Research & Innovation

The world and its seven billion people face huge challenges. As part of the drive to provide sustainable responses to these issues and preserve the planet's delicate balance, Veolia develops innovative technologies, creates alternative solutions and designs efficient ways of using resources to promote new growth more in tune with the environment.

Designed and developed by Veolia Environnement, VIA is a major initiative to support green growth around the world by promoting the development a...

 

PARADIGM SHIFT

For the past 160 years, eco-innovation—with a focus on the needs of customers—has been central to Veolia's strategy. This approach is crucial in the drive to ensure future global growth; it shapes the success of today's transition toward more environmentally friendly solutions.

Innovation is the key to creating smart cities, to turning bioresources into energy, to promoting alternative, more sustainable forms of consumption and to building new economic models.
In industry, innovation allows customers to achieve their goals by reducing carbon footprints and staying a step ahead of more stringent regulations. It also provides them with solutions tailored to specific challenges: wastewater treatment and recovery; the development of high-performance treatment systems for industrial process water; monitoring and treatment solutions for atmospheric emissions from sites; treatment of solid waste; maintenance, cleaning and materials recovery solutions for facilities; energy performance in industry.

 

A NETWORK OF RESEARCHERS SPURRING INNNOVATION

Issues related to water, energy and waste management will affect the future of everyone on this planet. Successfully rising to the challenge of resource scarcity in the face of growing demand hinges on the creation of new environmental services that span all of these fields.
To this end, Veolia draws on a network of expertise comprising seven research centers worldwide, along with 850 researchers and developers, all focused on four key goals: protecting resources, reducing any impact on the natural environment, curbing greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring sustainable management of urban development.
 
Significant human and financial resources are needed to create and test new technologies, then roll them out on an industrial scale. To pool these resources, share knowledge and bring new services and processes to market more quickly, Veolia has established R&D partnerships with a number of leading manufacturers and universities in countries such as Australia, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. This collaborative approach reflects Veolia's ability to build bridges between various fields of human endeavor and innovation around the world in order to better integrate ideas, technologies and concepts, and put them into practice. 

 

OPEN INNOVATION

The nature of environmental challenges requires a technological leap forward in all related fields. The scale of the task at hand demands innovation on every front.

Through the Veolia Innovation Accelerator (VIA) program, Veolia has established a solid position in integrating technologies to detect, assess and deploy the most innovative environmental solutions.

Since its inception, in 2010, VIA has reviewed some 400 Cleantech innovative solutions every year from pioneering start-ups. Following the selection process, Veolia puts its staff, R&D infrastructure and operational facilities at the disposal of the most promising candidates to help them put their ideas into practice and roll out their solutions worldwide, largely by incorporating them into the products and services that Veolia provides to customers.

Open Inovasi - Regional open innovation approach in Singapore

Veolia innovates regionally adapting the VIA approach in the most dynamic geographic areas in order to increase its sourcing capacity and interactions with the local innovative ecosystem. Singapore being one of the leading hubs for innovation globally the Open Inovasi online platform was established here in February 2016. Open Inovasi brings together different industries in one platform to enhance the solutions to be found across the industry borders. Open Inovasi connects Singaporean startups and SMEs with industry leaders to boost the transition towards smart cities.

 

Veolia R&I worldwide

  • 850 experts
  • 6 specialized research centers (Maisons-Laffitte, Limay, Saint-Maurice, Warsaw, Beijing and Singapore)
  • 3 test facilities for drinking water (Annet-sur-Marne), municipal wastewater (Saint-Thibault des Vignes), desalination (Fujairah)
  • ​278 research pilot programs
  • 220 international partnerships: 130 with academic institutions and 90 with industry
  • 5 research chairs: Mathematics & Biodiversity - Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle & Ecole Polytechnique (FR); Lifecycle Assessment - Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal (CA); Hydrosciences - Université de Montpellier (FR); Weather Radar - Ecole Nationale des Ponts (FR); Greenhouse Gases - CEA, CNRS, Thales, Space France & Université de Versailles (FR)
  • A collection of over 2,000 patents (mainly in the fields of clean technology and resource scarcity)