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We provide essential services to safeguard and improve the quality of life wherever we operate, in the face of growing environmental challenges. This is our raison d’être. This is what drives the commitment of all our employees, enabling SUEZ to provide the continuity of service needed in drinking water production and wastewater treatment. Today, SUEZ is a world leader in these businesses. In 2023, the Group provided drinking water to 57 million people worldwide and wastewater services to more than 36 million users. Our ‘Raison d’être’, which we adopted in 2022, guides the major transformation that SUEZ has been conducting for over two years. As Director of Innovation, I am especially committed to the following maxim: ‘We innovate to preserve water and recover waste, in the form of energy and recycled materials’. Indeed, thanks to innovation, we are transforming our businesses to meet the challenges of preserving water and raw materials resources, helping regions to transition to a low-carbon pathway and improving the resilience of infrastructures in the face of extreme climate events. In 2023, our circular solutions generated 7.7 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy from waste and wastewater, and 2.7 million tonnes of secondary raw materials.
Innovation is both a real differentiating factor in our markets and an ecological transition accelerator. That’s why we are quadrupling the budget allocated to decarbonisation solutions between now and 2027, and doubling the budget for innovation in waste management. We are also aiming to double revenue from our digital activities. A ‘differentiation unit’ dedicated to innovation has also been set up within the Group reporting directly to the CEO. This team supports our business activities in water and waste management and ensures that innovation at SUEZ continues to be a differentiating factor in our markets – in the same way as our expertise in engineering and construction – as well as in digital solutions. We have also chosen to structure a community of experts and position it at a high level within the Group hierarchy.
Consequently, 25 lead-experts - with leading-edge expertise in our businesses - have been integrated into the Group’s TOP 250. And to promote our innovative new solutions externally, we regularly organise ‘Innovation Days’ for our customers and partners. The last event, held in June 2023, was attended by over 200 people from around 20 countries.
Strengthening innovation means first and foremost investing in teams over fairly long periods (five years minimum). It is these teams of a critical size – which learn both from their successes and failures – that enable us to develop projects over the long term, underpinned by stable goals and innovation priorities, like those we currently have with our consortium of shareholders and the SUEZ executive management team. We also seek out good ideas in external ecosystems as part of an ‘open innovation’ approach. Since 2010, we have invested nearly €80 million via our SUEZ Ventures fund to unlock synergies with French and international start-ups. We work to support their growth and accelerate the deployment of their technologies in relation to our activities, with a focus on decarbonisation and digital solutions. I’m thinking, for example, of our investment in Airex Energie, which is developing an innovative technology for producing biochar. This material, produced from forest and agricultural residues, provides a number of benefits: powerful carbon sequestration capacity, increased nutrient retention, and optimal water availability and soil aeration. Together, we are aiming to develop a biochar production capacity of more than 350,000 tonnes a year worldwide, from agricultural and forestry biomass deposits that are currently largely neglected or poorly exploited.
These investments are all the more important as we have observed that our customers expect innovation when it effectively targets their needs. More than 50% of our contract wins now include some form of innovation. This figure was 44% in 2023, and we are aiming for 80% by 2027. In the Philippines, for example, SUEZ has won a major contract alongside Maynilad to treat wastewater and clean up Manila Bay. The treatment plant will process 180 million litres/day using a technology - Cyclor Turbo - that guarantees the integrity and quality of the plant in a limited space, while reducing the site’s overall environmental footprint thanks to low energy consumption.
The important thing is to measure the overall impact of our contribution, whether this involves deploying innovations, commissioning new infrastructure, or optimising a water service operation. In Senegal, SUEZ is helping to improve access to water via SEN’EAU. In 2020, the population of Dakar only had water for a few hours a day, with 403 neighbourhoods suffering from water shortages. Thanks to the combined effect of commissioning a third drinking water plant at Keur Momar San (KMS3) and water resource optimisation, only around ten neighbourhoods are still experiencing water shortages. More generally, since January 2023, we have been deploying an ambitious sustainable development roadmap, with 24 operational commitments to step up our action on the climate, nature conservation and corporate social responsibility. For example, SUEZ is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions from its Water activities by 39% by 2030. We track the implementation of these commitments carefully through quantified performance indicators. Every year, we publish the results achieved in a ‘progress report’. This is the transparent approach that both our internal and external stakeholders expect.
Water is a key issue in climate change adaptation. In the face of dwindling resources, technological solutions will be necessary but not sufficient, so we need to recycle and cut back. We have effective solutions for recycling water by reusing treated wastewater to replenish groundwater, or by creating new resources - from seawater desalination, for example. In Tunisia, as part of the country’s first public-private partnership in the water sector, we are increasing the availability of this resource while at the same time supporting economic development in the south of the country by reusing treated wastewater for agricultural purposes. But the first step is always to cut back on the resource by avoiding waste and unnecessary consumption. This involves upgrading networks and detecting leaks, as well as raising awareness among users of reasonable consumption levels adapted to needs. Deploying smart meters, for example, means that consumption can be more accurately monitored – and more effectively controlled.
Water management also has a role to play in climate change mitigation through the production of biogas from wastewater sludge, for example. The largest wastewater treatment plant on the eastern bank of the Nile, Gabal El Asfar in Egypt, is an industry reference here. The site treats the wastewater produced by 5 million inhabitants, some of which is reused to irrigate a 200-hectare forest park. The Gabal El Asfar plant also recovers sewage sludge through anaerobic digestion and cogeneration. The biogas produced will enable the site to achieve 65% energy self-sufficiency and avoid emitting 28,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year.
A really important role! We work in many countries – at their request – precisely to help bolster local expertise through training and knowledge sharing. In Saudi Arabia, we are helping the National Water Company (NWC) to manage water and wastewater services in the Western Cluster - which has a population of 9 million, including the cities of Jeddah, Mecca and Taif – specifically by training its employees. We are providing skills and expertise to the Uzbek water company, supporting its 4,000 employees with 14 international specialist consultants. We are also operating an ambitious skills transfer programme: 1,500 training days, 350 days of study abroad and more than 1,200 days’ worth of technical assistance. Local capacity building also guides the work of the AgroParisTech ‘SUEZ-Eau pour tous’ Chair (Water for all), funded mainly by the SUEZ Foundation and AFD. This Chair is testimony to our joint efforts to train managers and heads of water and sanitation services in developing countries. Over nearly 15 years, 280 students from 54 countries have benefited from Master’s courses and more than 200 professionals from short courses.
Jérôme Bailly is a graduate of both École Polytechnique and Ponts et Chaussées engineering school. He joined SUEZ in 2002 as a Branch Manager. His career began in the Water business and led him to work in a range of operational, technical and commercial positions, both inside and outside France. Since 2022, he has been Senior Vice President Innovation, Research & Development and Support to operations at SUEZ.
With a presence in 40 countries, 40,000 employees and 160 years of history, SUEZ delivers innovative and resilient water and waste management solutions. The Group reported revenue of €8.9 billion in 2023 and has over 1,100 expert consultants worldwide, 10 centres of research and excellence, and nearly 1,700 patents (a third of them in digital). SUEZ is a pioneer in the management and preservation of the environment – it has been strengthening its innovation capabilities since 2022, notably with a 50% increase in resources earmarked for R&D by 2027.
