue to report this annually.

Veolia Environnement's activities that produce greenhouse gas emissions include:

• Methane (CH₄) emissions from decomposing waste in landfills.
• Emissions from burning diesel fuel in trucks and buses.
• Hydrofluorocarbon refrigeration gases that are emitted from the operation of HVAC chiller equipment.
• The use of electricity, petrol and natural gas at our facilities.

 In 2010, Veolia Environnement emitted a total of 824,829 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e), down 37 per cent on 2009 and 26 per cent on 2009, while our revenue decreased 36 per cent over this three-year period.

Two Veolia Environnement divisions are high greenhouse gas emitters, and account for approximately 90 per cent of the company's total emissions: Veolia Environmental Services through emissions from incineration and landfills, and Veolia Transport through emissions from the operation of public transport services.

 Legacy emissions from landfills are major contributors to Veolia Environmental Services' carbon footprint. Decreases are due to changes in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Determination default compositions for commercial and industrial (C&I) and municipal solid waste (MSW) being changed from 2008/09 to 2009/10. The percentage of paper was significantly lowered, resulting in decreased organic carbon content of the waste and decreased modelled emissions.

Veolia Transport’s emissions have reduced because a large percentage of Veolia Transport's previous emissions were generated from Connex Melbourne, Veolia Transport's previous Melbourne rail operation, which was dependent on brown coal as the primary source of electricity for powering its fleet of trains

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The shift towards public transport

Public transport usage in Australia and New Zealand has been increasing steadily. This is due to several factors including population growth, rising petrol prices and increased environmental awareness. Governments at both State and Federal levels are acutely aware of the importance of investing in public transport. Veolia Transport is already playing a key role in meeting this need and is committed to working with Governments in the short, medium and long term to achieve the best possible public transport solutions.

Public transport services have to incorporate sustainable development concerns to be economically efficient, environmentally respectful and socially acceptable, while meeting key service objectives of quality, on-time performance and safety.

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Emissions associated with transport

Transport contributes around 14 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and emissions from this sector are growing faster than almost all other sectors. In Brisbane, for example, per capita transport greenhouse gas emissions are three times those of London. With road transport accounting for 88 per cent of total transport emissions, public transport is clearly a viable solution to help reduce Australia’s carbon footprint.

Veolia Transport is actively engaged in the promotion of public transport as an alternative to private car travel. In the cities where Veolia Transport operates, public transport usage, particularly in peak periods, is rising compared to private road usage. The old paradigm that car usage could continue to increase without consequence is now seriously questioned.

The key to making this permanent is to provide high quality, reliable, safe and innovative public transport as an alternative to the private motor vehicle. For example, in Auckland, New Zealand, where Veolia Transport operates the rail network, government investment and good customer service by Veolia Transport is contributing to the renaissance in rail travel. Rail usage had dropped by a factor of five to around 1 million passenger journeys by the early 1990s but since Veolia Transport commenced in 2004, usage has more than doubled in five years.

Case Study

How does public transport stack up in the emissions race?

In 2009, Veolia Transport launched an interactive web-based carbon calculator for passengers. The tool allows customers to calculate exactly how much carbon dioxide they are saving each time they take public transport while also providing a comparison for different modes of transport.

Carbon emissions saved when taking public transportation services, such as a train or bus, are calculated on an average passenger kilometre travelled basis and for a range of private vehicle types. The calculator was developed to demonstrate to current and future passengers their efforts towards reducing climate change by making more sustainable transport choices. This tool and community communication programs are central to our strategy to reduce the reliance on cars in Australia and New Zealand by encouraging more people to use our passenger services. Our ability to engage the public and promote public transport has always been one of the keys to our success.

Carbon calculators specific to each state or region in which we operate can be found on the following Veolia Transport websites:

www.vtperth.com.au
www.veoliatransportnsw.com.au
www.veoliatransport.co.nz