In the Community

Veolia Water supports local community groups in Australia and New Zealand to both monitor and improve local stream water quality. This support involves the assistance of employees who are experts in water quality and water management helping the local community to monitor water quality and find ways to improve it.

In Australia, Veolia Water employees work with volunteers from a local Streamwatch group and staff from the Royal National Park to monitor water quality in the Port Hacking River, south of Sydney. The company also provides support by replenishing the consumables in the water quality kit.

Whilst in New Zealand, employees from United Water (Veolia Water’s wholly owned subsidiary) in the Franklin district of the North Island work with the Pukekohe North Primary School to improve the district’s water quality.

The project has involved monitoring a local stream near the school, assessing water quality and making recommendations for action. In the final term of the school year, the students collated their results, analysed their data and made recommendations to the local council.

Veolia Transport sponsored the Kids Teaching Kids program in 2009. Kids Teaching Kids offers teachers, students and schools the chance to work together and identify simple solutions to often complex local environmental challenges. It is a national program delivered through schools to raise awareness and interest in learning about the environment.

In 2010 we will be developing this relationship further by becoming the official transport sponsor. As part of this partnership we will also be launching the Veolia Transport Fund to assist students with travel costs associated with attending either the state or national conference. Partnering with Kids Teaching Kids will allow us to increase the understanding of the importance of public transport in the climate change debate, tap into young people’s ideas on future forms of travel and engage our employees to become involved in the program as mentors.

Veolia Transport launched its first staff community program and raised over $30,000 through staff contributions and company matching in 2009.

Through this new initiative called ‘Veolia Spirit’, Veolia Transport employees can elect to make regular donations to select charities from their pre-tax pay and Veolia Transport matches this donation.

Veolia Spirit supports national and state charities, which were chosen based on the results of a staff survey. Veolia Transport is covering all the administration costs associated with the development, implementation and ongoing support of the program, ensuring that 100 per cent of staff donations go directly to the beneficiary charities.