Key team members: Jennifer Adams (Head of legal – Ireland), Alva Leigh-Doyle

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Over the last 12 months, the legal team has advised and assisted the business in working with our clients in the food and beverage sector to upgrade plants and equipment to reduce the requirement for fossil fuels. We have supported various projects for installing new low-carbon utilities in the pharmaceutical sector; and designing and installing a solar PV scheme in the education sector. We continued to deliver carbon and energy savings to the healthcare sector through our Energy Performance Contracts. We commissioned an energy self-sufficient Sludge Treatment Facility and completion of the upgrade of Ireland’s largest drinking water treatment plant for Irish Water.

This shows how the demand for sustainable solutions is growing as businesses become more aware of the need to reduce our environmental impact.

What has been the number one challenge that has impacted you over the past year?

A key challenge over the past year has been the volume and complexity of various projects from inception to completion. On a practical level, we are observing that transactions can be more labour-intensive, both in terms of negotiation and execution, which is probably a reflection of some of the supply chain and resourcing challenges across the industry.

Has the increasing consciousness of climate change and sustainability affected your company and the team’s priorities, and if so how?

As a leading provider of environmental services, Veolia has always been conscious of the need to be sustainable. However, environmental concerns have never been so instantly visible or their consequences for our societies so real to people.

Veolia’s ambition is to be the benchmark company for ecological transformation. As a legal team, we are supporting the business in accelerating and expanding the deployment of existing solutions while simultaneously creating the solutions of tomorrow.

In working with all of our stakeholders, Veolia is seeing real engagement with climate change and sustainability issues with increased demand for our services and solutions. A global survey carried out for Veolia shows that 89% of the world’s population is convinced that climate change is happening, and 67% are convinced that the costs of the consequences of climate change and pollution will be greater than the investments needed for ecological transformation. This shows that the desire to be more sustainable is real.

Veolia’s work with businesses in the Community Ireland on the Low Carbon Pledge, with 70 signatories, and the Elevate Inclusive Workplace Pledge, with 60 signatories, shows that Irish companies are committed to being more sustainable and reducing their impact on the environment.

As Veolia’s customers set ambitious goals to achieve net zero in line with government and corporate requirements, its legal team is working with the business to implement innovative projects in these areas.