Contractual models

Ensuring harmonious relations between stakeholders

To meet customer requirements and improve satisfaction among all stakeholders in its water and waste operations, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has pledged to review its contractual models.

The Group has therefore drawn up new contractual agreements with direct customers, namely municipalities and industrial operators. Its intention is to offer them greater transparency, more control and better performance.

• Promoting transparency entails releasing data by implementing an open data model. Full disclosure of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT data is essential to elected representatives and enables them to share information on local public services with as many people as possible. To a certain extent it also corrects asymmetry of information that sometimes exists between municipalities and their representatives.
  
• Advocating greater control means encouraging local authorities to set up committees to monitor contracts made up of municipal representatives and civil society or the administration.
  

For the contracts for Orleans and Rouen, Lyonnaise des Eaux suggested setting up dedicated societies led by municipal representatives. This new model enables all stakeholders in water management to become more involved and defines the terms of a new form of governance.

• Taking action to improve performance means better targeting the Group’s work and linking payment with social and environmental results. New contracts might therefore make provisions for sharing excess revenue resulting from sales above target and provisions for interest rates allocated to the funding of investments or to sums accumulated to replace facilities.
  

To manage water and wastewater treatment services for the 1.1 million inhabitants of Adelaide, Australia, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT signed a partnership with the state water services company in 2011 on the basis of co-governance. In this type of public-private partnership, risks and benefits are shared by the operator and the customer.

A commitment with Edelway

To put into practice its desire to take further action alongside its customers, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT introduced an innovative and unique environmental performance commitment in 2008 known as EDELWAY.

With EDELWAY, the Group has added an extra dimension to its commercial offers by including a contractual undertaking with respect to three key areas of environmental performance:

• Reducing greenhouse gases
• Preserving natural resources
• Protecting biodiversity

These offers commit SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT to a guaranteed level of performance. They include dates, figures and measurements taken in completely transparent conditions. They are practical and effective actions taken to protect the environment.

With EDELWAY, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT guarantees the best service in its business areas to meet the challenges of a new form of green growth.