How TotalEnergies and Veolia are Building a Circular Economy

TotalEnergies and Veolia are furthering their partnership to focus on energy transition and the circular economy.

The collaboration is set to scale up innovation processes and will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water footprint.

As a result of this expanded partnership, both companies stand to make powerful strides towards their sustainability goals.

Building a partnership

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company, producing and marketing oil and biofuels, natural gas, biogas and low-carbon hydrogen, renewables and electricity. 

It has teams in 130 countries, providing high safety and environmental standards and innovation across the company. 

TotalEnergies puts sustainability at the forefront of its strategy, projects and operations, running off four sustainability pillars to maintain excellence: climate and sustainable energy; safety, respect & well-being; environment; and positive impact for stakeholders

It believes in transparency as an essential factor to successful relationships and continuous improvement.

Meanwhile, environmental services leader Veolia is dedicated to ecological transformation, providing solutions to companies around the world to gain responsible control over water, waste and energy management. 

Within the partnership, Veolia will bring in its expertise in water resource management and resource recovery, while TotalEnergies will contribute its skills in measuring and reducing methane emissions and low-carbon energy production.

By driving the energy transition and circular economy forward, the entire industry will see a benefit through new innovation and research advancements. 

Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO at Veolia, said: “I am very pleased with the agreement signed today with TotalEnergies. By combining our expertise, whether in sustainable water management, the circular economy or the reduction of methane emissions, we are putting our innovation capabilities at the service of the ecological transformation and the competitiveness of our industries."

Sustainable procurement strategies

One of the partnership's goals revolves around methane emissions reduction from waste storage.

To do so, Veolia is relying on TotalEnergies' AUSEA technology, drones which measure methane emissions, to take on measurements at its landfills. The technology has already shown the ability to detect leaks and accurately measure emissions.

This will help Veolia reach its goal to capture 80% of methane emissions in storage centres by 2032. 

On the other hand, Veolia will help TotalEnergies work to reduce its freshwater withdrawals by 20% by 2030, compared to a 2021 baseline. This will focus particularly on areas of water stress as a means to also improve water discharge quality.

Wastewater reuse projects will be developed at TotalEnergies sites, relying on Veolia's technologies to improve treatment. Veolia is aiming to double its desalination capacity by 2030, reducing the energy footprint of the technology it uses which has already been made more sustainable over the years.

TotalEnergies will support the accelerated deployment of low-carbon energy solutions at plants which are built or operated by Veolia. Together, they have already built the largest solar power plant which is being used for a desalination facility in Oman. 

The companies will also combine research and innovation capabilities in order to find new processes for waste reduction and recovering under-utilised materials.

Many chemical elements are under-utilised as they are found in waste and more difficult to source. This includes rare earth minerals found in the magnets used in wind turbines, photovoltaic panels and batteries.

"We are delighted with this partnership with Veolia," adds Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO at TotalEnergies. "TotalEnergies has cutting-edge solutions and technologies to offer Veolia and vice versa. 

"Together, we can make a concrete contribution to the energy transition and the circular economy. We are convinced that cooperations like those we are developing with Veolia are very useful to make tangible progress and sustainably limit the environmental footprint of our companies."

Strategic sourcing

The Veolia-TotalEnergies partnership is full of strategic sourcing opportunities, bringing together the skillset of both companies and pooling the resources for a sustainable action plan. 

By pooling together TotalEnergies' technology and Veolia's waste reduction knowledge, the partnership growth will be very beneficial for both companies.

Rather than needing to procure its own technology, Veolia sits well-positioned to achieve its goals much faster and via a much more cost-efficient route.

Similarly, TotalEnergies no longer needs to source dedicated research teams or spend time and resources on learning the best strategies.

Instead, this partnership is mutually beneficial for both companies, saving money, increasing innovation and advancing the industry significantly.