Veolia
Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. It previously also managed transport services through its subsidiary Veolia Transport (later Transdev) until January 2019. In 2022, Veolia employed 220,000 employees in 58 countries. Its revenue in that year was recorded at €42.885 billion.[3] It is quoted on Euronext Paris. It is headquartered in Aubervilliers.[4]
Company type
1853 (Compagnie Générale des Eaux)
1998 (Vivendi)
2003 (Veolia Environnement)
Aubervilliers, France
2,724,000,000 Euro (2023) 
€1.162 billion (2022)
€73.304 billion (end 2022)[2]
€11.371 billion (end 2022)[2]
220,000 (2022)[1]
Prior to 1998 Veolia was known as Compagnie Générale des Eaux. Between 1998 and 2003 the company was known as Vivendi Environnement, having been spun off from the Vivendi conglomerate, most of the rest of which became Vivendi.
In 2014, following a major restructuring, the company adopted the unaccompanied Veolia name across its businesses.
At the end of 2020, Veolia took over 29.9% of its competitor Suez with the aim of creating a world leader in ecological transformation, a merger whose terms were signed in May 2021.[1]
In July 2022, Estelle Brachlianoff became the CEO of the group, succeeding Antoine Frérot, who stayed on as chairman of its board.[2]
Operating events[edit]
West Carrollton plant explosion[edit]
On 4 May 2009, a Veolia Environmental Service's plant in West Carrollton, Ohio, United States, exploded. The blast leveled two buildings on the property which were a laboratory and a building that had several 200,000 gallon chemical tanks. This particular plant handles fuel blending among other services. Two workers at the plant were injured in the blast.[45] The explosion caused $50 million in damage to the plant itself. More than a dozen homes up to a mile radius from the blast were also damaged due to the explosion.
Fatal accident in Gatlinburg[edit]
Two workers died after a catastrophic mechanical failure in April 2011 at a waste water treatment plant in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, United States, owned by the local municipality and operated by Veolia Water. At least 1.5 million gallons of a mix of storm and sewage water were spilled into a nearby river after a sewage-holding wall collapsed.[46]
