Water & Wastewater Asia March/April 2024

IN CONVERSATION WITH
“Water is blue gold
and we need to take care of it”
With two decades at Veolia Water Technologies, CEO Arnaud Valleteau
speaks about spearheading Veolia as a leader of the ecological
transformation and its three-year plan kickstarting in 2024.
By Amira Yunos
In the face of
climate change,
creating resiliency
around water helps
to deal with extreme
weather conditions
(Image: Unsplash)
ECOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION
“I joined Veolia 20 years ago because I
wanted to be useful,” the current CEO said,
when asked about his personal journey that
spanned two decades in the company. “I
wanted to have a global impact and at that
time, Veolia was already dealing with water,
waste and energy,” Valleteau said. “With its
international footprint, Veolia was saying
[‘global impact’] loudly, and that was why I
joined.” This has always been the DNA of the
company: bringing customer solutions that
deal with water, waste or energy, according
to the CEO. For him today, this is not new.
“But we are entering into a world which is
changing dramatically, so it is exciting to be
with Veolia to [solve] the water challenges
we are facing,” he said. Veolia’s ecological
transformation is a mission statement that
pushes Valleteau and his team to do it one
step further.
“Water is much more valuable today, than it
was two or three or five years ago,” he said.
“Twenty years ago, everyone was saying
water is blue gold and we need to take care
of it. What we see now is [action].” Today, this
drives Valleteau to review Veolia’s business in
the light of this ecological transformation.
SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVES
Through the lens of sustainability, the CEO
added that Veolia promotes the value of
water by incorporating ESG considerations,
beyond financial results. For a long time,
the industry saw water as one silo, waste
was another silo, and energy was a separate
silo. Valleteau pointed out that seeing
these entities together will bring value to
businesses today. He added that a lot of
wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in
different parts of the world provide green
energy — either by electricity or biogas —
into the grid. Using wastewater sludge to
produce energy, or treating wastewater to
reuse it has value in a healthy water footprint
approach. At Veolia, this perspective
drives the ecological transformation.
Its aim is to help its customers find the
best solutions with a 360° multifaceted
review of projects, giving the same level
20 Water & Wastewater Asia | March-April 2024