Veolia Environnement : and its partner, Swiss Re, are supporting New Orleans, the first town in the world to launch a complete resilience strategy
September 13, 2016 at 09:40 am EDT
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13 september 2016
On the first anniversary of the launch of 'Resilient New Orleans', New Orleans (United States) organized 'The Resilient New Orleans One-Year Progress Update' conference yesterday, in the presence of its partners and stakeholders. Veolia and Swiss Re presented their joint plans at this event, along side of Mitch Landrieu, Mayor of New Orleans.
In 2005, hurricane Katrina, the most expensive catastrophe in the history of the United States, devastated the Gulf of Mexico. 80% of New Orleans was flooded and 1,800 people lost their lives. In order to protect itself against similar events or any other chronic stress or shock, the town has set itself the priority of improving its understanding of exposure to risks and transforming its urban system.
Resilience requires global risk management, combining physical and financial protection. This is the focal point of the risk assessment plan implemented by Veolia, Swiss Re and New Orleans, in the context of the first international public-private partnership on resilience. This partnership aims to optimize prevention costs and reduce post-event losses, as well as the recovery period after a shock. For 4 months, 30 Veolia and Swiss Re experts, in coordination with stakeholders in the town, examined 200 drinking water, sanitation and rainwater evacuation facilities in the town in order to determine their degree of vulnerability and recommend the appropriate action to ensure these facilities are able to resist a shock. The results of this report should be submitted to the town before the end of the year.
'Veolia and Swiss Re have the opportunity to play a key role in helping cities become more resilient to events such as Hurricane Katrina. We are strongly convinced that resilience reinforces the appeal and competitiveness of cities. That's why we are increasing the awareness of the vulnerability of the critical infrastructures of cities, and are accelerating activities to improve the continuity of essential services', declared Laurent Auguste, Senior Executive Vice President of Innovation & Markets at Veolia.
According to Nikhil da Victoria Lobo, Head of Global Partnerships, Americas, for Swiss Re:
'This partnership with Veolia is unique, combining the strengths of two private sector companies from very different backgrounds, aiming to make major cities like New Orleans more flexible and more responsive to risks. It's not just about having a strategy in place: it's the actual implementation that will determine the success of New Orleans' pioneering resiliency work. We're excited to be playing a part in this ambitious project, which is a first step towards helping other cities manage similar projects'.
More:
« A resilient city to meet the challenges to the future »
>Veolia's blog 'Let's talk about climate': posts on Resilience
>The article in Planet Magazine (July 2016 edition) 'New Orleans organizes its resilience and sets the example'
>Veolia and resilience in cities: joining forces to turn risk into an opportunity for growth
Veolia Environnement SA published this content on 13 September 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 13 September 2016 13:40:06 UTC.
Original documenthttp://www.veolia.com/en/veolia-group/media/news/veolia-and-its-partner-swiss-re-are-supporting-new-orleans-first-town-world-launch-complete-resilience-strategy
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Veolia Environnement is the world leader in environmental management services. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- water-related services (40.6%; No. 1 worldwide): water resources management, drinking water distribution and delivery, wastewater collection, treatment and recovery, engineering, design, construction of water treatment facilities and customer relationship management, etc.;
- waste management services (32.4%; no. 1 worldwide): collection, treatment and recycling of liquid, solid, non-hazardous and hazardous waste, waste treatment and recovery through composting, energy recovery from waste, etc. Veolia Environnement also provides urban waste management services (maintenance and cleaning of public spaces, provision of mechanized street cleaning and façade treatment services), maintenance of industrial sites, and dismantling of industrial facilities and equipment at the end of their useful life;
- energy services (27%; No. 1 in Europe): delegated management of urban heating and air conditioning networks, management of thermal and multi-technique services (operation of heating systems, facility design, construction, and maintenance, etc.) and industrial services (industrial process analysis, production equipment operation, service, and maintenance), general management of buildings and public lighting.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: France (21.5%), Europe (41.9%), North America (7.4%), Asia (5.6%), Africa and the Middle East (4.9%), Pacific (4.3%), Latin America (4%) and other (10.4%).
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