Veolia has today been awarded 4 stars in Business in the Community’s annual benchmark of responsible business, the Corporate Responsibility Index (CR Index) following the launch of its new Resourcing the World strategy.

 Veolia achieved the prestigious four star rating through the innovative changes it has made to the business in order to tackle long term environmental and social challenges. The business drove corporate responsibility and sustainability values through its core business strategy and demonstrated a commitment to provide sustainable products and services, engage with stakeholders whilst developing robust workplace practices.

The achievement recognises its work in community engagement programmes - notably from the development of a Social Return on Investment methodology to calculate the social value it brings through its contracts and activities.

Commenting, Estelle Brachlianoff, Senior Executive Vice President for Veolia in UK and Ireland said:

“Over the last two years we have been changing the landscape of environmental management with our new Resourcing the World strategy – manufacturing green products and green energy whilst preserving precious resources.  Sustainability is at the heart of what we do – both in terms of social responsibility and environmental performance.”

The CR Index is a robust benchmarking tool which has helped hundreds of companies’ measure and manage the progress they are making to integrate responsible business practice into their mainstream business at all levels.

It is a rigorous process which assesses companies against a diverse range of factors, from how engaged their board and senior managers are with responsible business issues to the link between remuneration and CR performance.

Today’s announcement of the 2015 CR Index coincides with the start of Responsible Business Week (20-26 April 2015) an annual initiative to increase awareness of the positive contribution of business in society.

Veolia group is the global leader in optimised resource management. With over 179,000 employees worldwide, the Group designs and provides water, waste and energy management solutions via three complementary business activities.

In 2014, the Veolia group supplied 96 million people with drinking water and 60 million people with wastewater service, produced 52 million megawatt hours of energy and converted 31 million metric tons of waste into new materials and energy. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE and NYSE: VE) recorded consolidated revenues of €24.4 billion in 2014.

Click here for more information on Veolia's Resourcing the World strategy