Your browser is not up to date and is not able to run this publication.
Learn more

FO R

TH E

BE NE

FI T

OF

RE GI

ON AL

D EV

EL OP

ME NT

The circular economy is also community-focused and collaborative

SUEZ encourages complementarity between its skills and those of social and environmental entrepreneurs and start-ups within local loops of the circular economy to amplify their potential for integration and job creation. The SUEZ Maison pour Rebondir programme, tasked with reinforcing the Group s local impact on jobs, has also mobilised players in the social and community economy as co-contractors within the framework of the Bordeaux urban cleaning contract secured in 2018: the Atelier Remuménage employment support project is responsible for collecting bulky items using tricycles, while the start- up Ecomégot collects cigarette butts by bicycle and is working with research centres to create commercial recovery channels. Elixir, a social enterprise that collects unsold fruit and vegetables from supermarkets and resells them in the form of ready meals, is one of the components of the SUEZ anti-waste programme aimed at supermarkets in south-western France. In Latin America, an entrepreneurship programme open to vulnerable communities living near the Mapocho El Trebal and La Farfana sites aims to reinforce the social and environmental impact of biofactories.

Social innovation to serve professional integration

Strengthening cooperation with local employment and back-to-work initiatives, diversifying sources of candidates and securing the integration of people finding it difficult to enter the job market into the SUEZ workforce are objectives shared with the Maison pour Rebondir programme, which spread from Bordeaux to Ile-de-France and Lyon in 2018: over the year, 550 people with employment difficulties were trained in SUEZ s activities

and 75 people with poor job prospects were supported and recruited into the Group. In Morocco, backed by Fondation Lydec, the Coop Créatives project, which promotes economic inclusion through baking, cooking and dress-making for women in difficult circumstances, has contributed to training for 40 women and raised their awareness of resource preservation. The Group s social impact is reinforced by sponsorship: Fondation SUEZ supports the Jouques and Villeurbanne projects, which are among the ten areas in the Zero Long-Term Unemployment trial, which aims to create supported employment companies. In 2018, the Group made a commitment to employing refugees as part of the HOPE programme offering accommodation, guidance and routes to employment: 12 candidates were trained as truck drivers to work for the Group s sites in France and supported by SUEZ Rebond Insertion teams.

275,000 direct and indirect jobs supported by SUEZ in the regions

The number of direct and indirect jobs supported by SUEZ grew markedly in 2018, due to the integration of GE Water & Process Technologies, the rise in international activity and better integration of the sustainable procurement policy, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. This policy aims to reinforce the Group s contribution to regional development by encouraging support for SMEs: 32% of procurement by volume worldwide comes from these companies. Improving the Group s socio-economic footprint is both quantitative and qualitative: the review of the subcontractor and supplier qualification process led to an increase in the proportion of supplier contracts including CSR clauses from 40% in 2017 to 55% in 2018.

The challenge of the environmental transition in the regions is intertwined with the challenge of jobs and social integration, societal challenges to which SUEZ contributes by serving local development.

According to the International Labour Organization, the circular economy could help create a net total of 18 million green jobs by 2030

PERFORMANCE REDISTRIBUTION INSIGHT LOCAL AUTHORITIES INDUSTRY EMPLOYEES REGIONS ENVIRONMENTAL CONSUMERS INVESTORS AGENCIES55