As the benchmark company in the environmental sector, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has made research one of the cornerstones of its strategy. Constant innovation combined with the development of new technologies means SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT can meet 3 major requirements in today’s world:
- fight climate change and manage natural resources,
- provide customers with quality drinking water,
- protect the environment and quality of life.
Research lies at the heart of our business: water and waste
In order to constantly improve our operational skills and construct innovative, environment friendly offers, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has developed a global network of research and excellence centres. In 2007, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT invested €65 million in Research, Development & Technology in its 2 business lines: water and waste services.
Water: pumping, treatment, distribution, release back into the natural environment, sludge management, protecting the resource: all stages in the drinking water, industrial water and wastewater cycles are controlled in order to deliver quality water and service to our municipal and industrial customers.
Waste: from collection to energy recovery from waste and materials recycling, all stages in the waste cycle are controlled to limit the impact on the environment and to turn our waste into tomorrow's raw materials.
Proprietary know-how
Today, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT is recognised worldwide for its extremely diverse portfolio of skills. Every year sees several dozen research programmes undertaken to expand our range of services and to meet the needs of our customers. The company implements this policy of innovation with a constant focus on anticipating new regulatory constraints and providing solutions to the environmental issues of today and tomorrow.
Knowledge transfer, a key success factor
SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT deploys its innovations through a sound process of sharing our knowledge and experience. Each year for example, the CIRSEE (International Research Centre on Water and the Environment), one of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT's largest research centres, carries out 700 technical assistance and training assignments.
This knowledge transfer takes place on a global scale. No less than 360 different training programmes are offered for the water sector. In Morocco, for example, we deliver more than 80,000 hours of training each year, while 79 training courses are offered in China.
To further improve this transfer of know-how in the waste and water sectors, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT set up WIKTI (Water International Knowledge Transfer Initiative) in 2007. Using customised tools, this innovative programme gauges the level of skill of a water company to determine its needs and ensure the traceability of knowledge acquisition by local personnel.
