At Veolia Environmental Services, we work closely with the communities in which we serve.
Veolia Carbon Bootprint
Encouraging school children to work towards a cleaner planet, we teamed up with Derby County Football Club to develop an educational and fun programme called the ‘Veolia Carbon Bootprint’. It merged outdoor exercise and fitness with classroom learning that focused on environmental issues and reducing carbon footprint.
Over the course of six weeks, different topics were taught to children across Derbyshire, with the aim of raising awareness of day-to-day environmental issues that might affect them. We asked the children to make a pledge and more than 500 pledges were written by students to save electricity, reduce paper use, recycle and save energy.
Cleaner vehicle technologies
As we have a large fleet of more than 4,700 vehicles, we are working with our partners and investing in new cleaner vehicle technologies. Improvements to our hybrid (diesel and electricity) refuse collection vehicle continue, to ensure that the vehicle is reliable and delivers performance similar to a standard vehicle. Having undergone several upgrades since our last report, the hybrid now consumes 52L/100km compared to our standard vehicles at 79L/100km. This brings great reductions in carbon emissions (1.36kgCO2/km compared to a standard vehicle at 2.1-2.4 kgCO2/km) as well as cost savings on fuel.
'Rethink Rubbish' initiative
Veolia Environmental Services contributed to sponsoring East Sussex County Council’s 'Rethink Rubbish' bus on its visits to schools and public events across the county, to promote recycling and offer tips and energy-saving ideas.
The 'Rethink Rubbish' bus was a beneficial initiative for us to get involved in with the Council, as it communicated messages to both adults and children. The bus included solar panels to power its own lighting and electronic displays, and an ‘energy bike’ that showed how much energy different household items use each day.
Shropshire Furniture Scheme
Veolia was awarded a 27-year contract in Shropshire in 2007 and one of our first activities was to search for
a local community-based organisation that we could work with to collect bulky waste items. Our subsequent relationship with the organisation SCHOFUR has enabled us to operate the service. A trial was carried out initially in the South Shropshire area and, currently, all bulky waste collections are carried out by the furniture scheme – with the items collected then going on to be reused. There are now a number of shops in Shropshire selling the furniture that has been saved for reuse as part of this scheme. We also donated a truck, to ensure the smooth running of collection services.
The find out more, visit: www.veoliaenvironmentalservices.co.uk/shropshire
Love Food Hate Waste drive
The Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) drive is the waste-minimisation campaign that we launched in West Berkshire. It was developed alongside the nationwide Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), in order to raise awareness of the growing issue of food waste in this area. A specially designed roadshow has been covering the district regularly, attending community hot spots, such as farmers’ markets and supermarkets. This has been educating the general public with food-saving tips and handing out helpful freebies, such as measuring scoops for rice and spaghetti measurers.
We also ran a competition in 2010 for West Berkshire residents, asking them to create a recipe that uses up food leftovers. The winning recipe was published, handed out to residents and cooked up live in the cookery theatre at the Berkshire County Show. Since April 2010, more than 2,000 residents have attended LFHW events.
To find out more, visit: www.veoliaenvironmentalservices.co.uk/westberkshire