Veolia entered the Chinese waste management market in the 1990s. The Group brought its expertise in waste management to China and began developing sustainable waste management in China. Veolia's waste management business scope in China covers hazardous waste, landfill, landfill gas power generation, waste incineration power generation and resource recovery projects.
Several of the company’s projects have become pioneering waste disposal cases in mainland China. In 2003, the French Vivendi Group, the predecessor of Veolia, won the bid for a comprehensive hazardous waste management contract in Tianjin. The contract covers the design, construction and operation of hazardous waste management facilities. This is the first Chinese official cooperation project with a foreign company in the field of hazardous waste treatment. It is the first modern comprehensive hazardous waste treatment and disposal center in China that integrates incineration, physical and chemical treatment, safe landfill, and resource utilization; Guangzhou Xingfeng Life The sanitary landfill in China is the first landfill in China that has passed international bidding and is designed and operated by a multinational company; the Tianziling landfill gas power plant in Hangzhou is the first landfill gas power plant in mainland China. Across the country, Veolia serves urban and industrial customers to help them better respond to their growing needs for water infrastructure.
Veolia’s first water contract in China is located at the Lingzhuang Water Treatment Plant in southwest Tianjin, with a contract period of 20 years. Veolia is responsible for the renovation of the factory and the provision of high-quality drinking water to a population of 2.35 million people. In 2002, Veolia won a 50-year full-service contract in Shanghai's Pudong District to provide water treatment, water transportation and customer follow-up services. This is the first time that China has allowed a private company to participate in comprehensive water management business. After this, Veolia's full-service contracts were signed in Shenzhen, Kunming, Changzhou, Liuzhou, Lanzhou, Haikou and Tianjin. In the industrial market, Veolia provides water treatment services to customers in China's major industries, including oil refining, chemicals, steel production and even food and beverages. In 2004, Veolia entered the Chinese energy management market. Veolia's energy business in China focuses on three aspects: regional energy supply (heating and cooling networks), industrial utilities and building energy conservation. In 2006, Veolia won an energy production plant contract for a real estate project in Chongqing. In 2007, Dalkai (later renamed Veolia) won the first district heating network franchise contract in China. Veolia has since provided heating services to Jiamusi, a city in Northeast China with severe cold winters.
In 2007, Veolia won the construction and operation contract of the Harbin Thermal Power Plant, responsible for heating the city of Harbin. Veolia completed the first phase infrastructure construction of the heating pipe network in the same year and started its first heating season. As of 2016, the area of ??the city heated by Veolia reached 190,000 square meters. Veolia adheres to its strategic positioning as an operator, sharing and jointly developing its operational experience in its professional fields with local enterprises. Veolia President and CEO Antoine Frérot has emphasized Veolia’s triangular partnership strategy in water projects, with a government with clear goals, a professional operator and a high-level A project cooperation triangle formed by efficient financial institutions. Veolia uses its position as an operator to achieve connections with governments and financial institutions.
Veolia's advantage is the combination of technology and experience, namely "interface technology". “The more complex the project system is, the more it can reflect Veolia’s advantages.” Veolia President and CEO Antoine Frérot once expressed Veolia’s preference for project models. Its core is to allow professionally operated enterprises to gain core dominance.
In projects such as BOT and TOT where operation management is relatively simple, Veolia’s management experience is also applicable due to the importance of the operation itself. Tianjin Hejia Veolia Hazardous Waste Disposal Center, a subsidiary of Veolia, participated in the environmental pollution emergency response to the explosion accident in Tianjin Binhai New Area on August 12th.
Under the command of the emergency headquarters, Tianjin Hejia Veolia sent professional emergency personnel to the scene carrying professional equipment. They actively cooperated closely with other scientific research teams and environmental protection departments. On August 14, 2015, they entered the scene of the core area of ??the explosion and worked continuously. For several months, the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of cyanide-containing sewage and hazardous chemical solid waste in the core area were carried out, scientifically and efficiently ensuring the safe and harmless disposal of cyanide-containing wastewater, on-site solid waste cleanup and other disposal tasks. Due to its outstanding performance in this emergency response, Tianjin Hejia Veolia has won full recognition and multiple commendations from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and local government.