Background

Suez is an integrated player with a wide footprint across the waste and water value chains. Its core business consists in operating water and waste facilities and networks under concession frameworks.
The company also enjoys strong capabilities in engineering and construction as well as digital solutions. Suez also includes the CIRSEE, a global leading R&D centre together with other advanced R&D and Innovation centres (such as the Lyre).
Suez produces drinking water to 68 million people worldwide, processes 17 million tonnes of waste per year, and generates 5.6 TWh of energy from waste. It has allowed its clients to avoid the emissions of 3.8 million tonnes of CO2 in 2022. Suez Treatment Infrastructure division has built infrastructure that benefits over 1 billion people today. Meridiam, along with consortium partners, closed the acquisition of Suez on 31 January 2022. Shareholders subsequently increased their investment in the company on 29 November 2022 in order to complete follow-on investments such as the acquisition of Suez Waste UK, IWS, EnviroServ and complete the post-closing items (Earn-out, price adjustment).

Stage: In Operation

ESG/SDG Key Facts

On January 27th, Suez published its Sustainability Roadmap, providing strategic commitments on three sustainability pillars: (i) climate, (ii) biodiversity and (iii) social impact. The Roadmap was co-developed with all of the Group’s operating entities, and the Suez CSR Committee comprising of representatives from shareholders and the Management Committee. Throughout its development, the Roadmap was supported by the expert advice of the Group’s peers and stakeholders, from the materiality of the topics to the definition of the targets, and by the Suez ESG team.
The application of the Roadmap will be in place for each of the Group’s activities and in each of the regions where it operates.
The Group Executive Committee will ensure the implementation of the Roadmap, and the Group’s shareholders will monitor its deployment through a quarterly CSR committee comprising of representative members. The achievement of the Roadmap targets will be tracked through measurable targets, on which Suez will report annually, and which will be audited by an independent third party as part of the Company’s Non-Financial Performance Statement.
A. Commitments to decarbonise energy, reduce Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs) from Suez activities and ensure the resilience of essential services that are impacted by the consequences of climate change.
• Decarbonising energy:
o Ensuring Suez’s own energy consumption is low carbon, by increasing the share of sustainable electricity supported by its own energy production capacity and new renewable energy supply contracts.
o Becoming self-reliant in electricity for activities in Europe. Suez will harness the full potential of waste as a contributor towards the energy transition and produce more electricity than they consume by 2023 in Europe and will maintain this self-reliance over the length of the plan.
o Contributing to the low-carbon energy transition in communities by enabling communities to benefit from a local renewable energy that replaces fossil fuels and help them to accelerate the transition to low carbon public services.
• Reducing GHG emissions:
o 40% for Water business by 2030 (Scope 1 & 2)
o 25% for Waste business by 2030 (Scope 1 & 2, excluding Energy from Waste)
o More than 80% of Scope 3 comes from water heating from customers. In its Roadmap, Suez committed to optimize the coverage by an action plan of more than 50% of its Scope 3 emissions by 2030.
• Ensuring the resilience of essential services by adapting the most vulnerable operating sites to mitigate the consequences of climate change.
B. Commitments to preserve nature & biodiversity.
• Land degradation: taking action to accelerate restoration on and around its facilities. Commitment to doubling the amount of restored land each year up to 2027.
• Over-exploitation of resources: implement water savings programmes and waste management sorting efficiency improvements
• Pollution: Suez will end the use of phytosanitary products on all green spaces of the facilities owned or operated; and provide solutions to phase out microplastics and micropollutants in all new sanitation contracts
• Species: Suez will systematically use local species in all restoration and development operations
C. Commitments to strengthen the social impact of Suez’s activities.
▪ Health & Safety: Zero severe accident objectives, with targets to reduce frequency rate.
▪ Local commitments: Increasing the share of local companies among our suppliers, promoting social integration programs, or spending more on inclusive organisations such as to employing vulnerable groups of people on its projects.
▪ Employee engagement: Suez targets 10% employee shareholding by 2029. In 2022, Suez performed the largest employee shareholding plan of its history. Suez will also foster training programmes by and is taking steps to promote gender equality. Equal opportunities for senior executives’ long-term variable compensation packages are also factored.

Source:

(1) https://www.suez.com/en/who-we-are/a-worldwide-leader/our-global-footprint