The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary agent driving globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.
In this spirit, the partnership between Veolia Environnement and the Local Development Programme of UNITAR started in 2002 at the Johannesburg Summit, where the parties present agreed that sustainable development objectives could not be met without the involvement of the private sector. Veolia Environnement thus engaged in a biannual partnership with UNITAR, which has been renewed up to the present day.
A win-win partnership
For Veolia Environnement, the set of actions suggested by UNITAR correspond directly to the objectives and the commitments the company has made through its adherence to the Global Compact in June 2003. This is especially true regarding the transfer of expertise, and the company's joint participation projects with other United Nations agencies.
Through the CIFAL network, the partnership has enabled the development of a set of measurable and reproducible actions. This has required a high degree of involvement by Veolia Environnement, in modeling its best practices, making these easier to understand, ensuring their transferability, and assuming the role of expertise provider for local authorities.
Signature of the Cooperation Agreement between VEOLIA Environnement and UNITAR (2009)
Carlos Lopes - Executive Director of UNITAR- and Henri Proglio- Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of VEOLIA Environnement
A tangible impact for all parties concerned
- Firstly the partnership benefits directly to local authorities which can take advantage of a high level expertise as well as the experience of a world-leading operator in their sector. It is a key added-value which allows local authorities to optimize their management of urban services (water, decontamination, transport, waste treatment, etc).
- For UNITAR, by putting into practice the Global Compact’s Public-Private Partnership and by offering high quality training activities.
- Equally for Veolia by putting into practice its policy of sustainable development, and making this known to its clients, suppliers and investors through ethical performance indexes (DJSI, FTSE4Good). It is also an opportunity to involve its subsidiaries such as ProActiva in South America.
International Conference of Quito, on “INTEGRATED URBAN POLICIES AND COEXISTENCE IN LATIN AMERICAN CITIES, Urban Services and Inclusion”, June 2008
H.E. Prof. Joachim BITTERLICH, ex-Ambassador, Executive Vice-President International Affairs, Veolia Environnement
Veolia is currently cooperating directly with 6 CIFAL centres: Curitiba in Brazil for South America and the Caribbean, Atlanta in the USA for North and South America, Durban in South Africa for English-speaking Africa, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso for French-speaking Africa, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for Asia and the Pacific, Findhorn in Scotland for Northern Europe and the municipality of Plock in Poland.