Dear readers,
How beautiful the Havel river in north-eastern Germany can be! By restoring the lower Havel river valley this beauty is protected and, where destroyed in the past, recovered. Our member Veolia is one of the supporters of this largest river restoration project in Europe. As a signatory of our initiative's Leadership Declaration, the company of course also targets its own core business. Have a glimpse into their activities in this newsletter and please find some further news below!
By the way, you may also register for the German version of the newsletter via our website, which covers more news.
Yours sincerely,
'Biodiversity in Good Company' Initiative
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BIODIVERSITY ... at Veolia!
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»Our services in water, waste and energy management contribute to the protection of biodiversity. At the same time we use biodiversiy to produce drinking water and to clean waste water. With NABU we aim at improving conditions for biodiversity at our sites and sensitizing our staff, clients and neighbours for this important resource.«
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Etienne Petit, Country Director Veolia Germany
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The protection of biodiversity is for Veolia a key issue which is very near to the operative business and a main part of its sustainability program. While managing water circles, optimizing energy systems or producing secondary raw material from waste – the Veolia business is very much linked to biodiversity issues. The company makes use of biodiversity in order to organize nature-near processes, particularly for producing drinking water from river banks or biological cleaning of sewage water. At the same time the company’s activity has an impact on biodiversity.
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Engagement and Challenges in the key business
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On the one hand Veolia‘s services have a positive influence on the protection of biodiversity. Efficient water using in industrial processes and respecting all key quality indicators during the cleaning process of sewage water are an important contribution to the saint natural water household with sustainable quality and quantity.
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Photo: Veolia Umweltservice GmbH
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Winning back nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in water clearing processes makes it possible to reuse them in the interest of high soil quality. Intelligent solutions for providing energy in so called energy efficiency quarters reduce the emissions of green house gases as well as innovative ideas to reuse valuable materials like PET with the bottle-to-bottle procedure.
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Photo: Veolia Umweltservice GmbH
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Thanks to its outstanding infrastructure for collecting and treating waste paper Veolia delivers first class secondary raw material for the paper industry and contributes to the very high recycling quota in the German paper production, but also to the protection of forests.
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On the other hand the use of space for the installations, the energy consumption and the emissions of the car fleet can have a negative impact. Via continued improvement processes Veolia tries to manage this risk. With investments and optimization the CO2-emissions of Veolia’s current and heat production sank by 19 % between 2006 and 2014. The introduction of a modern telemetric system in 2014 led to a remarkable reduction of the fuel consumption per ton of collected municipal waste by 20 %.
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Biodiversity at Veolia sites
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Veolia wants to promote biodiversity at its sites. The company has for that reason the worldwide objective to analyze the biodiversity potential and to put in place improvement measures till 2020 at 100% of the relevant sites. The environmental reporting 2015 included basic information about the characteristics of sites such as the distance to protected areas, the existence of protected species and the percentage of permeable area. On this basis were defined focus sites, on which in the coming years the conditions for biodiversity should be improved. In Germany three sites have been identified, which are situated in Saxe, Bavaria and Schleswig-Holstein. Together with regional groups of NABU (Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V.) Veolia will constantly work on better living conditions for diverse species.
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Photo: NABU Mainz
Photo: NABU Mainz
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Some of them are short-term measures like changing to nature conserving mowing of meadows (e.g. reduced rhythm or mowing by sheep, abstinence from pesticides and road-salt.
At medium term retreating areas for animals and blooming meadows can be installed, old sorts of fruit trees be planted, soil be improved with own compost, lightning be reduced or adapted to insects.
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NABU-cooperation and supported projects
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Beyond the operational business Veolia tries to support biodiversity via projects support. Since 2010 the company cooperates with NABU and co-finances the biggest river renaturation project in Europe - the Untere Havel.
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Havel, Photo: NABU Klemens Karkow
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The river shall be conserved as a natural landscape with supra-regional importance for the protection of ecosystems and species. For that purpose natural structures are rebuilt, which contributes also to fulfill the water framework directive of the European Union.
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The Veolia Stiftung supports a number of regional initiatives for the conservation of biodiversity. Some of them are the renaturation of a moor near Gifhorn by the regional NABU group, the conservation of large protected natural areas with the help of water buffalos by Förderkreis Naturschutz Hondelage and the database with biodiversity information related to military areas established by Naturstiftung David.
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Veolia’s engagement for biodiversity has multiple benefits: It helps to improve living conditions for different species of animals and plants. But it also motivates staff and delivers occasions for communication with high impact towards clients and civil society, who are invited to get involved in biodiversity action.
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+++ BIODIVERSITY PIECES +++
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Dr. Stefanie Eichiner, UPM
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During the annual members' meeting 2015 in Germany, taking place in Iphofen at Knauf Gips in on 22/23 September, a new seven-member board was elected. The new Chairwoman of the Board is Stefanie Eichiner from UPM.
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What do companies have to do with biodiversity and how should they get involved? "Basic knowledge: companies and biodiversity" is a series of short, cross-industry information modules for companies interested in finding out more on this topic.
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In its recently published Sustainability Report 2015 HiPP, a leading manufacturer of baby foods, again underlines its strong committment to biodiversity. "We have elevated biodiversity protection to a mission statement and thus placed it in the forefront of our entrepreneurial objectives", say Professor Dr. Claus Hipp and Stefan Hipp in the foreword to the publication.
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Sustainable forestry is one of UPM's key environmental responsibility areas, and biodiversity is one of the main environmental drivers in the advancement of sustainable forest management practices. UPM has been planting eucalyptus in Uruguay for a quarter century.
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For the third time HeidelbergCement initiates the Quarry Life Award, an international scientific and educational competition to find new ideas for the conservation and promotion of biodiversity in quarries. These unique habitats will be opened again for research.
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UPM has been listed as the industry leader in the Dow Jones European and World Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for 2015-2016. UPM is listed in the indices for the fourth year in a row.
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CBD Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity
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'Biodiversity in Good Company' is a member of the CBD Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity and also represented in the Executive Committee of this international platform. If you are interested in being regularly updated on the Partnership, you may sign up for its newsletters. They are published roughly once every quarter and feature updates and events from the various member initiatives as well as other information relevant to the Global Partnership.
Please contact gbpp@cbd.int for more information or visit https://www.cbd.int/business/gp.shtml.
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How do biodiversity and healthy ecosystems feature in the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development? The liaison group of the biodiversity-related conventions summarized the key points in a statement.
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The latest edition of the CBD Secretariat's Business.2020 magazine focuses on Access and Benefit-Sharing and its importance to business.
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